John Robinson “The Internet’s First Serial Killer” Part 2

John Robinson Part 2

In part one, we learned who John Robinson was and about his early life.  We went over his early crimes, which were mostly white collar.  Lots of fraud, theft, embezzlement – from individuals and businesses alike.  One thing that there wasn’t a lot of was…. Jail time.  There was quite a bit of probation… and extensions of said probation.  In today’s episode, we are diving into everything else.  

In the Summer of 1982, John Robinson had started a new consulting business, Equi-Plus.  Now, don’t let this shock you to your core, but.. It was not a real consulting business; it was just to commit fraud and steal people’s money.  During this summer, while trying to solicit his neighbors for money for this business, Robinson also constantly propositioned their wives for sex.  This all boiled over when one of his neighbors got mad and attacked him, resulting in the two fighting in their front yards.  

Sometime in the Fall of 1982, Robinson started working with Irv Blatter, who knew about some of the scams Robinson had pulled.  Together, they started a sister company to Equi-Plus and named it… get this… Equi-II.  Blatter introduced Robinson to a woman who was looking into getting a divorce.  Robinson posed as an attorney promising to get her a divorce.  As payment, he only asked for two hundred dollars… and the woman’s car.  She gave him both and never heard from them again.  

In episode one, we mentioned Paula Godfrey.  Paula was 19 and wanted to begin a career in business.  She was over the moon excited when she was offered a position at Equi-II.  She told her family that John Robinson was going to send her to San Antonio, TX to take a course that taught clerical skills.  On Sept 1st, 1984, Robinson picked Paula up at her home in Overland Park, Kansas to drive her to the airport for her flight to San Antonio.  Some time passed and Paula’s family hadn’t heard from her so they contacted the police, but shortly after, they received a typed letter from Paula with her signature on the bottom. The letter said that she was safe, but no longer wanted to be in contact with her family.  She wanted to start a new life.  With that information and being unable to find any evidence of wrongdoing, the investigation into her disappearance was concluded with the belief that Paula left of her own free will. 

In 1985, Robinson used the alias John Osborne and met 19 year old Lisa Stasi through Hope House, a shelter for homeless women in Kansas.  Lisa had an infant daughter, Tiffany.  He claimed to be a member of the Kansas City Outreach Program.  Robinson told Lisa that the program was for young single mothers.  Through the program, she would be trained in Texas to operate a silkscreen printer.  Then she would be relocated to Chicago where she would be placed into a job, receive an $800 monthly stipend, have child care covered for Tiffany, and have an apartment paid for as well.  To receive all of this, all Lisa had to do was sign her name to the bottom of some blank sheets of paper. 

Lisa and Tiffany checked into a room at the Rodeway Inn in Overland Park, Kansas.  The room had been booked by Robinson and paid for with a credit card in the name of Equi-II.  After checking in, Robinson told Lisa that he had arranged for her and Tiffany to travel to Chicago in a couple of days.  Over the next day or two, Lisa took Tiffany to a family member’s house where her family tried to talk her out of going.  When they questioned her about Robinson, she told them that he was a gentleman and helping her.  Robinson didn’t know where Lisa was, but eventually found her at her sister in law Kathy’s house.  In a heavy snow storm, Robinson drove to pick her up at Kathy’s house.  He was pissed that she left the motel and said they had to leave immediately or the offer would be rescinded.  Lisa took Tiffany and got into Robinson’s car, who she still knew as John Osborne.  She left most of her belongings and even her car at Kathy’s house.  

Later, they received a call from Lisa.  Robinson had told her that her family was going to try to take Tiffany away, and the only way to keep her would be for her to come with him.  She was asking why they would do that and they told her they would never and begged her to come back home.  One of the last things they heard from her was “here they come” and the line disconnected.  The next morning, Kathy called the motel and was told that they had checked out, and that the room was paid for by a man named John Robinson, not John Osborne.  Her heart sank.  They never saw Lisa again.  

Don and Helen, John’s brother and sister in law, had been trying to have a baby for years.  When they couldn’t have one naturally, they tried adoption, but had run into roadblock after roadblock trying to get through all the red tape.  John had told them that he had connections in Kansas City who might be able to help.  Don and Helen met him in Overland Park.  Unbeknownst to them, the day before, John arrived at home with the baby and told Nancy to take care of the baby.  He didn’t tell her anything about where he got the child, but the child was dirty and cold, so Nancy essentially just went into mother mode and took care of the baby.  Gave her a bath, got her warm and clean and fed her.  Back in Overland Park, Don and Helen signed what appeared to be real adoption papers and paid a $5500 adoption fee.  

