The Enigmatic Number 2: Part 1- Tunnel Vision

The enigmatic Number 2. And how many enigmatic numbers there are! There is the Number 3, which has been discussed at length on this website. Then there’s the Number 10, which is particularly important if you are counting broken fingernails. If you take the enigmatic Number 2 and double it, you have the enigmatic Number 4. Of course, you could get to the enigmatic Number 4 by taking the enigmatic Number 3 and adding 1 child to it. Still, the Number 2 deserves a detailed examination.

The Number 2 can be the number of things if you count them. That’s important, as will become clear later on. But it can also represent a period of time, as it does in the great Saga. One is used to thinking of the Number 3 as the most important measure of time in this case. And it is! Lester told Gertrude, when he visited on October 5th, that he would be back in 3 weeks. If you live in the canonical story world, Gertrude waits anxiously for Lester to walk out the door so she and her brood could begin the torture. It’s strange. What is? The witnesses describe violence against Sylvia before this date. Perhaps more strange is the inexplicable decision to begin this violence and eventual murder on this date. What changed on October 5th that set Gertrude on the course that would eventually destroy her own life? Perhaps she went crazy…wait! The Big 4 said no to that. Maybe a sense of paranoia…sorry. Sadism? Sorry again. It is the case that there is no palpable reason or reasons why this would have ever happened. Except that the show must go on! And we’ll wait until after October 5th to make sure that Lester Likens is in the clear. He saw Sylvia on that day and said that she looked fine. Perhaps she didn’t, and he left her there anyway. His story becomes his alibi. Or Sylvia was just fine on October 5th, like she was all the up to the evening of October 26th. The inherited wisdom will not allow for any stain on Lester’s character, despite the fact that any number of stains seeped to the surface during the trial. I believe that there were more serious ones that had not seeped. That doesn’t matter. The canonical story is a world where you are free to simply disregard the things you don’t like. It’s a world where you are free to not think about how ridiculous, unbelievable, and down-right impossible so much of it is. After all, it’s not a real world, it’s a fictional world. It’s like a novel that you’re free to re-write as you see fit. It’s like a buffet, and you’re free to pick, and not pick, anything you want and put it, or not put, on your plate. And pesky details? Mere details. Yet the Devil’s in the details, when he’s not lurking around 3850 East New York Street, that is.
So then, there is the last 3 weeks of Sylvia’s life. But what about the last 2 weeks? Just ask Shirley.

Q. In the last two weeks of Sylvia's life, did you see Coy Hubbard do anything to her then?
A. Uhu.
Q. What did he do, Shirley?

MR. BOWMAN: We object, unless the time is fixed.
THE COURT: The last two weeks.
MR. BOWMAN: We object to that range of time being unreasonably vague.
THE COURT: Overruled.

I have to say that I agree with the court. Wow! It felt strange to say that. So the attorney creates the context of a two week period, and tosses it into Shirley’s lap. She has no doubt been coached on this, and a not-so-subtle reminder will help indeed.

Q. Is that Coy?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you ever see him do anything else to Sylvia?
A. Yes, ma'am.
Q. When was this?
A. Well, before she died.
Q. Was it within the last two weeks before she died?
A. I think so.

I think so? Yes or no!

Q. Did you ever see anyone tie Sylvia up?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. When did you see this, Shirley?
A. Within the two weeks.
Q. Before Sylvia died?
A. Yes.
Q. Who tied her up?
A. Coy and my brother John.

So the attorney begins with the two-week-world, and has finally got Shirley to say “two weeks.” Actually, Shirley says “the two weeks”. Is that important? It is. It has become a period of time valid in and of itself. Not, “within two weeks”. No, “within the two weeks.” No other qualification is required now. 

Q. Did you ever see anyone put a gag in Sylvia's mouth?
A. My mother.
Q. When was this?
A. When she was - in the two weeks, I think.

