John Edward Robinson Sr. was a Sunday school teacher, a Scoutmaster and a sports coach. He was also the world’s first Internet-based serial killer. He murdered women he knew and women he trolled for on Internet S&M and BDSM websites. His name was “slavemaster”.
In 1977, he made up charitable and generous acts he’d done, so he could be named Man of The Year in Kansas. He even conned his brother and sister-in-law by finding them a baby to adopt, for a fee. It was the baby of one of his victims.
Robinson pretended to be his victims after their deaths by writing letters and cashing cheques. Paula Godfrey was his first victim. She responded to a help-wanted ad, and he hired her to work at his company. Then she disappeared and her father came looking for her. Robinson denied any involvement in her disappearance. In short order, letters pretending to be from Godfrey starting coming to the family.
On January 8, 1985, Lisa Stasi was his next target. She was just 19. Stasi and her 4-month-old were living in a shelter for battered women. She was the perfect, vulnerable target for Robinson. He said he ran an outreach program that could help her. She was last seen checking out of the Rodeway Inn hotel with her daughter, in the company of a man. But she was last heard from, by her family, in a frantic phone call. She was being told to sign four pieces of paper, and while her family tried to calm her, she said “Here they come,” and hung up.
She was murdered, and her body never discovered. Her daughter disappeared. Fake typewritten letters were sent to her family (using the paper she had been forced to sign). A credit card used to pay for Stasi’s motel room was traced back to Robinson.
For a man well-versed in fraud, Robinson left a strong papertrail. The problem was, no one knew for certain the women were even missing.
In 1987, Catherine Clampitt went to work for Robinson’s company, Equi-II. Fraud charges and an upcoming jail stint didn’t stop the killer. Clampitt went missing, murdered by Robinson before he was imprisoned. She was the last of the first group of victims for the serial killer.
Robinson had been through the legal system many time by now. His various schemes involved fraud which often got him light sentences and probation.
Robinson, who had been on FBI radar for fraud and assault allegations for years, was jailed in Kansas in May 1987 for fraud. Officials unsuccessfully tried to have him declared a habitual criminal. By the time of his parole in January 1991, the only person who opposed his release was his Missouri probation officer. The officer noted that Robinson left missing persons in his wake.
When Robinson was released from Kansas, he was sent to Missouri for probation violation. He befriended the prison doctor, William Bonner and his wife, Beverly, the prison librarian. Robinson was released in the spring of 1993 into the arms of his wife.
In 1994, Beverly Bonner divorced her husband, moved to the Kansas City area, and became the president of Hydro-Gro, Robinson’s company. Then she was murdered. The killer sent letters to family pretending to be the victim. He stole her alimony payments by using her ID and setting up a mailbox to collect get mail. Checks were cashed by the Robinson’s company.
Sheila Dale Faith was the next Robinson victim. Faith had a 15-year-old daughter, Debbie Lynn Faith, who had cerebral palsy. Robinson said he was a wealthy benefactor prepared to take the mother and her disabled daughter on a cruise and pay for schooling. Instead he killed them. He stole both victim’s social security payments through fraud. He deposited the money into his own accounts.
In 1997, Izabela Kathrina Lewicka had an interest in BDSM, and met Robinson to learn more. After hooking up with Robinson, over the next two years, Robinson paid for her apartment, her bills, and gave her a job. They dated until 1999, when Robinson told Lewicka she was going to travel for the company. She disappeared in August. Police would later use forensics to find her blood splattered throughout the apartment.
Suzette Trouten was a BDSM Internet sensation. A photo of her with nails driven through her breasts was widely circulated on the Internet when she and the killer met. He conned her into working for his elderly father who travelled and needed constant care. His father had actually been dead for 10 years. She moved to Kansas in February, boarded her dogs, and signed dozens of blank sheets of paper and addressed envelopes. Robinson told her she’d be travelling and he’d take care of her correspondence to family.
She was dead by March 1, 2000. By mid-March, Trouten’s mother became concerned and contacted the Lenexa Police. Detective David Brown started and investigation. He began to tie the career criminal into women missing from Overland.
