Given to heresy myself, I must ask a question. How much of the Canonical Story is simply taken for granted? It is lamentable, at least I think, that many people are loathe to question things. And! Loathe to need proof, to ask for proof, to go and find proof. Whether it’s what we’re taught in school, at home, or in the news. And especially…what our leaders say. People want to believe what they’re told. There are different reasons for this, but one main reason is this…our sense of order is dependent on it. To question, is to throw things into chaos. What would happen if I were suddenly left not being sure of things that are said around me? Chaos, anxiety, and even, Angst and Pathos. A Canonical Sylvia Likens Story? But I don’t think that’s true. Perhaps chaos is a strange place of discovery, a wonderful opportunity to test things and come to my own conclusion; a place of fascinating potential. Well, there is more than type of chaos; one is to be welcomed, the other is not. Can I be sure? Most of the time…no. But I can come to an understanding of things that seems most likely to me. That means that I can be wrong. Still, as long as the pursuit of the truth is carried out with a pure heart, without any desired outcome that produces a logical fatality…circular reasoning, and is based upon sound reasoning, then being wrong isn’t so bad. After all, being right always begins with being wrong. And there is no sunrise without nightfall.
Just how many Canonical Stories are there? Emperor Gertrude is a fascinating image..sitting and knitting while everything collapsed around her. The simple fact is that our culture is awash in Canonical Stories. I find it fascinating just how many people couldn’t live anywhere else. How many basements are there! Morpheus said that his rather unpopular brother, Phobetor, had actually tried to imitate him; to look like him; to sound like him. Who cometh as an angel of light? Ah! Phobetor, or so I’ve heard, wants to be…well, perhaps like the Emperor Tiberius…loved, even popular. One might believe, if you were a Roman Senator, that Tiberius’ nephew, a young man who, true…he was the son of the ever popular Germanicus, nonetheless was unlike his two predecessors, was the answer. How was he unlike his predecessors? Well, Augustus and Tiberius were the quintessential insiders. The former built the Roman system of government. The fact that he built a naked dictatorship with his bare hands, remained, and remains, irrelevant to his enduring legend as an enlightened ruler. Tiberius learned the system from the inside. If the Roman Imperial Government was an engine, Tiberius could take it apart and put the whole thing back together with one hand tied behind his back. And being the greatest empire on earth, although the Parthians would have contested that, stability was essential. Of course, from time to time, it is believed that what an empire needs is a lot less stability…less order…more chaos and anarchy. Well, I’m sure people wouldn’t put it that way. Shake the system up! We need an emperor who will tear apart the very foundations of the empire. That’ll do it! So if you were a member of the Roman Senate, which, by the way, didn’t hold it’s sessions in Gertie Wright’s Front Room, you might think upon your current situation…you know, he knows nothing about how the empire works; what we know about his character might be a bit alarming. But that’s what the system needs! And so Gaius throws the entire system into chaos. We can control him? Alas. What about Agrippina’s son? Well, she can control him. Matricide? Who controls whom? Remove Gaius and let Claudius take over. A return to stability. Remove him and put yourself in the hands of the son of the hated Gnaeus Domitius. The empire shook and almost collapsed. But from a seemingly certain reign on the part of Empress Chaos, stability returned once more. What will nightfall bring? Will it bring Morpheus, or will it bring Phobetor? Will we be able to tell them apart? Be careful of the one who appears as an angel of light! Of course, there was no metaphorical Vespasian to take his metaphorical legions and overthrow our Infamous Lady. So Empress Gertrude reigned until she was ousted by none other than Chaos herself. Then Gertie Wright’s Imperial Palace of Horror, not to mention her empire..ceased to be.
But here is my heretical question…why the basement? We know it is a key element to the Canonical Story, but what purpose does it serve? The witnesses speak often of the Dreadful Dungeon known as Gertie Wright’s Basement of Horrible Slaying and its connection to Sylvia Likens. But why is Sylvia there? Does she patiently wait for nightfall to stare at the stars in Gertie’s Subterranean Sky? If she spends her time in the basement…why? This is a more than fair question to ask. I’m sure that many would answer this question in a way that is predictable, based upon what I will call, a Familiar Context. We all know this Familiar Context. If a sadist is torturing and abusing a young woman that he, and it is “he” the vast majority of the time, will eventually murder, then he must have her locked up somewhere…confined in a place from which she can’t escape. What better, or more likely place, then his basement? To hold her somewhere else, and then he must needs come and go from where she is at…then she is out of his control for much of the time, is hardly credible. What if she gets the gag out of her mouth? What if her screams are heard by some passer-by? I have read earlier works that have been published on this website that maintain that Photo1Girl was kept in an abandoned industrial park, or some such place, accounting for the fingernails and the greasy substance underneath what was left of them. That theory is intriguing, but the Semi-Troll in me asserts that, as pioneering and ground-breaking as that theory is, it is not the best explanation.
So many more questions could be asked about this scenario. But the basement! And I feel relatively certain that if this scenario were suddenly presented to whomever, they would naturally conclude that the basement is a dreadful place of imprisonment for a tragically doomed young woman.
True. But! The basement in Gertrude’s Hall of Smoke and Mirrors is never described as locked. This is from the testimony of Ricky:
Q. Ricky, what did Gertrude say about Sylvia?
A. At this time?
Q. Yes.
A. She told me that she was not at the Juvenile Center, she was down in the basement.
Q. When had she told you Sylvia was at the Juvenile Center?
A. The time before I was over there, the time before that I was over there. I would not know when that was.
Q. Previous to this Saturday?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Then what happened?
A. I think that is when she called Sylvia up.
Q. Called Sylvia up from where?
A. From the basement.
Q. Sylvia came up?
A. Yes, sir.
So Gertrude calls to Sylvia, and the girl promptly appears from the basement.
Q. You stated to the jury she was moving slowly. That was your speed you were calculating?
A. She was moving slow for anybody's speed.
Q. In other words, she did not want to take her blouse off?
A. That could have been the reason.
Q. You know it was. She was reluctant coming up from the basement?
A. She was moving slow all the time.
State Highway Patrolman Ricky! Jenny has her thermometer, and Ricky has his radar gun. So Sylvia had the option to stay in the basement, or come up out of the basement. It is clear that no one had to unlock the door. Nonetheless, please tell the jury the exact speed at which Sylvia was moving. Slow! How slow? Didn’t Ricky have his radar gun handy? Marie said this:
Q. Tell the jury what happened?
A. Mom had scalding hot water running and she told Sylvia to come up from the basement and Mom putted her head under the hot water.
So no locked basement. When did your mommy get her skin grafts, Marie? But Ricky also claims that the basement is an important part of how he was tricked. And a key self-excusing, and indeed…selfish component of the lies told by so many people during the trial, is that they were tricked. The Nurse was tricked. The Cleric was tricked. I feel that it is very much to her credit that Phyllis Vermillion made no claim to being tricked. Oh, and Ricky was tricked. Gertrude supposedly tells him that Sylvia was at the Juvenile Center, and he believed her. Sylvia was really in the basement. But for how long?
Q. Now, did you testify Friday that Gertrude told you before that Sylvia was not at the Center, but in the basement, did you testify to that?
A. I am sorry?
Q. Did you testify last Friday, in substance, Gertrude told you Sylvia was not at the Center but was in the basement?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. When did Gertrude tell you Sylvia was in the Center? When did she tell you that?
A. I believe it was the first of October.
Q. The first of October?
A. Yes, sir,
Amazing. Ricky says he saw Sylvia on October 23rd, and it was at that time that he learned that Sylvia was really in the basement. Sylvia had been kept in the basement for 23 days? In an unlocked basement? For 23 days? The only way that Ricky could have, theoretically, believed that Sylvia was in the Juvenile Center between the period October 1rst and October 23rd, was if October 1st was the last time he had been in Gertrude’s house. Is this the truth? Ricky also said this:
Q. Now, before going in the house that 23rd of October, 1965, do you recall how many times you had been there before that date in October?
A. No more than ten times.
Does this mean that Ricky had been to Gertrude’s house ten times in October? Or does he mean that he had been to Gertrude’s house ten times since July?
Hey, Ricky! Did you know that Lester and Betty Likens had been at Gertrude’s house on October 5th? Did you know that they said that there was nothing wrong with Sylvia when they were there? So you want me to believe that Gertrude was keeping Sylvia in an unlocked basement for 4-5 days before she and Jenny sat down at Gertie Wright’s Kitchen Table of Horror to discuss things? Should I believe that Sylvia was brought up from the unlocked basement, spoke with her parents, who didn’t see a mark on her, and then she watched her parents leave, without saying a word? And if Gertrude were doing this, there is not a single reason that can be proffered as to why Gertrude would seek to keep Sylvia living in her basement that wouldn’t be totally invalidated by the fact that Gertie could simply have told the Likens to take their daughters and leave. What? Maybe Sylvia liked the basement, so she chose not to share this with her parents? Perhaps she quietly hoped that her parents would not be led to suspect that something was wrong? Because if so, then they might take her with them, and thereby disrupt Sylvia’s Messianic Suffering? This is an extreme version of Silent, Suffering Sylvia…one who is so devoted to her role that she is absolutely intent on suffering and dying, and Gertie’s Hellish Dungeon is the place where that must happen. Hey, Ricky! Did you know that Sylvia’s parents were at Gertrude’s house on October 15th? Now I could launch into the same boring spiel that I just did for October 5th, but I think the point is taken, although it may be lost on Shovel Scrapers. Perhaps Sylvia tricks her parents twice, knowing that the coal shovel in the basement, with her using it to scrape the floor, is her Fate declared from on high.
In addition, Ricky has included an obvious Detail of Absurdity that is readily apparent. Ricky actually believed that Sylvia had been in the Juvenile Center for 23 days? Of course, minors go the Juvenile Center because they have been arrested, and as minors, they can’t be put in the city or county jail. Ricky knew that. If he had really been told this by Gertrude, he would have quickly found out that this wasn’t true. Kids talk, and Ricky knew what we have come to know about Sylvia, and what we have come to know is that she isn’t the type of teenager that would have done something leading to her arrest and incarceration in juvenile detention. How serious would the fictional offense have been, the law she fictionally would have broken that a judge would send her to the Invisible Juvenile Center for 23 days? Did she rob Jobil’s Pizza Place? Did she steal a car from 5 boys? Caught dealing drugs? Commit Injury to Person? I believe, and that is a belief and not a statement of fact, that Ricky included the Juvenile Center in his story as a Detail of Absurdity. I also believe that his reference to 23 days is also a Detail of Absurdity. I believe he knew exactly where Sylvia was, and that she had not been forced to stay in Gertrude’s Bumpian Basement of Horror. Did Jason, or his not-so-motherly mother, reside in its depths? Perhaps Michael Myers made a strange appearance there? We know that a significant number of people lived in Gertrude’s house. We know that there was no washer and dryer. We know that there were two laundry sinks in the basement. The basement was where they washed clothes. We know that Gertrude had a coal burning furnace, and we definitely know that kids had to go into the basement to shovel coal into the furnace, a task which carried the risk of someone dropping coal on your foot.
