Slavemaster Killings June 2000
We've grown up with cartoons, we know that robbers wear stripe shirts and have black eye masks and that dangerous men have unshaven square jaws and big wide shoulders and so we are confident that we can recognise them a mile away.
We decided to include these news reports just to remind people that dangerous people are not actually as obvious as their cartoon counterparts. The man in this report seemed a normal family man to his family and obviously came across as a decent and safe person to the women he chatted to on the internet .... but he wasn't!.
'Barrel Killer' Suspect's Double Life
Caring Father Also Deadly S&M 'Slavemaster,' Say Prosecutors
June 10, 2000
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) -- Even to the neighbors who shared their garden vegetables with John Edward Robinson and saw him working in his yard and doting on his grandchildren, there were disturbing things they couldn't help noticing.
There was the surveillance camera he installed on his home, facing the street, and tense arguments between the 56-year-old Robinson and his wife. There were allegations he propositioned some neighbors for sex, and there were often barrels and loading tools in his truck.
Over the past week, authorities have colored in that picture with sinister details, including a criminal record. Court records show that he was sentenced to prison in 1985 for violation of probation, but an appeals panel freed him because authorities had concealed a witness who accused him of assault.
Officials say Robinson trolled the Internet for sadomasochistic sex under the name "slavemaster" and may be connected to the deaths or disappearance of at least nine people, including five women who were bludgeoned to death and stuffed in barrels.
No murder charges
While Robinson's lawyer has said his client is innocent and is unfairly being branded a serial killer, prosecutors have said their case against Robinson continues to grow. No murder charges have been brought against him.
"We don't want to believe that he's done this," said one neighbor in this Kansas City suburb, Sara Khamsihong, "but we're going to have to."
Robinson was arrested June 2 at his home at Santa Barbara Estates, a quiet, tree-lined mobile home park managed by his wife in Olathe. He was charged with sexually assaulting two women at hotels in the area and held on $5 million bail.
The two women -- including a Texas psychologist who came to Kansas for an S&M encounter with Robinson in April -- told authorities they objected to his photographing them and said he brutalized them in a way that went beyond what they intended.
Bodies and more bodies
Armed with evidence from Robinson's arrest in those cases, detectives went to a 16-acre piece of land he owns in La Cygne, Kan., 35 miles away. Near a trailer, investigators found two 55-gallon industrial barrels, each containing a woman's body.
Two days later, three more bodies were found in barrels inside a storage locker he had rented across the state line in Raymore, Mo.
Investigators have since said that Robinson was investigated in the disappearances of three women and an infant in the mid 1980s, but that no bodies were found and authorities were never able to prove foul play.
In the 1980s, while Robinson was on probation for a theft conviction, FBI agents and Robinson's probation officer investigated allegations that he was involved with guns, drugs and prostitution.
Investigators found a woman in 1985 who said Robinson had assaulted her and that he had guns and marijuana, which would violate his probation. Fearing she might be in danger, the investigators hid the women and wouldn't let Robinson's lawyer take a deposition from her.
Robinson was sentenced to seven years in prison for parole violations, but the Missouri Court of Appeals reversed that, ruling that by hiding the witness officials had violated his right to confront an accuser.
Tales of the missing
In addition, Johnson County, Kan., District Attorney Paul Morrison said Robinson was connected to a Polish woman who has not been seen for months. Morrison said one of the bodies found in La Cygne may be that of the Polish woman.
Authorities have identified one of the dead as Suzette Trouten, 28, of Newport, Mich. Her family said she was lured to Kansas through an Internet chat room on the promise of $62,000 to care for "an elderly father."
Trouten moved with her dogs to Lenexa, near Olathe, in February. But her family soon became worried and called police.
Morrison has not elaborated on Robinson's relationships with the other victims, saying only that the case continues to grow from a mountain of documents, computer files and calls to police.
He said there are allegations Robinson deceived people over the Internet through dummy corporations, but he would not provide details.
'Beyond comprehension' for family
Robinson's family -- in addition to his wife, he has at least two grown children -- have said the allegations are "almost beyond comprehension."
"While we do not discount the information that has and continues to come to light, we do not know the person whom we have read and heard about on TV," the family said in a statement Thursday. "The John Robinson we know has always been a loving and caring father."
The allegations have unnerved Robinson's neighbors. Khamsihong, who has lived in Santa Barbara Estates with her husband and two children for six years, said the two families often helped each other, and Khamsihong would share vegetables from her garden.
