[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. Berdella later stated this movie had formed a lasting impression on him. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. 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. [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. K.S. Sheldon was drugged with sedatives and held captive in the second floor bedroom for three days, enduring forms of torture such as the swabbing of drain cleaner in his left eye,[4]:266 the insertion of needles beneath his fingertips,[4]:268 the binding of his wrists with piano wire with the intention of permanently damaging the nerves in his hands,[4]:271 and filling his ears with caulking to reduce his hearing capacity. No trace of Godfrey has ever been found. (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. [17], Howell was restrained to Berdella's bed for a period of approximately 28 hours. James Ferris's wife identified him in several instant photos found at Berdella's property, some taken after her husband's death. [37] His victims, he stated to investigators, had lost any degree of humanity in his eyes once he had chosen to render them captive. 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. 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]. They found three similar chemical drums containing corpses subsequently identified as Bonner, Faith, and Faith's daughter. Arms Ltd. 7804371090 ksarmssales@telus.net. John Robinson meets the queen of England. [8], 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 suspect that more victims remain undiscovered. 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. 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. [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. He then injected Howell with a heavy tranquilizer before binding the youth to his bed. [11] Also found in the room were a long iron pipe, various lengths of rope, and leather belts. As several of these images depicted a section of the body of the photographer, on April 13, Berdella was ordered to pose nude for a series of photographs in order that portions of his body could be photographed in the precise angle depicted within these images for comparison with the original Polaroid images. The family regularly attended Mass, and both sons regularly attended religious education courses. Shortly thereafter, Pearson temporarily lodged with Berdella, and willingly performed chores around his home as a means of paying rent. [3], By then, Robinson had discovered the Internet and roamed online chatrooms using the name "Slavemaster," looking for women who enjoyed playing the submissive partner role during sex. March 29, 1988. [11] In spite of this condition of his living with Berdella, Kellogg further stated that numerous male prostitutes and addicts had been reluctant to engage in any form of contact with Berdella because of rumors regarding his links to the 1984 disappearance of Jerry Howell. Robinson told a web designer he employed that she had been caught smoking marijuana and deported. [29] Prosecutors had gathered sufficient circumstantial evidence to accompany the physical evidence retrieved. [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. Other entries such as "gag loose, no resist in retie" or "very delayed breathing, snoring" were more self-explanatory. [4]:353 Berdella sought solace in his Catholicism and later read extensively about many faiths but eventually became cynical about all religion. 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. 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." 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. At the age of 14, in a rather . [4]:17, Questioned at the scene by four officers, Bryson initially claimed he had been hitchhiking when abducted by Berdella, who had kidnapped, raped, and tortured him for four days before he escaped by jumping from a window on the second floor of the property. Don't try to fight me, or you'll just get more of what you had earlier. (AP Photo/Matthew S. Hicks, Pool). 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'. Simultaneously, he began to devote more of his attention to his own business as opposed to his work as a chef. The letters were, her mother said, uncharacteristically free of typographical errors. John Robinson's Family Described Him As Loving & Involved With the Family. 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. List of serial killers in the United States, List of serial killers by number of victims, "Berdella Doesn't Want to Discuss Crimes: Convicted in Dismemberments, He Cites Concerns for His Relatives, Lawsuits", "Robert A. Berdella, Already Convicted of One Count of First-Degree Murder, Pleads Guilty to A Second Charge", "Kansas City Sicko Kept Detailed Diary, Photos of Sex Torture, Bondage and Murder", "Robert Berdella: Madman or Just Murderer? You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! Despite being considered a prime suspect in both cases, and being placed under surveillance, police had been unable to find any solid evidence linking him to either man's disappearance, and in both instances, after giving his initial statement to police, Berdella had indignantly refused to talk further without a lawyer present. The house belonged to Robert Berdella, the man who would soon become known as Kansas City's most notorious serial killer. On Oct. 7, a Black woman