Doubling back to Ricky, and looking at his forced, written confession on October 27th, he said this:
Q. Do you know how long Mrs. Wright kept Sylvia down in that basement?
A. At first, I thought she was in the Juvenile Center, and the Gertie told me she was keeping her down in the basement.
So Ricky said in court that Sylvia was essentially kept in the basement for 23 days, i.e. over 3 weeks. In his forced confession on October 27th, while he does refer to the Juvenile Center, he doesn’t provide any chronological markers like he did in court.
In Randy’s testimony, the basement is referred to many times. But the references in question centered around two incidents, the first being the time that Randy supposedly saw Sylvia pushed down the basement steps and was injured, and the day of October 26th, when he says he saw Johnny cleaning Sylvia off in the basement. He does not state, or even allude to, the basement as a place where Sylvia was being kept. As to the “Sylvia was gone” element, he says this:
Q. What did she say?
A. She told me Sylvia came back?
Q. Sylvia came back?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. From where?
A. Well a few days before that they said that -
MR. ERBECKER: We object.
THE COURT: Objection overruled.
A. The last couple of days Mrs. Baniszewski said Sylvia was getting on her nerves too much and she was - I think she asked Richard Hobbs and some of her children to take Sylvia and lose her.
So there is a clear problem here. What is that? The Inherited Wisdom states that Gertrude told Ricky that Sylvia was in juvenile detention, but someone tells Randy that Gertrude has instructed Ricky to “take Sylvia and lose her.”
What about Judy Duke?
“Gertrude Wright, offered Richard Hobbs, a $1,000 if he would help kill Sylvia Likens. About a week ago, I saw Gertrude Wright, throw Sylvia Likens, down the basement steps, and told her that where she was going to sleep, and that she was not going to get anything to eat, crackers or water, about two weeks ago, I saw Paula, Gertrude's daughter put salt on Sylvia's sores, and the cuts that they made, her mother told her to do it.”
It is interesting to note that in both Randy’s and Judy’s testimony, Ricky is accused of being the one who was to end Gertrude’s Sylvia problem. Ricky would either “lose” Sylvia, as Randy put it, or kill Sylvia for $1,000, as Judy put it. In “House of Cards” we saw that Judy and Randy teamed up against Anna. Now Judy and Randy team up against Ricky. And that’s interesting, since Judy and Randy have something in common other than being at the Juvenile Center at the same time, and agreeing to make accusations against Anna. That will become clearer a little later.
With Judy, we have a third kid who did not live in Gertrude’s house. Notice something important. She refers to The Two Weeks, provides a chronology with touch points to that of Paula, but proceeds to differ from it. Judy knows about The Seven Days, but states that Sylvia, having been thrown down the basement steps, was told that she would sleep in the basement from that point forward. Paula refers to The Seven Days, but this is the period of time during which Gertrude inflicted 15 cigarette burns on Sylvia. And! Judy says that Sylvia was sentenced to sleep in the basement. Paula maintained that Sylvia was kept there night and day. Finally, Judy’s testimony does not attest to a belief that Sylvia had been gone, or that Gertrude had lied to her about where Sylvia had been. In fact, Judy says that she knew exactly where Sylvia was the whole time.
The differences are important. Ricky and Randy claim that they were under the impression that Sylvia was gone, i.e. not present in Gertrude’s house. But Ricky says that he believed Sylvia had been gone from approximately October 1rst – October 23rd. Randy suggests that Sylvia wasn’t missing until approximately October 23rd. And that is interesting. October 23rd is the date of the double mutilation event. Ricky and the others state that Randy showed up at Gertrude’s house on October 23rd just as Ricky finished mutilating Sylvia in the kitchen. Then the supposed sequence of events becomes ridiculous. They take Sylvia to the basement so that Randy won’t see Sylvia unclad, only to bring her up and let Randy gaze at her. Why can Ricky see Sylvia naked, but not Randy? Why not just have Sylvia put her clothes back on? Was she taken to the basement with no clothes on? It makes no sense. A very insightful essay on this website took a close look at Randy. I find it impossible to believe that Randy would have found it acceptable to look at Sylvia unclad, given the fact that he asserts that he sat on the front porch because Sylvia was in the bathtub. It is also completely inconsistent with the bizarre Dr. Ricky and Dr. Stephanie, not to mention Nurse Shirley who knows that if you let go of someone’s tongue, you will hear a death gargle, scene where Sylvia must go into the bathtub with her clothes on because boys are present. Ah! Randy says that he wasn’t there that day, and that he had actually been told that Gertrude hatched her evil plan to “lose” Sylvia, as if you could just drop her off somewhere, drive away, and she couldn’t find her way back. And whose car shall we use? Gertrude didn’t have a car. Perhaps we could borrow Aunt Rosie’s car? Perhaps we could borrow a car from 5 boys. Wait! Sylvia is in the Juvenile Center for having stolen their car. Maybe…a taxi? If, in fact, she were being tortured and abused, and was convinced that she was going to be killed, why didn’t she just go somewhere else? So as concerns the belief that Sylvia was gone:
Ricky: October 1rst – October 23rd
Randy: October 23rd – October 26th
Judy: Sylvia wasn’t missing at all
This is perplexing, although I do believe that Randy has included a Detail of Absurdity…the statement that Gertrude arranged to have Ricky and the kids “lose” Sylvia. There is absurdity in this Detail of Absurdity. Think about it for a moment. Randy includes a statement that it was not Gertrude who would be directly involved in “losing” Sylvia. Did Ricky have a car? No, he wasn’t old enough to drive. Would he take Woodrow Hobbs’ car? What about the kids? Did Paula have a car? Did Stephanie have a car? Did Shirley have a car? Or did Jenny have a car that she kept in the upstairs back bedroom with her thermometer and Dr. Ellis’ autopsy equipment? If not, which is the case, then how would they “lose” Sylvia? How far would these kids have to walk, dragging Sylvia with them? So the Detail of Absurdity represents a Great Absurdity, which is perhaps an apt moniker to give to the entire Likens Affair. I think that there is a slight possibility that Randy wasn’t supposed to say… “lose.” If he conspired with Judy, then perhaps he was to echo her claim that Ricky was supposed to have murdered Sylvia, but Randy couldn’t bring himself to say that, so chose his own word. Randy and Judy team up against Anna, and Marie joined in later. Judy and Randy also decided to direct blame at Ricky, something that Marie would strenuously oppose. As is almost always the case with Judy, the allegations are ridiculous and inane. Much less so with Randy, who nonetheless added a key Detail of Absurdity about Ricky. Does Judy include Details of Absurdity in her testimony? The answer is…no. I have checked with the author responsible for coining this phrase as to the correct definition of this phrase. A Detail of Absurdity is a detail that is worked into a narrative that gives a general sense of being potentially possible, and intended by the relevant witness to signal a false confession. We agreed that Judy’s testimony is absurd from beginning to end. Alas. But more can be said about Judy Duke that is very significant to the overall Canonical Story. Judy claimed that she was frequently at Gertrude’s house:
Q. Directing your attention to last summer, 1965, did you go over to her house?
A. Yes.
Q. How often?
A. Quite a while.
But she also said this:
Q. Did you go in this house every day?
A. Pardon?
Q. Would you go in Gertrude's house every day?
A. Not every day, but quite often though.
And then the truth came out, which is, to be sure, somewhat of a surprise, given who we are talking about:
Q. How many times all told, do you suppose you visited the Baniszewski household and saw acts of cruelty toward Sylvia?
A. I don't know how many times.
Q. Two or twenty or fifty, as close as you can say?
A. I go over there quite a while.
Q. You were a frequent visitor?
A. Yes, all the time I go over. I mostly go on Fridays.
It has been pointed out that being at Gertrude’s house once a week is not being there “all the time.” In fact, she specifies Fridays. Why did Judy Duke not go over to Gertrude’s house on the weekends? If she had, then theoretically, she could have been over there all day. But she doesn’t go to Gertrude’s house on the weekends. And get this, if you walk out Gertrude’s front door, and if you are someone who is inclined to believe the Canonical Story, perhaps you should run out her front door, then turn left and walk down the sidewalk, you will cross North Denny. Continue on, and you will reach the intersection of East New York Street and North Chester. Judy Duke lived at 322 North Chester. The distance between Judy’s house and Gertrude’s house was .1 mile, and it took about 2 minutes to walk from the Duke residence to the Baniszewski residence. So Judy lives a 2 minute walk from Gertrude’s house, yet, she doesn’t make this 2 minute walk on the weekends. In fact, she makes the 2 minute walk only on Fridays. There is no indication that Judy slept at the Gertrude’s house, so it seems likely that Judy was not at Gertrude’s house on Fridays for more than a few hours. And I think that’s interesting. It seems a fair enough assertion to state that Judy Duke was not a regular figure at Gertrude’s house in any way. Watch her dodge an important question:
Q. Is it a fact, she told a lot of you children to stay out of the house, stay away from there?
A. No, I don't think so.
Q. She never told anybody while you were there to stay away?
A. I don't remember if she did or not.
Q. She never told you to stay away?
A. No.
Q. Who were you a friend of there, which child?
A. I believe so, she did say -
Q. Did what?
A. She did say something about they were after us. That is what Anna was telling me and I asked Stephanie when we were going to the drug store and I said, "Was your mother mad at me"? She said. "I think so. You go talk to her". That is what she said. I never did.
What Judy did was to totally ignore the question as to which kid at Gertrude’s house was her friend. I think that she duked this question, sorry…ducked this question, because the answer to this question was…none. Judy wasn’t friends with any of the kids at Gertrude’s house. The reason she was at Gertrude’s for only a few hours on Fridays, is because she was staying there after school, being watched by Gertrude until the time on Friday when an adult was home at the Duke residence. In other words, Gertrude was babysitting her. Judy probably sat in the front room watching TV until it was time to go home. She and Randy hatched a plan to frame Anna? And to frame Ricky? That’s interesting…how well connected were Judy and Randy? How similar are they?
