271: The Most Evil Babysitter in History… The Horrifying Case of Sylvia Likens

Lights Out

Mile Higher Media & Audioboom Studios

True Crime, News, History

4.8 • 9.1K Ratings

🗓️ 10 November 2025

⏱️ 84 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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Host: Josh
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Writer/Co-host: Austin
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Editor/Producer: Daniel
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/horrororeo

Creator hosts a documentary series for educational purposes (EDSA). These include authoritative sources such as interviews, newspaper articles and TV news reporting meant to educate and memorialize notable cases in our history. Videos come with editorial context added bolstering educational and artistic value. Please review at your leisure.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Light Out, everybody.
0:13.8	What's up, everybody?
0:14.9	Welcome back to another episode of Lights Out.
0:18.3	I'm your host Josh.
0:19.4	And I'm your host, Austin.
0:20.7	And I'm the producer, Daniel.
0:22.2	And today we are covering probably one of, oh man, one of the most disturbing cases we've
0:29.3	covered in a while.
0:31.4	I think it's been a minute since we've covered a case truly as disturbing and unsettling as
0:37.0	this one is. Yeah, I think the unsettling as this one is.
0:38.5	Yeah, I think the weird part about this one is the, I guess, co-conspirators, like how she
0:44.4	got so many people involved in this, like children.
0:48.0	Including neighborhood kids.
0:49.5	Yeah, that's the weirdest part to me.
0:52.2	I mean, I could understand one psychopath, you know, in a room, but yeah, you just start
0:57.8	convincing a whole neighborhood of kids.
1:01.0	That's wild.
1:01.8	Yeah, to partake in the brutal abuse, really torture of 16-year-old Sylvia Lykins. This case is the single worst crime
1:14.6	perpetrated against an individual in Indiana's history, and that holds up. I think this is a, it's a
1:23.6	rough one. So, yeah, there's really not much else say other than this is a truly, truly brutal case.
1:32.9	And Gertrude Banisheschi really feel like is just pure evil, man.
1:40.7	There is no redeeming qualities about her whatsoever.
	...

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