Baniszewski was born September 19, 1929 as Gertrude Wright, She was very close to her father but had a strained relationship with her monther. When Baniszewski was 11 she watched her dad die of a heart attack.  She dropped out of school at 16 to marry 18 year old John Baniszewski. They had four kids together and he was abuse. Eventually Baniszewski divorced him. She then married someone new, divorced them and remarried Baniszewski and have two more kids. The pair was permanently divorced in 1963.  Baniszewski then began to have an affair with a 23 year old named Dennis Lee Wright. He was also abusive. Baniszewski went on to have one more child with him.  As she aged Baniszewski’s health declined. She was ill with a number of unidentified illnesses. She moved to Indianapolis, Indiana in the 1960s. She was very poor and would make money by watching neighborhood kids. This was how she ended up watching Sylvia Likens and her younger sister, Jenny. Their parents were on the road trying to make money and would leave the kids with her for months at a time. Sylvia was 16 at the time.  Syliva was abused from the beginning, likely because she was attractive. She was punished for eating candy they she purchased, called a slut or whore while being kicked in the genitals. She would be given only scraps to ear or was forced to eat rotten food.  Baniszewski also convinced other people in the neigborhood to engage in the torture.  Baniszewski’s daughter, Paula, and a boy from the neighborhood, Randy, force fed her hot dogs and when she vomited they made her eat the vomit. At one point Paula hit Sylvia so hard that she broke her own wrist and then used the cast to keep beating her.  The kids also practiced brutal judo moves on her. Baniszewski made Sylvia hit her own sister if she didn’t comply with any of the orders.  Sylvia was also raped with an empty soda bottle, her gentials were cut up and mutilated.  At one point, because she had nothing to wear, Sylvia stole clothes from school. She was then beat with a belt for her actions.  The sisters were scared to report the abuse because they thought it would make things worse. Jenny was threatened that she would be beaten as well if she said anything.  When their parents visited they didn’t see any signs of mistreatment. Baniszewski would stay with the girls, not letting them be alone with their parents.  The two girls had an older sister that they did tell but she thought that they were exaggerating.   Sylvia became incontient due to all of this abuse but wasn't allowed to use the bathroom. If she soiled herself she was punished.  Eventually Baniszewski tied Sylvia up in the basement. She was kept down there naked and rarely fed or given water. People from the neighborhood could apy five cents to see her body and mutilate her. Salt was rubbed in her wounds and her screams were muffled. Baniszewski and her son rubbed urine and feces in her mouth. Her son then made her eat soup with her fingers but took the bowl away when she tried.  Baniszewski  then allowed Sylvia to sleep upstairs, on the condition that she not wet herself. Jenny secretly gave her sister water and Sylvia wet herself. She was punished by being made to mastrubrate with a soda bottle and was then put back in the basement.  Baniszewski  then branded the words "I'M A PROSTITUTE AND PROUD OF IT" on her abdomen with a heated needle. She then instructed one of the neighborhood children who was present at the time to finish. He would later claim that he only lightly etched the remaining letters. She continued to torture the girl, branding her more and taunting her.  Baniszewski made Sylvia write a letter saying that she had run away with a group of boys and implying that they had tortured her. The plan was to take Sylvia into the woods and dump her body.  On October 25th Sylvia tried to escape but Baniszewski caught her. She was then beat again and put back in the basement.  By the morning of the 26th Sylvia couldn’