Q. How often during the months of September or October 1965 would you go to 3850 East New York Street, Randy?
A. About ever day, sir.
Q. Why would you go there?
A. To see Mrs. Baniszewski and her children.
So Randy is constantly at Gertrude’s house.
Q. You said you went to the house about every day, is that right?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Starting when?
A. When Mrs. Baniszewski started living there I came over there about one or two times every other day and then I started to go to the park with her family, with John.
Q. That started sometime the latter part of July?
A. Yes, the latter part of July.
Q. Is that right?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. After that you started going there about every day?
A. Yes.
Does this seem backwards? After school starts, Randy is at Gertrude’s house every day. But during the summer, when kids have nothing to do other than hang around, Randy is at Gertrude’s house one or two times every other day? And what does that mean? Every other day Randy is at Gertrude’s house once, or sometimes twice, during the same day? Why wouldn’t he be around more often in the summer than during the school year?
Q. You saw Gertrude Baniszewski about every day, did you, after the latter part of July, did you?
A. Yes, sir.
But is this what he said before? He said that in September and October, he was at Gertrude’s house every day. Starting in the latter part of July, he was at Gertrude’s house once or twice, every other day. The latter part of July marks the beginning of two things:
1. Randy is not at Gertrude’s every day; he is there once or twice every other day
2. Randy is at Gertrude’s every day
Randy’s chronology is confusing. Perhaps there is an explanation for this. But let’s continue:
Q. Is it correct to say, Randy, you were a visitor at the Baniszewski household almost daily during the course of July, August, September and on into October?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Was this because you were having school vacation at that time?
This is not what was said before. It seems clear that the attorneys are trying to enhance Randy’s relevance as a witness by having him virtually move into Gertrude’s house. Randy being there all the time was, as far as the Canonical Story had planned, the idea from the outset. But Randy messed this up, stating that at the latter part of July, he started going to Gertrude’s house once or twice every other day. I think that he wasn’t supposed to have said that. Why? It undermined the idea that Randy was there all the time, since it implies that he was only there half of the time…every other day. But saying that he was there, on the days he was there, once or twice, with twice being unlikely, meant he was there all the time, in Randy’s mind at any rate. What he did was to inadvertently tell the court that he was not there all the time, and that was not what the Inherited Wisdom intended. What has happened with the last quote given above? For one thing, a different attorney began asking questions…George Rice, Paula’s attorney. And look what he did! He destroyed Randy’s chronology. He gets Randy to agree that he was at Gertrude’s house everyday during the months of July, August, September, and October. Randy distinguished between a period during which he was at Gertrude’s house every other day, and a period of time that he was there every day. In his chronology, he reversed the expectation we might have when contrasting time hanging around Gertrude’s house during school months as opposed to summer months. Rice simply said “July” and not “the latter part of July.” The former is problematic:
Q. Now, did she live there all the time you have lived at 3902 East New York Street?
A. No, sir.
Q. When did she move there?
A. I think about the end of July.
Q. What year?
A. Of 1965.
Hold on. Gertrude says that she moved into 3850 East New York Street in May or June 1965. If that’s true, then why does Randy think that it wasn’t until the end of July? What about the earlier part of July? Randy lives the next house down on East New York Street and he doesn’t know that a house full of kids lives just on the other side of the intersection of East New York Street and North Denny? What about June? This is a fascinating question. So if Randy believed that Gertrude Baniszewski moved onto East New York Street at the end of July, then he couldn’t have been over at her house throughout July. But then Randy makes his fatal chronological mistake:
Q. Is it correct to say, Randy, you were a visitor at the Baniszewski household almost daily during the course of July, August, September and on into October?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Was this because you were having school vacation at that time?
A. Yes, and a few times I helped straighten the house. One time I cleaned the kitchen. A couple of other times I helped straighten it.
Randy was on school vacation during the months of July, August, September, and “on into October.” He affirms this without seeing just how large of a contradiction this is, and without even catching the “school vacation” part of it. Has the attorney intended to have Randy blow-up his own chronology? Or better, did he intend to have Randy blow-up the chronology that the Canonical Story demanded? It should have been noticed by anyone in the courtroom that Randy has been told to lie about how often he was at Gertrude’s house, and if you juxtaposed the right questions, Randy would blunder into a mistake and never see it. Now we’ll see Randy’s presence at Gertrude’s house take an absolutely absurd turn:
Q. Now, Randy, after the latter part of July you were there practically every day?
A. Yes.
Q. Would that be early in the morning?
A. I would come over about 9:00.
Q. Did you go there at noon time?
A. Yes.
Q. Sometimes in the evening, too?
A. Yes.
Randy is at Gertrude’s house at least twice a day, and sometimes three times a day. Please!
Randy offers another Detail of Absurdity; one that I’m sure he wasn’t supposed to offer…his presence at Gertrude’s house is so often, so significant, that he actually does chores while he’s there. He does more than this. He makes his constant presence at Gertrude’s house into a constant presence throughout Gertrude’s house:
Q. Where did that happen?
A. Well, in different rooms of the Baniszewski house.
Randy apparently had the run of the house, which would be in keeping with the image he created for himself…Randy Baniszewski:
Q. What did you see Johnny do early in September?
A. Slap her and hit her.
Q. Where were you?
A. In all parts, he hit her in all parts of the house.
Randy frequents every room in Gertrude’s house, so he naturally followed Johnny and Sylvia as they made their tour around the house as Johnny abused a girl who could have knocked him flat on his back. No room is barred from Randy! Even, dare I say, the mysterious Third Bedroom?
Q. Anything else you observed about her appearance in October, 1965?
A. No, sir.
Q. How did she look to you with reference to her weight? Was she heavy or skinny? Was there any difference?
A. She was a middle sized woman.
So apparently, despite the fact that he is almost a permanent resident of the house, he was unaware of Gertrude’s dramatic weight loss.
Q. You saw Gertrude Baniszewski about every day, did you, after the latter part of July, did you?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. How many times would you say she complained or said she was sick?
A. Five or six times.
Does that sound like Gertrude the Arch Hypochondriac?
Q. Did she ever talk to you about how she felt at that time?
A. Just said she did not feel good at all.
Q. How many times did she say that in October?
A. A couple of times.
Gertrude felt sick two times in October, and three times during the period of July, August, and September? And this kid was there all the time?
Q. Yes, how many times was she slapped?
A. By Paula?
Q. Yes.
A. Five or six times.
That’s strange…the number of times Paula slapped Sylvia was the same number of times Gertrude said that she was sick. And if Randy witnessed the supposed daily abuse of Sylvia, and the other witnesses say that this included the basement, why does he never describe any abuse that supposedly happened in the basement? And if he’s there almost everyday, then why, from the perspective of October 26th, is the boy who virtually lives in Gertrude’s house under the false impression that Sylvia had been taken somewhere by Ricky with instructions from Gertie to “lose” her? A few days ago? Whatever happened to being at Gertrude’s house every day, three times a day, in every room? So at this most critical point in the chronology, Randy breaks with his omnipresence and is suddenly not present for a few days? Why is Randy so sparsely mentioned by the other kids, his adopted brothers and sisters, his virtual siblings, kids who are nothing like the dysfunctional real siblings whose company he probably loathed, if their favorite brother Randy spent everyday, three times a day, in every room, doing chores in their very midst? Why does he have a four month school holiday? Why didn’t he know Gertrude lived the next house down until he suddenly did at the end of July? And why is it that he can’t decide whether he hit Sylvia ten times, twenty times, thirty times, or forty times? Why can’t he decide whether the Clock of Horror actually exists? Here’s another question…if Ricky is allowed to be upstairs when Sylvia is in the bath, but Randy himself must wait on the porch…can he really be part of this family? Could he be in the house when Shirley was in the tub? Marie? Paula? Jenny? Gertie herself? If he’s there in the evening, how much time he must have spent sitting on Gertie’s Front Porch of Horror as one girl this time, and another girl that time, was in the tub? Perhaps he had a special Randy Baniszewski Chair reserved just for him on the porch. The “a girl’s in the bathtub” chair. And we know, from Randy himself, Ricky did not need such a chair.
The fact that Judy also asserts that she was regularly at Gertrude’s home is probably for the same reason that Randy describes himself as being constantly at Gertrude’s home…she too wants to be a Baniszewski. In the case of Ricky, he seems to have known Johnny. Judy didn’t have any friends at Gertrude’s house. And neither did Randy. So we must dispense with Randy Wright and Judy Wright once and for all.
We know that Darlene had worn out her welcome sometime in early September. Gertrude provided excellent reasons for why she told Darlene to not come around anymore. Yet she lived two doors down, living on the other side of the double, sharing a wall with the Vermillions. And she was a good friend of Jenny, and Betty knew Ella McGuire. It is strange that Darlene is never asked about the basement. Why is this strange? Because although Darlene was no longer hanging around at Gertrude’s house, it seems virtually certain that Jenny, when away from the house, which was probably pretty frequently, was hanging around with Darlene. So one would expect Darlene to have thorough knowledge about what was happening to Sylvia, and as a result, would know about the situation with the basement. One may posit that she, in fact, knew nothing about the basement, and had no intent of saying otherwise in court if asked. So she wasn’t asked. It is also interesting that Anna Siscoe, when asked about how often she had been at Gertrude’s house, appears, in contrast to Judy, to have given an honest answer:
Q. Did you visit in the Baniszewski home last summer?
A. Yes, ma'am.
Q. How often did you go there?
A. Occasionally.
Q. How often would you estimate?
A. I don't know for sure, ma'am.
In other words, Anna is content to be Anna Siscoe, rather than trying to turn herself into Anna Baniszewski. And! Note this:
Q. When was the last time you were in the Baniszewski home?
A. About the second week in September, ma'am.
This is about the time that Darlene said Gertrude told her to stay away:
Q. When was the last time you were in the house?
A. About the second week in September.
What of Coy? Well, he decided not to testify. So all that we have is his forced confession, in which he is never asked how often he was at Gertrude’s house. I think that the following conclusion is persuasive. Much of the testimony would come from children who lived in the house. This presented a problem for the Canonical Story. Outside witnesses would be needed. This presented the creators of the Great Fraud with a problem. Coy wouldn’t testify. Darlene and Anna had both been told to stay away from the house by the second week of September. So the creators in question are slowly losing possible, external witnesses. So two other kids, two kids who, unlike Sylvia, had been in the Juvenile Center, and together, two kids who both turned on Anna and Ricky, two kids who both desperately wanted to belong at 3850 East New York Street yet never did, would be allowed to transform themselves into member of the innermost of the inner circle, and therefore could be held out to the jury as reliable witnesses as to what went on in Gertrude’s house. This is all the more the case if we bring Ricky into the picture. This is what Shirley said:
Q. How much would he come?
A. Once in a while.
Q. Did he live close by?
A. Yes, he did.
Ricky made the following statements:
Q. How many times were you there in the Baniszewski house in July?
A. Maybe one or two.
Q. In August?
A. Maybe four or five times.
And:
Q. Do you have any idea how many times you might have visited or talked to Gertrude Baniszewski in September?
A. Not very many because school did start and I - you know - wanted to have a good start in school.
What does a desire to get a “good start” at school have to do with going over to Gertrude’s house? What about after school? What about weekends? Does Ricky eclipse Paula in his love of learning? Does Ricky spend hour after hour studying when he gets home from school? Perhaps he spends his entire weekend making Mr. School proud? It doesn’t seem likely. What seems more likely is that Ricky is understating how often he was at Gertrude’s house for the obvious reason of reducing the amount of time he was actually present in the Tattoo Parlor of Horror. What did Gertrude say?
