In 1964, he moved to Kansas City and married Nancy Jo Lynch, who gave birth to their first child, John Jr., in 1965, followed by daughter Kimberly in 1967, and twins Christopher and Christine in 1971. Robinson, portraying himself as a wealthy businessman and philanthropist, offered to pay Debbie's medical expenses and give Sheila a job. Prior to his arrest, Berdella was that serial killer clich, someone neighbors described as a nice man who kept to himself. They found three similar chemical drums containing corpses subsequently identified as Bonner, Faith, and Faith's daughter. [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. 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. Her missing persons' case remains open. The frightened 22-year-old told Kansas City police that she's been locked in a basement for a month and identified 39-year-old . [4]:307 That evening, Berdella ensured Pearson became intoxicated before injecting him with chlorpromazine and moving him down to his basement, where he bound Pearson's hands above his head, then linked the rope he had used for this purpose to a brick column, before injecting Pearson's larynx with drain cleaner. He previously. The Bloody Benders - Serial Killers of Kansas. Aside from Pearson's severed head and the striations upon his vertebrae, the accompanying evidence, compiled to bring this charge, included some 60 Polaroid photos of Pearson; the logs Berdella had kept of his captivity of the subject (and which the handwriting was proven to be Berdella's); chemical tests upon Pearson's hair which indicated the subject may have received fatal dosages of various tranquilizers; the injury Pearson was known to have inflicted upon Berdella on August 5, 1987; and the fact Berdella had paid Pearson's bond in June 1987. [4]:5657, In 1982, Berdella began renting his own booth at the Westport Flea Market. For several years, Bonner's mother continued forwarding her alimony checks and Robinson continued cashing them. [4]:103, In 1969, Berdella voluntarily withdrew from KCAI after receiving harsh criticism from college administrators for killing and cooking a duck for the sake of art. The same afternoon he was ordered to pose for the series of nude photographs for comparison with the Polaroid images he had taken, investigators attempted to conduct their first formal investigation with him, although Berdella simply invoked his right to silence in this setting. He later dissected Sheldon's body in the third floor bathroom. [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. 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. In this testimony, Berdella claimed the movie he had first seen in 1965, The Collector, had left a major impression on him. [9] Two days later, Berdella returned to Cuyahoga Falls by himself. December 13, 1988. [47] Although many items sold for less than the expected price, by the end of the first day's auctioneering alone, more than $60,000 had been raised for this purpose (equivalent to $151,000 as of 2023[update]). 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. Legal Statement. Rader was married and had two children, and was a leader in his community through the Christ Lutheran Church and Cub Scouts. She was initially considered a possible victim but was later identified as Lois Tomich, who police believe was killed by her ex-husband. [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. 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]. 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? 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. 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. )[4]:180, Initially, Berdella was formally charged with one count of felonious restraint, one count of assault, and seven counts of forcible sodomy,[21] as investigators continued their investigations into the discoveries at his property. The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review the death penalty case of Kansas serial killer John E. Robinson Sr., meaning his capital murder conviction and . He chose to remain in Kansas City and in September of that year, he moved into an address within the Hyde Park[13] district: 4315 Charlotte Street. "[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. 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]:151. Robinson currently remains on death row at the El Dorado Correctional Facility in Kansas. On each victim's capture, Berdella described in graphic detail the sexual, physical, and emotional abuse to which he had subjected each victim, and which he had recorded within his torture logs. In 1977, he was named to the board of directors of a local charitable organization where he forged letters from its executive director to the mayor of Kansas City and from the mayor to civic leaders, naming him as the organization's Man of the Year. Bryson would also testify in person at an initial, pretrial hearing on June 9. In a video that went viral on TikTok and other platforms, a man claimed that four Black girls . This more detailed questioning occurred after Bryson had been released from the Menorah Medical Center, after he had undergone several days of treatment for his injuries. 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. Missouri aggressively pursued capital punishment convictions, so Robinson's attorneys wanted to avoid a trial there. [2]:15 Robinson received a life sentence without possibility of parole for each of the five murders. [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". 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. [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". ], When it became clear that the women's remains would never be found without Robinson's cooperation, a compromise was reached. Pick your location. [7] The following year, Stasi's daughterknown since her (faked) adoption as Heather Robinsonfiled a civil suit against Truman Medical Center in Kansas City and social worker Karen Gaddis. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. He won't ever tell. He would later be temporarily placed in protective custody at the Potosi Correctional Center, due to concerns for his safety. 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. [21] According to Berdella, he did not initially intend to capture Pearson, but began forming the plan to do so on June 23, two weeks after having bailed Pearson out of jail and noting Pearsonin the weeks prior to his captivitydisplayed little interest in finding a job. 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. He also wrote several letters to a local minister claiming that prison officials knew of his high blood pressure, yet were not providing him with his prescribed heart medication. In. 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. She vanished in June of that year. Order Now . [4]:300, The methods of torture exhibited against his victims had included the administration of high-voltage electrical shocks, starvation, the application of alkali-based detergents to their throats, vocal cords, or eyes, and the bludgeoning of their hands with the intention of rendering these body parts unusable. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. [n 4], "You did not choose to be here, but you are. It's the last control he's got," said one investigator. After the longest criminal trial in Kansas history,[6] he was convicted on all counts. [7] Heather won a second judgment in 2007 preventing Robinson from profiting from any future potential book sales or film rights. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, 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]. Consequently, their bodies were never recovered. After Stoops and his wife moved out of Berdella's home the second time, Berdella did not see him again until a chance encounter at KansasCity's Liberty Memorial Park on June 17, 1986. [4]:8182, Berdella is believed to have killed his first victim on July 5, 1984. 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. Berdella had first began socializing in gay bars in, Berdella held a brief relationship with a bisexual. By the final day of his captivity, Stoops was so weak Berdella later stated he had been unable "to breathe in a sitting position". After several weeks, the woman dies of a contracted illness despite her captor's efforts to keep her alive. With the state's assistance, he would complete a drug rehabilitation program. [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. [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. The plot of the film revolves around a disturbed man who stalks and then abducts a young woman whom he finds attractive, holding her captive in his windowless stone basement, and viewing her as little more than an attractive specimen. [4]:312, After six weeks of captivity, Pearson deeply bit into Berdella's penis before screaming he could not continue to tolerate his ongoing poor treatment. Occasionally, Berdella's father physically and emotionally abused his children, and beat them with a leather strap. 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. In 2005, he admitted responsibility for five homicides in Missouri as part of a plea bargain to receive multiple life sentences without possibility of parole and avoid more death sentences. Market data provided by Factset. He tersely explained his successive actions to investigators on December 14 with the statement that he was "capturing them first, and what developed, developed." Mon 7am-4pm. 7920 NW Tiffany Springs Pkwy., I-29 & Tiffany Springs Pkwy., Kansas City, MO, 64153-2310. That evening, Berdella's father had a heart attack at the age of 39. She did sign a 115-item slave contract that gave Robinson almost total control over every aspect of her life, including her bank accounts. Luminol tests revealed that the floor of Berdella's basement, and two plastic trash barrels, were extensively bloodstained. [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. Locations States Missouri. The house belonged to Robert Berdella, the man who would soon become known as Kansas City's most notorious serial killer. Following the senses of shock and disgust he claimed to have initially experienced after killing his first victim,[4]:270 the movie had resurfaced in his memory and subsequently became a motivating psychological force in the actions he exhibited against his victims in his subsequent murders. 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]:259261 The following day, he dismembered Howell's body using a chainsaw and boning knives, before wrapping the sections in newspaper and trash bags. Nonetheless, in his early teens he briefly had a girlfriend. Berdella also volunteered at fundraising events for a local public television station until the mid-1980s.[14]. 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. Ferris gradually became delirious,[4]:288 but Berdella continued his physical and sexual assaults until he noted in his log that Ferris was "Unable to sit up more than 1015 sec[onds]". [8]:245 Berdella's father was a devout Roman Catholic of Italian descent. [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. 185-189. [2], John Robinson was born in Cicero, Illinois, the third of five children of an alcoholic father and a disciplinarian mother. In arguments before the state Supreme Court earlier this year, Robinson's attorney said it was improper for prosecutors in Kansas to bring killings in Missouri into their case, so that Robinson would be eligible for a death sentence for multiple murders occurring in a single course of conduct. Investigators suspect that more victims remain undiscovered. Prosecutors described Robinson as a predator who trolled the Internet under the name "Slavemaster" looking for sadomasochistic sex with women. 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. John Robinson's Family Described Him As Loving & Involved With the Family. [11] Corroborating Bryson's claims of having been restrained and tortured in a second floor bedroom, investigators discovered the bedroom on the second floor was found to have burnt ropes attached to the posts at the foot of the bed. 8225 North Church Rd., I-35 & State Route 152, Kansas City, MO, 64158-1105. [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. 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'. [37] His victims, he stated to investigators, had lost any degree of humanity in his eyes once he had chosen to render them captive. A post on . CA$250.00 Attention international customers. After his release, he formed a bogus hydroponics business and stole $25,000 from a friend to whom he promised a fast investment return so the friend could pay for his dying wife's medical care. [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. "[32] He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He was sentenced to three years' probation. [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. ", "Robert Berdella: The Butcher of Kansas City, Missouri", "Talk of Reopening Serial Killer Bob Berdella's Bazaar Bizarre is Dismissed as a Hoax", "House of Horrors Shocks Residents of a Quiet Neighborhood", "Serial Murder, Psychopathy, and Objectification", "Berdella Sentenced To Life In Prison Without Parole", "Crime Watch Leader had Human Head in Yard", "Man Convicted of Murder After a Head Was Found in Garden", "Robert Berdella: The Butcher of Kansas City", "Macabre Mystery Surrounding Death of 2 Men in Kansas City", "Second Skull Found at Berdella's House Identified", "Man Convicted of Murder after a Head was Discovered in His Yard", "Missourian Admits Murders of 5 Men: Shopkeeper Now Serving Life Terms for 6 Killings in All", "Robert Berdella: Serving Six Life Sentences", "Killer Reportedly Agrees to Confess to Five Slayings", "The Kansas City Butcher: The Confession", "Berdella Criticizes Police; Insists He Does Feel Remorse", "Bob Berdella: The Butcher of Kansas City", "Police Seek Victims from Torture Photos", "Auction of Killer's Art Collection Cancelled", "Auction of Killer's Art Collection Canceled", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Berdella&oldid=1142906983, American people convicted of sexual assault, American people who died in prison custody, American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment, Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Missouri, Serial killers who died in prison custody, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2023, All articles containing potentially dated statements, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Pages using infobox criminal with motive parameter, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 4 March 2023, at 23:48.