[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. These bags were later placed inside larger trash bags which Berdella placed outside for a garbage crew to collect and take to a landfill site. Bryson would also testify in person at an initial, pretrial hearing on June 9. [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." [28] Several other Polaroid images depicted as-yet unidentified young men, and several detectives were assigned to identify them, determining if they were alive or dead and, if alive, the circumstance of the picture. John Robinson meets the queen of England. At the Western Missouri Correctional Facility, he met 49-year-old Beverly Bonner, the prison librarian. 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. [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. 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. [4]:36 The search also uncovered numerous restraints and sexual devices; pornographic literature; hypodermic needles; and a book on narcotics. On this occasion, Berdella could not post bond, and he spent five days in jail, although the charges against him and one of the other students would be dropped due to a lack of evidence. 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. The Kansas Homestead Where America's First Serial Killer Family Committed Its Crimes Is Up for Sale. [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". [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. "[4]:323 Berdella removed the teeth from this skull and stowed them inside envelopes in the same room. [2], John Robinson was born in Cicero, Illinois, the third of five children of an alcoholic father and a disciplinarian mother. [4]:247 By this stage, Berdella had been openly gay for several years. From approximately 1965, he would begin avidly collecting these artifacts; this practice would later inspire him to open his own antiques business in 1982. As a means of obtaining additional income, he also sold items of art and antiques he had accrued and collected from contacts he had established in Africa, Asia, South America, and various Pacific Rim countries. [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. [29] Prosecutors had gathered sufficient circumstantial evidence to accompany the physical evidence retrieved. A metal tray containing syringes, small bottles apparently containing prescription drugs, swabs, and eye drops were also close to the bed. For $5,500 in "legal fees", the couple received Tiffany (whose identity was confirmed by DNA testing in 2000[5]) and a set of authentic-appearing adoption papers with the forged signatures of two lawyers and a judge. "[32] He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. [21], Following the submission and acceptance of this plea, the judge insisted that Berdella confess under oath as to Pearson's death. In addition, he began regularly abusing alcohol. This house, 4315 Charlotte Street, belonged to the Kansas City Butcher, one of the most deranged serial killers in history. 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. [4]:258, Berdella would later state that he briefly attempted to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation upon Howell after he had died before dragging his body to the basement. [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. Nonetheless, he did claim that he had tried to prevent any of his victims from developing any form of malnutrition or infection by occasionally administering antibiotics, or nutrients intravenously as his abuse and torture escalated. 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. [6], In the summer of 1967, Berdella graduated from Cuyahoga Falls High School. Berdella further claimed he had not seen him since. [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. 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. [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". [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. 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. Two days later, three more bodies were discovered in barrels in a storage locker Robinson rented in the Kansas City area. [2]:15 Robinson received a life sentence without possibility of parole for each of the five murders. Several days later, her parents received a typewritten letter, with Godfrey's signature at the bottom, thanking Robinson for his help and asserting that she was "OK" and did not want to see her family. Although occasionally making a generous monthly profit, the income he typically generated via this business was often not sufficient to maintain his daily expenses and to make ends meet. She did sign a 115-item slave contract that gave Robinson almost total control over every aspect of her life, including her bank accounts. [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). 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. One other method of torture was the insertion of needles beneath their fingernails. Rader was married and had two children, and was a leader in his community through the Christ Lutheran Church and Cub Scouts. 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. [39] Investigators consulted a specialist in toxicology in their investigation into Berdella following his arrest who stated that, judging by the notes he had written about victim Robert Sheldon, the accumulation of chlorpromazine injected into this victim had been toxic. Three hundred and thirty four Polaroid pictures and 34 snapshot prints of various men were also found in Berdella's house. 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. Shortly after the search of 4315 Charlotte Street had concluded, Berdella was informed of the discoveries at his property. When asked if he performed this act deliberately, and with malice aforethought, Berdella simply stated, "Yes. You see, what you got, is nothing compared to what you can have. [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. [6] Berdella had promised to drive the youth to attend a dancing contest in Merriam. 