A. I never have been really well acquainted with Ricky.
Q. Can you recall 1965 when you first saw him?
A. No, I don't remember when I first saw Ricky Hobbs.
And:
Q. You were taking it all the time. Besides Anna Siscoe that you testified about and Randy Lepper that you testified about, did any other neighbor kids come around there?
A. Yes, Darlene Duke.
Q. Who else?
A. Darlene MacGuire, Michael Monroe.
Q. Anybody else?
A. Richard D. Hobbs did once in a big while and Coy Hubbard was there and a boy my daughter Paula knows, Randy Lepper was over every day and other various - you know - children - I don't really know their names that the kids went to school with.
So Ricky Hobbs is only at Gertrude’s house “once in a big while.” Although, I find it interesting that, given the fact that she says that Ricky is at her house relatively seldom, she knows his middle initial.
Q. Mrs. Baniszewski, last year during the summer and fall, 1965, did you tell me how many times you saw Ricky Hobbs in your house?
A. I'd say maybe - you mean during the summer and fall?
Q. Yes.
A. About five times.
Q. How many times.
A. About five times.
Do you mean during the summer and fall? Yes, that’s why I said “during the summer and fall.” So the picture of Ricky as not being a frequent guest at Gertrude’s house is to be found in the statements of both Ricky and Gertrude. Of course, Ricky said this:
Q. Now, before going in the house that 23rd of October, 1965, do you recall how many times you had been there before that date in October?
A. No more than ten times.
This is an interesting statement, and, as noted above, the question arises as to whether Ricky had been at Gertrude’s house 10 times in October, or 10 since July. But note what Jenny said:
Q. Jenny, you remember in October you said that you saw Richard Hobbs there in the afternoon, do you remember what day of the week that was?
A. He came over pretty often after school and on Saturdays.
And:
Q. Do you know Richard Hobbs, Jenny?
A. Yes, I knew him when we were living at 3838.
Q. Did you ever see him at Gertrude's, at 3850 East New York Street?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. How often?
A. On Saturdays and after school most of the time.
This is a very different picture of how often Ricky was at Gertrude’s house than we found in the testimony of Ricky and Gertrude. What does Marie say?
Q. You were down in the basement and saw this?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Richard Hobbs was not there?
A. He was at home.
Q. Richard Hobbs was at home, not at school?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. How do you know that?
A. Because he had not come over to our house that day.
It is implicit in Marie’s statement that Ricky was routinely at her house after school. So if he wasn’t at Gertrude’s house, he must be home. That reasoning presupposes that during after-school-hours, Ricky was to be found at his second home. Are we to believe that the last time he had been at Gertrude’s house before October 26th was the beginning of October when he was supposedly told by Gertrude that Sylvia was at the Juvenile Center? Then the following seems rather odd:
Q. Did you see Richard Hobbs?
A. I don't remember.
Q. Did you see him the following day?
A. I think I did.
Q. Were you home the next day, on Sunday?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you go to church?
A. Not that day.
Q. Why not?
A. Because I was sick.
Q. Did you stay home all day?
A. Yes.
This is Stephanie testifying about what she knew about the supposed events that supposedly happened on October 23rd. It will be remembered that she was given the opportunity to be blissfully unaware of the slogan and branding, and the rather hard to believe story-line was that she had been drugged, which alludes to her mother, so she did not know what was happening a few feet away in the kitchen. She was sick on October 23rd, and so she was sick on October 24th, which was a Sunday. She was home all day. So the only way that she could have seen Ricky is if he were at the house on Sunday, October 24th. That means he was at Gertrude’s house both days of the weekend. Would that be true of an infrequent visitor? This is also from Stephanie’s testimony:
Q. Stephanie, have you ever visited in Ricky Hobbs's home?
A. No, sir.
Q. Are you acquainted with his brothers and sisters?
A. Just his little brother.
Q. Have you ever been in their home?
A. No, sir.
Q. You have seen his little brother playing in the back yard?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you ever talk to him?
A. Yes.
Q. Were you acquainted to the point you knew his name?
A. What?
Q. Did you know him well enough you knew his first name?
A. Yes.
Q. What was his name?
A. Richard.
Q. I mean his younger brother?
A. No, I forgot his name.
Why does Ricky’s younger brother matter? Surely he wasn’t involved. And why does the attorney ask Stephanie the same question twice; i.e. was she ever at Ricky’s house? Is it possible that Stephanie had been at Ricky’s house, and the attorney asked the same question twice to see if he got the same answer twice? Actually, the attorney asked if Stephanie knew any of Ricky’s brother’s or sisters. It was Stephanie who mentioned Ricky’s younger brother. If Stephanie had been in the Hobbs’ home, which the attorney seems to believe may have been the case, then it was surely not to visit Ricky or his younger brother. There are actually two women named Barbara Jean in the Canonical Story; Barbara Jean Sanders, and Barbara Jean Hobbs. Ricky’s big sister was called to the stand. She too seems to have been fuzzy when it came to chronology:
Q. Now, Barbara, in September when you quit your work with Indiana Bell and stayed home to take care of your brothers and sisters, was that occasioned by the death of someone in the family?
A. Yes, it was.
Q. Who was that?
A. My mother.
That’s strange, given the fact that Juanita Hobbs was very much alive in September 1965; she didn’t die until November 9, 1965. How is it that Barbara Hobbs believed, only 6 or so months later, that her mother had actually died in September? After graduating from Thomas Carr Howe High School in June of 1965, she worked for Indiana Bell. She quit her job in September to take care of her brothers and sisters. There must have been a good reason for this, and she asserts that there was…her mother died. But that’s not true. It would have made all the sense in the world to say that she quit her job to look after her brothers and sisters because her mother had become ill. She says this about her father:
Q. Now, on that same Tuesday in the evening, was your father home?
A. No, he was not.
Q. What time did he come home - do you recall?
A. It was about a quarter till 9:00.
Q. Where had he been?
A. I think he was at the hospital.
She thinks? i.e. she doesn’t know. Note this:
Q. Now, because of you mother being in the hospital with cancer, did the duty fall on you to be head of the household?
A. Not head, no.
Q. Was it your duty to take care of him?
A. Yes.
So before, Barbara Hobbs left her job in September to watch her family because her mother died. Now, she is said to have been watching her family because her mother was sick in the hospital. On the question of the hospital:
Q. Was your father home?
A. No, sir.
Q. Where was he at, if you know?
A. He was at the hospital to see Mom.
Q. Your Mom had been in the hospital?
A. Since Sunday, I believe, I am not sure.
According to Ricky, his mother was in the hospital on October 24th. Ricky is sure that his father was at the hospital, Barbara only thinks he was at the hospital. How odd it is that Miss Hobbs doesn’t seem to know whether her mother was dead, or sick, or sick and in the hospital, in September 1965. Notice that in both instances, she agrees to a leading question:
1. Was it because someone died? Yes- my mother.
2. Was it because your mother was in the hospital with cancer? Yes.
I think that this is bizarre to say the least. Another question:
Q. Did Ricky, last summer - in 1965 - give you any difficulty, requiring you to discipline your brother, brothers or sisters, discipline him, manage his conduct?
MR. NEW: We object.
THE COURT: Sustained.
Help me with this one. Barbara Hobbs doesn’t know whether she quit her job in September 1965 because her mother was in the hospital, or because her mother was dead. But she quit in September to sort of fill in her for her mother, whatever condition she was in. So why would she be disciplining Ricky in the Summer of 1965? She didn’t take over until September of 1965. One is tempted to conclude that Barbara Hobbs did not leave her job in September 1965. She was not watching Ricky. She did not even live in the Hobbs’ home. Notice this, from the 1965 City Directory:
Woodrow Hobbs: 310 North Denny
Barbara J Hobbs: 2735 North Meridian
Who is this Barbara J Hobbs? She is renting at 2735 North Meridian and working for Indiana Bell? No, Public Finance Corp; as a cashier. Oh, notice this too from the 1965 City Directory:
Virginia Hobbs: 310 North Denny
Yes, Barbara’s older sister Virginia was living at home with the family. What about the 1966 City Directory?
Virginia Hobbs: 310 North Denny
Woodrow Hobbs: 310 North Denny
There is no Barbara J Hobbs at all. So one can’t verify that Barbara was living with Ricky in 1965 or 1966. However, it is a fact that Barbara’s older sister Virginia was living at home for both years. If Barbara was busy babysitting, and not working at Public Finance Corp…what was Virginia doing? Hanging around? Watching her younger sister play surrogate mother? If Virginia testified in court…would she know whether her mother was alive in September 1965? I bet she would. In fact, Virginia Sue Hobbs married Harold Lee Willhite in July 1966. At that time, she still lived at 310 North Denny. It’s strange that she continued to live with her father until only a few months after the end of Ricky’s trial. Almost as if she lived at home during the difficult years of 1965-1966, waiting to marry and leave home until after the worst was over…her mother’s illness and death, her younger brother’s trial and conviction. It wouldn’t be until 1971 that Ricky’s father re-married; i.e. Mary Ann Lux. It was almost as if Virginia sacrificed two years of her life to help her family through a dire time. I find it more likely that Virginia stepped into the void, than a woman who thought her mother died in September, or was in the hospital with cancer in September, depending on whoever asked her either way. Why wasn’t Virginia in court? Most likely? She didn’t have the same story to tell.
