Robinson is known to be responsible for eight homicides, but his total victim tally remains unknown. All rights reserved. Both Berdella's career and the side business eventually flourished, and by the mid-1970s he began working as a senior cook at several renowned Kansas City restaurants, also joining a local chefs' association and helping establish a training program for aspiring chefs at a local community college. Robinson was convicted in the 2000 death of 27-year-old Suzette Trouten of Newport, Michigan, and the 1999 killing of 21-year-old Izabela Lewicka, a Polish immigrant who attended Purdue University. (Investigators later sought to obtain handwriting samples from Berdella in an effort to prove he had written the notes found within the various stenographer's pads discovered at his house; he refused to cooperate and was sentenced to six months in jail for contempt of court. By 1999, he had attracted the attention of authorities in Kansas and Missouri as his name frequently came up in missing person investigations. [33], A second guilty plea submitted before the Jackson County Court on August 24 earned Berdella a further life term without parole for one charge of forcible sodomy against Christopher Bryson (six counts of sodomy and one charge of assault being dropped as part of a plea bargain); he would also receive a further term of seven years pertaining to one count of felonious restraint against Bryson on this date. In 1977, he was named to the board of directors of a local charitable organization where he forged letters from its executive director to the mayor of Kansas City and from the mayor to civic leaders, naming him as the organization's Man of the Year. [28] He would later have his lawyer threaten to file harassment accusations against police unless their questioning and surveillance of him ceased. Throughout the latter part of his six weeks of captivity, Pearson trained himself to sleep without moving, in order that he did not antagonize Berdella and thus invite further torture or being returned to the basement. 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 daughter Kimberly in 1967, and twins Christopher and Christine in 1971. 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 assisting "unwed mothers of white babies." He received a 5-to-20-year prison sentence for interfering with the parental custody of Stasi's baby, 20.5 years for kidnapping Trouten, and seven months for theft. However, Koster faced pressure to make a deal because his case was not technically airtight. At 37 years old, Diamond Blair . Shortly after his release from hospital and further questioning by the KCPD, Christopher Bryson lapsed into cocaine abuse. As a result, he became increasingly withdrawn, and further immersed himself in the solitary activities he had participated in since childhood such as painting, collecting coins and stamps, and writing to foreign pen pals. By the final day of his captivity, Stoops was so weak Berdella later stated he had been unable "to breathe in a sitting position". [4]:8182, Berdella is believed to have killed his first victim on July 5, 1984. He chose to remain in Kansas City and in September of that year, he moved into an address within the Hyde Park[13] district: 4315 Charlotte Street. Robert Andrew Berdella Jr. (January 31, 1949 - October 8, 1992) was an American serial killer who kidnapped, raped, tortured, and murdered at least six young men after having forced his victims to endure periods of up to six weeks of captivity. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. life sentences without possibility of parole, life sentence without possibility of parole, List of serial killers in the United States, Cold Case Files - Sex, Lies and Murder (February 23, 2010), "Death sentence is upheld for serial killer John E. Robinson Sr.", "Authorities investigate Tomich for deaths of prostitutes", Complete Court TV coverage of "slave master" serial killer John Robinson, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Edward_Robinson&oldid=1137938651, Robinson, John E Sr (KDOC# 45690) - current status is incarcerated, This page was last edited on 7 February 2023, at 04:47. At the age of 72, serial killer Robinson currently remains on death row and could become the first convict executed by lethal injection in that state in Kansas. The frightened 22-year-old told Kansas City police that she's been locked in a basement for a month and identified 39-year-old . It is unclear whether Lewicka believed she and Robinson were married; she told her parents she had married but never told them her husband's name. In 1965, Berdella saw the film adaptation of the John Fowles novel The Collector. A viral social media post claiming a serial killer is targeting young Black girls in the Kansas City area is "completely unfounded," the Kansas City Police Department said Monday. Berdella was largely unathletic, whereas his younger brother, Daniel seven years his junior displayed an aptitude for