Editing Gertrude Baniszewski (section)

===Torture===
[[File:1536774877633.jpeg|thumb|left|188px|Sylvia Likens.|link=Special:FilePath/1536774877633.jpeg]]Baniszewski began to exclusively abuse Sylvia, whilst threatening her sister with the same treatment if she reported the abuse. She appointed her own children into bullying her and they would do horrible things to her like pushing her down the stairs, burning cigarettes onto her skin multiple times, kicking her vagina until it was swollen shut and forcing her to consume her excrement and vomit. Her daughter Paula, one of the torturers, once tried to repent of her hatred towards Sylvia to a pastor but Gertude prevented her from doing so by stating that Sylvia was the one being hateful. Gertrude also accused Sylvia of being a prostitute, and "preached" to her about how it was wrong to sell your body for money, and that women were filthy in general. Hypocritically, Gertrude decided to please her fellow torturers, most of them male neighborhood children, by forcing Sylvia to participate in a strip tease, where she was stripped naked and had her vagina forcibly violated by an empty glass Coca Cola bottle. The most infamous and horrific act throughout the months of torture was when Baniszewski, with the help of her child torturers, carved the words "I'M A PROSTITUTE AND PROUD OF IT" onto her stomach with a heated needle. The letter "S" (ended up looking like a "3") was also burnt above the words with a hot iron poker.

On October 25, Sylvia attempted to escape from the basement after overhearing conversation pertaining to Gertrude Baniszewski's plan to simply abandon her to die. She attempted to flee to the front door, although due to her extensive injuries and general weakness, Gertrude caught her before she could escape the property. Sylvia was then given toast to eat but was unable to consume the food due to her extreme state of dehydration. Gertrude forced the toast into her mouth before repeatedly striking her face with a curtain rod until sections of the instrument were bent into right angles. Coy Hubbard then took the curtain rod from Gertrude and struck Sylvia one further time, rendering her unconscious. Gertrude then dragged Sylvia into the basement.

That evening, Sylvia desperately attempted to alert neighbors by screaming for help and hitting the walls of the basement with a spade. One immediate neighbor of the Baniszewskis would later inform police she had heard the desperate commotion and that she had identified the source as emanating from the basement of 3850 East New York Street, but that as the noise had suddenly ceased at approximately 3:00 a.m., she decided not to inform police about the disturbance.

By the morning of October 26, Sylvia was unable to either speak intelligibly or to correctly coordinate the movement of her limbs. Gertrude did move Sylvia into the kitchen and—having propped her back against a wall—attempt to feed her a doughnut and a glass of milk, although she threw Sylvia to the floor in frustration when Sylvia was unable to correctly move the glass of milk to her lips. She was then returned to the basement.

Shortly thereafter, Sylvia became delirious, repeatedly moaning and mumbling. When Paula asked her to recite the English alphabet, Sylvia was unable to recite anything beyond the first four letters, or to raise herself off the ground. In response, Paula verbally threatened her to stand up or she would herself inflict a Long jump upon her. Gertrude then ordered Sylvia—who had moved her bowels—to clean herself.

That afternoon, several of Sylvia's other tormentors gathered in the basement. In what can only be assumed to be Sylvia's state of desperation and delirium, she jerkingly moved her arms in an apparent attempt to point at the faces of the tormentors she could recognize, making statements such as, "You're... Ricky" and "You're Gertie" before Gertrude tersely shouted, "Shut up! You know who I am!" Minutes later, Sylvia unsuccessfully attempted to bite into a rotten pear she had been given to eat, stating she could feel the looseness in her teeth. Upon hearing this, Jenny replied: "Don't you remember, Sylvia? Your front tooth was knocked out when you were seven." Jenny then left Sylvia in the basement to perform gardening chores for neighbors in the hope of earning spending money.

In an attempt to wash Sylvia, a laughing John Baniszewski Jr. sprayed her with a garden hose brought to the house that afternoon by Randy Lepper at Gertrude's request. Sylvia again desperately attempted to exit the basement but collapsed before she could reach the stairs. In response to this effort, Gertrude stamped upon Sylvia's head before standing and staring at her for several moments. Stephanie then decided to give Sylvia a warm, soapy bath, although Sylvia ceased breathing before she could be carried out of the basement. She was 16 years old. When Stephanie realized this fact, she attempted to apply mouth-to-mouth resuscitation as Gertrude repeatedly shouted her belief to the children and teenagers present in her house that Sylvia was simply faking her death.