Robert Andrew Berdella Jr. (January 31, 1949 – October 8, 1992) was an American serial killer, known as The Kansas City Butcher and The Collector, who kidnapped, raped, … Robinson was arrested for the first time in Kansas City in 1969, after embezzling $33,000 from the medical practice of Dr. Wallace Graham, where he had secured a job as an X-ray technician using forged credentials. According to her brother, Lowell Heath, who lives in Mississippi, Ms. Bonner said she was going abroad to work for an American company that made perfume and other products. Believe me, this what I'm getting a degree in. John E. Robinson Sr., the convicted serial killer who stored some of his victims’ bodies in barrels, has filed a motion to have his Johnson County death sentence thrown out. 10 Lonely Little Boy On October 10, 1996, the body of 21-year-old Christy Fugate was pulled from the rushing waters of the Missouri river near Dover in Lafayette County, Missouri. kansas city, mo. He also claimed to have joined a secret sadomasochism cult called the International Council of Masters, and to have become its "Slavemaster", whose duties included luring victims to gatherings to be tortured and raped by cult members. John Edward Robinson (born December 27, 1943) is an American serial killer, con man, embezzler, kidnapper, and forger who was found guilty in 2003 for three murders committed in and around Kansas City, Kansas, receiving the death sentence for two of them. Robert Berdella, aka the Kansas City Butcher, would later be unmasked as one of Missouri’s worst serial killers. [2], In 1985, using the name John Osborne, he met Lisa Stasi and her four-month-old daughter, Tiffany, at a battered women's shelter in Kansas City. Police Identify 2nd of 5 Bodies In Barrels on Kansas Farm. It is unclear whether Lewicka believed that she and Robinson were married; she told her parents she had married, but never told them her husband's name. Mr. Heath said Ms. Bonner's family received typed letters over the years, signed ''Love, Bev,'' from such places as Moscow and Amsterdam. Don Nemechek, Richard Grissom Jr., John Robinson Sr. and BTK.They are names from the dark side of Kansas history; murderers who targeted multiple victims over a period of time.Serial killers. Later, Robinson told Trouten's mother that she had run off with an acquaintance after stealing money from him.[2]:9. She was a college graduate, with children from an earlier marriage. Speck killed eight people in one evening, the record for any serial killer ever. Robinson told a web designer he employed that she had been caught smoking marijuana and deported. [2]:4 At this time, he reportedly began sexually propositioning his neighbors' wives, resulting in a fistfight with one of the husbands. After Robinson arranged for Bonner's alimony checks to be forwarded to a Kansas post office box, her family never heard from her again. Because he made contact with most of his post-1993 victims via online chat rooms, he is sometimes referred to as "the Internet's first serial killer". This house, 4315 Charlotte Street, belonged to the Kansas City Butcher, one of the most deranged serial killers in history. The bodies of Trouten and Lewicka were found in barrels on Robinson's rural property in Linn County, about 60 miles south of Kansas City. [2]:15 He received a life sentence without possibility of parole for each of the five murders. [7], In 2006, the body of a young woman was found in a barrel in an area of rural Iowa where Robinson reportedly had a business partner. Investigators yesterday identified a former prison librarian as one of five women whose bodies were found last week in barrels on property owned or … The police have to do a lot of old fashion detective work with lack of physical evidence over a period of 10 to 12 days. A few days later, Robinson contacted his brother and sister-in-law, who had been unable to adopt a baby through traditional channels, and informed them that he knew of a baby whose mother had committed suicide. TOPEKA, Kan. – The Kansas Supreme Court refused on Friday to remove a serial killer from death row who trolled for victims online, marking the first time the court has upheld a death sentence since Kansas reinstated capital punishment in 1994. In 1961, he enrolled at Morton Junior College in Cicero to become a medical X-ray technician, but dropped out after two years. October 14, 2002 - Jurors in the trial of 58-year-old John E. Robinson watched a video of a sadomasochistic sex session between an alleged victim and the self-proclaimed Internet Slavemaster. Authorities believe that he’s responsible for the murders of at least eight women in … [2]:4, In 1987, Catherine Clampitt, 27, left her child with her parents in Wichita Falls, Texas and moved to Kansas City to find employment. They include Catherine Clampitt, 27, who came to Kansas City to live with her brother and get a fresh start in life, according to the Kansas City Star, and vanished in 1987; Lisa Stasi, 19, who disappeared with her 5-month-old, Tiffany, on Jan. 11, 1985; Paula Godfrey, 19, reported missing on Sept. 1, 1984; and Izabela K. Lewicka, 22, of Overland Park, Kan. She has been missing since last fall. [2]:9, Across the state line in Missouri, other members of the task force, searching a storage facility where Robinson rented two garages, found three similar chemical drums containing corpses subsequently identified as Bonner, Faith, and her daughter. In 1977, he talked his way onto the board of directors of a local charitable organization and forged a series of letters from its executive director to the mayor of Kansas City, and from the mayor to other civic leaders, commending his generous volunteer efforts and generally singing his praises. "There are [probably] other barrels waiting to be opened, other bodies waiting to be found."