I have just watched the most horrific film I have ever seen. Jack Ketchum's 'The Girl Next Door', which is based on a true story of a girl, Sylvia Likens, who at age 16, was tortured and killed slowly by Gertrude Baniszewski, the 'responsible adult' and her long-term babysitter at the time, along with her son, two daughters and various other neighborhood kids.
These evil excuses for human beings burnt 'I am a prostitute and proud of it' in the girl's stomach with a searing hot sewing pin, forced stripteases in which Baniszewski would encourage the children to force coke bottles into her, and pushed her into scalding hot water baths. The girl died after the needle incident. It was described as "the most terrible crime in Indiana's history".
Gertrude Baniszewski received a life sentence, but was released before she died. She died of lung cancer and from the perspective of someone who has watched a family member die of lung cancer, I never thought I would wish it on anyone but Baniszewski deserved worse. Her daughter Paula, an active (and old enough to know better) participant in the torture received only a few years in prison.
John Baniszewski, Coy Hubbard and Richard Hobbs, all around Sylvia's age, and therefore well aware of the brevity of their actions, received 18 months each in a juvenile detention facility. Stephanie Baniszewski, Anna Siscoe, Judy Duke, Randy Lepper and Mike Monroe were let off scot free. My mum teaches 10 years olds. All of them are aware murder and torture is wrong. There are all of these people walking around who took a human life and didn't get any punishment for it at all.
John Baniszewki, now known as John Blake claims he found God and now serves as a lay pastor. Stephanie Baniszewski became a school teacher (actually dealing with kids...), Richard Hobbs died at 21 of cancer. And the real kicker? Coy Hubbard was actually persecuted later for two more murders. Two men died because the law didn't do its job and put guilty, evil people behind bars.
These people are walking free. I'm in shock watching/reading about this. They took a girl's life, with the sister around ensuring she would be tortured mentally, and tore apart a family. And they get a free life, teaching kids, preaching about how to be good people. Yeah. Right.
So I'm sat waiting for the laundry man and the delivery guy (it's raining: for once I have an excuse) and to pass the time I'm watching one of my favorite channels. Sad but true, as much as I like the Bravo, Chiller, TBS type channels (and I definitely do), I much prefer the Discovery Channel and the History Channel. Today, it is the latter and a show called 'Decoding The Past' is on, with the particular episode being based on The Bermuda Triangle.
Now I hate to admit it but I have a vague obsession with the Bermuda Triangle. I'd love to know what the deal is. In 1945, six planes went entirely missing (Flight 19). Literally, they just disappeared. At first they blamed Taylor, the captain, but then revoked this erroneous blame later. Flight 19 has never been solved. Nobody knows where it went. 27 men were lost. The wreckage remains unfound.
Something is awry in this area. Maybe it's just the weather but what happens to the wrecks in this case? Maybe its something to do with the water acidity, in which case why do planes crash/disappear in the first place. There's of course the supernatural explanations: Atlantis, aliens, time passages. As much as I'm not so egotistical to believe humans are the only intelligent life in the cosmos I'm not sure I can pin this one on aliens.Then again, what could it be?
The show suggests Flight 19 was victim to another problem: Captain Taylor didn't want to fly that day, as he felt unwell. Flight 19 was practicing low level bombing. They were using dead reckoning flight navigation in the training exercise, which did not rely on ground navigation. The wind could therefore push them off of their estimates.
During the exercise, Taylor believed they had taken a wrong turn. His compasses had then gone out. They were over land but it was broken. Taylor was extraordinarily disorientated. He believed they were over Florida Keys. In fact, contemporary reports suggest they were flying over the Bahamas. At this point he also began to refer to himself as MT-28 instead of his actual title FT-28. This suggests mental incapacity on the day, supported by the sickness he had earlier claimed.The show then suggests that the students would have followed his directions.
This is the only thing I have a major problem with. Why would 5 other fairly experienced students follow someone in a nose dive. Obviously this is not right. The show suggests they all decided to land together and that this is how it would work in formation flying in the military.I know the military is very strict and from the military people I've met, I can see the evidence that they often blindly follow orders but really, into the ocean? That seems suspicious to me. I will be interested to see if the Bermuda Triangle mysteries are ever solved to everyone's satisfaction but for now, I don't think I'll be jumping to get on any boats or planes in that area.
