38 – Tortured Teens: The horrific murders of Suzanne Capper & Sylvia Likens

Early on a December morning, in 1991, Suzanne Capper (16) was found wandering on a quiet laneway south of Manchester. She was half naked, and her body had been burned badly. She was brought to hospital, but died 4 days later of her injuries.

It quickly emerged that she had been held in a house, tied up and tortured for nearly a week before her death. These horrific acts were committed by people she had considered friends. She was able to name them before she died, and they were held responsible for their crimes.

But Suzanne is far from the only young girl who has suffered torture at the hands of a group of people that she knew.

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Theme Music:

Quinn’s Song: The Dance Begins Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Suzanne_Capper#Murder

“Murder Acquittal” from The Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/murder-acquittal-1506480.html (25 November 1993)

“Horror Fiction became reality” in TheIndependenthttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/horror-fiction-became-reality-1468190.html (18 December 1993)

“Woman ‘sat numb as girl burned’: Court told of teenagers screams” from The Independenthttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/woman-sat-numb-as-girl-burned-court-told-of-teenagers-screams-1464583.html (1 December 1993)

“Torture girl’s pleas for help rejected” from The Independenthttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/torture-girls-plea-for-help-rejected-1505019.html (18 November 1993)

Malcolm Pithers, “Teenage girl ‘subjected to brutal regime of torture’: Court told how 16 year old burnt to death” from The Independenthttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/torture-girls-plea-for-help-rejected-1505019.html ( 17 November 1993)

Simon Midgely, “ Four guilty of torture killing” in The Independenthttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/four-guilty-of-torture-killing-simon-midgley-1468211.html (18 December 1993)

Emily Thompson, “One week of Sadism – The murder of Suzanne Capper” from Morbidology.com https://morbidology.com/one-week-of-sadism-the-murder-of-suzanne-capper/ (1 March 2019)

“Four Convicted in Torture, Burning Death of Teen-Ager” from Apnews.comhttps://www.apnews.com/6edb4a3c375e3bbe1430aa022c501009 (18 December 1993)

Jonathan Foster and David Connett, “Petty Grudges settled by torture spree then murder: Suzanne Capper’s short like ended in horror at the hands of ‘friends’ who lived equally bleak existence” in The Independenthttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/petty-grudges-settled-by-torture-spree-then-murder-suzanne-cappers-short-life-ended-in-horror-at-the-1468189.html (18 December 1993)

Scott Hesketh, “Twisted Chucky Killer is back on the streets with secret new identity” in The Daily Starhttps://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/418304/CHUCKY-killer-is-back-on-the-streets-with-secret-new-identity (4 January 2015)

“Exclusive: 20 years on, the Suzanne Capper Case” in Confidentials.comhttps://confidentials.com/manchester/exclusive-20-years-on-the-suzanne-capper-case (21 January 2013)

“Woman who tortured Suzanne Capper has sentence cut after court hears she is ‘model prisoner’” in The Manchester Evening Newshttps://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/woman-who-tortured-suzanne-capper-691651 (24 July 2012)

Sylvia Likens Wikipedia Page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Sylvia_Likens

Mark Oliver, “Sylvia Likens: The Story of a 16 year old tortured and murdered by a neighbourhood” from Allthatsinteresting.comhttps://allthatsinteresting.com/sylvia-likens-gertrude-baniszewski (22 January 2019)

John Dean, House of Evil: The Indiana Torture Slaying (New York: St. Martin’s Paperbacks, 2008). Purchase here