escaped from a home in Excelsior Springs a city just north-east of Kansas City. Robinson is known to be responsible for eight homicides, but his total victim tally remains unknown. '", Robert Berdella, describing how he viewed his victims once he had decided to render them captive. [4]:8182, Berdella is believed to have killed his first victim on July 5, 1984. Three days after Berdella had begun holding Sheldon captive, on April15, a workman came to perform some scheduled work on the roof of his home, leading Berdella to choose to fatally suffocate Sheldon by placing a sack over his head, which he then tightened with a piece of rope. Among other issues, there was no unequivocal evidence that any of the murders had been committed within his jurisdiction. Nonetheless, investigators did discover that, in August 1987, Berdella had filed an assault report from a hospital room in which he alleged a man named "Larry Person" had deeply bitten his penis during oral sex, causing a serious laceration. CA$250.00 Attention international customers. Alarming social media posts warning of a Kansas City serial killer are untrue, according to police. [4]:261. He was arrested in June 2000 at his farm near La Cygne, Kansas, after a woman filed a sexual battery complaint against him and another charged him with stealing her sex toys. At 37 years old, Diamond Blair . For example, at one point in relation to victim James Ferris, Berdella had written an entry reading: "2 1/2 ket nk + shoulder" to indicate he had injected 2.2 cubic centimeters of ketamine into his victim's neck and shoulder. He also engaged in acts of animal torture on at least two occasions; during one of these instances, he decapitated a duck in the presence of his peers, and in the second instance, he experimented with sedatives and tranquilizers on a dog. Medical staff determined his heart was unstable and called an ambulance. The rumor . [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". In addition, he began regularly abusing alcohol. Woman Wins Lawsuit to Halt Profit Sought by Man Who Killed Her Mother. A Kansas serial killer convicted of murdered several women and stuffing some of their bodies into barrel appealed his case to the Kansas Supreme Court Tuesday. [1] The theft charge finally gave investigators the probable cause they needed to obtain search warrants. In a video that went viral on TikTok and other platforms, a man claimed that four Black girls . His first known victim was 19-year-old Jerry Howell. When asked if he performed this act deliberately, and with malice aforethought, Berdella simply stated, "Yes. Entries reading "EK" or "EKG" referred to torture administered to his captives with electrical shocks, whereas several other entries contained the anatomical location where Berdella administered the abuse or torture to his victims. [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). Bizzarrepedia Serial Killers Internet's First Serial Killer "The Slavemester" [2]:9, In 2002, Robinson stood trial in Kansas for the murders of Trouten, Lewicka, and Stasi along with multiple lesser charges. [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. Her missing persons' case remains open. The following is a chronological summary of the victims identified thus far: Robinson's criminal activities were also profiled on episodes of the A&E series Cold Case Files,[1] Investigation Discovery's FBI: Criminal Pursuit, Sins & Secrets, Vanity Fair Confidential, It Takes a Killer, and Deadly Doctors, as well as Forensic Files, and The New Detectives on the Discovery Channel. Investigators had until 07:30 on April 3 to compile sufficient evidence to formulate either an, When formal murder by dismemberment charges were filed against Berdella, his bail sum was increased to $750,000 (the equivalent of approximately $1,887,400 as of 2023. Two days later, three more bodies were discovered in barrels in a storage locker Robinson rented in the Kansas City area. Bender Mounds, Kansas by Kathy Alexander. [7][unreliable source? 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. To all concerned, he attempted to restore his image as a "sensitive citizen" who had simply "made mistakes" in committing his crimes. In this testimony, Berdella claimed the movie he had first seen in 1965, The Collector, had left a major impression on him. Hours. [4]:266. [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. Throughout his studies in high school, he had earned such excellent grades and displayed such potential that in 1966, one teacher had placed him in an independent study program. 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. "[4]:15, By the third day of his capture, Bryson had earned sufficient trust from Berdella to persuade him to establish a daily regime of tying his hands in front of him after his sexual abuse rather than above his head and to the bed upon the excuse that Berdella's doing so was restricting the circulation to his arms; he had also persuaded Berdella to leave a television on within the room, with the remote control placed between his legs whenever Berdella was out of the room. [21], Following the submission and acceptance of this plea, the judge insisted that Berdella confess under oath as to Pearson's death. Robinson became a Scoutmaster, a baseball coach, and a Sunday school teacher. He had a speech impediment and wore thick glasses from the age of five