various sports from an early age. Berdella later stated this movie had formed a lasting impression on him. Paul Howell formally identified one picture of a young man hanging upside down in Berdella's basement as depicting his son. James Ferris's wife identified him in several instant photos found at Berdella's property, some taken after her husband's death. ", "Robert Berdella: The Butcher of Kansas City, Missouri", "Talk of Reopening Serial Killer Bob Berdella's Bazaar Bizarre is Dismissed as a Hoax", "House of Horrors Shocks Residents of a Quiet Neighborhood", "Serial Murder, Psychopathy, and Objectification", "Berdella Sentenced To Life In Prison Without Parole", "Crime Watch Leader had Human Head in Yard", "Man Convicted of Murder After a Head Was Found in Garden", "Robert Berdella: The Butcher of Kansas City", "Macabre Mystery Surrounding Death of 2 Men in Kansas City", "Second Skull Found at Berdella's House Identified", "Man Convicted of Murder after a Head was Discovered in His Yard", "Missourian Admits Murders of 5 Men: Shopkeeper Now Serving Life Terms for 6 Killings in All", "Robert Berdella: Serving Six Life Sentences", "Killer Reportedly Agrees to Confess to Five Slayings", "The Kansas City Butcher: The Confession", "Berdella Criticizes Police; Insists He Does Feel Remorse", "Bob Berdella: The Butcher of Kansas City", "Police Seek Victims from Torture Photos", "Auction of Killer's Art Collection Cancelled", "Auction of Killer's Art Collection Canceled", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Berdella&oldid=1142906983, American people convicted of sexual assault, American people who died in prison custody, American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment, Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Missouri, Serial killers who died in prison custody, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2023, All articles containing potentially dated statements, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Pages using infobox criminal with motive parameter, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 4 March 2023, at 23:48. [4]:285286 Despite the brutality to which he had subjected his first three victims, Berdella claimed that Ferris was the first victim upon whom he intentionally inflicted torture. [8]:270 Towards the end of Stoops's captivity, he tried to feed his captive ice cream and soup, although Stoops "wasn't able to keep anything down". This casual friendship began when Pearson entered his shop and explained to Berdella that, as a child, he had held an interest in both witchcraft and wizardry. Her missing persons' case remains open. He promised Stasi a job and a stable living situation in Chicago in exchange for signing several sheets of blank stationery. Sometime during the summer of 1999, Lewicka disappeared. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. There, he enrolled in the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI), with aspirations of becoming a college professor. ", Robert Berdella, conversing with Christopher Bryson. Wallace willingly accepted the offer and, 30 minutes later, Berdella decided to render him captive. In both instances, he had denied having anything to do with the disappearance. In 1994, the mother and daughter moved from Fullerton, California, to Kansas City and immediately disappeared. from CA$700.00 Straight & Spiral fluting. The justices upheld his death sentence in a 415-page ruling that also addressed numerous technical arguments raised by Robinson's attorneys. As had been the case with Robert Sheldon, Berdella invited him inside his house, and, noting Wallace's acute state of tenseness and depression, volunteered to inject him with chlorpromazine with the explanation this would "calm down and relax" him. Robinson raised more than 100 issues in appealing his Kansas convictions and death sentence, including the ability of a juror in his 2002 trial to bring a Bible into deliberations. 185-189. This house, 4315 Charlotte Street, belonged to the Kansas City Butcher, one of the most deranged serial killers in history. Furthermore, Berdella confessed that the level of abuse he inflicted had increased with each successive victim, and he had viewed the Polaroid images he had taken of his victims as being a "trophy or record of the event". Among other issues, there was no unequivocal evidence that any of the murders had been committed within his jurisdiction. [19] He would remain adamant to investigators that this would be not for his enjoyment, but what he termed his "physical and mental satisfaction". A post on . He further claimed he had been demonized unfairly by the media before, during, and after his arraignments and plea bargains, and that police ineptitude had resulted in his being allowed to remain at liberty following his first murder. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [2] His crimes took place in Kansas City, Missouri, between 1984 and 1987. [7] Heather won a second judgment in 2007 preventing Robinson from profiting from any future potential book sales or film rights. [8]:271, In the spring of 1987, Berdella became friendly with a 20-year-old named Larry Wayne Pearson. He would later be temporarily placed in protective custody at the Potosi Correctional Center, due to concerns for his safety. At Berdella's home, Bryson was knocked unconscious with an iron bar, then bound to Berdella's bed, where he was subjected to similar methods of abuse and torture endured by previous victims, although in Bryson's case, Berdella repeatedly swabbed his eyes with ammonia,[23] before exclaiming to him: "The only things you need to think about are you, me, and this house. 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][4]. The investigation was terminated as Godfrey was of legal age, and there was no evidence of wrongdoing. A "suspected serial killer" has been taken into custody with the semi-automatic pistol he allegedly used in multiple slayings within weeks in the St. Louis area and in Kansas City, Kansas . Two officers were told to maintain a discreet surveillance of the property, as Bryson was driven to the Menorah Medical Center, accompanied by a third officer, for treatment as the fourth officer radioed the Kansas City Police Department (KCPD) to request a formal search warrant of the property be drafted. He noted this victim's time of death as being 7:00p.m. on June 23. "He's maintained the secrets about what he's done with the women. Simultaneously, he began to devote more of his attention to his own business as opposed to his work as a chef. [4]:261. [4]:151. 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. Show you care with a Cracker Barrel Gift Card. [46], In November 1988, auctions of Berdella's vast collection of artifacts and furniture confiscated from his home and business were held on four separate dates, with the intention that all proceeds raised at the auctions to be used to pay his mounting legal fees within then-ongoing legal proceedings. Michael H. Stone & Gary Brucato. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. [4]:258 He also informed investigators there were occasions during his final three victims' periods of captivity when he ceased making additions to his abuse logs because he assumed the victim would not "be able to make it much longer". Furthermore, Berdella confessed to having alternately buried the two victims' heads in his backyard,[26] adding that he retrieved and cleaned the first skull that of Robert Sheldon at the time he buried victim Larry Pearson's head in the same hole. All five women were killed in the same way, by one or more blows to the head with a blunt instrument. He had a speech impediment and wore thick glasses from the age of five because he was severely nearsighted. No trace of Godfrey has ever been found. John E. Robinson Sr. in 2002. Prosecutors described Robinson as a predator who trolled the Internet under the name "Slavemaster" looking for sadomasochistic sex with women. [n 8][12], In late April, the skull found inside Berdella's closet was identified via dental X-rays obtained via subpoena from the University of Kansas Medical Center as that of Robert Sheldon. He also wrote several letters to a local minister claiming that prison officials knew of his high blood pressure, yet were not providing him with his prescribed heart medication. Two days later, three more bodies were discovered in barrels in a storage locker Robinson rented in the Kansas City area. He also became acquainted with a clique of students who supplied him with drugs which he then sold to other students at a profit. CA$250.00 Attention international customers. [27] The search also uncovered several human vertebrae scarred by both hacksaw and knife marks stowed in a hallway,[4]:44 and several human teeth stowed in two envelopes. Don't try to fight me, or you'll just get more of what you had earlier. His first known victim was 19-year-old Jerry Howell. His third, noncapital conviction in Kansas was in connection with the 1985 death of Lisa Stasi, a 19-year-old who was last seen by her family with Robinson in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park. [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. [4]:277, Wallace was carried to the second floor bedroom where he endured almost a day of captivity and torture including the application of alligator clips to his nipples to facilitate electrical shocks to his body at any point at which Wallace began regressing into a state of unconsciousness. Berdella would recall that like the subsequent victims he would hold captive Howell had repeatedly pleaded for his ongoing abuse and torture to cease throughout the period of his capture, although Berdella would either ignore these pleas, taunt his victim, or threaten him. [18], Later questioned by officers investigating Howell's disappearance, Berdella claimed to have driven the youth to Merriam as promised, and that the two had parted company close to Howell's intended destination. In response, Berdella killed Pearson by first bludgeoning him into unconsciousness with a tree limb,[22] then suffocating him with a bag and ligature, before driving to the hospital to receive treatment for his wound. Although one victim (Mark Wallace) had been seized by opportunity when he had discovered him seeking shelter from a severe thunderstorm in his tool shed, his other five victims had been captured after he had unsuccessfully tried to steer them away from their general lifestyles, and had thus simply become frustrated at the failure of his efforts. They became something other than people to me. