File photo The Kansas City Star John E. Robinson Sr., the. Don't try to fight me, or you'll just get more of what you had earlier. The investigation was terminated as Godfrey was of legal age, and there was no evidence of wrongdoing. This more detailed questioning occurred after Bryson had been released from the Menorah Medical Center, after he had undergone several days of treatment for his injuries.
Kansas City 'Serial Killer' Rumor Is 'Completely Unfounded,' Say Police In 1994, the mother and daughter moved from Fullerton, California, to Kansas City and immediately disappeared. Bob Berdella, the Kansas City Butcher, might have been viewed as an odd man by neighbors, but no one ever suspected that he was responsible for raping, torturing, and murdering seven men in 1980s Kansas City. In 1999, he offered a job and a bondage relationship to Izabela Lewicka, a 21-year-old Polish immigrant living in Indiana. In addition, he began regularly abusing alcohol. Robinson, who has never cooperated with investigators, refused. Robinson, 72,. [7][unreliable source? [2]:9, Over time, Robinson became increasingly careless, and his ability to avoid detection declined. [4]:307,309, On the afternoon of June 23, Berdella and Pearson watched the movie Creepshow 2 together before eating lunch. [1], Bryson then managed to escape from the house by jumping from a second floor window, wearing nothing besides a dog collar around his neck, breaking a bone in his foot in the process; he then ran toward a meter reader walking across the other side of the street, shouting for them to call the police. 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. One other method of torture was the insertion of needles beneath their fingernails. [14] He remained active in the association until the mid-1980s, when he relinquished his position. He also became acquainted with a clique of students who supplied him with drugs which he then sold to other students at a profit. [4]:46 In his first year at the KCAI, Berdella was considered an attentive and talented student, although by his second year, Berdella became vocally anti-authoritarian. On September 25, the Kansas City Defender, a non-profit newsroom, posted a TikTok of Bishop Tony Caldwell, a local community leader, claiming "there is a serial killer currently on the loose in Kansas City" and that four Black women had been murdered and three others went missing from Prospect Avenue in the last week. [4]:57, At his work premises, Berdella became acquainted with a fellow merchant named Paul Howell, who operated a booth adjacent to his own. 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". The discovery of a woman's body stuffed inside that. [4]:300, The methods of torture exhibited against his victims had included the administration of high-voltage electrical shocks, starvation, the application of alkali-based detergents to their throats, vocal cords, or eyes, and the bludgeoning of their hands with the intention of rendering these body parts unusable. Consequently, their bodies were never recovered. It's the last control he's got," said one investigator. [4]:307 That evening, Berdella ensured Pearson became intoxicated before injecting him with chlorpromazine and moving him down to his basement, where he bound Pearson's hands above his head, then linked the rope he had used for this purpose to a brick column, before injecting Pearson's larynx with drain cleaner. [4]:269, Berdella confessed that many of the abbreviated entries within his torture logs were simply shorthand terms for methods of abuse he had inflicted upon his victims, whereas others would describe either their reactions to these ongoing acts of abuse and torture, or his initial observations upon viewing them when he entered the room where he had kept them restrained. Berdella would typically befriend these individuals, then try to help free them from their drug addictions or criminal lifestyles, although he was adamant that, throughout much of the 1970s, he had no physical contact whatsoever with any of them. [n 11] In addition, he vehemently denied media rumors that he had been engaged in any form of satanism, or that he had sold sections of his victims' bodies at his flea market booth. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. "[32] He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. In June 1967, Graham reported to the Kansas City police that Robinson had embezzled about $33,000 from him by manipulating checks and deposits. [7], 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. 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. With the state's assistance, he would complete a drug rehabilitation program. [2]:15 Robinson received a life sentence without possibility of parole for each of the five murders. [n 6], On the afternoon of Bryson's escape, Berdella was arrested on charges pertaining to the sexual assault of Christopher Bryson. [n 9], On July 22, 1988, a grand jury formally indicted Berdella for the murder of Larry Wayne Pearson. 