Strange. We have our two weeks again, and so far, Shirley isn’t sure about it. She thinks. She thinks so.

Q. Did you ever see Paula do anything to her?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. When was this?
A. I think within the two weeks and before.

I think…I think…I think so. One might conclude that Shirley isn’t sure about this two-week-world we are now living in, but I could be wrong. Why be not sure? Perhaps because this two week time-frame, and I emphasize “this”, has no basis in reality. But she is trying..I think.

Q. Did you ever see anyone throw a coke bottle at Sylvia?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. When was this?
A. It was in the two weeks.

Q. Did you ever see your mother hit Sylvia with her hand?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. When was this?
A. Within the two weeks.

Q. Did she do housework?
A. Yes, she did.
Q. Where did Sylvia sleep?
A. Do you mean within the two weeks?

Answer a question with a question? You’re not supposed to do that. But it does make sense if you’re 10 years old and having difficulty remembering what fictional events you’re supposed to date to the dreaded the two weeks.

Q. When she first came, where did she sleep?
A. Upstairs in the bedroom.
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.

So according to the lawyer’s chronology…wait, I mean Shirley’s two weeks, Sylvia slept upstairs in the bedroom during the period of October 5th – October 12th. So she was sleeping with the other kids during the first week of Gertrude’s onslaught.

Q. Did you ever see that used?
A. No - yes, I think I have. My brother John hit her with it, I think.
Q. Your brother John hit Sylvia with it?
A. Yes.
Q. When was this?
A. In the two weeks.

Shirley does a lot of thinking. That’s not too strange, given what she said at the beginning of her testimony:

Q. Any brothers?
A. Yes, I do.
Q. What are your brothers names?
A. Johnny -
Q. How old is John?
A. Thirteen.
Q. Is he here?
A. Yes, he is.
Q. Point him out - does he have a sweater on?
A. Yes, he does. (indicating defendant John Stephan Baniszewski)
Q. Any other brothers?
A. One, Jimmy.
Q. How old is Jimmy?
A. Eight.
Q. Any others?
A. I take that back, Jimmy is nine now and I have a brother named Denny.

How hard is it to remember how many brothers you have? Pretty hard, given the fact that I think Denny was not her brother.

Q. Do you know what it means to raise your right hand and swear to tell the truth?
A. No, ma'am.
Q. Do you know what it means to tell the truth?
A. I think so, I am not sure.

We have a great witness here! She doesn’t know what it means to tell the truth. I’m sure she knows what it means to tell lies, given her testimony. I find it beyond belief that the court would allow a 10 year witness who doesn’t know what it means to tell the truth to testify. That’s what I think.

Q. Do you know whether or not your mother was home every day for the last two weeks before this girl died?
A. Yes, she was.

Q. You know about the two week period, don't you?
A. Yes, I do.
Q. Do you remember when you were talking about someone carving on Sylvia?
A. Yes.

Enough already, Mr. Attorney! She has already taken the hints and is now swimming around in a two-week-ocean, looking for everyone else who was supposed to be there. There’s Johnny, Gertrude, Paula, and Coy Hubbard.

Q. How many kids in the neighborhood came in that house there the last two weeks before Sylvia died, about?
A. Just Randy and Richard. That is all.
Q. Just two of them?
A. Just two of them.
Q. Not somebody named Siscoe?
A. Anna Siscoe, yes.
Q. What was her name?
A. Anna Siscoe.
Q. Anybody else?
A. Judy Duke.

Our two-week-world is getting bigger! Johnny, Gertrude, Paula, and Coy. She left out other members of this notorious gang…sorry…bunch, it takes 5 men to make up a gang, just ask Kaiser. So now we get more people to swim around in the morass. Let’s push Randy and Richard into the water; hopefully they can swim. And is it the case that Shirley can’t count? If so, she’s not the only one. According to Lester, if you count Gertrude’s four kids, you end up with three. And the attorney thinks that two payments to Gertrude equals three. For Shirley, her three brothers added up to two. And how many kids were in the house during the infamous two weeks? Two. Are you sure? Shirley is sure; just two. But counting is hard. So Ricky, Randy, Anna, and Judy…that’s two kids. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with Shirley’s ability to count, and I can say that ‘I love to count things’ so counting is important to say the least. That’s why I feel so concerned about all these people who can’t count…Lester, the attorney, Shirley…that’s four people who can’t count!