John then took them to his home where Nancy presented them with Tiffany, their new daughter.  He told them that the baby’s mother died by suicide.  They named her Heather.  The same day, Kathy’s husband David showed up at the Equi-II offices and demanded to know where Lisa and Tiffany were.  Robinson physically removed David from the office.  At the same time, Kathy was driving to the police station and reported Lisa and Tiffany missing. 

When John was eventually arrested and everything he did came to light, it was determined that Heather was in fact Tiffany Stasi.  She grew up in a loving home with Don and Helen as her parents. In 2006, Heather filed a civil suite against Truman Medical Center in Kansas City and social worker Karen Gaddis. She said that Gaddis told Robinson about Lisa and Tiffany, which put them on his radar for his fictional home for unwed mothers of white babies.  Oh yeah… when he was asking people about unwed mothers for his outreach program, he specifically said that he only wanted young, white unwed mothers.  In 2007, they reached a settlement, which Heather split with her biological grandmother, Patricia.  

Catherine Clampitt applied for a job at Equi-II in 1987.  She was born in Korea and adopted by an American couple and grew up in Texas.  She had a child whom she left with her family in Wichita Falls while she went to family in Kansas to try to find a job.  After applying to Equi-II, she talked with John Robinson.  Robinson promised Catherine that she would receive extensive training and once she started working she would be traveling the world for their management consulting firm.  He also promised her a new wardrobe.  Robinson put Catherine up in several different hotels near the Equi-II offices.  In June of 1987,  Catherine left to have a meeting with Robinson and was never seen again.  Her missing persons case remains open to this day. 

Later in 1987, some of Robinson’s fraud, embezzlement, and probation violations finally caught up with him.  He was sentenced to four years in prison at the Kansas Hutchinson Correctional Facility.  During this time, his father passed away and Robinson suffered a series of strokes.  The strokes left permanent neurological damage and the right side of his face was then partially paralyzed and looked “slack” on that side.  After serving time in Kansas he was transferred to two prisons in Missouri for violating probation and an old fraud charge. While at Western Missouri Correctional Facility he became friends with the prison librarian Beverly Bonner. 

Technically, like we mentioned in episode one, Bonner and Robinson already knew each other since they had worked together briefly a few decades before.  Beverly was married when she worked in the prison, to William Bonner… Dr. William Bonner, the prison doctor.  While he was incarcerated, Robinson and Bonner got closer and closer and eventually started an affair.  When he was released in January of 1994, Dr. Bonner found out and he and Beverly divorced.  Beverly moved to Kansas to work with Robinson at another company he started.  Dr. Bonner would occasionally receive typed letters from Beverly with her signature at the bottom.  In the letters, “she” (not really her) said that she was traveling all over the world for work and how great things were.  When her son unexpectedly passed away, Dr. Bonner was shocked when Beverly didn’t show up, but chalked it up to her being busy with work.  Beverly received alimony checks from her ex-husband, which were sent to her mother then her mother forwarded to her.  Not long after she started working with Robinson, her mother was sent a PO Box address to forward everything to, and the checks continued to be cashed. 

The Internet

After his release from prison, Robinson discovered the wild, wonderful world of the early days of the internet.  He learned about chat rooms and very quickly found a home in different BDSM communities.  He went by the name Slave Master and looked for women who were interested in being a submissive partner during sex.  One of the first people he met online was 45 year old Sheila Faith.  We mentioned earlier that Sheila had a 15 year old daughter, Debbie who had spina bifida.  Sheila and Robinson began an online relationship during which he told her that he was a wealthy businessman and philanthropist. 

Robinson offered to pay for all of Debbie’s medical care, and give Sheila a job if she relocated to be with him in Kansas City.  They moved from Fullerton, CA to Kansas City in 1994.  She had all of her pension checks and any disability assistance checks forwarded and they continued to be checked for several years, even though Sheila and Debbie disappeared almost immediately after arriving in Kansas City.  Sheila’s brother had received many typed letters from Sheila, and became suspicious.  He reached out to the Social Security Administration to look into where the checks were being cashed, but they said that they were unable to divulge any information to him due to privacy laws.  In the fall of 1994, the SSA received a letter (forged) from Dr. William Bonner that said that Debbie was now completely disabled, which resulted in a raise in the amount she received for benefits.  

When Izabela Lewicka was 15, she and her family emigrated to the US and settled in Indiana.  When she was 19, she was attending Purdue University and started an online BDSM relationship with Robinson.  Within 9 months of the initial contact, Izabela moved away from the family home in Indiana to be near Robinson in Kansas City, where she offered herself as a permanent sex slave. She in fact signed a 100 plus page “slave contract” with Robinson.  During their time together Izabela would proudly tell people that Robinson was her husband, whereas he would say that she was his cousin.  She and Robinson had acquired and filled out all the paperwork necessary to get married.  She believed that he had turned it in and they were married.  Izabela had even enrolled at a local college as Izabela Lewicka Robinson.  Robinson had not actually turned in the marriage certificate.  