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]. When asked if he performed this act deliberately, and with malice aforethought, Berdella simply stated, "Yes. ", After several days, Berdella explained to Bryson he had begun to "trust" his captive, and that although he was willing to discuss aspects of the abuse and torture he was receiving, there would be no negotiations pertaining to his sexual abuse. Logan, C. (26 May 2007). Serial killer John Edward Robinson is on death row in Kansas City, Kansas. It has been almost 15 years since a stream of crimson liquid, oozing from a metal barrel, revealed a serial killer's grisly handiwork. Stasi was never heard from again. [4]:316317 An interview with Robert Sheldon's employers at a Kansas City manufacturing plant had confirmed the young man had been a reliable employee of theirs, but that he had suddenly ceased attending work in April 1985. When a detective contacted Wallace's sister, she stated her brother had been missing since mid-1985. A few days later, Robinson contacted his brother Don and sister-in-law, Helen, who had been unable to adopt a baby through traditional channels, informing them that he knew of a baby whose mother had killed herself. Luminol tests revealed that the floor of Berdella's basement, and two plastic trash barrels, were extensively bloodstained. He formally pleaded guilty to each of these charges before Judge Robert Meyers in the Jackson County Circuit Court. The ruling in the case of John E. Robinson Sr. -- accused of killing seven women and a teenage girl in Kansas and Missouri -- marked the first time that Kansas' high court has upheld a death sentence since the state reinstated capital punishment in 1994. [2]:6, Robinson became well known in increasingly popular BDSM chatrooms. From approximately 1965, he would begin avidly collecting these artifacts; this practice would later inspire him to open his own antiques business in 1982. He promised Stasi a job and a stable living situation in Chicago in exchange for signing several sheets of blank stationery. Officers also discovered a stenographer's pad containing the detailed torture logs he had maintained for each victim above a chest of drawers,[4]:37 several newspaper clippings from The Kansas City Star regarding a missing young man named Jerry Howell, and both a wallet and a driving license belonging to a missing person named James Ferris was discovered in a closet on the second floor of the property. Should Berdella ever discover any of them was a police informant, he would use this knowledge for blackmail. 7920 NW Tiffany Springs Pkwy., I-29 & Tiffany Springs Pkwy., Kansas City, MO, 64153-2310. Roger Coleman, relaying his distress pertaining to staff at the Missouri State Penitentiary withholding his heart medication. 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. Police say there is no truth to a rumor about a serial killer that is circulating on social media in the Kansas City area. [7] The following year, Stasi's daughterknown since her (faked) adoption as Heather Robinsonfiled a civil suit against Truman Medical Center in Kansas City and social worker Karen Gaddis. Missing person reports had been filed in relation to both these men, and Berdella had been extensively questioned in relation to both of these disappearances. Shortly thereafter, investigators discovered that photograph "D" released to the media in this same array was one Larry Wayne Pearson. He tersely explained his successive actions to investigators on December 14 with the statement that he was "capturing them first, and what developed, developed." Prior to his arrest, Berdella was that serial killer clich, someone neighbors described as a nice man who kept to himself.
Despite these later claims to investigators, Berdella would often engage in sexual relations with the men he befriended, and would establish a degree of control over them in part to engage in these sexual relations via methods such as loaning them money and allowing them to live rent free at his house for periods of time. 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. [31] In response to questioning by his attorneys, Berdella stated: "I put a plastic bag over his head, and tied it with rope and allowed him to suffocate." [11] Also found in the room were a long iron pipe, various lengths of rope, and leather belts. In both instances, he had denied having anything to do with the disappearance. Right now John E. Robinson is in his 70s, sitting on death row in Kansas. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering appeals in three such cases, including those of brothers Jonathan and Reginald Carr, who were convicted of dozens of crimes leading up to the murders of four people in a snow-covered soccer field in Wichita in December 2000. 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. [11], Despite initially pleading not guilty to the remaining five murder charges on September 13, 1988,[34][35] with the agreement of his two defense attorneys, Berdella ultimately conducted a plea bargain with the prosecutors to avoid the death penalty in these remaining charges. [2]:9, Across the state line in Missouri, investigators searched a storage facility where Robinson rented two garages. [11] The following month, he was arraigned and pleaded guilty in the 4th Circuit of the Jackson County Court before Judge Alvin C. Randall to the first-degree murder of Larry Pearson. John Robinson, one of the most infamous serial killers of recent times, is the subject of the episode titled "Sole Survivor," on ABC's journalistic and true crime show '20/20'.