Shirley forgot how many neighborhood children were in the house. This is how the attorney hoped this to go:

Q. How many kids in the neighborhood came in that house there the last two weeks before Sylvia died, about?
A. Randy and Richard, and Anna and Judy, I think, assuming that I can remember how to tell the truth.
Q. Anyone else?
A. No

OK, I was being a bit sarcastic with the first part of Shirley’s hypothetical and non-existent answer.

Q. Did you ever go out places with the kids the last two weeks and tell them what was going on?
A. I played with them but I did not tell them what was going on.
Q. Why?
A. I just thought they were punishing her.
 

Punishing her? Punishing her? Shirley got punished plenty of times. Perhaps when she was naughty she got hit, smacked, punched, socked, slapped, tied up, thrown down the stairs repeatedly, burned with cigarettes, had coke bottles and perfume bottles thrown at her, had her head pushed under scalding hot water in the sink, was thrown into a bathtub full of scalding hot water, had salt pushed into her sores, had horrible slogans carved into her, was dragged into the basement torture chamber to have an enigmatic Number 3 seared into her flesh, was flipped, used as a tackle dummy for a brutal form of football, hit on the head with a broom, hit in the face with a curtain rod, was nearly choked to death, had a grown woman stand on her head…ok already! That’s enough. The only thing that happened to Shirley when she needed punishing was to be spanked, be it with the hand, belt, or paddle. Was Shirley ever punished? Let’s ask Mom:

Q. Which of your children did you punish?
A. Shirley, Stephanie.
Q. How did you punish her for stealing?
A. They were usually kept in.
Q. What did she do by way of punishment?
A. Not anything severe - spanking on the bottom.
Q. Who did she spank?
A. James, Marie and Shirley.
 

We have read about the cunning Indianapolis Pop Bottle Caper. And it seemed like a perfect crime. Perhaps the police were baffled and couldn’t figure out how bottles from the back of the store kept ending up at the front of the store. Still, the crime was finally solved, and in a way that many crimes are solved…a stool-pigeon:

Q. Were you there when they took the bottles?
A. No, I was not.
Q. How do you know they did?
A. Shirley Ann told me.
Q. Shirley Ann said she had stole bottles?
A. Shirley Ann told on them first and then told on herself.
 

I’m sure that we have finally run out of Shirley's not-so-noble character traits. Maybe not. A strange question to ask Marie about Sylvia:

Q. Did you ever see Shirley tear any of her clothes off?
A. No, not that I can remember of.
 

What? What? This poor kid! If we are to believe the inherited wisdom, then: 

ATTORNEY NUMBER ONE: Your honor! I object to the testimony of this witness! She doesn’t do well in school, doesn’t know what it means to tell the truth, steals, is a stool-pigeon who can’t be trusted in whatever criminal enterprise she’s involved in at the time, inflicts hideous brandings on other kids, colors in letters carved into another girl’s abdomen, has been suspected of pulling people’s clothes off, can’t count the number of her brothers or dangerous neighborhood kids, and hasn’t even had her room painted by Mr. Leppar!

ATTORNEY NUMBER TWO: Your honor! If I may..what attorney number one said is true. Still! She finds other kids saying the ABCs interesting, gets considerably upset when ‘someone is cussing someone out’, will admit that the deceased was helpful around the house, and not to mention that she is a good bringer of cups of tea when someone is dying. As for counting, nobody here can count! Or conjugate their verbs correctly. And she’s cute too!

