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Gertrude Baniszewski

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Murderer

The Resume

    (September 19, 1928-June 16, 1990)
    Birth name was Gertrude Van Fossan
    Tortured and murdered 16-year-old Sylvia Likens, a girl she was boarding (1965)

Why she might be annoying:

    She killed 16-year-old Sylvia Marie Likens.
    She spread vicious rumors about Sylvia, saying she was a slut and that she was pregnant.
    She falsely accused Sylvia of pregnancy when her own 17-year-old daughter really was pregnant.
    She burned the message: 'I'M A PROSTITUTE AND PROUD OF IT!' on Sylvia's stomach. She also branded a large number 3 on Sylvia's chest.
    Sylvia's corpse was emaciated, and covered in more than 100 bruises and wounds. The coroner's examination showed that Sylvia had been systematically beaten and malnourished for weeks.
    She led a band of kids, some as young as 11, to emotionally and physically torture Sylvia.
    She dropped out of high school when she was 16.
    Her first marriage ended after a decade. Her second marriage only lasted three months. After it ended, she remarried her first husband and then divorced him again after seven years.
    She was a chain smoker who had asthma and bronchitis.
    She had been pregnant 13 times before she was 40, giving birth to seven children.
    She paddled Sylvia, and Sylvia's younger sister Jenny, without their pants on.
    Her personal hygiene was horrible and her home was described as a 'cesspool.'
    When she was told of Sylvia eating too much at a church supper, she made Sylvia eat a hot dog that her band of children loaded up with condiments. This made Sylvia vomit, and she forced Sylvia to eat her own vomit.
    She would paddle Sylvia and Jenny when their parents sent their boarding check late.
    When two visiting neighbors noticed Sylvia had a black eye, she bragged about how she'd given her the injury. Right before bragging, she threw a glass of hot water at Sylvia.
    The neighbors that witnessed her admission of abuse didn't report it to the authorities.
    Her own children were encouraged to be abusive to Sylvia, and they also bragged about hurting her.
    She often tied up and/or locked Sylvia in the basement and kept her from using the bathroom, forcing Sylvia to urinate and defecate on herself.
    She often kicked Sylvia in the genitals, and Sylvia's autopsy showed that her pubic area was horribly mauled.
    She once pressed a lit match to Sylvia's fingers when she thought Sylvia was stealing.
    She and her boyfriend would put cigarettes out on Sylvia's body.
    Sylvia's autopsy showed that she had to endure so much torture that she broke every one of her fingernails backward in pained clawing, and she'd bitten her lower lip so hard it was partially severed.
    Twice, she forced Sylvia to do a striptease in front of the band of kids, and then shove an empty soda bottle in her vagina.
    She and the kids would tie Sylvia up and force her to bathe in scalding hot water.
    She made Sylvia eat excrement and drink urine.
    When she suspected Sylvia was going to die, she made Sylvia write a note to her parents saying it was a band of boys that killed her in the middle of the night. She then discussed having someone drop Sylvia's corpse off in the waste lot with the note when she finally died.
    She beat Sylvia across the mouth when she couldn't swallow toast because of how sick she was from the abuse.
    She was deeply depressed and addicted to pills.
    After Sylvia died of brain swelling, internal hemorrhaging of the brain, and shock, she blamed all of Sylvia's torture on the kids.
    Although sentenced to life in prison in 1966 for the murder and torture, she was granted parole in 1985.

Why she might not be annoying:

    She loved her father very much and watched him die of a heart attack when she was 11 years old.
    Her first husband abused her, and later a boyfriend did too.
    She suffered six miscarriages.
    She suffered from asthma, bronchitis, and nervous tension.
    She was born into a lower-class family.
    She died of lung cancer.

Credit: Erin


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 6 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 20 Votes: 65.00% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 11 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 19 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 17 Votes: 64.71% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 40 Votes: 47.50% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 12 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 28 Votes: 46.43% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 14 Votes: 64.29% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 32 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 24 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 55 Votes: 63.64% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 35 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 48 Votes: 83.33% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 231 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 133 Votes: 69.17% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 205 Votes: 79.02% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 184 Votes: 76.63% Annoying
    In 2006, Out of 271 Votes: 73.80% Annoying
    In 2005, Out of 539 Votes: 69.94% Annoying