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, Following the senses of shock and disgust he claimed to have initially experienced after killing his first victim,[4]:270 the movie had resurfaced in his memory and subsequently became a motivating psychological force in the actions he exhibited against his victims in his subsequent murders. Several of these male prostitutes were also reluctant to accept him as a client both because of his penchant for drugging, injecting, and torturing his sexual partners and acquaintances, and also because he had long been considered a suspect in the disappearance of the two men whose personal possessions had been found in his house (Jerry Howell and James Ferris).[28]. For you to survive being here, and for you to, you know, make it, it could either be rough or it could be easy. [2]:4, In 1984, having established two more fraudulent shell companies, Robinson hired Paula Godfrey, aged 19, ostensibly to work as a sales representative. Robinson received the death penalty for the murders of Trouten and Lewicka, and life imprisonment for Stasi's murder because she was killed before Kansas reinstated the death penalty. An early online correspondent was Sheila Faith, aged 45, whose 15-year-old daughter Debbie was a wheelchair user due to spina bifida. [21], Following the submission and acceptance of this plea, the judge insisted that Berdella confess under oath as to Pearson's death. In addition to these disclosures, Kellogg was able to name three of the men depicted in the Polaroids as being Todd Stoops, Robert Sheldon, and Larry Wayne Pearson. [4]:312, After six weeks of captivity, Pearson deeply bit into Berdella's penis before screaming he could not continue to tolerate his ongoing poor treatment. [4]:33[n 7]. [15] This store was named Bob's Bazaar Bizarre,[16][10] and primarily sold and traded primitive art, jewelry, and antiques. 2" Stainless Steel Barrel blank. [4]:80 According to Berdella, he plied Howell with alcohol, Valium and acepromazine both in his car and at his house until the youth became unconscious. [4]:166 The same day a dental identification was made upon Sheldon's skull, two men separately phoned the Kansas City Police Department to state one of seven unidentified young men depicted in a photographic array released to the media on April 27 was a former high school acquaintance of theirs named Mark Wallace. She was initially considered a possible victim but was later identified as Lois Tomich, who police believe was killed by her ex-husband. 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. Stasi was never heard from again. [6], In 2005, Nancy Robinson filed for divorce after forty-one years of marriage, citing incompatibility and irreconcilable differences. By 1981 he had established several contractual agreements with both national and international contacts for his own antiques business. One of those traced, a young man named Freddie Kellogg, was able to state to detectives he and several other young men had intermittently lodged with Berdella since the early 1980s, and that Berdella had been in the habit of plying his lodgers with drugs typically intravenously before engaging in sex with them regardless of whether they consented or not. [4]:231 He initially operated this side business from his home. The ruling marked the first time Kansas's highest court has upheld a death sentence since the reinstatement of capital punishment there in 1994. [21] According to Berdella, he did not initially intend to capture Pearson, but began forming the plan to do so on June 23, two weeks after having bailed Pearson out of jail and noting Pearsonin the weeks prior to his captivitydisplayed little interest in finding a job. Born Robert Andrew Berdella Jr. on January 31, 1949, in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, the man who would become this terrifying killer grew up in a deeply religious Roman Catholic family in the early 1950s. To all concerned, he attempted to restore his image as a "sensitive citizen" who had simply "made mistakes" in committing his crimes. File photo The Kansas City Star John E. Robinson Sr., the. [5], Between 1987 to 1993, Robinson was incarcerated, first in Kansas (19871991) on multiple fraud convictions and later in Missouri for another fraud conviction and parole violations. He then suspended