"This," said Prosecutor Leroy New, "has been the most terrible crime ever committed in the state of Indiana." There could be little disagreement from the crowds who had jammed the Indianapolis courtroom for five weeks. What attracted—and repelled—the spectators was the trial of Mrs. Gertrude Baniszewski, 37, two of her children, Paula, 18, and John, 13, and two neighbor youths, Coy Hubbard and Richard Hobbs, both 15. All were charged with the protracted death by torture of pretty Sylvia Marie Likens, 16, who with her younger sister Jenny had boarded in the Baniszewski home.

The Last Day. Though Sylvia's fate...