A Texas woman was well-prepared when she met Robinson in person for the first time. She had set up a “safe call,” arranging to check in with another member of a local S&M group. The woman had given Robinson’s cell phone number to a friend, and first met him in a public space. Although he brutalized her, she lived. She was also angry enough to contact police. She alleged, among other things, that Robinson stole $700 in sex toys from her. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/42329144/robinson_survivor_contacted_police/
Robinson conned another woman, Jeanne, who was a friend of Trouten’s and knew his as “James Turner”. They met in April and she moved to Kansas in May, 2000. However, things did not go well. After an argument, Robinson left and Jeanne, crying, asked the hotel front desk for help. They called police on her behalf. She spoke to Detective Brown, who told her to flee and go to another hotel.
On June 2, 2000, police raided Robinson’s property. He was arrested for sexually assaulting the two women in Kansas City hotels. He was officially charged with aggravated kidnapping, sexual battery and felony theft.
While investigating, police found blank paper signed by Stasi 15 years earlier in his home. In a rented storage facility in Olathe, Kansas, they found Trouten’s birth certificate and Lewicka’s driver’s license.
On June 3, police and the FBI headed to Robinson’s remote plot of land an hour south. There, they used dogs to discover the bodies of two women in barels on his property in La Cygne, Kansas. Both died from blows to the head. Both were decomposed. They were Trouten and Lewicka.
When police searched his second storage locker in Raymore, Missouri, on June 5, they found three more 55-gallon drums. Each contained a woman’s body: Bonner, Faith and her daughter. His storage locker also held documents and evidence about other missing women.
Most women had blows to the head with a hammer, some shattering their skulls and jaws.
After his arrest and the discovery of bodies, police spent weeks working with other states to identify the remains. They are aware of links to women missing as far back as 1984.
Both Johnson County, Kansas and Cass County, Missouri, prosecutors laid murder charges. Kansas went first.
Robinson was charged in the deaths of Trouten and Lewicka, Bonner, both Faith women, and Stasi. The judge entered a “not guilty” plea on Robinson’s behalf because the killer refused to speak.
Police determined Stasi’s daughter was actually Heather Tiffany Robinson. The killer had given her to his brother as an adoption. She was raised in a loving and caring family, none of whom knew the truth.
In 2002, Robinson went on trial in Kansas for the murders of Stasi, Trouten and Lewicka. There were more than 23,000 pages of police reports and more than 100 witnesses. Det. Brown said authorities recovered about 18 hammers. Forensics could not determine if any of these hammers were used to murder the women. Defence suggested during trial that Robinson was mentally ill. In Kansas, insanity was not a defence against the death penalty.
On January 21, 2003, Robinson is sentenced in Kansas to execution for three murders: Izabela Lewicka, Suzette Trouten and Lisa Stasi.
In October 2003, after the Kansas trial, authorities in Cass County, Missouri, hoped for a plea bargain. There, he faced charges for Bonner and both Faith women, Clampitt and Godfrey. A plea deal was arranged before the trial date.
On October 16, 2003, Robinson plead guilty to the murders and gets a life sentence for each. They are Beverly Bonner, Sheila Faith, Debbie Faith, Paula Godfrey and Catherine Clampitt.
In December 2004, the Kansas death penalty is thrown out. This leaves Robinson’s death sentence in limbo. Only the US Supreme Court can reinstate the death penalty, which could take years, if ever. Prosecutors begin to plan how to keep Robinson in jail.
On March 2, 2006, a Missouri Grand Jury indicts Robinson for the kidnapping of Trouten in 2000. This kidnapping lead to her death. This kidnapping indictment has the same sentence as a federal murder charge: life in prison, or death.
US Attorney Todd Graves said Robinson tricked Trouten into coming to him, by offering a job that did not exist, it was tantamount to kidnapping. This caused Trouten to travel from her home in Michigan to Missouri. When she travelled through western Missouri, she entered Graves’ territory. That, he said, gave him the authority to charge Robinson. He admitted that, if the death penalty law was reinstated, he may drop the kidnapping charge.