THE COURT: Now listen you three attorneys! Counting things is challenging, and as for conjugating verbs, I think it will be said one day that we was all having that problem! Everyone has virtues and vices, attorney Number One. Just look at all of us! We’re involved in one of the worst frame-ups in American judicial history and everything!…I think. It’s a good thing that we’re living in a canonical-story-world or someone might object! As to your objection about the witness…OBJECTION OVERRULED!

This little girl knows that what has been described is not punishment..and most of it never happened. Methinks that the 10 year old is right…she doesn’t know how to tell the truth. So why call this punishment? I think that Shirley is providing us with her excuse for not doing anything about what was fictionally happening to Sylvia. We get an excuse from so many people! Jenny was afraid that what was happening to Sylvia would happen to her. The cleric and the Social Services Nurse were both tricked. Nosy neighbor lady didn’t give an excuse. She didn’t care, until Paula’s unnamed boyfriend, not to mention the unnamed man on Gertrude’s porch, were in trouble. Shirley’s excuse? She’s 10 years old, and she didn’t think that Sylvia was being abused, tormented, and tortured; no, she was being punished. And that puts her in the clear.

What about the other witnesses ? What do they know about the two-weeks-world? Let’s ask Jenny:

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.
Q. Did you go down in the basement?
A. Once in a while.
Q. Did you see Sylvia?
A. Yes.
Q. Did Sylvia ever go out of the house during these two weeks?

A. Well, one night three or four days before she died, Gertrude told me to go upstairs. I went upstairs. She said Johnny took her to an alley or something.

So according to Jenny, Sylvia was confined to the basement during this two weeks. Not locked in the basement. No, she could come and go at will. And she, as so often in Jenny’s testimony, displays a supreme indifference to the slow destruction of her sister. She went down into the basement once in a while. Otherwise, she was too busy raking leaves and doing whatever to see her sister, or get her any help. Of course, she didn’t really need to go get help. The two of the them just needed to walk out the door. What is this about Johnny taking Sylvia outside and into an alley? This is one of the most bizarre statements she made in the whole trial. What would Johnny do to Sylvia in an alley that he couldn’t do in the privacy of Gertrude’s basement? Another essay to be found on this website showed how much affinity Jenny had for “three or four” this, and “three or four” that. Three days prior to Sylvia's death for the “alley or something” event would be difficult, seeing how that was Saturday, which was the date upon which the slogan was cut into her sister’s abdomen, the Number 3 was branded onto her chest, the day that Gertrude made Sylvia write the note, the day Stephanie was comatose from an unknown medication, the day that Johnny and Gertrude went to the doctor’s office, and that evening Stephanie saw and spoke to Sylvia, who seemed perfectly fine. That was a busy day at Gertie Wright’s house! In the middle of that, possibly, Johnny took Sylvia to “an alley or something.” Or something? It’s an alley or it’s not. Maybe…an alley, I think. We’re supposed to believe that in the middle of an intensifying time of torture and abuse, and we are only three or four days away from Sylvia’s death, Johnny led Sylvia out of the basement and took her to a public place to do….what? The tricky thing about alleys is that people can suddenly appear from the other end. So whatever you’re doing in the alley can be seen at any time, and without warning. That’s not true of Gertrude’s basement. Well, unless you look through the window..and no, a nosy neighbor would never do that!

Q. Did you ever see Sylvia cry when Mrs. Baniszewski had the belt?
A. Yes, I have seen her cry sometimes.
Q. Did you see Sylvia cry when Paula hit her with the board, if she did?
A. This is going back about two weeks, this is earlier.
Q. She cried earlier than two weeks before she died, is that what you are saying?
A. Yes.
Q. What - about two weeks before she died did you see her cry?
A. Yes, I seen her cry before that happened.
Q. During the two weeks just before her death, did you see her cry?
A. Before the two weeks?
Q. During the two weeks before she died?
A. Not much.