Howell's body above a large cooking pot and made several incisions to the youth's inner elbows and jugular vein, before leaving the body suspended in this position overnight to allow the blood to drain from his corpse. [9][10], Kansas and Missouri police note that long stretches of Robinson's time remain unaccounted for, and fear that there are additional undiscovered victims. [25] Berdella had kept him bound to a bed on the second floor of the house throughout much of the time he had been held against his will, repeatedly sodomizing him, drugging him, and injecting his throat with drain cleaner to diminish his ability to speak loudly. This task force extensively researched Berdella's history, discovering that he was well-known among Kansas City's male hustlers, having earned a reputation for preying on transient young men. When she moved to Kansas City, Robinson (who was still married) gave Lewicka an engagement ring and brought her to the county registrar, where they paid for a marriage license that was never picked up. [4]:9495 These investigators would shortly discover Berdella had paid a $30 fee to secure a bond for Pearson in June 1987 (the equivalent of about $78 as of 2023[update]),[12] and that no further records existed to indicate Pearson was still alive. In 1961, Robinson enrolled at Morton Junior College in Cicero to become a medical radiographer, but dropped out after two years. [4]:233, By the time of Berdella's arrest, he had abducted, tortured, and murdered at least six young men (although the KCPD suspect Berdella of involvement in two other disappearances). He was 43 years old. In a video that went viral on TikTok and other platforms, a man claimed that four Black girls . [n 1] He began spending much of his free time with male prostitutes, drug addicts, petty criminals, and runaways. [1], Because he made contact with most of his post-1993 victims via online chatrooms, Robinson is sometimes referred to as "the Internet's first serial killer". After hearing nothing further from her, Godfrey's parents filed a missing persons report. He was sentenced to three years' probation. He helped start a neighborhood watch program, had worked as a chef, and ran his own booth at the . Legal Statement. The unnamed victim still had a collar with a padlock around her neck that was later removed by police. Getty Aerial view of suspected serial killer John Edward Robinson Sr.'s home June 6, 2000 in Linn County, Kansas . Bryson would also testify in person at an initial, pretrial hearing on June 9. In addition, despite the fact that more than twenty different men were depicted in postures suggesting unconsciousness or death within the 334 Polaroid images and thirty-four snapshot prints seized from 4315 Charlotte Street following his arrest, Berdella was adamant that the six men identified as victims and whom he had confessed to killing were the only ones that he murdered.[11]. For several years, Bonner's mother continued forwarding her alimony checks and Robinson continued cashing them. John Robinson's Family Described Him As Loving & Involved With the Family. The Bloody Benders - Serial Killers of Kansas. According to Berdella, one hour after his "experimenting" with hypodermic needles by inserting them into various muscles upon his victim's back, Mark Wallace died through a combination of "the drugs, the gag, and the lack of oxygen". Throughout this period of captivity, Berdella repeatedly drugged, tortured, raped and violated him with foreign objects,[4]:258 repeatedly ignoring Howell's intermittent questioning as to why he was being treated in this manner, and pleas to be freed before, according to Berdella, Jerry "either asphyxiated on [his own] vomit, or the combination of the gag and the medicines were too strong for him to be able to catch breath". [20] According to Berdella, although Sheldon was responsible in paying rent, he considered him "an inconvenience" and, although he was not physically attracted to this victim, chose to drug and hold him captive on April 12 when he returned home from work to find Sheldon intoxicated in his home. In 1971, he was arrested for embezzling funds and was ordered back to Kansas City, where his probation was extended. Nonetheless, in his early teens he briefly had a girlfriend. [4]:13, At 1:00a.m. on March 29, 1988, Berdella abducted his last victim, a 22-year-old male prostitute named Christopher Bryson, whom he lured to his house upon the promise of payment for sex. [4]:57, At his work premises, Berdella became acquainted with a fellow merchant named Paul Howell, who operated a booth adjacent to his own. Later, Robinson told Trouten's mother that she had run off with an acquaintance after stealing money from him. Also in the room was an electrical transformer, plugged into a wall, and with wires leading to the bed. In 2007, Heather and the hospital reached a settlement for an undisclosed sum, which Heather said she would split with her biological grandmother, Patricia Sylvester.