John Edward Robinson
SLAVEMASTER: The First Bona-Fide Internet Serial Killer

John Edward Robinson is believed to have killed at least six women, maybe as many as 50.  He recruited many of them through sadomasochistic chat rooms in the Internet.   Before the advent of the internet he trolled for women in crisis from Homeless Shelters and Battered Womens Homes with a phony "outreach" programs and fake job offers.  The case broke when authorities, who had been investigating Robinson for over three months, arrested him for sexually assaulting two women in June 2000. Subsequently they unearthed two 55-gallon barrels with two corpses inside from a property he owned. Next police found three more drums with three dead women in a storage locker he rented 30 miles away in Raymore, Missouri.

"I can say one thing: The bodies (in the field) appear to have been in those barrels for some time," said Paul Morrison, the district attorney in Johnson County, Kansas. "The bodies in Raymore have probably been there longer." Allegedly Robinson had rented the locker for at least five years. In Kansas, about 20 investigators -- including some from the FBI -- continued to search Robinson's property. Crews planned to drain a pond on the land. "We may find more bodies, but we certainly hope not," Linn County Sheriff Marvin Stites said.

According to published reports Robinson has an extensive criminal background dating back to 1969 with felony embezzlement charges. Between then and 1993, Robinson spent at least 15 years on probation and seven years in jail for an assortment of fraud and theft charges.

Among the dead, 19-year-old Lisa Stasi.  She and her infant daughter Tiffany before they were reported missing in the mid-80's.   Robinson arranged a fake adoption of Tiffany soon after she and her mother disappeared, to his brother who lives in Hammond, IN. Unaware that the adoption was not legal or that the girl's mother was killed by Robinson, his brother raised the little girl in a seemingly normal fashion.

He videotaped some acts.  In court the jurors had to watch a 40-minute video which showed Robinson in a hotel room with Suzette Trouten, who performs sex acts and professes her allegiance to Robinson. Early in the video, Trouten sits on the edge of the bed, looks into the camera and says to Robinson: "This is what you wanted me to tell you: I'm your slave. ... Everything is yours." Several jurors covered their eyes at least briefly as the tape played. "The most important thing in life you are is my slave," Robinson later tells Trouten.

Most of the victims are believed related to Robinson's alleged Internet activities where he went by the screen moniker of "Slavemaster" trolling through different sadomasochistic chat rooms searching for victims. He lured some of his female victims with promises of work or offers of hardcore sexual escapades.  Robinson was arrested at mobile home park managed by his wife in Olathe, Kansas. One of the women he assaulted apparently traveled from Texas to have little S&M session with the suspect in a local hotel. Like the other surviving victim, things got rougher than intended and, unlike at least five others, she was able to escape alive. He was given the death penalty
 

 
The Search Begins

 

Confirmed Dead
Beverly Bonner, 49, of Cameron, Missouri. Bonner allegedly met Robinson when as a librarian for the Missouri Department of Corrections at the department's Cameron facility where Robinson was serving a fraud conviction. Bonner dropped out of sight in 1996 after going into business with Robinson. At the time of her disappearance she was listed as the president of Hydro-Gro Inc., a company operated in Kansas and Missouri by James Turner, an alias used by Robinson in Internet chat rooms. Bonner was identified through the use of dental records. Her body was found in a barrel in a Raymore, Missouri, storage facility rented by Robinson.

Izabela Lewicka, 21, a Polish immigrant who moved to the United States a few years ago. She graduated from high school in West Lafayette, Indiana in 1996. She then attended Purdue University for two semesters as a fine arts student. Lewicka then moved to Kansas City and went to Johnson County Community College in the fall of 1998 under the name Izabela Lewicka-Robinson. Police believe Lewicka was romantically linked with Robinson and, according to newspaper reports, was planning to marry him. She was not heard since the fall of 1999. Like the other bodies found, Lewicka died from a blow to the head. She was found buried in a barrel in a 16.5 acre La Cygne property owned by Robinson.

Suzette Trouten, 28, moved to suburban Kansas City in March 2000 from Monroe, Michigan. Her family said she was lured through an Internet chat room on the promise of $62,000 to care for "an elderly father." Records from the Missouri secretary of state show she was listed as the registered agent in the articles of incorporation for Hydro-Gro Inc. She was found in a barrel buried in the La Cygne property.

Sheila Dale Faith, who would be 51 now, left California in 1994 to move to Colorado, just one year after John Faith, Sheila's husband and Debbie's father, died. According to family members, the two women then moved to the Kansas City area after living in Colorado for only a few months. Family members lost contact with them after they met a man called John. Police, tipped by the owner of a commercial mail center in Olathe, Kansas, determined that Robinson had been picking up their monthly government checks until his arrest. On June 28 authorities confirmed that Sheila was one of the bodies found in the Raymore storage facility. The third body at the site is believed to be Sheila's wheelchair-bound daughter, Debbie Lynn Faith, who would be 21, but authorities have yet been able to confirm it.
 

Reported Missing
Catherine Clampitt, 27, missing since June of 1987. A one-time drug user seeking rehabilitation, Catherine moved from Wichita Falls, Texas, to Overland Park. She lost contact with her family once she found work at Equi-II, a management consulting firm created by Robinson.

Paula Godfrey, 19, missing since September of 1984. Paula disappearance and relationship to Robinson is least understood by investigators. Robinson's probation officer, Steve Haymes, who had become suspicious of his involvement with Godfrey, noted in a report: "Robinson had allegedly hired her to be a sales representative. Overland Park Police Department later received a letter from this girl stating that she was thankful for John Robinson's help and that she was o.k."

Lisa Stasi, 19, and her five-month-old daughter Tiffany, missing since 1985. Lisa was in a shelter for battered women when she met Robinson in 1985. Robinson allegedly recruited her for his fraudulent "Outreach" program for young single mothers, pledging to train her in Texas as a silkscreen printer, land her an $800-a-month stipend, set her up with baby-sitting and give her an apartment. On January 8, 1985, she and her baby were at an Overland Park Rodeway Inn, where a "John Osborne" had checked her in. Her room was paid for with a credit card issued to Equi-II, a consulting company set up by Robinson. She checked out two days later, and her family has not heard from her since.   Authorities have now located her daughter, Tiffany, alive and living with Robinson's older brother in Hammond, Indiana. Robinson arranged the fake adoption of Tiffany soon after she and her mother disappeared. Unaware that the adoption was not legal or that the girl's mother was presumably killed by Robinson, his brother raised the little girl in a seemingly normal fashion. According to authorities the brother never suspected any foul play and had been given fake legal documents concerning the adoption. According to authorities Tiffany is now a teenager in her last year in high school. She has now been made aware of the true identity of her mother and is preparing to meet her biological father.