In September, the charges against Robinson for kidnapping Trouten are dropped without prejudice. They can be refiled at any time.
On November 6, 2015, Kansas reinstates the death penalty. On the same day, the convictions for Stasi and Lewicka are reversed due to a technicality. The ruling “in no way” cleared Robinson in their deaths, but simply acknowledged a legal technicality.
Robinson remains on death row.
There are many books about John Edward Robinson Sr., including the very readable Anyone You Want Me To Be: A True Story Of Sex And Death On The Internet, by John Douglas and Stephen Singular (Scribner 2003). This was written before the Missouri trial. It goes into details about Robinson’s sexual tastes, details of the crimes and recovery of bodies. Gruesome, to be sure.
You can also try Social Media Monsters: True Stories Of Internet Killers by R.J. Parker, and JJ Slate (RJ Parker Publishing, Inc 2014).
Slave Master by Sue Wiltz (Pinnacle 2004) details the crime, and is marked “OC” (original content) in its description. So maybe borrow first, as I haven’t read it and can’t recommend it.
Robinson also makes an appearance in Psychopaths: Up Close And Personal by Christopher Berry-Dee (Ulysses Press (2017), and Inside The Minds Of Serial Killers: Why They Kill, by Katherine Ramsland (Praeger Publishers Inc.,U.S. 2006). You can usually count on Ramsland to offer some good insights.
Additional links to news articles:
- https://www.newspapers.com/clip/42387807/kansas_death_penalty_robinson/
- https://newspaperarchive.com/crime-clipping-mar-03-2006-1510075
- https://newspaperarchive.com/murder-clipping-apr-20-2006-1512451/
- https://newspaperarchive.com/crime-clipping-sep-17-2006-1510072/
- https://newspaperarchive.com/murder-clipping-jul-28-2009-1512455/
- https://www.kmbc.com/article/kansas-serial-killer-asks-court-to-throw-out-death-penalty/8307282
- https://newspaperarchive.com/crime-clipping-nov-07-2015-1511421/
John Edward Robinson murders timeline
September 1, 1984
Paula G. Godfrey goes missing. She worked for the killer’s management firm, and was last seen in his company. Her remains were never found.
January 8, 1985
Lisa Stasi lived in battered women’s shelter with her daughter. Robinson tricked her into coming with him, then killed her for her money. The daughter disappeared.
In 1987
Catherine F. Clampitt goes missing. Like another victim, she worked for the killer’s management firm. Her remains have never been found.
In January 1994
Beverly J. Bonner disappears. Robinson made it appear, by writing letters, that she was still alive, so he could cash her checks.
Summer, 1994
Sheila Dale Faith, 45, met the killer online. She and her disabled daughter are murdered by Robinson, who then pretended to be them to get their Social Security payments.
In August 1999
Izabela Kathrina Lewicka dated the killer for about 2 years before her murder. Police would later find her blood splattered throughout her home.
March 1, 2000
28-year-old Suzette Marie Trouten met the killer online. He killed her and stuffed her body into one of his barrels. She was the last victim to be killed and the first victim identified.
June 2, 2000
Lewicka’s body was found in a barrel on Robinson’s property in, Kansas. She had been bludgeoned and bound. Police also found the body of Suzette Marie Trouten in a drum. She was blindfolded and bludgeoned.
June 5, 2000
Police raid Robinson’s storage unit at a facility in Raymore. They find the bodies of Bonner and the Faiths. They also find extensive evidence of other missing or murdered women.
In 2000
Tiffany Stasi, who was 4 months old when Robinson killed her mother, was adopted to Robinson’s brother and sister-in-law for money. In 2000, it was determined that “Heather Tiffany Robinson” was Tiffany Stasi.
In 2002
Robinson goes on trial in Kansas.
January 21, 2003
Robinson is sentenced to die for the murders of Trouten and Lewicka. For the crimes against Stasi (premeditated first degree murder, aggravated interference with parental custody), he was given a life sentence.
October 16, 2003
Missouri authorities plea bargain with Robinson. He pleads guilty to the last 5 murders and gets life for each.