THE HAND THAT KILLED SYLVIA (repost because I just watched a movie about it)

Almost 30 years ago, when I was in my “holier than thou” stage of life; I was a sound tech for a local gospel band. We played at a lot of different churches in the central Indiana area. We were playing at an inner city church in Indy and after the music I was asked to give a testimony. Later this women:

 Came back to the soundboard and shook my hand and told me how much she liked hearing my story. She seemed very friendly and sincere, but something about the feel of her small frail and very cold hand creeped me out.

A little later this same women walked up front and gave her testomony; I was freaked out when she cryptically revealed who she was! I was only 10 years old when this horrific crime occurred, but we all were aware of the torture and murder of Sylvia Likens. I was sitting in the back of the church behind the soundboard with my mouth agape listening to Gertrude Baniszewshi sharing her story of redemption. She didn’t go into the details of the crime that landed her on prison for the last 20 years and who could blame her. I do remember her saying what a horrible thing it was and she didn’t feel like she ever deserved to be freed from prison, but what was she doing here in this place? I found out later she was on a weekend furlough through a sponsorship of the church.

The details of what Baniszewshi did to Sylvia are too numerous and gory to list here, there is a pretty thorough report on Wiki. I had read the book back on the early 70’s and they made a movie about it “ AN AMERICAN CRIME”, released in 2007. It was very accurate but even Hollywood couldn’t include some of the more gruesome details of this story.

The amazing thing about this event was there were so many people that knew what was going on and did nothing to help Sylvia, most of them joined in and took turns burning, kicking and used other forms of torture on her and these were Baniszewshi’s own children and other kids from the neighborhood. There were many screams for help coming from the basement of 3850 E. New York St.,

and some of the neighbors heard these cries for help, but this was 1965 and people just mostly kept to themselves and minded their own business. They just didn’t want to get “involved’; sadly 45 years later, most of the time, this is still the case.

I had a real struggle when it came to this women’s story of redemption. Although she said during her testimony that she didn't feel like she ever deserved to get out of prison; she sure as hell worked hard to get out and with the help of this same church, she was paroled in 1985. I may not attend church anymore, but I still believe in the tenants of the faith. The New Testament offers salvation to everyone no matter what evil deeds are lurking in their past. I’m not one to question God, but how can this slate be cleaned?
She became a model prisioner and reports were that her jailhouse conversion appeared to be genuine. She became a den mother to the younger prisoners and they nicknamed her "mom".
I just still remember that cold, cold hand and thought, that was the hand that killed Sylvia.

Baniszewshi, a smoker for many years died of lung cancer within 5 years of her release from prison. In the end she did to herself what the state of Indiana could not or would not do.
 Twenty-five years too late she paid for her crime.

 Her life for Sylvia's, not exactly a fair trade.