Infamous killing comes back to haunt teacher's aide

CONRAD, Iowa (WISH/AP) - One of the most infamous crimes in memory in Indianapolis has now cost an Iowa woman her job.

Tuesday night, the school district in Conrad, Iowa, fired the woman, who now goes by the name Paula Pace, after learning of her sordid past.

In 1965, Pace was Paula Baniszewski, one of three members of a family convicted of torturing 16-year-old Sylvia Likens to death.

Baniszewski spent three years in prison for manslaughter. She later moved to Iowa and had been working for the Conrad schools as a high school teacher's aide for 14 years.

Recently, though, Grundy County Sheriff Rick Penning alerted the district to her record. He said he learned of it from an anonymous telephone call to his department last week.

"They wanted to make us aware of it because of the crime that was involved and because she was in the school system," Penning said. "We turned it over to the school and we're kind of out of it because there's no criminal offense per se."

The district gave the official reason for her firing as this: She lied on her job application. Superintendent Ben Petty said he could not comment further.

In 1965, Sylvia Likens and her sister, Jenny, were left by their parents with Gertrude Baniszewski and her seven children in the summer of 1965. In the following months, Sylvia was beaten, burned with cigarettes, branded with a hot needle, and suffered other abuse. Her malnourished body was found in the basement of the home Baniszewski rented on Oct. 26, 1965. The cause of death was brain swelling and internal bleeding of the brain.

A trial later revealed the torture came at the hands of Gertrude Baniszewski; her daughter Paula, who was 17 at the time; her son Johnny, then 13; and other neighbor children who would watch and at times participate.

In 1966, Gertrude Baniszewski was convicted of first-degree murder and Paula was found guilty of second-degree murder. Both were sentenced to life in prison in Indianapolis. Johnny Baniszewski and two other boys aged 16 and 15 were convicted of manslaughter. They were released on parole in 1968.

In 1971, the Indiana Supreme Court overturned the convictions of the two women, saying jurors had been prejudiced by publicity and that the trials should have been held separately.

The mother was convicted of first-degree murder again at a second trial. She was paroled in 1985, changed her name to Nadine Van Fossan and moved to Iowa. She died in 1990.

Paula Baniszewski, however, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter to avoid another trial.

The Indiana Department of Corrections records indicate she was sentenced in August 1971 to a sentence of two to 21 years. She escaped in 1971 but was recaptured. Her prison records show an escape charge was added in December 1971.

Baniszewski, who is now 64, was released from prison on Dec. 6, 1972, and discharged from parole in March 1974.

It is unclear when she moved to Iowa and when she changed her name to Paula Pace. She lives in Marshalltown, and telephone numbers listed in her name have been disconnected. She did not immediately respond to an email address listed for her.

She began working for the BCLUW school district in 1998, said the district's attorney, Mike Smith.

He said he could not discuss personnel issues and could only confirm she was employed by the district as a teacher's aide. It was not immediately clear if the district did a background check when she was hired.