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? In a carefully scripted plea in October 2003, Robinson acknowledged that Koster had enough evidence to convict him of capital murder for the deaths of Godfrey, Clampitt, Bonner, and the Faiths. [2]:6, Robinson became well known in increasingly popular BDSM chatrooms. Robinson, who has never cooperated with investigators, refused. Lorenzo Jerome Gilyard, Jr. (born May 24, 1950), known as the Kansas City Strangler, is an American serial killer.A former trash-company supervisor, Gilyard is believed to have raped and murdered at least 13 women and girls from 1977 to 1993. 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. In 1999, he offered a job and a bondage relationship to Izabela Lewicka, a 21-year-old Polish immigrant living in Indiana. ", Robert Berdella, conversing with Christopher Bryson. A suspected serial killer already charged in six killings in the Kansas City and St. Louis areas has been charged with first-degree murder in a seventh death. [9] Two days later, Berdella returned to Cuyahoga Falls by himself. Berdella invited him to his house with an offer of lunch,[4]:139 with an added incentive of sex as Stoops stated he needed $13 to purchase drugs (the equivalent of about $35 as of 2023[update])[8]:270, Berdella would later stress to investigators he had been extremely physically attracted to Stoops, and this victim was held captive for two weeks before he died, with him gradually increasing his captive's terror to make him a cooperative and incapacitated sex slave. [2] His crimes took place in Kansas City, Missouri, between 1984 and 1987. 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. [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. 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. [4]:261. Upon his release, Bonner left her husband, a prison doctor, and moved to Kansas to work for him. Police say there is no truth to a rumor about a serial killer that is circulating on social media in the Kansas City area. [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. Robinson hired her, reportedly with the promise of extensive travel and a new wardrobe. [19] He would remain adamant to investigators that this would be not for his enjoyment, but what he termed his "physical and mental satisfaction". 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. [4]:4647, When Berdella reached puberty he discovered that he was homosexual; initially, he kept this fact a closely guarded secret, and he did not become open about his sexuality for several years. Robinson was prosecuted and found guilty by a. 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. Shortly after his release from hospital and further questioning by the KCPD, Christopher Bryson lapsed into cocaine abuse. 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. He would later be temporarily placed in protective custody at the Potosi Correctional Center, due to concerns for his safety. Order Now . 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'. Her missing persons' case remains open. John Robinson's Family Described Him As Loving & Involved With the Family. [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. He declined to allow officers inside his home,[4]:26 and the search warrant earlier requested was drafted to search his property. 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]. Only Berdella referred to James Ferris by his given first name, Walter. Over the course of those years, he killed eight women and two men via strangulation, suffocation, stabbing, or hanging. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. 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. About Cracker Barrel; Food with Care; 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. [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. Shortly before Berdella moved into his Charlotte Street address, he began working as a short-order cook in various restaurants around Kansas City in part to help pay lawyer fees and fines accrued from his previous drug arrests. Godfrey told friends and family that Robinson was sending her away for training. HuffPost writes of how Berdella was a trusted figure who started a neighborhood watch program but mostly kept to himself.On the day before Easter in 1988, neighbors called the police . Alarming social media posts warning of a Kansas City serial killer are untrue, according to police. At the age of 14, in a rather . Convicted serial killer John E. Robinson's death penalty was upheld in a 415-page ruling by the Kansas Supreme Court on Friday. [30], On December 19, 1988, Berdella formally waived his rights to be tried for any of the outstanding murder charges, upon the understanding he was to be convicted of one further count of first-degree murder (that of Robert Sheldon), and four counts of second-degree murder. Locations States Missouri. [4]:307,309, According to Berdella, Pearson was by far the most cooperative of his six murder victims. He then brought an electrical transformer to the basement. [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 discovery of a woman's body stuffed inside that. John Robinson was born in 1943 in Cicero, Illinois, outside of Chicago, and grew up in a working-class neighborhood. 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [4]:41, Before the search of Berdella's property had concluded, the KCPD assembled a special task force of 11 detectives and one sergeant to focus exclusively on Berdella's case. By his mid-teens, Berdella had begun to display a degree of self-confidence, becoming rude and condescending to others, particularly women. One month after this first arrest, Berdella and two other students were arrested for possession of marijuana and LSD in Johnson County. 