And one thing that is clear is that during this strange period during which Juanita Hobbs is who-knows-where, Ricky doesn’t want to be at home. Barbara’s claims served to hide the real nature of Ricky’s feelings toward Gertrude; i.e. she became his surrogate mother. It will be remembered that one of the attorney’s showed considerable interest in whether Stephanie had been to Ricky’s house, and which of Ricky’s brothers and sisters she knew. When Barbara Hobbs was on the stand, the attorney showed a similar interest in Ricky’s siblings; but only certain ones:
Q. Now, Barbara, what brothers and sisters do you have older than you?
A. I have three older sisters and one older brother.
Q. What is the name of the next older sister?
A. Paula.
Q. How old is she?
A. She is twenty.
Q. And the next brother or sister?
MR. NEW: The State objects. It is not relevant or a matter of defense.
THE COURT: Overruled.
A. Virginia is twenty-one.
Q. Next?
A. Thomas is twenty-two and Judy is twenty-four.
Q. Was your older brother Thomas - was he home last summer, in 1965, or in the fall of 1965?
A. No, he was not.
Q. Where was he at?
A. He is stationed in Vietnam in the army.
So Dennis Lee Wright and Thomas Hobbs are both, at the same time, serving in Vietnam. They are, at the same time, fortunate enough to be on the other side of the globe when the Sylvia Likens Saga played out. So the attorney is interested only in Barbara Jean’s older siblings. There is no interest in Ricky’s little brother. Who are the siblings of interest? These turn out to be:
1. Paula Hobbs (20)
2. Virginia Hobbs (21)
3. Thomas Hobbs (22)
4. Judy Hobbs (24)
And then, the attorney is interested in the whereabouts of only one of these siblings…where was your brother Thomas when Sylvia Likens died? In Vietnam. He then shows no more interest in Ricky’s family. So why did he show so much interest in Thomas? And why is it that Barbara Hobbs doesn’t know whether her mother was alive or dead in September 1965? It’s also interesting that Randy was never asked where any of his brothers were, given the fact that several of them were troublemakers at odds with the law. Actually, that question didn’t have to be asked…everyone knew that they were living with the very nervous Vernal Lepper. And no one seems to have felt it important to determine exactly where Danny and Benny Likens were at the time their sister died. As for Dennis Lee Wright…surely the court could readily confirm with the US Army that he was actually on active service. No one disputed this. So why the question about Thomas Hobbs? Was he in fact with the army at that specific time? He died in 2015, and was buried in the Indiana Veterans Memorial Cemetery. Why did the attorney believe that Stephanie had been to Ricky’s house? Ask twice, and maybe trip her up? Stephanie could have said when asked…did you know any of his brothers or sisters? No! But not Stephanie! I like to play games…did you get the toe clue? So..yes I did. Who? His brother! This is fun. Which brother? His ol…little brother! Gotcha! So you fish, Barbara is there to protect Ricky. Now you’re interested in her brothers and sisters? Just the older ones. We showed that interest with Stephanie too! But you’re only interested in the siblings older than her. What about Ricky’s little brother? He’s of no interest. What about other siblings younger than Barbara? Who cares! Tell us about your older brothers and sisters. Ok…Virginia. Don’t care. Judith. Don’t care. Thomas….where was he? With Dennis Lee Wright. It’s hard to issue a summons to testify in court when you’re on the other side of the world shooting it out with Charlie in the jungles of Vietnam. Great! So we can’t talk to Dennis, and we can’t talk to Thomas. Still…why is it that we want to talk to Thomas? Judith wasn’t in court. Virginia wasn’t in court, though we have seen that it was she, and not Barbara, who should have been. Ricky’s father Woodrow wasn’t in court. Why do we want to know where Thomas Hobbs was? Who did Stephanie visit at Ricky’s house? How did Ricky meet his friend Gertie? Ricky:
Q. Who did you meet first?
A. I believe it was Johnny.
Q. Do you recall that incident, meeting him?
A. I believe I met him through a neighbor of mine, Steve Jewells.
There is probably some truth to this. If you walk out of Gertrude’s front door, then turn left, the turn left on North Denny, you walk past what may have been the original crime scene. If you walk down to 310 N. Denny, you will find the Hobbs residence. Walk four houses down from there, to 317 N. Denny, you will come to the home of Charles and Ruth Jewell. So Johnny knew Steve Jewell? Still, I wonder why the attorney thought that Stephanie had been to Ricky’s house? Is it possible that Ricky met Johnny because Stephanie would come to Ricky’s house to see a certain someone? Perhaps after school? Stephanie had her own, unique Enigmatic Number…the Enigmatic Number One. What was that? She arrived home from school an hour later than her mother said she did. If that was true, where did she spend that one hour? Relevant? Quite possibly not. But there would appear to be a connection between the Audacious Game Player and someone at the Hobbs residence. And that was covered up in the wake of the death of Sylvia Likens. No, it wasn’t Ricky’s little brother. Perhaps Stephanie knew…Barbara Jean! Virginia? Judith? Kevin? Donald? The attorney fished around in an effort to find out why Stephanie had been to Ricky’s house. Why Barbara and not Virginia?
Another observation may be made at this point. October 26th was of course a Tuesday. And October 27th was of course a Wednesday, and a school day. Where was Ricky during the evening of October 26th? We know the answer to that question…he was at Gertrude’s house. So how can Ricky be an infrequent visitor, if he was in Gertrude’s house on October 23rd, and on October 24th, and during the evening of October 26th? I think that Ricky understated how often he had been at Gertrude’s house. I think that Gertrude did as well, for the simple fact that of all the kids that hung around her house, she genuinely liked Ricky. But I would add an additional observation. There was a good reason for Ricky to have a desire not to be at his house…his mother was dying of cancer. Could Woodrow Hobbs afford to have his wife in the hospital during September and October 1965? Just how wealthy was he? Could he afford what is by anybody’s assessment a very long and expensive hospital stay? Well she certainly was at the hospital as of Sunday, October 24rth.
I find it very likely that Ricky sought refuge with Gertrude, not Barbara Jean. Is that what Virginia would have said? In fact, the close connection between Gertrude and Ricky was explored during the trial:
Q. Did you ever have sexual relations with Gertrude Baniszewski?
A. No, sir.
Ricky was 14 years old until his birthday on November 7, 1965. Whatever you think about the nonsense involving Gertrude Baniszewski and Dennis Lee Wright, or, what I think is more likely, the not-nonsense involving Gertrude Wright and Dennis Lee Wright, it would be mind-boggling to say the least to think that Gertrude would have been intimately involved with a 14 year old boy; and it is highly unlikely that any 14 year old boy would have been, or indeed is, capable of satisfying a woman in her late 30s. Other, more reprehensible sources, including that which maintains that only a sexual relationship can explain why Ricky, in the Guise of Ricky the Branding Wizard, would have mutilated Sylvia Likens. But there was another reporter in the Canonical Story who testified, and he testified against Ricky. Robert Hoover, news broadcaster for WIBC. He interviewed Ricky when he was in the General Hospital’s Detention Ward. It will be remembered that Ricky was diabetic. I have to say that I am shocked to learn that a young offender would be interviewed about the charges that formed the basis for his criminal prosecution, and even more so that it would be allowed in evidence. Notice specific terms that our definitely-not-Walter-Cronkite used:
A. I asked him at the time of this occurrence, I have heard, what I believe I referred to as, scuttlebutt - a rumor that the victim had been forced to drink urine and I said, "How about that" and as I recall -
Scuttlebutt.
A. He did what we radio men describe as sort of toe danced and stuttered and he said he believed he had heard something like that.
Toe-danced! Paging Miss Stephanie! Riddle me this…when is it impossible to toe-dance? Right! If you’re immobilized by toe-tied bondage! Scuttlebutt…toe-danced…stuttered. Does anything seem wrong with this? Perhaps this had something to do with Ricky, the One who Trips the Light Fantastic:
Q. Who was present?
A. Well, there were several prisoners in this room, together with three or four deputy sheriffs seated just outside the entryway.
So cops are listening, and other prisoners, all of whom would be interested in Ricky’s answers, although for different reasons. Cops…to use his answers against him. Prisoners…if Ricky shows weakness, then he’s a good target. Kaiser tells us that when he was grilling Ricky at police headquarters, Ricky specifically said that he didn’t want a lawyer, made his confession freely, and did indeed wish to sign it. Was Ricky, a scared minor, told by anyone that his answers to Mr. Hoover’s questions would not only be broadcasted to a publicly eagerly eating up every detail of the case like they were Whitecastle burgers on Phyllis Vermillion’s dinner plate, and in court? Ricky should have said nothing without his attorney. He should have been told that.
Q. At that time, did you ask Richard Hobbs whether he had placed a brand on the body of Sylvia Likens?
MR. ERBECKER: Same objection.
THE COURT: Sustained as to all defendants.
Q. Mr. Hoover, did you record this thing?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. Put it on tape?
A. I did.
Q. Do you still have the tape?
A. Yes.
Q. An accurate reproduction of what was said by yourself and Mr., Hobbs?
A. The original reproduction on tape.
What about the “urine” detail?
Q. Now, you had an opportunity to refresh your memory and recollection as to what you testified to about the urine. Was there anything in your conversation on your tape about asking Ricky Hobbs about urine?
A. Not on the tape, no, sir.
Of course! The other stuff is on the tape, but strangely, not the urine scuttlebutt. How convenient.
What is explored in court is the nature of the, which I fully believe is the truth, close connection between Ricky and Gertrude. Others may, perhaps, have seized on something such as this to sell tickets to a horror movie. The basis of the close connection is, I believe, the very sad situation that involved Ricky’s mother. But did this situation exist before Gertrude moved into 3850 East New York Street? One of the attorney’s may have suspected that it did:
Q. Mrs. Baniszewski, when did you first become acquainted with Ricky Hobbs?
A. I never have been really well acquainted with Ricky.
Q. Can you recall 1965 when you first saw him?
A. No, I don't remember when I first saw Ricky Hobbs.
Q. You lived there at 309 North Bradley?
A. 307, sir.
Q. 307 North Bradley, the next street west of Denny Street?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. How long did you live in that house at 307 North Bradley?
