Sylvia - V: Bystanders

The death of Sylvia Likens was a textbook instance of the “bystander effect.”  Probably the best remembered, most frequently cited example of this phenomenon is the murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964.  Social psychologists attribute the failure of people to act when witnessing persons in distress to “diffusion of responsibility.”  Each individual assumes someone else will do something, thereby absolving them for their inaction.  Despite what must have been clear signs to people outside the Baniszewski home that Sylvia was being severely abused, family matters were thought private in the 1960s and it was considered improper to interfere with a parent administering discipline.  Nevertheless, one wonders at the inaction of a number of witnesses which came out in testimony at the 1966 trial.

Neighbor Phyllis Vermillion has been particularly criticized for her failure to act, and rightly so.  She first visited Gertrude in September 1965 after moving to the neighborhood.  She was looking for a sitter to watch her children while she worked the evening shift at the Indianapolis RCA plant.  As she sipped coffee and chatted with Gertrude, Mrs. Vermillion noticed the slovenly, crowded conditions in the Baniszewski home.  She noticed Sylvia.  And her black eye.  She heard Paula brag about giving Sylvia the black eye.  She heard Gertrude shout abuse at Sylvia.  She saw Paula douse Sylvia with hot water, leaving a red mark on Sylvia’s face.  She watched Paula rub “yellow stuff” that seemed like garbage in Sylvia’s face.  She heard Sylvia “squalling” as the girl ran upstairs.  While she sensibly made other arrangements for her kids, Mrs. Vermillion did not say anything to anyone about what she had seen figuring that every family meted out discipline differently. 

Mrs. Vermillion’s second visit in mid-October should have raised even more alarms.  This time she saw Sylvia sitting mutely in a chair, sporting a black eye and a “busted mouth.”  To Mrs. Vermillion, Sylvia “looked like she did not care whether she lived or died.”  That second observation reveals a lot about Sylvia’s mental state by this point.  Sylvia had the “thousand yard stare” of the traumatized.  It shows that she was experiencing depersonalization as a result of her abuse.  No matter.  Phyllis Vermillion continued to keep her counsel.  She could not bring herself to judge the woman she knew as “Mrs. Wright.”

The closest Mrs. Vermillion came to contacting the police was on the night of October 25 / 26.  She and her husband first heard the loud, intermittent scraping of an object on the concrete floor of the Bansizewski basement, followed by a woman shouting.  The scraping noise continued off and on until about 3 a.m.  In the end they did not call.  (Strangely, while she would not bother to notify the authorities of Sylvia’s abuse the Vermillion woman did come forward to help exonerate the neighbor man Gertrude had had arrested for burglary a couple of nights earlier.)

Public health nurse Barbara Sanders paid a visit to the Baniszewski home on October 15^th to follow up on reports of a child with running sores in the neighborhood.  (October 15^th was a busy day at 3850 East New York Street.  If you believe Gertrude’s testimony, it was also one of the days Lester and Betty dropped by.)  Gertrude said her children were perfectly all right and repeated her story of having kicked Sylvia out of the house.   When Mrs. Sanders asked Jenny how she was she merely answered, “Fine” and was otherwise silent before being shooed away by Gertie to do the dishes.

Mrs. Sanders’ visit, which was strictly pro forma, quite possibly represented the last clear chance to rescue Sylvia before the very worst occurred.  Although Gertrude’s (and Paula’s) hateful words about Sylvia, about how she was dirty and promiscuous and “not worthy” of living under the family’s roof, should have raised half a dozen red flags Sanders merely filed a report and did not follow up until after Sylvia died.

Another bystander was the Baniszewski family pastor, Roy Julian, who paid several visits during Sylvia’s stay.  Although Sylvia was not the reason for Rev. Roy’s social calls, he was curious as to why she had stopped coming to church.  Gertrude gave him her standard spiel regarding Sylvia’s wickedness.  When he asked to see Sylvia he was told she was up in her room, but when Jenny walked in Gertie told Julian he could ask her about her sister’s behavior.  Jenny stuck to the party line.  The good reverend’s curiosity was duly satisfied.

Judy Duke, one of the neighborhood kid-mob hanging around the Baniszewski house, had a pang of conscience at one point and told her mom about Sylvia’s mistreatment.  Mrs. Duke chalked the story up to a child’s exaggeration and even if it wasn’t exaggeration she figured Sylvia must have been up to no good to be punished so. 

Grace Sargent, a parishioner at Grace Memorial Baptist, also ignored what should have been clear warning signs Sylvia was in danger.  When Paula came to church with her left hand in a cast, she cheerfully told Mrs. Sargent that she had broken her wrist punching Sylvia in the face.  Paula also volunteered that she would kill Sylvia if “she ever calls my mom a bad name again.”  Mrs. Sargent was “disturbed” by Paula’s tone but did not report the remarks.  She was one of the few bystanders who expressed any regret for her failure to speak up.

Although parents were much more likely to use corporal punishment on their kids back then, the unconcerned attitude of people in the neighborhood not to mention those in positions of trust is the biggest imponderable of the Likens case, second only to the reasons for Gertrude’s animus toward Sylvia.  The apathy goes beyond that seen in the Kitty Genovese murder.  At least with Genovese a few people did call the police.  The tragedy of Sylvia Likens was that until she was dead no one noticed and no one cared.  The rhetorical question of the appropriateness of certain forms of “discipline” is almost beside the point.  Surely even in 1965 beating, burning, and starving a child would have been considered unacceptable.  Even the slow-witted teenager Judy Duke sensed something was wrong.  And yet all the grownups turned a blind eye.

I’m not usually one for repeating bumper sticker quotations, but there is one I find fitting in this case: “I always wondered why somebody didn’t do something about that.  Then I realized I am somebody.”

Enough said.

© 2015 The Unassuming Scholar