So Jenny is not as always accommodating as Shirley is about the two weeks. Sure Sylvia cried during the two weeks, but also before it, so as far as crying goes, it’s not really relevant. Let’s continue:

Q. Was her hair cut off after this time?
A. Yes.
Q. When did this happen?
A. It was in the last two weeks, I know that. It was in the morning.
Q. Go ahead.
A. But I can't remember what day it was.
Q. The last two weeks before Sylvia died?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you ever see anyone other than Coy Hubbard tie Sylvia up?
A. Yes
Q. Who?
A. John Baniszewski.
Q. When was this?
A. It was in the two weeks.

This claim about Johnny is echoed by Shirley as well. According to Jenny, the large part of Johnny’s violence against Sylvia occurred during this time.

Q. Did you ever see John strike Sylvia with anything?
A. Yes.
Q. When was this?
A. The most - the big part happened during the two weeks.
Q. The two weeks before she died?
A. Yes.
Q. Go on.
A. Well, I seen him hit her with his fist most of the time.
Q. When was this, do you know?
A. In the two weeks is all I know.

Please stop with the grammar! Maybe say, “I saw him hit her." Stop sounding like the note!

Q. Did you ever see John do anything to Sylvia the last two weeks of her life?
A. Yes.
Q. When?
A. Maybe a week or something like that before her death.

Q. Have you seen Paula do anything else about which you have not testified?
A. Oh, yes, one time.
Q. When was this?

A. This happened before the two weeks. What she done was in the two weeks. Marie and Sylvia went to the park, Brookside. I was not with her and Sylvia met my sister Diane Shoemaker and Sylvia told her she was hungry. Diane got her a sandwich and a coke.

Q. Did Sylvia come back to the house then?
A. Yes.
Q. Who came back with her?
A. Marie.
Q. Was there a conversation in the presence of anyone of the defendants when she came back to the house?
A. Yes.
Q. Who?
A. She did not tell it right away, she told it in two weeks.

It would appear that before the two week period began, Marie and Sylvia met Diane, who got Sylvia a sandwich and a coke. But she didn’t talk about this until she was well within “the two weeks”. My does Jenny have a flare for saying things that don’t make sense. Sylvia apparently came back from having lunch with Diana, and didn’t think to mention it. But then a strange thing happened:

Q. When did you hear the conversation concerning this?
A. Maybe five or six days before her death.
Q. Who was present?
A. Me, Gertrude, Paula, Marie, Shirley and John.
Q. What was said?
A. And Stephanie.
Q. What was said?
A. Marie told on Sylvia.
Q. What did she tell?
A. She told Diane that she was hungry and then Paula choked Sylvia.
Q. How did she do this?
A. Well, she would not let go and I turned around and went in the kitchen and then Gertrude said, "Let go of her, Paula".
Q. Why did you go in the kitchen?
A. Because I did not want to see it.
Q. Describe what Paula did?
A. She put her hand around Sylvia's neck and kept pressing on her throat.

When did this happen? Three or four…fooled you! You thought I was going to go with my favorite “three or four”...but not this time! Five or six days! And whoops! Did I throw out every name I was supposed to? Let's see, who was there when I heard this conversation? Me! Gertrude, Paula, Shirley and John. No wait, I left out two kids. Who were they? Stephanie!

Why in the world would Marie think to ‘tell on Sylvia’ at such a late date? And Paula’s response to Sylvia eating a sandwich at a prior to date is to attempt to murder her? Who decides to stop this almost-homicide from taking place? Surely it was Jenny, Sylvia’s dear sister, and no! she did not have a seething resentment of her! Actually, Sylvia's defender was Gertrude. What? Perhaps we see another manifestation of Gertrude here…Gertrude the savior. Who will stop Paula? Detail of absurdity time…the arch-villain, the reluctant devil, the savior. And what did Jenny do? Leave the room. Still, Gertrude is angry at Sylvia about the sandwich. Stop that, Paula! Do not murder her yet! The sandwich thing isn’t a sufficient enough reason to throttle her until she falls down dead on the floor. But! She did eat a sandwich and drink a coke! So Gertrude appears with a board, then she clubs Sylvia over the head with it “once or twice” and on the back “five or six” times. A fictional story that non-fictionally makes not one bit of sense. And Marie is a tattle-tale!