because he was severely nearsighted. [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. Only Berdella referred to James Ferris by his given first name, Walter. The property was later demolished. Police questioned Robinson, who denied any knowledge of her whereabouts. As Pearson had once been a ward of the court in Wichita, his dental records were discovered and compared with the skull found in Berdella's backyard. [2]:6, Robinson became well known in increasingly popular BDSM chatrooms. [4]:270, On April 10, 1985, an itinerant former lodger, 20-year-old Robert Sheldon, arrived on Berdella's doorstep, asking if he could again stay at his house for a short period of time. [4]:281, On September 26, 1985, Berdella answered a phone call from an acquaintance named James Ferris,[n 3] who asked to stay at Berdella's home for a short time. [18], Shortly after, the judge at his trial, Alvin Randall, was informed of Berdella's death. [5] He died of a heart attack while incarcerated at the Missouri State Penitentiary in October 1992. KANSAS CITY, Mo. [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. Paul Howell formally identified one picture of a young man hanging upside down in Berdella's basement as depicting his son. [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". Berdella used electrical shocks through Stoops's closed eyes in an attempt to blind him and injected drain cleaner into his larynx to try to silence his screaming. [3], After completing his probation in 1979, Robinson was arrested for embezzlement and check forgery, for which he served sixty days in jail in 1982. About Us. 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. One other method of torture was the insertion of needles beneath their fingernails. His family had also moved into an apartment above the shop. Updated: Sep 26, 2022 / 12:25 PM CDT. [4]:259261 The following day, he dismembered Howell's body using a chainsaw and boning knives, before wrapping the sections in newspaper and trash bags. Shortly after his release from hospital and further questioning by the KCPD, Christopher Bryson lapsed into cocaine abuse. Right now John E. Robinson is in his 70s, sitting on death row in Kansas. Berdella also volunteered at fundraising events for a local public television station until the mid-1980s.[14]. Prior to his arrest, Berdella was that serial killer clich, someone neighbors described as a nice man who kept to himself. Robert Berdella was born on January 31, 1949, in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio,[4]:45 the first of two sons born to Robert Andrew Berdella Sr., a die setter for the Ford Motor Company, and Mary Louise (ne Huffman) Berdella. 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]. [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. From 1974 to 1991, Rader committed many incredibly brutal murders, some of which wiped out entire families. [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. From approximately 1965, he would begin avidly collecting these artifacts; this practice would later inspire him to open his own antiques business in 1982. I never thought it out to the level of: 'What if one of these bodies ever gets loose? She was initially considered a possible victim but was later identified as Lois Tomich, who police believe was killed by her ex-husband. [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. "[4]:323 Berdella removed the teeth from this skull and stowed them inside envelopes in the same room. [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. [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. To his neighbors, Berdella was considered to be flamboyant yet helpful and civic-minded, despite the generally unkempt state of his property and his somewhat haughty attitude. [2]:15 Robinson received a life sentence without possibility of parole for each of the five murders. Over the course of those years, he killed eight women and two men via strangulation, suffocation, stabbing, or hanging. [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. After the longest criminal trial in Kansas history,[6] he was convicted on all counts. [2], John Robinson was born in Cicero, Illinois, the third of five children of an alcoholic father and a disciplinarian mother. Market data provided by Factset. "There are [probably] other barrels waiting to be opened, other bodies waiting to be found."[1]. Last week Diamond Blair, nephew of serial killer Terry Blair, was convicted of second-degree murder. It has been almost 15 years since a stream of crimson liquid, oozing from a metal barrel, revealed a serial killer's grisly handiwork. Berdella entered this plea of guilty at his, Berdella's identification of the two human heads upon his property had by this stage been corroborated by. [32] In this plea bargain, Berdella agreed to confess in graphic detail as to whom he had killed, what indignities he had subjected each victim, how he had killed each victim, and what he had done with their bodies. Kansas Supreme Court upholds death sentence for serial killer John E. Robinson Sr. Zach Murdock 816-234-4153 Zach Murdock covers Johnson County for The Kansas City Star. 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. Shortly thereafter, investigators discovered that photograph "D" released to the media in this same array was one Larry Wayne Pearson.
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