Neighbor Henry Timmons recalled that Robinson was friendly and would routinely put out holiday decorations.
But neighbors also noticed the barrels in Robinson's truck and the alarm he recently installed on it. He later put up the surveillance camera.
Propositions to neighbors
Khamsihong also recalled that Robinson was "kind of a showoff" and bragged that he was involved in several business endeavors, including writing for a national mobile home newsletter. Prosecutors won't discuss Robinson's employment history.
Several doors down, Corey Friedemann described Robinson as a "lonely old man" who propositioned his wife and a neighbor. Friedemann said his wife threatened to tell Robinson's wife, and the propositions stopped.
"It's making all of the women in the neighborhood nervous, because I'm sure my wife and neighbor are not the only ones he's propositioned," Friedemann said. "I wish I would have said something earlier. Maybe it would have got him to stop him from doing what he did."
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Police Probe Disappearances Dating Back to 1985
June 7, 2000
HARRISONVILLE, Mo. (AP) -- A man who solicited sadomasochistic sex over the Internet using the name "slavemaster" is considered the prime suspect in the deaths of five women whose bodies were found stuffed in barrels in Kansas and Missouri, authorities said.
Investigators also are looking into a disappearance dating back to 1985.
Last week's arrest of John Edward Robinson Sr., 56, led police to two bodies Saturday on his property in La Cygne, Kan. Three more bodies in 55-gallon drums were discovered Monday at a storage locker rented by Robinson about 30 miles away, in Raymore.
Autopsies showed the victims died of blunt trauma to the head, authorities said.
Case of missing woman, infant
Investigators resumed draining a pond on Robinson's property today. A pickup truck was found in the pond early in the investigation, Linn County Sheriff Marvin Stites said, but investigators don't believe it was connected to a victim.
Johnson County, Kan., District Attorney Paul Morrison said he did not think any more bodies would be found.
Morrison, however, confirmed that investigators also are looking at the possibility Robinson was involved in the 1985 disappearance of Lisa Stasi and her 5-month-old daughter, Tiffany.
Stasi was last seen at a motel in Olathe, Kan., where Robinson had arranged for them to stay, prosecutors said in a 1986 court motion. The missing persons report in the case was ordered sealed on Tuesday, police said.
Suspect held on $5M bail
According to a sentencing memorandum in a 1986 theft case, Robinson approached workers at a hospital, saying he was helping set up a charity for unwed mothers. The workers introduced Robinson to Stasi, the document said. It did not identify the hospital.
After the woman and her baby disappeared, Robinson told authorities that she indicated she was moving to Denver, but authorities found no trace of her there.
Robinson was not immediately charged in the five women's deaths. He was being held in lieu of $5 million bail after being charged Monday with sexual assault on two women at hotels.
The two women told authorities they objected to him photographing them and said he brutalized them in a way that went beyond what they intended. One of the women had traveled from Texas to have a sexual encounter with Robinson in April.
Began as a missing persons case
At least some of the five victims are believed to be related to Robinson's alleged Internet relationships with women interested in sadomasochism. He was known to use the screen name "slavemaster" in his computer correspondence and sometimes called himself James Turner in person, Morrison said.
The prosecutor said he expected to file murder charges by week's end.
Robinson had not retained a lawyer as of Tuesday and was being represented by the Johnson County public defender's office, Morrison said.
During a news conference in Harrisonville with Cass County Prosecutor Chris Koster, Morrison said the case began three months ago as a missing persons investigation. It gained momentum after the two women came forward.
"We had been working on this case for several weeks when those victims came forward," Morrison said "It helped us out a lot. Kind of manna from heaven."
Photographs confiscated
Robinson was arrested Friday at his home at a mobile home park in Olathe, Kan., managed by his wife. Morrison said dozens of photographs of women and computer equipment were confiscated.
Koster and Morrison refused to comment Tuesday on Robinson's sexual relationships.
The bodies found near La Cygne appeared to have been in the barrels for several months, Morrison said. The bodies found in the 10-by-12-foot storage locker in Raymore had been there for months or years, Koster said. Luggage and other items were stacked on top of the barrels in the back of the locker.
One of the victims was Suzette Trouten, 28, formerly of Monroe County, Mich., The Kansas City Star reported today. Lee Shukait, her cousin, said Trouten moved to the Kansas City area to look for work but the family had not had contact with her since March.
Relatives said authorities told them Tuesday of her death