A. From March till June.
Q. March till June?
A. Yes, it possibly might have been the first of April till June.
Q. He - was he ever in that house there?
A. Not to my knowledge, no.
Q. You don't know if your children were acquainted with him?
A. No, I don't.
This line of question is interesting. Gertrude lived at 307 North Bradley in early 1965. Prior to her, Arnold B Couch lived there. He moved out, and she moved in. But she moved in to that house in March 1965, only to move out in June, and move a few houses away. Why did she move? The house was falling apart. This may be true. The house was vacant in 1966 and 1967. Of course, why move into a dilated house to begin with? She says that Paula told her about 3850 East New York Street being vacant. Is seems odd that you would move into a house that was falling apart, only to find the East New York Street house available. Could it be that Gertrude was in fact Ricky’s friend while living at the house on North Bradley? What I find interesting, and if it is a coincidence, it is a bizarre one, is that according to the 1964 City Directory, Theodore Monroe lived in that house. Oh, and Mike Monroe too, possibly. Then the Monroes end up living at 3838 East New York Street, a house that the Likens family had once lived in, only a couple of houses down from Gertrude. Jimmy seems to have spent a lot of time at the Monroe house, and Jimmy had lived in the house that Mike had lived in. Fascinating! And there was a connection between Barbara Sanders and Mrs. Monroe, well, a Mrs. Monroe. But I’ll leave that for a different essay. What can be concluded is that the connection between Gertrude and Ricky, which was surrogate mother to surrogate son, and any attempt to make it anything else is repulsive, existed prior to Gertrude’s moving onto the other side of the wall from Robert Handlin. No one should seek to minimize what Ricky Hobbs went through during the years 1965-1966. To lose one’s mother when so young; I must state that only the most hard-hearted of souls could not be moved by what Juanita’s family said of her:
“We have only your memory, dear mother, to remember our whole lives through, but the sweetness will linger forever, as we treasure the image of you.”
I’d be honored if someone said that about me. Still, the point to be made here is that there is a strange reversal of the order of the three kids discussed above as far as what they knew, or thought the knew, about Sylvia toward the end of her life:
1. Judy knows that Sylvia is in the basement; no one had lied to her
2. Randy knows that Sylvia is gone a few days before her death. Doesn’t know about the basement
3. Ricky is lied to at the beginning of October, and doesn’t know about the basement until October 23rd
My conclusion is that none of these can be true. Judy is, of the three, the one who is there the least amount of time, and so she should know less than Ricky, and even Randy. Ricky appears in the narrative as knowing the least, and yet he is at the house more than the other two, and I believe he was there regularly. Gertrude did something interesting in her testimony. As we saw above, she greatly understated the amount of time that Ricky spent at her house. We also saw that Randy and Judy greatly overstated the amount of the time that they spent at Gertrude’s house. Gertrude said this about Randy:
Q. You were taking it all the time. Besides Anna Siscoe that you testified about and Randy Lepper that you testified about, did any other neighbor kids come around there?
A. Yes, Darlene Duke.
Q. Who else?
A. Darlene MacGuire, Michael Monroe.
Q. Anybody else?
A. Richard D. Hobbs did once in a big while and Coy Hubbard was there and a boy my daughter Paula knows, Randy Lepper was over every day and other various - you know - children - I don't really know their names that the kids went to school with.
So Gertrude, having considerably understating the amount of time that Ricky was at her house, agrees with Randy that he was at her house “everyday.” This would thrill Randy Baniszewski I’m sure! But why? Why does she say this?
Q. Did any other children you know or saw beat or kick at Sylvia?
MR. ERBECKER: We object. This was gone into before.
THE COURT: Overruled.
A. Randy Lepper.
Q. Did you see him do that?
A. Not always, no, sir.
Q. When did he do that, that you saw?
A. Several times.
Q. What month?
A. Just about all the time he knew Sylvia.
Gertrude did not like Randy. So what she has done is falsely claim that he was at her house everyday, and as part of setting him up and holding him out as one of the main abusers of Sylvia. Gertrude’s polemic directed at Randy:
A. I don't remember exactly. I think about a half hour because she had Randy dressed up as a girl and we did not recognize Randy at first as I can remember.
But did Gertrude contradict herself about Randy’s constant presence?
Q. Did you see Randy Lepper the day she died?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you let him in the house?
A. No, sir.
And:
Q. What did you do?
A. Chased Randy home.
Q. Did he come back?
A. Later on that afternoon, I believe.
Q. Did you allow him to come back?
A. No, sir.
This is consistent with the claims made by the children that Randy was one of the kids who Gertrude would chase out of the house. To put it simply, he wasn’t welcome. Judy Duke came up only once in Gertrude’s testimony on the first day, and what she said was interesting:
Q. You were taking it all the time. Besides Anna Siscoe that you testified about and Randy Lepper that you testified about, did any other neighbor kids come around there?
A. Yes, Darlene Duke.
Darlene Duke? Of course, that is Judy’s middle name. Judy is mentioned in Jenny’s testimony only one time. Shirley:
Q. Anybody else?
A. Judy Duke.
Randy:
Q. Who else was at the Juvenile Center?
A. Anna Siscoe, Judy Duke and Mike Monroe.
Erbecker, during Randy’s testimony:
MR. ERBECKER: Defendant Gertrude Baniszewski joins the same motion, for the same grounds and reasons. For the further reason during the trial of this cause and shortly prior thereto, counsel for Gertrude Baniszewski did consult with Mr. Nedeff, and without imputation any wrongdoing or impropriety, facts and circumstances were discussed relative to the defense of Gertrude Baniszewski and a conflict of interest would render him incompetent at least to the portion of the testimony of Judy Duke.
Ricky never mentions Judy. Marie is particularly telling. It will be remembered that she demonized Darlene McGuire and Anna Siscoe. But she never once mentions Judy Duke. Nor does Stephanie. But when she is mentioned, she is never called Darlene. I would explain Gertrude’s reference to Darlene Duke, rather than Judy Duke, as due to her inability to remember the girl’s first name. Since she was about to refer to Darlene McGuire, she used “Darlene Duke” by mistake. Judy was so unimportant that Gertrude couldn’t even remember her first name. So Gertrude understates Ricky’s presence and over-states Randy’s presence because she liked Ricky, and strongly disliked Randy. And Anna Duke? I mean, Shirley Duke? I mean, What’s-her-name-Duke? Who cares?
Randy’s personal situation was a sad one, as his attempts to place himself at the center of Gertrude’s family, to make himself wanted among a group of people who did not want him, was used by the organizers of the Great Lie for their own purpose. Perhaps, “misused” would be a better term. One can only imagine how difficult life was for him given some of those of his real family with whom he lived. This claim was made about him in a book Lo & Behold!
“One occasion he really opened up to me. He was asked to appear as himself in a Hollywood movie about the Sylvia Likens story. He became very agitated and angry and said he told them he wanted nothing to do with it. He fell in love with Sylvia during the ordeal and aftermath was still tearing him apart.”
Randy fell in love with Sylvia. Randy was at Gertrude’s house three times a day every day. Randy frequented every room in Gertrude’s house. Randy did chores for Gertrude. Of course, how do we know that Randy said that he fell in love with Sylvia? As we have seen…skepticism relative to claims about this case is the order of the day! The order of every day! The same book tells us that the movie An American Crime was first released in 1979, and the movie The Girl Next Door had its second release in 1986. I found that puzzling. An American Crime, which has no value as anything other than sensationalist nonsense based on an already sensationalist, nonsense Canonical Story, was released in 2007. The Girl Next Door was also released in 2007, and was based on the novel of the same name published in 1989. Yes! The weird Sylvia Likens world! It’s tendrils creep into anything on the very subject! Sell the books…and sell the tickets to the movies! And get all the details wrong. Make a movie based on a novel:
Stop it! This is serious. If Gertie Wright can dance, and seeing that she is elsewhere dubbed Skelton Gertrude, I see no reason why Gertie Wright can’t lead a squad of Skeleton Cheerleaders. I’ll bet they go bump in the night! Gertie Wright’s Cheer Camp of Horror!
“Let’s go! Let’s Fight! Let’s go bump in the night!”
“Give me a B! Give me an I! Give me a T! Give me a C!”... wait, not that one. Sorry, Judy.
“Give me a G! Give me an E! Give me a R! Give me a T! Give me an I! Give me an E! What’s that spell? Gertrude!” Well, we’ll work on that.
I did find one that begins with “Hit ‘em, hit ‘em, smack ‘em down!” Now we’re getting warmer.
Loosely based on the Sylvia Likens case? Of course, it would be impossible to make anything based on Randy considering the fact that…he was hardly ever there, and his presence wasn’t wanted when he was there, which didn’t last long seeing how Gertrude’s response was to kick him out of the house. Don’t get me wrong, I feel a great deal of sympathy for Randy. It seems the Canonical Story left a lot of devastated young people in its wake.
What did other kids say about how long Sylvia had been relegated to the basement? Shirley agreed with the claim that Sylvia was forced to sleep in the basement, and that this began during the fictional The Two Weeks:
Q. Did she move somewhere else to sleep?
A. Not till within the two weeks.
Q. And then where did she go to sleep?
A. Downstairs in the basement.
Q. And how many nights did she sleep down there, do you know?
A. Several nights.
And:
Q. When Sylvia slept in the basement, what did she sleep on?
A. Clothes.
Q. On some clothes?
A. Yes.
Q. Was there a bed down there?
A. No, there was not.
Paula stated that there was a “pad” in the basement. Does she mean a mattress? Shirley states that there was no bed to sleep on, so when prompted to come up with a statement about what Sylvia slept on, she focused on the clothing in the basement. We know that there was a very ratty box spring in the basement. That no doubt formed the basis for what other essays have identified as Ricky’s portion of the Gang of Boys Note:
I've torn up a new mattress and peed on it.
She is not asked, however, why Sylvia slept in the basement. On Marie’s first day of testimony; the one where she told a lot of truth only to be punished for doing so, she said this:
Q. Did you ever see her sleep any other place?
A. No, sir.
Q. Did you see her on Sunday night before she died?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Where was she sleeping then?
A. In our room.
Q. On the floor?
A. On the mattress on the floor.
Q. How about Monday night before she died, Marie?
A. She slept on the mattress on the floor.
Q. Did you see her sleep on the floor?
A. She never slept on the floor. She slept on the mattress.
So Sylvia slept in the upstairs back bedroom the whole time. There was no basement. This will change on the second day of her testimony, but watch her get the Canonical Story wrong:
Q. You said yesterday, Marie, that Sylvia had never slept down in the basement. That was not true, was it?
A. She slept upstairs and stayed down in the basement during the daytime.
Having told the truth the day before, she was bullied into lying, but then reversed what the others said about the relationship between Sylvia and the basement. Marie’s statement makes no sense. And the attorney quickly forced her to change her story:
Q. She stayed down there during the nighttime, too, didn't she?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. When you said that yesterday, it was not true, was it?
