Real Horror Movies That Were Based on True Events

The Girl Next Door, 2007

The murder of Sylvia Likens took place in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States in October 1965. The 16-year-old Likens was tortured to death by Gertrude Baniszewski, Baniszewski’s children, and other young people from their neighborhood. Likens’ parents, who were carnival workers, had left her and her sister, Jenny, in the care of the Baniszewski family three months before her death. The Likens’ parents were paying Baniszewski $20 a week to care for the sisters.

Baniszewski, her daughter Paula, her son John, and two neighborhood youths, Coy Hubbard and Richard Hobbs, were tried and convicted of torturing and murdering Likens. The case was described by the prosecutor in Baniszewski’s trial as “the most terrible crime ever committed in the state of Indiana”.