Q. Jenny, did you ever see any one push Sylvia down the steps?
A. Yes.
Q. When did this happen?
A. In the two weeks.
Q. And just what did you see Stephanie Baniszewski do to your sister? And when and where?
A. She flipped her in the living room.
Q. When was that?
A. In these two weeks, the last two weeks before her death.
Q. How many times did that happen?
A. I was upstairs some of the times but I'd say five or six times.

Five or six. That sounds familiar. And what is all this “flipping” thing that the witnesses spoke about? It goes back to a day fairly early on when the kids were in the living room playing Karate. A mattress was put on the floor, and the kids took turns flipping each other onto the mattress. When someone flipped Sylvia, she missed the mattress, and landed on her backside on the floor. This gave rise to a bizarre idea that various kids were wandering around the house looking for Sylvia to be the victim of a brutal permutation of “let’s play Karate”. Where is Sylvia? Why? I want to do Karate flips with her! Oh, I think she’s upstairs. And it would appear that one of Sylvia’s stalkers is the burgeoning 15 year old Bruce Lee! Well, in his Stephanie Baniszewski manifestation. With her skill in martial arts, I would watch out for her! Even if you're a poisonous spider! Turn your back on her for an instant, and you’ll find yourself flying through the air. Then you better hope you don’t miss the mattress and land on your keister! Stephanie was fifteen, and Sylvia was sixteen. Stephanie said that they were both big girls, and that Sylvia never lost any weight as far as she could tell. Unless Silent Suffering Sylvia did all she could to help Stephanie toss her across the room, then Stephanie must have been strong indeed! I thought that Jenny said that Sylvia spent most of “the two weeks” in the basement. Yet she seems to be hanging around in the living room enough to end up being tossed around like a rag-doll by the strongest 15 year old girl in Indianapolis! Perhaps Stephanie should have been a professional wrestler. Then she could throw Sylvia over the top rope as much as she wanted. Stephanie could even form a tag-team with the much-feared Paula the Strangler! Let’s make the weird even weirder:

Q. Did you see her - anyone tell her to take her clothes off?
A. Well, Gertrude would not let her wear any clothes. She did not have any on partly all the time.
 

So according to Jenny, Sylvia was naked much of the time. Weirder indeed! Stephanie must be tossing a naked sixteen year old around the living room. Awkward. And Jenny does sound a bit like Judy Duke, and Pseudo-Judy Duke, doesn't she?

Let’s talk about the enigmatic Mr. Hanlon, you know, the man who was called a burglar, and who really entered Gertrude’s house because there was someone there he desperately wanted to see before he went to Germany…I mean…somewhere and was apparently never heard from again. Nonetheless, the police were there that night. Where was Sylvia? Surely in the basement, perhaps recovering from her recent no-disqualification match with the Judo-Flip Queen of East New York Street. No?

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.

It’s strange that a girl who was kept in the basement during the dreaded “two weeks” seems to spend a lot of time outside the basement. There’s the wrestling ring…I mean, the living room. There’s the alley out back. Or something. And for some unstated reason, on the night that the Baniszewskis last had to contend with Mr. Hanlon, Sylvia happens to be upstairs in the bedroom.