Serial Killer J. R. Robinson's Sinister Alter Ego | Vanity Fair The ruling marked the first time Kansas's highest court has upheld a death sentence since the reinstatement of capital punishment there in 1994. 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". Bizzarrepedia Serial Killers Internet's First Serial Killer "The Slavemester" 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. [28] He would later have his lawyer threaten to file harassment accusations against police unless their questioning and surveillance of him ceased. Investigators also noted that posts on the bed had been extensively worn, suggesting that restraints had earlier been tied to these posts, and that the individual or individuals had struggled to free themselves. [10], Shortly after the death of Berdella's father, his mother remarried; an action which was met with resentment by Berdella, who viewed the move as a form of betrayal against his father. [4]:47. Legal Statement. [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. By the final day of his captivity, Stoops was so weak Berdella later stated he had been unable "to breathe in a sitting position". By his mid-teens, Berdella had begun to display a degree of self-confidence, becoming rude and condescending to others, particularly women. 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. Later, Robinson told Trouten's mother that she had run off with an acquaintance after stealing money from him. [4]:16 The following day, he managed to break free of his restraints by burning through them using a book of matches Berdella had inadvertently left in the room and within his reach when he had left the house to go to his place of work. In his subsequent confessions to investigators, Berdella stated he had dismembered the bodies of Sheldon, Wallace, Ferris, and Stoops in the bathtub in his third floor bathroom, whereas the bodies of Howell and Pearson had been dismembered in his basement. 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. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Berdella also volunteered at fundraising events for a local public television station until the mid-1980s.[14]. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. [2], John Robinson was born in Cicero, Illinois, the third of five children of an alcoholic father and a disciplinarian mother. James Ferris's wife identified him in several instant photos found at Berdella's property, some taken after her husband's death. [30][n 10] The plea was entered following a late-morning recess in the arraignment hearing into this particular murder, and came as a surprise to both the judge, and prosecuting attorneys. Under that guise, he hosted an awards luncheon in his honor. [4]:289[10], Todd Stoops was a 23-year-old drug addict and occasional prostitute who, alongside his wife, had twice lived briefly at Berdella's house in 1984. [4]:36 The search also uncovered numerous restraints and sexual devices; pornographic literature; hypodermic needles; and a book on narcotics. 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. All five women were killed in the same way, by one or more blows to the head with a blunt instrument. [4] He learned about cooking and art and developed showmanship. [4]:2425, During later questioning at the KCPD,[n 5] Bryson divulged that his captor had shown him Polaroid images of men who appeared to be deceased,[4]:20 and that he was told that he would never leave the property and that if he became a nuisance or threat, he would either be subjected to greater levels of torture than what he had already endured, or simply killed. [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". On the farm, a task force found the decaying bodies of two women, later identified as Lewicka and Trouten, in two 85-pound (39kg) chemical drums. Once Kansas declared itself with the Union and the Civil War began, the . Medical staff determined his heart was unstable and called an ambulance.
The Kansas Homestead Where America's First Serial Killer Family [2]:4, In 1987, Catherine Clampitt, aged 27, left her child with her parents in Wichita Falls, Texas, and moved to Kansas City to find employment. 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 . Robinson told a web designer he employed that she had been caught smoking marijuana and deported. [45] Moreover, despite his claims to journalists whom he had contacted in the years of his incarceration, Berdella never expressed any degree of remorse for his actions and tersely referred to his victims as "play toys" in an interview he granted shortly before his death. [3] The following year, he violated probation by moving to Chicago without his probation officer's permission and gained a job as an insurance salesman at the R.B. [2], In 1985, using the name John Osborne, Robinson met Lisa Stasi and her four-month-old daughter, Tiffany, at a women's shelter in Kansas City. 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]. Robinson, now 71, was sentenced to life in prison for killing four other women and a teenage girl in Missouri. Sometime during the summer of 1999, Lewicka disappeared. 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.
Death sentence is upheld for serial killer John E. Robinson Sr. The Blair family is a well-known crime family in Kansas City. 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. Updated: Sep 26, 2022 / 12:25 PM CDT. Simultaneously, he began to devote more of his attention to his own business as opposed to his work as a chef. Alarming social media posts warning of a Kansas City serial killer are untrue, according to police. 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, receiving the death penalty for two of them. [6] These pictures showed Christopher Bryson and several other men both in life and in death, and many of the images had been taken as the subjects had been tortured. [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. He was assigned a temporary public defender as his legal representative, and held in protective custody in a Jackson County jail in lieu of $500,000 bail (the equivalent of approximately $1,258,200 as of 2023[update]). Before Friday's ruling, the court had faced criticism over the number of death sentences it had overturned. 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. Upon being sentenced, Berdella was transferred to the Missouri State Penitentiary, to commence his life sentence. [3], Describing his murders as being "some of my darkest fantasies becoming my reality",[4]:264 Berdella pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for the first-degree murder of one of his victims, Larry Pearson, in August 1988, and would later plead guilty to one further charge of first-degree murder, and four charges of second-degree murder in December 1988.