Izabela often visited Robert Meyers’ bookstore in Overland Park; she had gone to the store on many occasions previously and could be considered a regular.  She and Robert would chat about the books she was purchasing. In July of 1999 Izabela made one of her visits to the bookstore this time she was accompanied by Robinson whom she introduced as her husband as he purchased some books for her. The pair were about to leave when Izabela mentioned to Robert that she was moving away. That was the last time Robert saw Izabela. Her parents would receive typed letters from ‘Izabela’ telling them of her adventures around the world.  Robinson operated a website and had a web designer who helped him set it up.  When asked about Izabela, Robinson told the designer that she had been caught smoking marijuana and was deported.  

Robinson met 27 year old Suzette Trouten in a BDSM chat room in late 1999. Suzette was a health care worker from Michigan,  and Robinson (who went by  J.R. when talking with Suzette)  promised her sixty thousand dollars a year if she would take care of his diabetic, wheelchair-bound father.  In addition to the money, Robinson promised that he, Suzette, and his “father” would be traveling the world together. Suzette was very tempted by the offer, but suggested that she spend some time in Kansas meeting both J.R. and his father before making a decision.

In October 1999 Suzette and JR met, Robinson managed to persuade some colleagues to pose as various members of his family to entrap Suzette. At the end of the 5 days that she was in Kansas, Suzette agreed to the job offer and on In February of 2000 she moved to Kansas to begin her new life. For the next 2 weeks Suzette rented an apartment on Robinson’s credit card, he would visit regularly explaining that he had some business deals to conclude before she could begin her new career. The pair had regular sex taking photographs of the moments, which Suzette would email to online friends who were also into BDSM.  The emails would continue long after March 1, when Suzette disappeared, but mostly without photos.  The tact of the emails suddenly changed after that date.  Suzette no longer talked about past friendships or events in her life. All correspondence would talk of how good her life is and how happy her boss and new master made her.  All the emails were signed “Suz” a nickname she never used.

Suzette’s mother, Carolyn also received several letters from Suzette supposedly from all over the world while she was traveling.  But they were all postmarked from Kansas City.  Another thing about the letters, they were written with mistake free spelling and grammar, something that Suzette was NOT known for.  Carolyn said that her daughter was a terrible speller and she would never type a note to friends or family, it would be handwritten. 

After not hearing from her daughter for a while, Carolyn called the phone numbers that Suzette had given her, something that Robinson didn’t know.  Carolyn was shocked when Robinson answered one call, because in all the letters that she had received from her daughter, she and Robinson were traveling together.  When she talked to him, he told her that he was not traveling with her and in fact Suzette had stolen money from him and left with one of his friends.  After that, Carolyn called the police and filed a missing person’s report.  

Arrested

Unbeknownst to John Robinson, he was the center of an investigation that would end with him being arrested in June of 2000.   Over the years, he had become more and more comfortable, which led to him being more and more careless.  He had the attention of investigators in Kansas and Missouri, and his name was constantly showing up in missing person’s cases. 

Robinson met a woman named Vickie.  She had been a psychiatrist, but was laid off a month before she met J.R. on a BDSM website.  She was looking for someone to help financially support her and Robinson told her that he was a member of a group of “elite dominants,” and would be able to support her.  This impressed Vickie, and when she asked if he could help find her a job, he said of course!  She was in Texas, so John wired her $100 to make the trip to Kansas City.  She traveled 700 miles hoping to meet Robinson that day, but he was unable to meet her and put her up in the Extended Stay Hotel.  What they didn’t know though was that the Lenexa police knew that he liked to use this hotel.  And that he made sure to always book room 120 when he stayed there or paid for someone to stay there.   They were in the adjoining rooms, waiting. 

Robinson showed up the second day about an hour later than he had told Vicie he would.  He immediately tried to get her to sign a “slave contract,” which she was hesitant to, but eventually did after some revisions; particularly a part that said if their relationship ended, Robinson couldn’t just kick her out on the streets.  John immediately undressed and told her to do the same to see if they had sexual chemistry.  It didn’t last long and he got dressed and ready to leave, but before he did, he opened a bag full of sex toys and told her to have a look at them.  

The next day, he returned and asked her if she liked anything from the bag while he himself undressed.  He told her to put on a pair of spiked high heels, and she told him she was uncomfortable with everything and stayed clothed.  This made him extremely mad and fear set in for Vicki. Robinson began to remove her clothes, slapped a leather collar around her neck, handcuffed her and began taking pictures of her. When she threatened to leave and go back to Texas he stopped and they argued before he left.