[1]. Stasi has never been found. Her second husband, Dr. William Bonner, of Stockton, Mo., was a prison doctor. [5], In 2005, Nancy Robinson filed for divorce after 41 years of marriage, citing incompatibility and irreconcilable differences. #serialkiller #truecrime #truecimeseven #crimestories #truecrimestories #bestruecrime #murderer #crime #realcrimestories #truecrimehorrifying. [5] Chris Koster, the Missouri prosecutor, insisted as a condition of any plea bargain that Robinson lead authorities to the bodies of Stasi, Godfrey and Clampitt. In it, Ms. Bonner said she was leaving Russia and going on assignment to China. [6] Heather won a second judgment, in 2007, preventing Robinson from profiting from any future potential book sales or film rights. Hope you enjoyed the video! In 1970, Robinson violated probation by moving back to Chicago without his probation officer's permission, and took a job as an insurance salesman at the R.B. The Kansas City Butcher (Bob Berdella) terrorized, tortured, and murdered gay men in the 80s. The investigation was terminated, as Godfrey was of legal age and there was no evidence of wrongdoing. For $5,500 in "legal fees", Don and Helen Robinson received Tiffany (whose identity was confirmed by DNA testing in 2000[4]) and a set of authentic-appearing adoption papers with the forged signatures of two lawyers and a judge. The letters were, her mother said, uncharacteristically mistake-free. [3], In 1984, having started two more fraudulent shell companies (Equi-Plus and Equi-2), Robinson hired Paula Godfrey, 19, ostensibly to work as a sales representative. A Kansas City area criminal suspected of being a serial killer who has plagued the community for decades will now spend the next 35 years behind bars.. Robert Gross, 69, has long been suspected in the unsolved serial killings of several women over the past five decades — as well as a string of arsons, rapes, and assaults in Missouri and Kansas, The Kansas City Star reported. John Edward Robinson (born December 27, 1943) is an American serial killer, con man, embezzler, kidnapper, and forger who was found guilty in 2003 for three murders committed in and around Kansas City, Kansas, receiving the death sentence for two of them. He eluded officials for 30 years through his marriage to a prominent member of his church and his role as leader of his son’s boy scout troop. From a young age, Robert Berdella was a loner. Kansas and Missouri police note that long stretches of Robinson's time remain unaccounted for, and they fear that there are additional undiscovered victims. Robinson is known to be responsible for eight homicides, but his total victim tally remains unknown. No trace of Godfrey has ever been found. In 1994, the mother and daughter moved from Fullerton, California to Kansas City and immediately disappeared. At Western Missouri Correctional Facility, he met 49-year-old Beverly Bonner, the prison librarian, who upon his release left her husband, a prison doctor, and moved to Kansas to work for him. The death was originally ruled a car accident, but was later revisited after the body of Pastor Bird's lover's husband was found shot to death along a Geary County highway. Also she's an obscure figure and I just know Hawley is the sorta guy to look into overlooked history. [2]:9, In 2002, Robinson stood trial in Kansas for the murders of Trouten, Lewicka and Stasi, along with multiple lesser charges. Convicted serial killer John E. Robinson’s death penalty was upheld in a 415-page ruling by the Kansas Supreme Court on Friday. All five women were killed in the same way, by one or more blows to the head with a blunt instrument. Robinson was just 4 months old when she and her mother Lisa Stasi vanished in Kansas City, Missouri in 1985, according to “20/20.” When serial killer John Robinson was arrested 15 years later and charged with killing multiple women, investigators also linked him to Stasi. A serial killer of prostitutes based Kansas City taunts the police by calling several times to give them the locations of women he's killed. Missouri is far more aggressive in its pursuit of capital punishment convictions (Kansas has not executed anyone since reinstating its death penalty statute in 1994), and Robinson's attorneys were anxious to avoid a trial there. Ms. Bonner, 49, had disappeared in spring 1994. Several days later her parents received a typewritten letter, with Godfrey's signature at the bottom, thanking Robinson for his help and asserting that she was "OK" and did not want to see her family. The house belonged to Robert Berdella, the man who would soon become known as Kansas City’s most notorious serial killer. Note: This board includes true crime cases that involve real serial killers that committed shocking crimes. Ms. Bonner and Mr. Robinson might have met at the Western Missouri