Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The eldest daughter of torture slayer Gertrude Baneszewski, who orchestrated the horrible death of Indiana 16 year old border was "outed" on the anniversary of Sylvia's death.
Paula Beneszewski Pace was working as a teachers aid in a Conrad, Iowa school district. She has been employed by the central Iowa school district since 1998.
The application to work in this district specifically asks if the prospective employee is a convicted felon, was ever involved in child abuse, or a crime involving "moral turpitude".
Pace answered "no" to the above questions, although at least two apply, if not three.
The Sheriff's office was the recipient of the call, which they passed on to the local school district.
Upon investigation, she was suspended, and subsequently fired for lying on the job application.
Paula was one of the worst offenders in the torture murder of Sylvia Likens. The ordeal of Sylvia Likens took about three months. She and her sister Jenni, were borders with Gertrude Baniszewski from July though October 1965.
During that time, Sylvia was beaten with boards, heavy leather belts, kicked, punched, burned with matches, forced to eat excrement, starved, repeatedly thrown down the stairs, burned with cigarets, tattooed, branded, and bathed in scalding baths. They wrote "I am a prostitute and proud of it" on her chest. Post mortum examinations revealed that Sylvia was a virgin at the time of her death. While the sadistic Paula was pregnant with the baby of a married man.
After the scalding baths, Paula would rub salt into her raw skin. She was tortured and humiliated and often, Paula was the enforcer for her asthmatic mother.
I am not a fan of "outing", but in this case; I really don't care. What ever comes her way, is most likely justly deserved.
Paula Banisewski was living a normal life for years and now everyone knows who she is - one of the monsters who helped to torture Sylvia Likens to death.
She's not sorry and she never was. Her mug shots show a smirking and sadistic woman. While in prison, she escaped once and she named her baby Gertrude after her mother, the ring leader in the killing. (the baby was given for adoption and the parents changed her name)
When Gertrude was released from prison in the 1980s, because she had lung cancer, she went to live with Paula in Iowa.
Paula Pace Banisewski lied about her criminal past in order to get her job as a school aid.
It seems to me that she is still a deviant sociopath and poses a danger to society.
I wonder if any criminal action can be taken against her for falsifying her past. Does anyone know?
Paula is a complicated case if you ask me. She was raised by Gertrude and was part of the gang of kids led by Gertrude to kill Sylvia, but kids are inherently cruel. There is no more cruel period in life than the teens. Sylvia was a good girl, pretty and a virgin; Paula was already pregnant by her boyfriend on the day Sylvia was murdered, grindingly poor, with no good prospects ahead of her. Sylvia may have looked like a stuck-up rich kid who deserved everuything she got, and Paula helped kill her. But Gertrude is the one who put all of them in that position. It would have been no more than jealous pigtail-pulling without Gertrude at the helm.
Paula is a complicated case if you ask me. She was raised by Gertrude and was part of the gang of kids led by Gertrude to kill Sylvia, but kids are inherently cruel. There is no more cruel period in life than the teens. Sylvia was a good girl, pretty and a virgin; Paula was already pregnant by her boyfriend on the day Sylvia was murdered, grindingly poor, with no good prospects ahead of her. Sylvia may have looked like a stuck-up rich kid who deserved everuything she got, and Paula helped kill her. But Gertrude is the one who put all of them in that position. It would have been no more than jealous pigtail-pulling without Gertrude at the helm.
You have some good points Cliffie but I've done quite a bit of research about this case and I have a few facts and an opposing view point on an issue or two.
I'm not sure how anyone could see Sylvia or her younger sister Jenni as " Stuck op rich kids". The Likens family was large, and her parents Lester and Betty, were itinerant carnival workers. Although they attended a Fundamentalist Church on and off, Betty Likens was apprehended for shop lifting a few weeks before Sylvia and Jenni went to live with Gertrude, They were frequently evicted for non payment of rent and Lester's wandering eye caused financial problems and separations.
There is no way Sylvia could have been seen as a little rich girl. If you notice she never shows her front teeth in photographs. That's because she was missing her front tooth. Even working class girl's parents would manage to get such an obvious flaw replaced.
No Sylvia was poor and she was used to making do. The way the B's lived would have shocked most middle class girls even of that era. But It didn't shock Sylvia, Jenni or Lester Likens, who approved the arrangements.
You are right here she was a good girl - she went to church each Sunday and accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior, as is the custom at such churches. She wasn't a scholar, but she was a solid B student - not bad for a girls who's family was a chaotic as hers were.
Back then there were "good girls" and "bad girls". Both Paula and her mother were certifiably "bad girls." Gertrude had a son out of wed lock, Dennis. And as was the custom of the day, Gertrude hid her indiscretion by pretending to be divorced. She used the name of her young lover and called herself "Mrs Write" although there had never been a wedding.
Like a typical good girl of the era, Sylvia loved the Beatles and had a crush on Paul. She was a good singer and fancied her self as a singer like 16 year old vocalist Kathy Young who sang "A Thousand Stars in the Sky." She was good with children and wanted to graduate from high school badly.
What did Paul love? She loved men, her mother, and being mean. She was promiscuous, even by today's standards and the was pregnant with the child of a married man.
She was certainly following in the footsteps of her mother.
I think kids can be mean to an extent, but the B family and Paula in particular were meaner than most. Then or now. It takes a certain amount of depravity to plunge a human being into scalding water and then rub salt in her burned skin. PAULA is the one who did this. It's in the court transcripts and in the book "House of Evil".
I agree that it was instigated by Gertrude, but Paula was already mean. Nature or nurture? Anyone's guess. I'd go with a bit of both.
I'm very comfortable with Paula's past finding her out. Call it Karma.
Her brother John, who went on to be a youth minister, publicly decried what had been done to Sylvia. He did not hide from the truth and admitted his wrong doings.
Paula and Stephanie have hidden from the spotlight, even turning down offers to tell "their side of the story" - and yes , they think there is one!
Even if Sylvia Likens had been the most nasty girl they knew she did not deserve to be mutilated and painfully tortured to death.
The fact that she was a nice girl, who was helpful and friendly, makes it even worse.
I think that all of them shall burn in hell when they meet their maker and nothing we can or could do to them will ever serve them right but God will make sure they receive what is coming to them when they meet him .
Horrible! and glad she was 'outed' it was not until I started to read this thread and then research/read this link that I began to remember more about this case.
Anyone that wants to know the brutality of this torure/murder should watch 'The Girl Next Door', based on this event. Last time I checked it was streaming on netflix. Horrific and disturbing.
"An American Crime" was directly about the Sylvia Likes ordeal and death. It stars Ellen Page as Sylvia likens and Katherine Keener as Gertrude Baniszweski. It is not a perfect movie but it is a very well made film that deserves the attention of anyone who is interested in the case.
It does capture well the sense of time and place in which the event took place.
It's detractors dislike that Gertrude was not played as evil as I suspect she was. I don't think that one bit of kindness was ever shown to Sylvia by her chief torturer.
Also some of the most brutal torture scenes - such as the scalding baths and the salt poured into her raw flesh - that was not included. I think the film might not have been released had these parts been included.
Or it could have had a rating of X.
Horrible! and glad she was 'outed' it was not until I started to read this thread and then research/read this link that I began to remember more about this case.
Some really great and some hard to watch links. Thank you Sugar!
Sheena
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
it was not until I started to read this thread and then research/read this link that I began to remember more about this case.