A. No, sir.
Q. Do you know how long she stayed down in the basement before she died?
A. Two or three days.
And so Marie is bullied into including the claim that Sylvia slept in the basement as well, making the claim fit Paula’s claim. But why was Sylvia confined to the basement:
Q. Do you know who made her stay down in the basement?
A. Mom.
Q. Did you hear her?
A. Yes.
Q. What did she say to her?
A. She said, "Sylvia, get down to the basement. I will not allow you to be in the same room where my daughters are".
Q. Did she say anything else?
A. No.
I think that Marie is recycling. I think that she is drawing on the “Sylvia called Paula and Stephanie prostitutes” theme. Marie’s response does not make sense. If this is actually being linked to that event, then:
Q. When did this episode at school happen, when the boy asked you if you would take money for something, when was that?
A. About the third or fourth week of school.
Q. Around the latter part of September?
A. Yes, sir.
That’s Stephanie. Why would the reason Marie offered explain why Gertrude forced Sylvia to remain in the basement 3-4 days before her death? I think it is clear that the real situation is the one as described by Marie on her first day of testimony. Quarantined in the basement at such a late date to protect Paula and Stephanie? More from Marie:
Q. Did you ever see Sylvia do anything to your mother to cause her to make her stay in the basement?
A. No, sir.
Stephanie:
Q. Why was she sent to the basement to stay? Do you know?
A. No, sir.
Q. When was she sent down there to sleep down there?
A. I don't know.
Q. Did you continue to sleep in the back bedroom?
A. I was downstairs.
Q. Who was?
A. Me and Mom.
Q. When did that occur?
A. When we decided there was not enough room upstairs.
Q. What month was it?
A. I think it was the middle of September.
Q. You continued to sleep downstairs from then on till Sylvia died?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Do you know where Sylvia slept during the night the last week she lived?
A. Well, off and on.
Q. Where did she sleep?
A. She kept going back and forth.
Q. From where to where?
A. Upstairs to the basement and then upstairs and back to the basement.
Q. Who would tell her to do one or the other, if anybody did?
A. I don't remember. I don't remember anybody saying anything.
Q. Where would she sleep in the basement?
A. I don't know.
Q. Did she have a bed down there?
A. There was springs. I don't think there was a mattress.
And:
Q. Your mother never forced her to sleep in the basement?
A. She told her to.
Q. She never did sleep in the basement?
A. Yes, she did.
Q. How many times?
A. Off and on, I said.
Q. Pursuant to your mother's orders?
A. What do you mean?
Q. After your mother told her to do that, she would do it, right?
A. Yes, sir.
Stephanie is saying that she has no idea why Sylvia slept in the basement, but gives us the bizarre description of Sylvia going back and forth, sometimes sleeping upstairs, and sometimes sleeping in the basement. And she has no idea why this would be happening. What about Jenny:
A. When she said she was going to stay in the basement and get crackers and water.
Q. When was this, Jenny?
A. About a week or a week and half before she died.
So much for Judy’s claim that Gertrude sentenced Sylvia to the basement, and proclaimed that she wouldn’t be allowed to eat crackers. More:
Q. You said Sylvia slept in the basement. When did she start sleeping in the basement?
A. I'd say it was about the 10th or 11th or October.
Q. Was there a bed down there?
A. No.
Q. What was in the basement?
A. Clothes and rags were down there.
Q. How long had these clothes or rags been down there, to your knowledge?
A. They was down there for a good while. Somebody put them on the floor and Gertrude kicked them aside and said she was going to sleep on the cement.
Q. Did Sylvia sleep on the cement?
A. Yes, she had to.
Shirley said that Sylvia slept on clothes on the floor because there was no mattress. Jenny is simply exaggerating a fictional story as part of her creation of the Demon Gertrude character. October 10th or October 11th. Betty and Lester were at the house on October 15th. More:
Q. How many nights did Sylvia sleep on the basement floor?
A. Six or seven nights.
Jenny…you’d make it easier if you could keep to the same time-frame. What:
Q. You told Miss Wessner your sister had been kept in the basement for two weeks before she died?
A. Yes.
It is worth looking at a quick look at the length of Sylvia’s supposed relegation to the basement:
23 days Ricky(since Oct. 1st)
16 days Jenny (since Oct. 10th or Oct. 11th); 6-7(?); 7-10(?)
14 days Johnny; Jenny
10 days Paula
7 days Judy
6-7 days Jenny
Several days Shirley
2-3 days Marie
And the most strange variant of all: Stephanie, who says that during the last week of her life, Sylvia was actually alternating where she slept between the upstairs back bedroom and the basement. A Detail of Absurdity? I think so, although I think she based the general idea upon the girls alternating between the mattress on the floor and the bed. As for these time estimates…How hard is it to know how long the poor girl was in the basement? When?
Day and Night Paula; Marie (2)
Night Judy; Shirley; Stephanie; Jenny (?)
Day, but not Night Marie (1)
Unspecified Johnny
“Most of the time” Jenny
What did Sylvia sleep on?
Rags/clothes Shirley
Concrete floor Jenny (Demonic Gertrude wouldn’t let Sylvia sleep on the rags/clothes)
Pad Paula
It would seem that no one can agree on key elements of the basement story. As for time frame? Jenny:
Q. Did you ever know whether or not Sylvia urinated in the bed?
A. One time.
Q. When was this?
A. About three or four days before she died. I can't think - Stephanie or Coy -
So Jenny is now establishing a touch-point with Paula’s statement in her forced confession as the attorney sets this up. But! She wets the bed only once. Where?
Q. Who tied her up?
A. Coy Hubbard tied her up and Sylvia wet the bed.
Q. When she was tied up who else was present, if anyone?
A. Stephanie was standing in the hall.
Q. Where did this take place?
A. Up in the bedroom.
If Sylvia is being kept in the basement, then why at such a late date is she in the upstairs back bedroom More:
Q. During the two weeks before Sylvia died, did you spend much time with her?
A. No, not too much.
Q. Why was this?
A. Well, we was not together - I mean she would keep us both apart.
Q. Who is she?
A. Gertrude.
Q. What did she do to keep you apart?
A. Sylvia would be in the basement most of the time.
So Jenny gives us the reason why Gertrude was keeping Sylvia in the basement “most of the time.” Why? To keep Sylvia and Jenny apart. Marie said it because of Paula and Stephanie. Why would Gertrude want to keep Sylvia and Jenny apart, and why at such a late point in the chronology? Gertrude did make an attempt to keep Danny and Benny away from Sylvia and Jenny, and she may have been keeping them away from Dianna. But why each other? Jenny seems to be saying that Gertrude kept Sylvia in the basement to somehow protect Jenny, and that seems absurd. Then she establishes a touch-point with Ricky’s story:
A. When I would go to school she would say if any one asks you where Sylvia is, you better say she is in Juvenile.
Q. Is that all she told you?
A. That is where she wanted everyone to think she was at.
Q. Did she ever tell you that when you went any other place?
A. Church.
Q. What did she tell you?
A. The same thing
Q. Telling you if anyone asked about Sylvia to say she was in Juvenile?
A. Yes.
Q. I suppose she told you that when you went other places?
A. Yes.
Q. Was that the entire nature and extent at her warning to you not to talk to anybody about it?
A. Yes.
Q. Then she never told you any time not to report anything as to what was going on around that house, did she
A. Not to tell no one
Q. Yes.
A. She did not want me to tell no one she was down in the basement.
Did she say church? Roy Julian was led to believe that Sylvia was being kept in the upstairs bedroom, not in the Juvenile Center. It was noted above that the claim about telling people that Sylvia was in the Juvenile Center is not credible. And now she will make a fatal error:
Q. Was that in October the policeman came there because a man was at the door, inside?
A. Yes, it might have been in October. I can't remember exactly.
Q. Would you say it was in August or September or October?
A. It was October.
Q. Do you remember when in October?
A. No.
Q. You should remember that date in October. Was it a grown up man?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you know his name?
A. No, I don't know him.
Q. How old was he?
A. He looked about - he was in his thirties.
Q. He was arrested there, was he?
A. Yes.
Q. You were there at the house?
A. Yes.
Q. Who was there?
A. Gertrude, Johnny, Paula, Stephanie, Jimmy, Shirley, Marie -
Q. Sylvia was there?
A. Sylvia -
Q. She was down in the basement?
A. Not when the police came. She was upstairs in the bedroom.
Q. Was she down in the basement?
A. No, she was not.
The police report for this incident states:
Q. Now, Mrs. Baniszewski, on the morning of October 26, 1965, there was signed, executed and filed and affidavit for First Degree Burglary against Robert Handlin, parts of which read "that on this day, before me, Noble R. Pearcy, personally came Detective Sheldon Lasky, who upon his oath said Robert Handlin on or about the 20th of October, 1965, County of Marion, did then and there unlawfully, feloniously, burglariously break and enter into the dwelling house of Gertrude Wright, then and there situated at 3850 East New York Street in which said dwelling house the said Gertrude Wright then lived".
According to Jenny, Sylvia had been confined to the basement on October 10th or October 11th, or for two weeks, or 6-7 days… Yet on the evening of October 20th, Sylvia is sleeping in the upstairs back bedroom. I’m not the only who noticed this serious contradiction:
Q. How long were the police there? They called the wagon after the first policeman got there and some other policemen came?
A. Yes.
Q. The police were there an hour and a half?
A. I would say something like that.
Q. Would you say the police were there two hours?
A. No, I would say an hour and a half.
Q. Now, if you can remember the 26th of October, how many days before the 26th of October, did the police come and arrest a man and they were there for two and a half hours?
A. Two and a half hours?
Q. Or an hour and a half.
MR. NEW: We object. She said she did not know when it was. He is trying to fix the date. She said she did not know.
THE COURT: Objection overruled.
Q. What date was that in October now? In relation to the day your sister died, was it one day, two days, three days or five days before your sister died?
A. I'll say four or five.
Q. It happened within four or five days? If I told you it happened October 21, would that be right?
A. That would be five days.
Q. Now that is October of last year?
A. Yes.
Q. You told Miss Wessner your sister had been kept in the basement for two weeks before she died?
A. Yes.
Q. Was she down there on the cold concrete when the police were there on the 21st or 22nd of October
A. No, she was up in the bedroom.
Q. What is true then?
A. Well -
And then an objection saves the Canonical Story from caving in on itself. Jenny was lying about Sylvia being in the basement, and this event clearly proves it. Not to mention the fact that it would have so easy for Sylvia to walk up out of the unlocked basement during the 90 minutes that the police were in the house and say: “Save me!” But Sylvia was sleeping upstairs, which is where she is not supposed to be. Jenny lied, and her whole basement construct is completely false. Let’s let Paula fall into the same trap:
Q. Will you tell us where Sylvia Likens slept in your house?
A. Yes, upstairs with the girls, until this past week and a half. Sylvia Likens wet and shit on the bed, so Mom made her sleep on the pad down in the basement, and she was kept down in the basement in the daytime.