Corrections Center in Cameron, Mo. Robinson, on the other hand, faced pressure to plead guilty to avoid an almost certain death sentence in Missouri, and failing that, yet another capital murder trial back in Kansas. Investigators yesterday identified a former prison librarian as one of five women whose bodies were found last week in barrels on property owned or rented by John Edward Robinson, an ex-convict from Olathe, Kan. Chris Koster, prosecuting attorney of Cass County, Mo., said the body of the woman, Beverly J. Bonner, was one of the three found on June 5 in a storage unit. Dennis Rader, aka the "BTK Killer" Rader was a serial killer active in Kansas from 1974 to 1991. She vanished in June of that year. Fingerprints confirmed that Heather was Stasi’s child. Her missing persons case remains open. Mr. Robinson was released in April 1993. Police questioned Robinson, who denied any knowledge of her whereabouts. Some time during the summer of 1999, she disappeared. His crimes were horrific. — A notorious criminal family adds another killer to their list of felon relatives. That weekend, residents in the quiet neighborhood were awakened to the sound of the police excavating the home’s back yard, where they found bone fragments and an additional human head. Since then, nine more bodies has appeared downriver. Later that year he enrolled at Quigley Preparatory Seminary in Chicago, a private boys' school for aspiring priests, but dropped out after one year due to disciplinary issues.[3]. She was a prison librarian. Logan, C. (26 May 2007). This list will take a trip into the heart of darkness and down into the basement at 4315 Charlotte Street. [2]:6, Gradually, Robinson became well known in the increasingly popular BDSM online chat rooms. Serial killer John Edward Robinson is on death row in Kansas City, Kansas. A more recent Kansas serial killer is Dennis Rader, or BTK, from Wichita. in 1991 or 1992. A SERIAL killer who terrorised a US city for at least 17 years has stormed out of an interview about his sick crimes by Piers Morgan. Though his statement was technically a guilty plea, and was accepted as such by the Missouri court, observers remarked that it was notably devoid of any contrition or specific acceptance of responsibility. With Jeff Downing, Dion Graham, Donie Hoffman, Mike Hutcheson. Robinson, portraying himself as a wealthy businessman and philanthropist, offered to pay Debbie's medical expenses and give Sheila a job. The 415-page ruling came in the case of John E. Robinson Sr., who was […] [1] As of 2019, with eight murder convictions across both states, Robinson remains on death row in Kansas. [8] Ultimately, that body was identified as Lois Tomich and turned out to be unrelated to the Robinson case. The letter ended: ''Remember that I love you, and I'll be in touch.'' Jones Company. Ms. Trouten's mother reported her disappearance on March 1. 'He didn't look dangerous': The truth about serial killer, con man John Robinson. His father, who would beat him with a leather strap, worked as a dye setter for the Ford Motor Company and his mother was a homemaker. Apparently a serial killer has been dumping into the Missouri River the bodies of Kansas City women from red light district. Robert Berdella, the man who would grow up to become this terrifying killer, grew up in a deeply religious Roman Catholic family in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio in the early 1950s. The suit accused Gaddis of putting Robinson in contact with Stasi and her newborn daughter in 1984, after he told Gaddis that he ran a charitable organization providing assistance to "unwed mothers of white babies." Trouten's mother received several typed letters signed by her daughter and purportedly mailed while the couple was abroad, although the envelopes all bore Kansas City postmarks. [3], By then, Robinson had discovered the Internet, and roamed various social networking sites using the name "Slavemaster", looking for women who enjoyed playing the submissive partner role during sex. See the article in its original context from. By 1999, he had attracted the attention of authorities in both Kansas and Missouri as his name popped In 1975, it was extended again after another arrest, this time on charges of securities fraud and mail fraud in connection with a phony "medical consulting" company he had formed in Kansas City. Robinson, who has never cooperated in any way with investigators, refused, but Koster still faced pressure to make a deal because his case was not technically airtight⁠ ⁠— among other issues, there was no unequivocal evidence that any of the murders had actually been committed within his jurisdiction. [6], In 2006, Stasi's daughter—known since her (faked) adoption as Heather Robinson—filed a civil suit against Truman Medical Center in Kansas City and social worker Karen Gaddis. Eventually, he had himself named the organization's Man of the Year, and threw a festive awards luncheon in his own honor. (May 18, 2006). He did very well in school, though teachers found him difficult to teach and he was bullied by other students. After hearing nothing further from her, Godfrey's parents filed a missing persons report. KANSAS CITY, Mo. Dennis Rader, known as the BTK killer, was convicted of 10 murders in Wichita and Park City, Kansas in 2005.The murders