Gertrude Baniszewski

Gertrude Nadine Baniszewski (September 19, 1929 – June 16, 1990), also known as Gertrude Wright and Nadine Van Fossan, was an Indiana murderer who, with the aid of most of her own children and neighborhood children, oversaw and facilitated the prolonged torture, mutilation, and eventual murder of Sylvia Likens, a teenage girl she had taken into her home. Baniszewski with her daughters Paula (17) and Stephanie (15), her son Johnny (12) and two teenage neighbours, Coy Hubbard and Ricky Hobbs were charged with murder. Stephanie was tried separately and later freed.

When Gertrude was convicted in 1966, the case was called "the single worst crime perpetrated against an individual in Indiana's history". Sylvia had been beaten, tortured, mutilated, scalded with water and starved in the Indianapolis home. Gertrude and daughter Paula Baniszewski were both sentenced to life in prison.