Q. Will you tell us who placed a gag in Sylvia's mouth, and who tied her up with a rope?
A. During this past week and a half, my brother Johnny Baniszewski, M/W/12, put a gag in Sylvia's mouth and tied her up about three times up stairs in the bedroom, and twice he did the same thing while she was in the basement. Johnny teased Sylvia and made fun of her. Sylvia, was tied at the wrists and ankles, sometimes with rope, sometimes with a piece of cloth.
Paula….why is Sylvia upstairs? How can your evil henchman tie up Sylvia in the upstairs bedroom if Sylvia is relegated to the basement? Of course, the ultimate contradiction to the whole Sylvia-has-been-forced-to-sleep-in-the-basement scenario is hard to miss, even though, after seeing it, one suddenly wonders how it could be missed. During the comedy routine involving the evening of the 26th, as Ricky and Stephanie drag Sylvia around the house just before she dies, it is clear that no act of premeditated murder is ever identified. As a result, the whole Canonical Story becomes back-loaded with stories of head trauma, ranging from standing on Sylvia’s head, to being beaten with a curtain rod, to being hit with the paddle, to being hit with a broomstick. But an actual act of murder as the evening story unfolds? What happens as a Diabolical Nightfall descends on the Center of the Universe? Stephanie accuses Ricky of dropping Sylvia’s shoulders on the way up the stairs, causing her to hit her head on one of the steps, and the accusation leveled at Stephanie is that she feinted. But that is after Sylvia has been brought up out of the basement, taken to the kitchen, given CPR, and the decision to give her a nice warm bath, not a Diabolical Bath, mind you. The beginning point is Sylvia suddenly being in the basement, having had a bowel movement, speaking incoherently, and having difficulty identifying people. What then? Ask Ricky:
Q. And how did you go into that house?
A. Through the back door.
Q. Where was Sylvia at that time?
A. She was laying on the kitchen floor on the blanket.
Q. Who was in the kitchen with her?
A. Gertrude and Stephanie.
Q. Where were they at in relation to Sylvia?
A. Gertrude was over on the east wall by the basement door and she was crying. She was scared and Stephanie was kneeling down beside Sylvia.
Q. Alright, what did you do at that time?
A. I asked what was the matter and Stephanie started crying that she was dead.
It seems odd that the woman accused of having murdered Sylvia is so upset at the condition that Sylvia is in that she’s actually crying. We are also told that as Ricky and Stephanie play their parts in the final act, Gertrude is upset and trying to get upstairs. A murder without a murder? A murder without a murder and the not-murderer is crying? Crying is the first and foremost symptom of a psychopathic killer! Even Gertie hitting Sylvia in the face with a book was meant to help…somehow. I think it’s clear that there was no intention of killing Sylvia Likens that evening. And having brought the girl upstairs, and having given her a Not-Diabolical-Bath, it’s decided to put her to bed. So! Taking Sylvia out of the bath, then dressing her…what happened? I know! Ricky and Stephanie carried her back down stairs, through the kitchen, down the stairs into the basement, and put her to bed on the pile of rags on the floor. No! We know what they did, they put her to bed on the mattress in the back bedroom. Where she had slept every night since she and her sister began staying with Gertrude Baniszewski.
Yet, once again…why the basement? Who said what?
1. Jenny- Gertrude was keeping her and her sister apart
2. Marie- Gertrude wanted to keep Sylvia away from Paula and Stephanie
3. Paula- for hygienic reasons
4. Stephanie- has no idea
5. Judy Duke- some sort of punishment
Now the most important thing is that the kid who should have an intimate knowledge of the situation in the Baniszewski home, said this:
Q. Did Gertrude tell you she was keeping Sylvia down in the basement?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did she say why she was doing it?
A. No, sir.
Q. When did she tell you that?
A. On Saturday.
Q. Is that the first you knew she was down in the basement?
A. Yes, sir.
So Ricky has no idea why Gertrude was keeping Sylvia in the basement either. And no one can agree as to why Sylvia was forced to stay in the basement. Was it punishment? Was it to keep Sylvia away from Paula and Stephanie? Was it to keep Sylvia away from Jenny? Why is it that Ricky, a regular at the Baniszewski house, had no idea why Sylvia was in the basement, and indeed, made no attempt to offer a reason? Probably…he couldn’t think of one. Likewise Stephanie could not offer a reason either. Paula’s statement is not supported by the witness testimony. She said that Gertrude had Sylvia sleep in the basement because of bladder and bowel control issues. Both? She would have to have been in a terrible condition to have lost bladder control and bowel control. The only loss of bowel control described in the testimony is the night Sylvia died. A similar problem exits with a loss of bladder control. But the witnesses can’t agree on the arrangement. Paula says both day and night; Stephanie says that Sylvia would sleep in the upstairs back bedroom sometimes, and sometimes in the basement. Marie, when forced to lie, stated that Sylvia was forced to stay in the basement during the day, but not at night. The Judy Speech indicates the belief that Sylvia only slept in the basement. Neither can the witnesses agree as to how Sylvia slept in the basement. Paula said there was a pad in the basement, Shirley said that Sylvia slept on a pile of clothes because there was no mattress in the basement, while Jenny gives us a good dose of Jennyism when she initially agrees with Shirley, only to then say that Gertrude kicked the pile of clothes aside and forced Sylvia to sleep on the concrete floor. The different chronologies are contrived, and are contradicted by other claims and assertions. Why such a muddled, unbelievably contradictory mess? The answer is obvious, different witnesses were left to come up with different reasons why Sylvia was kept in the basement, and when. They are all lies. There is no truth in any of the the artificial and badly executed statements.
There is one other very important point to be made. Actually, it is critical in the complete destruction of the Canonical Story about the basement. By way of introduction, it will be re-stated that the basement was not locked. Sylvia could come and go at will. What about the “tying Sylvia up” element? A good reading of the essay titled “Nightmares” shows that this element had nothing to do with any imprisonment. But that’s not strange, seeing how none of the witnesses who offered a reason offered a reason that wasn’t ridiculous. It’s actually very surprising that not a single witness stated that the basement was actually a prison cell; a place of forced confinement carried out by Demon Gertrude. How strange this is can be seen in what the Cleric said about his visit to Gertrude’s house:
A. She told me I could see her. She mentioned that she had punished the girl for skipping school. She said, "I laid it on her". I took it the same as any mother taking care of children, her own or anyone else's, skipping school. She also said, she had to lock her in her room upstairs, had to watch her like a hawk, had to lock her in because she would slip out and it was brought to her attention - I don't know whether she had actually seen it or not - she was propositioning older men for money.
And:
A. No, she was supposed to have been upstairs locked in the room. At the close of the conversation, just before I left, I said, "I will see Sylvia now". She said, "Alright" and about that time Jenny came in and she said, "Here is her sister. You can ask her". She said, "Explain what Sylvia does". She said, "My sister, after she goes to bed, slips down and raids the ice box and tells lies".
So the only time that a witness says that Sylvia was actually locked up somewhere, it wasn’t in the basement, it was in the upstairs back bedroom. And then notice that he does what Marie initially did…asserts that the situation involving Sylvia was relative to the daytime, but not the nighttime. Gertrude locks Sylvia in the bedroom during the day, but Sylvia can come and go and night? Detail of Absurdity: Gertrude locks up Sylvia during the day, so she obviously can’t go to school. You punish a kid for skipping school by keeping them from going to school! You teach a kid to stop wetting the bed by tying them to the bed at night? Hey Cleric! If Sylvia was home during a school day, maybe you missed Anna Siscoe, Darlene McGuire, and Darlene Duke…sorry, I forgot Judy’s first name, seeing how irrelevant she was in reality, playing cards in the Casino! Think of it! Roy Julian can sit in on the game…now there’s six people, and you can play Diabolical 6-Player Bridge! Another Detail of Absurdity…this act of keeping the kid from going to school as a way to punish skipping school made sense to the Cleric! She skips school…and is a prostitute! And takes food at night…and drinks Gertrude’s grandson’s milk…oh…and tells lies. So in the only scenario in the whole ridiculous story where actual imprisonment is mentioned, it’s as ridiculous as every other part of it.
Why the basement? It’s no Crucible, to be sure. It’s no prison. It’s unlocked, and no one can say how long the girl was being kept in this unlocked, Non-prison. No one can offer a remotely satisfying reason why she’s down there. So the Familiar Context mentioned at the beginning of this essay…what of that? I wonder how many girls being held against their will, tortured, abused, and ultimately murdered, languished in an unlocked basement? One they could simply leave at any time? Everyone in the house is asleep…and it’s off to Grandmother’s house we go! How many girls in this horrible situation are kept in an unlocked basement with full access to all the potential weapons that we would find in Gertie Wright’s basement? Would such a girl remain in the unlocked basement, clutching her second coal shovel, and not leave? No, the Familiar Context mandates a locked basement, and one with nothing in it that can be used by the victim. So in the end, the basement makes no sense. Wait, it does. Just not in the way the Canonical Story has chosen to use it. The basement was the place where Sylvia suffered the head trauma that eventually killed her; knocked down the basement stairs, she hit her head on the concrete wall. On the North Denny side of the double, police responded to a call about the body of a dead girl. She had been brought there wrapped in a blanket, and left on a mattress in the basement. There was no mattress in Gertrude’s basement. And why is the mattress on which Mattress Girl lies so filthy? That’s obvious. After the Handlins moved out, a mattress was left in the basement. It became damp, and then became filthy from all the coal dust that settled upon it. So two basements…two girls…both deceased, both belonging to Gertrude, and both dead on the same day. And so as Nightfall descended on the shabby, rental house on the corner of North Denny and East New York Street, a perplexing situation presented itself. Nightfall brings dreams, and it brings nightmares. Sometimes it’s hard to tell them apart; sometimes it’s hard to know where one begins and the other ends. Perhaps a dream inside a nightmare? A nightmare inside a dream? Phobetor appears in a vision of light…promising dreams but leaving only nightmares. So many characters in the Canonical Story experienced nightfall in so many different ways. And the basement? Was it a dark place where Kaiser couldn’t find the light switch? A fearful place that Dixon didn’t bother to search? Did he fear the presence of the Pep Squad of Horror? And what of the hapless Harmon, sent back later only to face his own nightfall and to descend into one of the most dreadful of places? Mrs. Vermillion told us that you could see the light coming from Gertrude’s basement. A place of light and dark? Nightfall and sunrise? Perhaps Kaiser should have made his way down into the basement…if for any other reason…to simply gaze at the stars.