spanned from 1974 to … [4], From 1987 to 1993, Robinson was incarcerated, first in Kansas (1987–1991) on multiple fraud convictions and thereafter in Missouri for another fraud conviction and parole violations. … During this period, Robinson cultivated and maintained the outward appearance of a community-minded citizen and family man; he became a Scoutmaster, a baseball coach and a Sunday school teacher. [6], In November 2015, the Kansas Supreme Court vacated the Trouten and Stasi murder convictions on technicalities, but upheld the Lewicka conviction and its accompanying death sentence. Investigators fear that there might be other undiscovered victims as well, in both cities and elsewhere. Stasi was never heard from again. He also received a five-to-20-year prison sentence for "interfering with the parental custody" of Stasi's baby, 20½ years for kidnapping Trouten, and seven months for theft. After the longest criminal trial in Kansas history,[5] he was convicted on all counts; he received the death sentence for the murders of Trouten and Lewicka, and life imprisonment for Stasi's (because she was killed before Kansas reinstated the death penalty). When she moved to Kansas City, Robinson (who was still married to Nancy) gave Lewicka an engagement ring and brought her to the county registrar, where they paid for a marriage license that was never picked up. She did sign a 115-item slave contract that gave Robinson almost total control over every aspect of her life, including her bank accounts. She discovered she was adopted with … Body Found In Barrel Linked To Robinson? Police have named other women who disappeared after having some connection with Mr. Robinson. Dennis Lynn Rader (* 9. For several years, Bonner's mother continued forwarding her alimony checks, and Robinson continued cashing them. After a divorce in 1994, Ms. Bonner agreed to work for a man her family now believes was Mr. Robinson. Berdella was born in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio in 1949 and was raised Catholic, though he stopped attending church services when he was a teenager. A Kansas City man suspected to be a serial killer behind a number of unsolved murders has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for stalking In 2005, he admitted responsibility for five additional homicides across the river, at trial in Kansas City, Missouri, in a deal to receive multiple life sentences without possibility of parole and avoid more death sentences. Her body was one of two found on June 3 in 55-gallon drums on a 16-acre farm Mr. Robinson owns near La Cygne, Kan. Mr. Koster said today that he expected more criminal charges to be filed soon against Mr. Robinson, 56, who is being held in lieu of $5 million bail in Olathe on charges of sexually assaulting two women the authorities say he met on the Internet. He's accused of killing eight women and giving a victim's baby to his brother. [2]:4 In 1957, he became an Eagle Scout, and reportedly traveled to London with a group of Scouts who performed before Queen Elizabeth II. [3], In 1979, Robinson completed probation. In 1964, he moved to Kansas City and married Nancy Jo Lynch, who gave birth to their first child, John Jr., in 1965, followed by a daughter, Kimberly, in 1967, and twins Christopher and Christine in 1971. One of the most baffling (and famous) Kansas murders is that of Sandy Bird, an Emporia pastor's wife whose body was found floating in the Cottonwood River in 1983. Over time, Robinson became increasingly careless, and did a progressively poorer job of covering his tracks. The identity of the victim—whose remains, forensics experts say, could have been in the barrel for 20 years or more—and Robinson's possible involvement, remained open questions. [2]:8, Around the time of Lewicka's disappearance, a licensed practical nurse named Suzette Trouten moved from Michigan to Kansas to travel the world with Robinson as his submissive sex slave. He was sentenced to three years' probation.[3]. ''They were all fakes,'' Mr. Heath said of the letters today, adding that investigators hoped to analyze the DNA on the postage stamps. He was serving a sentence related to a a conviction for theft. Rader was married and had two children, and was a leader in his community through the Christ Lutheran Church and Cub Scouts. up in more and more missing persons investigations. The American serial killer Richard Speck earns a place on this list due to the sheer number of victims in his last murder rampage. In 1971, he was arrested again for embezzling firm funds, and ordered back to Kansas City where his probation was extended. Godfrey told friends and family that Robinson was sending her away for training. Stasi has never been found. Robinson cashed Faith's pension checks for the next seven years. Just a thought, I'm aware there is a laaaaarge gap in history, location, and motivation, but there aren't many female Irish serial killer nurses in US criminal history. The 10 known murders he committed went unsolved, until a book called “Nightmare in Wichita: The Hunt for the BTK Strangler” was released. Next state on our list is Kentucky, so stay tuned! After his release, he formed a bogus hydroponics business and swindled $25,000 from a friend, to whom he promised a fast investment return so that he could pay for his dying wife's health care.