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. Roger Coleman, relaying his distress pertaining to staff at the Missouri State Penitentiary withholding his heart medication. [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. Shortly thereafter, investigators discovered that photograph "D" released to the media in this same array was one Larry Wayne Pearson. [8]:245 Berdella's father was a devout Roman Catholic of Italian descent. About Us. Wallace willingly accepted the offer and, 30 minutes later, Berdella decided to render him captive. 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. [n 9], On July 22, 1988, a grand jury formally indicted Berdella for the murder of Larry Wayne Pearson. The following June, Berdella found Mark Wallace (whom he vaguely knew via Wallace having previously helped him with yard work) hiding in his tool shed to seek shelter from a severe thunderstorm. The torture included repeated administering of 7,700-volt electrical shocks to the shoulder and testicles for up to five minutes in each instance, and acupuncture via hypodermic needles to the neck and genitals. When he arrived home his family told him his father had died. "[6], According to published reports, although Berdella had a depressive personality disorder,[4]:202 he was also a diagnosed sexual sadist[44] who gained extreme sexual excitation from the humiliation, pain, and torture to which he had subjected his victims. The Kansas Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for a convicted serial killer on Friday who trolled the Internet for female victims, sometimes using promises of work or sex, and stuffed. [48][12], Berdella's house was purchased by a local businessman for an undisclosed sum in December 1988. [15] This store was named Bob's Bazaar Bizarre,[16][10] and primarily sold and traded primitive art, jewelry, and antiques. [4]:260, Although police extensively searched for the remains of Berdella's victims throughout their initial investigation into his crimes, the confession he provided to investigators in the autumn of 1988 confirmed the dismembered bodies of all six of his victims had been stowed in trash bags and subsequently taken to unknown landfill sites. 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. The Kansas Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for a convicted serial killer on Friday who trolled the Internet for female victims, sometimes using promises of work or sex, and stuffed some of their bodies into barrels on his rural property. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. In the 19th century, Kansas was a bloody place, especially before the Civil War, as " Free-Soilers " and slavery advocates "duked" it out for control of the new territory. [4]:353 Berdella sought solace in his Catholicism and later read extensively about many faiths but eventually became cynical about all religion. [29], Berdella would be formally charged with the murder by dismemberment of Larry Wayne Pearson in July after the head discovered in his backyard was formally identified as Pearson's on May 12. [4]:300, Berdella brought Ferris home and drugged him with crushed tranquilizers he had concealed in a meal, then tied him to his bed before torturing him almost constantly for approximately 27hours. [10], In the years following his 1988 convictions and incarceration, Berdella granted an interview to the Missouri-based television station KCPT, and corresponded with numerous individuals. 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. [10], Berdella provided testimony to prosecutors between December 13 and 15, after he changed his plea and sought approval of their agreement not to seek the death penalty against him if he fully confessed. 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. 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. 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. The entry reading "CP", for example, referred to the chlorpromazine he had injected into his victims to assist in his restraining them, whereas entries reading "DC" referred to swabbing their eyes with drain cleaner or the injection of the substance into their vocal cords.[39]. [4]:5657, In 1982, Berdella began renting his own booth at the Westport Flea Market. [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. 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. He previously. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Michael H. Stone & Gary Brucato. [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. 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. Berdella also volunteered at fundraising events for a local public television station until the mid-1980s.[14]. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. 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. Berdella was adamant he held no firm malice toward Sheldon, but saw him as someone upon whom he could "express some of the anger and frustration that I had toward other people on". In 1985, a Kansas serial killer believed to have murdered at least 10 women in two states killed Lisa Stasi, a 19-year-old mother whose body has never 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. [4]:151. After hearing nothing further from her, Godfrey's parents filed a missing persons report. Born in 1943, Robinson quickly turned to a life of crime, becoming involved in embezzlement and fraud. or redistributed. Should Berdella ever discover any of them was a police informant, he would use this knowledge for blackmail. The Bloody Benders - Serial Killers of Kansas. John Robinson, who did not. 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. The ruling marked the first time Kansas's highest court has upheld a death sentence since the reinstatement of capital punishment there in 1994. "[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. 8225 North Church Rd., I-35 & State Route 152, Kansas City, MO, 64158-1105. Because of this he seldom socialized with his peers. That evening, Berdella's father had a heart attack at the age of 39. 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. [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.