Later, Vickie called and apologized to him, and the next day he returned.  While she was giving him oral sex, he reached back and slapped her harder than she had ever been slapped.  They argued, but afterwards seemed to be fine.  In fact, they made plans for her to go to Texas and pick up all her stuff and permanently move to Kansas City.  When he left though, he grabbed a bag of sex toys that belonged to Vickie.  There were estimated to be between $500 and $700 worth of toys in the bag.  Robinson left with the bag and on his way out threw the contract she had signed in the trash. 

Vickie returned to Texas and waited for Robinson to call her about the van he said he would get for her to move.  He never called, so she called him several times, and he did everything he could to dodge these calls.  Finally, she was ready to move on from him and demanded that he return the bag of toys he had taken.  If he didn’t return them, she would go to the police.  Robinson said that if she didn’t stop bothering him about the toys, he would turn her into the TX board of psychologist and send them the pictures he took of her.  She backed off for a little while, but eventually went to the police. 

In May of 2000, another woman made arrangements with Robinson to stay in room 120.  They had the same arrangement as he did with Vickie and met in the same way, via an online ad.  The day after she arrived, Robinson went to the motel to meet her and when she wasn’t waiting naked on her knees when he walked in, he beat her severely, then they had sex.  He left immediately.  When he returned days later, he told her to give him her social security card and told her to close her bank accounts and that she would be moving to Kansas City soon.  She was scared and did as he told her.  

Again, Robinson abused her, taking pictures of the damage he caused, and had sex.  He left immediately after again, and she realized this was just going to get worse and worse.  She went to the lobby and asked for help.  Detectives talked to her and put her in a safe house.  Surely, this was the time to make a move and arrest Robinson.  But, the district attorney knew about Robinson’s history and how he slipped through the cracks time and time again.  He wanted a rock solid, no way to lose the case.  Towards the end of May, they learned that Robinson had met a 17 year old who had recently given birth and was living in her car.  He promised her that if she became his mistress, he would take care of her and her baby…

On June 1st, 2000 the district attorney drew up everything for an arrest warrant.  The next day, at 10 AM, nearly a dozen unmarked cars quietly surrounded the farm that Robinson owned near LaCygne, Kansas.  One detail that helped investigators get the warrants to search his property was the theft of the bag of sex toys.  

On his farm, they discovered two 85 pound barrels which were sealed.  When they opened them, they found the decomposing bodies of two women.  They were later identified as Izabela Lewicka and Suzette Trouten.  

Across the state line in Missouri, Robinson rented two units at a storage facility.  Those were searched, and three similar drums were found.  There were bodies in them, later identified as Beverly Bonner, Sheila Faith, and Debbie Faith.  

All five women were determined to have been killed in the same way, with a blunt force object to the back of the head. 

In the subsequent trials in both Kansas and Missouri, Robinson was found guilty of murder and several lesser charges.  In Kansas, he was given the death penalty plus life.  The life sentence came in Lisa Stasi’s case because she was killed before the state had reinstated the death penalty.  After his Kansas convictions, Robinson faced murder charges in Missouri based on the evidence discovered in that state.  Missouri aggressively pursued capital punishment convictions, so Robinson’s attorneys wanted to avoid a trial there.  The Missouri prosecutor insisted as a condition of any plea bargain that Robinson lead authorities to the bodies of Stasi, Godfrey, and Clampitt.  Robinson, who has never cooperated with investigators, refused. However, Koster faced pressure to make a deal because his case was not technically airtight⁠.  Among other issues, there was no unequivocal evidence that any of the murders had been committed within his jurisdiction.  Robinson, on the other hand, faced pressure to plead guilty to avoid an almost certain death sentence in Missouri, and failing that, yet another capital murder trial back in Kansas. 

Eventually, they realized that Robinson would never cooperate and the women’s bodies would never be found, a compromise was reached.  Robinson acknowledged that they had enough evidence to prosecute him for capital murder, which was an admission of guilt.  His statement lacked any type of remorse or accountability.  He received a life sentence for each murder he was charged with in Missouri.  

In November of 2015, the Kansas Supreme Court vacated the convictions for Suzette Trouten and Lisa Stasi because “prosecutors at the time improperly used the murders of the same four previous victims to support each capital murder charge.”  The court found that in showing that Robinson killed more than one person as part of the same common scheme, Johnson County prosecutors used the same killings to support each of the capital murder charges. That created a situation where Robinson was unconstitutionally tried twice for the same crime, the court found in its 415-page decision.  But they did uphold the conviction for Izabela Lewicka and the accompanying death sentence.  

In 2005, Nancy Robinson filed for divorce citing incompatibility and irreconcilable differences. 

John Robinson remains on Death Row at the El Dorado Correctional Facility in Kansas.