July 6, 2026

The House on New York Street - The Sylvia Likens Case, Part One

Show Notes

Some crimes are so shocking that they force us to ask a question that seems impossible to answer. Not 'Who did it?' We know who did it. Not even 'Why?' Though we'll spend this series trying to understand that. The question is this:

How did an entire neighborhood watch a teenage girl disappear in plain sight?

Over three months in the fall of 1965, dozens of people entered a small house on East New York Street in Indianapolis. Children played there. Teenagers gathered there. Neighbors stopped by. A minister visited. Police responded to the home. A public health nurse knocked on the door.

Yet sixteen-year-old Sylvia Likens remained trapped inside…starved and tortured.

By the time anyone finally listened, it was too late.

Sources:

https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/longform/likens-looking-back-indianas-infamous-crime-50-years-later

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/history/retroindy/2013/10/24/sylvia-likens/3178393/

House of Evil: The Indiana Torture Slaying - John Dean

Torture Mom: A Chilling True Story of Confinement, Mutilation, and Murder - Ryan Green, 2018.

The House from Hell: The True Story of Gertrude Baniszewski, Genoveva Ortiz, Sea Vision Publishing, 2024.

https://www.history101.com/sylvia-likens-the-family-she-left-behind/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Sylvia_Likens#Gertrude_Baniszewski

https://murderpedia.org/female.B/b/baniszewski.htm

https://www.history101.com/sylvia-likens-the-family-she-left-behind/