Happy True Crime Thursday my fellow True Crimers!
Today I am going to talk about a serial killer that I feel isn't well known.
It all came to an end for John Edward Robinson the day that police found multiple 85 gallon chemical drums...and it wasn't chemicals that they discovered inside.
John Robinson was born on December 27, 1943 in Cicero, Illinois to Henry and Alberta, he was the 3rd out of 5 children. His father was an alcoholic and his mother was a disciplinarian. In 1957 John became an Eagle Scout and then enrolled at Quigley Preparatory Seminary in Chicago, it was a private boys school for aspiring priests. After a year he dropped out due to disciplinary issues. In 1961 He went to Morton Junior College In Cicero in the hopes of becoming a Medical X-ray Technician, but again he dropped out after 2 years. In 1964 he moved to Kansas City where he met and married Nancy Jo Lynch. They had their 1st Son, John Jr. in 1965 and then twins Christopher and Christine in 1971.
On top of being a husband and father, John was also seasoned con man and a habitual liar. His first arrest in life was in 1967 when he was charged with embezzling over $30,000, he only received a sentence of 3 months probation. The next job he had he was fired for stealing and then in 1970 he was fired for another theft. This is when John and his wife moved back to the Chicago area. Not really for a fresh clean slate, but to continue the same ol' story. He was fired when his new employers discovered he had embezzled over $5,000 from them. John's father lent him the money to pay people back once he was caught so he was able to fly under police radar that way.
The family moved yet again, back to Kansas City where John wanted to start his own business, this involved handling other institutions finances...you can probably see where this is going. John was arrested in 1976 for embezzlement, but again was only put on probation. When his family moved to Johnson County, Kansas in 1977 the neighbors just thought of John as a successful entrepreneur. Well in 1980 John was arrested for forgery and embezzlement (shocker...i know) he spent a whole 60 days in jail for it.
Well at least he was a great family man right? Not so much. He was living a double life no one knew of. He had multiple affairs with different women and was into a little thing called S&M. He was apparently apart of a sadomasochistic cult and was known as the "Slave master" Lovely. Soon his dark fantasies would turn into reality.
In 1984, John hired a 19 year old woman by the name of Paula Godfrey to work for him. He informed Paula that he would need to send her to Texas for training. It wasn't long until her family filed a missing persons report, Paula had went missing without a trace and with no one had heard from her. Then just days after filing the report the family got a signed letter in the mail from Paula, letting them know she was just fine, but she just didn't want any contact with her family. This didn't make sense to them, but since she was an adult the police dropped it. To this day there has been no trace of Paula.
About a year later John came up with a new business venture so to speak. He went to the Kansas City Truman Medical Center under a fake name and told the Social Workers there that he ran a organization that helped unwed, pregnant and new moms. They put him in contact with Lisa Stasi, who was a single mom and struggling. John promised her a job and told her that it would require her to go to training in Chicago and Denver. He put her up in a hotel and before she left for "training" John had her sign 4 blank sheets of paper and asked for the addresses of her relatives so he could inform them of her leaving for job training. Lisa shortly after went missing.
What happened to her baby you might ask? Well this is where it get crazy, the baby ended up going to Johns Brother and Sister-in-law. John had come up with this story that the mom had committed suicide, John's brother had been trying to adopt so they gladly received the little girl thinking that it was a legit adoption. They signed paperwork and even paid John for the adoption fees. Let that sink in for a minute...this is now technically his niece.
You can sense a pattern here with John, when he has a plan that seems to work for him he sticks to it. He continued his ruse for years, luring in young women. When the 1990's rolled around he decided to switch things up a bit. He decided to join the online world, of course he kept his name of "Slave master" as he stalked the web looking for women who would enjoy being in a submissive role during sex. This is where he met Sheila Faith from California, he was able to convince her to relocate to Kansas City so he could help her out with her disabled 15-year old daughter's medical bills. When they moved out there, no one ever saw them again. Johns charming ways continued to lure more women into moving to Kansas.
By the end of the 1999, police soon were finding one common link to all these missing women, their link was John Robinson. They were highly suspicious of him, but didn't have hard evidence he had committed any crime. Soon an opportunity would present itself to police.
John went to trial in 2002 for the murders of, Beverly Bonner, Sheila Faith and her daughter Debbie, Izabela Lewicka and Suzette Troute (the remains found) as well as Paula Godfrey, Lisa Stasi and Catherine Clampitt. They believe that his victim count was probably much higher than this, but didn't have the proof.
John Robinson is currently on death row at the El Dorado Correctional Facility in Kansas.
Resources:
https://didyouknowfacts.com/slavemaster-murders-john-robinson/
https://murderpedia.org/male.R/r/robinson-john-edward.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Edward_Robinson
https://murderpedia.org/male.R/r/robinson-john-edward.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Edward_Robinson