Q. Please tell the court your name.
A. Smith, John Smith.
Q. What is your occupation, Mr. Smith?
A. Police Officer.
Q. Were you ever at 3850 East New York Street? 
A. Yes, I was.
Q. When was that?
A. In the two weeks.
Q. What happened at that time?
A. Well, we received a call at 7:00 pm, and another one at 7:15 pm.
Q. What was the reason for those three calls?
A. Apparently the conveniently anonymous man that argued with Mrs. Wright on her front porch had returned to the residence and entered the house.
Q. That sounds serious.
A. Oh yes, it is! Here in Indianapolis, if you argue with someone on their front porch, you get sent to prison for 10 years! Just imagine what happens if you walk in through the front door to see someone you know there!
Q. Did anything strange happen while you were there?
A. Strange? It’s the bizarre and self-sustaining 3850 East New York Street!

THE COURT: Please answer the question, Officer John Smith.

A. Sorry, your honor. Well, my partner was dealing with Mr. Argue-with-Mrs. Wright-on Her-Front-Porch, and then I heard something strange.
Q. Please tell the court what that was.
A. Well, I suddenly heard footsteps. Someone came running down the stairs.
Q. Did you ascertain who that person was?
A. Yes. A girl suddenly appeared from the staircase. I could tell that she was hurt, and looked like she had been suffering abuse. She came up to me and said that she was a boarder at that residence, but had become the victim of Mrs. Wright’s insane…no…paranoid…no…sadistic… no wait, that’s wrong too. I think she said ‘inexplicable descent into brutality’.
Q. Good Heavens! What did you do?
A. Well she asked me to take her away from that house. So I did, and we took her to the hospital.
 

That’s not real testimony, of course. It does seem like a wise thing to do, the police being there and all. But that would ruin the story! Still, one might ask the question…why is Sylvia suddenly in the upstairs bedroom? After all, this is the two weeks. I’ll assume that as Sylvia spends a lot of time not being in the basement where she is being kept “partly all the time”, she’s dressed. In the upstairs bedroom in the evening four or five days before she died…I wonder what she was doing up there? Hiding from Ninja Stephanie? After all, she’s the one girl who’s not supposed to be in the back bedroom. No, I think that Jenny is telling the truth. And the reason Sylvia was in the upstairs bedroom was because…drum roll please! She was sleeping up there. That is, after all, a good reason to be in the bedroom. So why, on this occasion, is Sylvia allowed to sleep upstairs instead of the basement? I think I know the answer. What’s that? Well, she always slept upstairs in the bedroom, and she never slept in the basement.
 
If any conclusions can be drawn, one might find oneself more perplexed by the enigmatic Number 2 than the enigmatic Number 3. Well, as far as a measure of time is concerned. The canonical story would suggest that once Lester and Betty left Gertrude’s house on October 5th, and they had told her that they would be back in the three weeks, a woman who had held off an inexplicable urge to, given that she wasn’t insane, paranoid, or sadistic, torture and kill this girl for 3 months, decided to fully utilize her remaining 21 days to finally see it through. And the body of the Likens’ deceased daughter would be waiting for the parents on October 26th. I have argued elsewhere that there is simply no way to believe this. Every day that passed was one day closer to when she could tell the Likens to take their daughters and go. However, we have to tweak our canonical story a bit at this point. Instead, Gertrude says goodbye to Lester and Betty and then…does nothing. She waits. She waits another seven days. Now! Lights…camera…action! I think that if the period of time ascribed to Sylvia’s ordeal is said to be three weeks, well, that is contraindicated by this “two weeks”. But from where did this “two weeks” come? Why not “three weeks”? When did he do this to her? In the three weeks. When did she do that to her? In the three weeks. No, in the “two weeks”. If this “two weeks” can be shown to be nonsense, by which I mean that a specific “two weeks” can be shown to have nothing to do with the way the canonical story uses it, then the entire chronological edifice will come crashing down. Was this “two weeks” simply invented by the witnesses? No. Maybe by the attorneys? No. The cops? No. Jenny’s “two weeks” and Shirley’s “two weeks”, and even the attorneys’ “two weeks”, really don’t belong to any of them. This eerie “two weeks” belongs to Sylvia, because it was her creation. Perhaps that will be made clear in Part 2.