Fifty States of Murder rolls on as Eli stumps Mel with trivia questions (seriously, aren’t Warsaw and Notre Dame in Europe??) before getting too close for comfort with one of America’s most notorious murderers: Gertrude Baniszewski. This chain-smoking mother of seven could have done a lot of things in the summer of 1965 — hosted a block party, learned to crochet, started a book club for single ladies, you know, normal stuff. Instead she tortured sixteen-year-old Sylvia Likens to death. They say it takes a village, and that’s just what old Gerty did, recruiting her own children and a handful of neighborhood kids to destroy the life of a girl whose only crime was not hating herself in… Indiana!
Music Credit: “Game Boy Horror” by The Zombie Dandies
Originally aired September 29, 2025