[4]:100 Shortly after graduation, Berdella relocated to Kansas City. [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. 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. 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. [1], Bryson then managed to escape from the house by jumping from a second floor window, wearing nothing besides a dog collar around his neck, breaking a bone in his foot in the process; he then ran toward a meter reader walking across the other side of the street, shouting for them to call the police. Robinson, 72,. [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. [4]:300 On June 27, he ruptured Stoops's anal wall with his fist, causing bleeding and discharge. 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. 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. The suit accused Gaddis of putting Robinson in contact with Stasi and her newborn daughter in 1984 after he told Gaddis that he ran a charitable organization assisting "unwed mothers of white babies." By his mid-teens, Berdella had begun to display a degree of self-confidence, becoming rude and condescending to others, particularly women. John Edward Robinson's Kids & Family: 5 Fast Facts - Heavy Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. On Christmas Day 1965, the Berdella family drove to Canton, Ohio to visit relatives. In both instances, he had denied having anything to do with the disappearance. [21], Following the submission and acceptance of this plea, the judge insisted that Berdella confess under oath as to Pearson's death. [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. 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. Upon his release, Bonner left her husband, a prison doctor, and moved to Kansas to work for him. [4]:104, At the age of 19, Berdella was arrested for attempting to sell methamphetamine to an undercover officer;[11] he was released after posting a $3,000 bond (equivalent to about $25,600 as of 2023[update]),[12] and would later plead guilty to the offense and was handed a five-year suspended sentence. [4]:5657, In 1982, Berdella began renting his own booth at the Westport Flea Market. 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. At the Western Missouri Correctional Facility, he met 49-year-old Beverly Bonner, the prison librarian. Berdella had first began socializing in gay bars in, Berdella held a brief relationship with a bisexual. [4]:3637 He further claimed to have intended to retrieve Pearson's skull once sufficient time had elapsed for it to skeletonize, although he was adamant there had been no rational or sinister reason for his doing so. Woman Wins Lawsuit to Halt Profit Sought by Man Who Killed Her Mother. Alarming social media posts warning of a Kansas City serial killer are untrue, according to police. The property was later demolished. He promised Stasi a job and a stable living situation in Chicago in exchange for signing several sheets of blank stationery. Prior to his arrest, Berdella was that serial killer clich, someone neighbors described as a nice man who kept to himself. With the state's assistance, he would complete a drug rehabilitation program. [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. Over the course of those years, he killed eight women and two men via strangulation, suffocation, stabbing, or hanging. [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. Sheldon's skull was that which he placed inside a closet on the second floor of his property,[40] in an area of the household Berdella referred to as "my gallery area. According to evidence during his trial, Robinson used the Internet to lure Trouten and Lewicka to Kansas, and their bodies were found in June 2000 in large barrels on Robinson's rural property 60 miles south of Kansas City. [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. 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. 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. The Most Dangerous Serial Killers Netflix Hasn't Done A Series - Grunge 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. 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. 8225 North Church Rd., I-35 & State Route 152, Kansas City, MO, 64158-1105. This house, 4315 Charlotte Street, belonged to the Kansas City Butcher, one of the most deranged serial killers in history. The Heinous Crimes Of Robert Berdella, "The Kansas City Butcher" One other method of torture was the insertion of needles beneath their fingernails. When a detective contacted Wallace's sister, she stated her brother had been missing since mid-1985. John Robinson, who did not. [43][18] At 2:00p.m. on October 8, 1992, Berdella complained to prison staff of severe heart pains, and was taken from his cell to the prison infirmary. The prosecution team assigned to the case accepted the plea, with assistant prosecutor Pat Hall later explaining this decision as being "in the best interest of our client, the people of the state of Missouri". I never thought it out to the level of: 'What if one of these bodies ever gets loose? Berdella was able to name all of his victims to investigators. Occasionally, Berdella's father physically and emotionally abused his children, and beat them with a leather strap. Luminol tests revealed that the floor of Berdella's basement, and two plastic trash barrels, were extensively bloodstained. [4]:80 According to Berdella, he plied Howell with alcohol, Valium and acepromazine both in his car and at his house until the youth became unconscious. [4]:247 By this stage, Berdella had been openly gay for several years. The ruling marked the first time Kansas's highest court has upheld a death sentence since the reinstatement of capital punishment there in 1994. After Robinson arranged for Bonner's alimony checks to be forwarded to a Kansas post office box, her family never heard from her again. He then brought an electrical transformer to the basement. On the fifth day of his captivity, having by this stage endured torture such as the repeated administration of electrical shocks with the transformer, and the breaking of several hand bones with an iron rod to render him submissive,[4]:311 Berdella deduced Pearson had earned his trust as to his continued cooperation in his sexual and physical abuse. After hearing nothing further from her, Godfrey's parents filed a missing persons report. [4]:261. 3. James Ferris's wife identified him in several instant photos found at Berdella's property, some taken after her husband's death. Death sentence is upheld for serial killer John E. Robinson Sr. [4]:307,309, According to Berdella, Pearson was by far the most cooperative of his six murder victims. 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 total of nine men are on Kansas' death row. Three hundred and thirty four Polaroid pictures and 34 snapshot prints of various men were also found in Berdella's house. Sometime during the summer of 1999, Lewicka disappeared. A "suspected serial killer" has been taken into custody with the semi-automatic pistol he allegedly used in multiple slayings within weeks in the St. Louis area and in Kansas City, Kansas . 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. [3] The following year, he violated probation by moving to Chicago without his probation officer's permission and gained a job as an insurance salesman at the R.B. Right now John E. Robinson is in his 70s, sitting on death row in Kansas. [4]:57, At his work premises, Berdella became acquainted with a fellow merchant named Paul Howell, who operated a booth adjacent to his own. KANSAS CITY, Mo. The justices upheld his death sentence in a 415-page ruling that also addressed numerous technical arguments raised by Robinson's attorneys. 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. In 1969, Robinson was arrested in Kansas City for embezzling $33,000 from the medical practice of Dr. Wallace Graham, where he worked as a radiographer using forged credentials. Robinson became a Scoutmaster, a baseball coach, and a Sunday school teacher. 185-189. Authorities believe that he's responsible for the murders of at least eight women in Missouri and Kansas. The Blair family is a well-known crime family in Kansas City. Robinson is known to be responsible for eight homicides, but his total victim tally remains unknown. [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. Paul Howell formally identified one picture of a young man hanging upside down in Berdella's basement as depicting his son. [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. However, he would later state to investigators that he had thought almost constantly about escaping. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, He later dissected Sheldon's body in the third floor bathroom. After several weeks, the woman dies of a contracted illness despite her captor's efforts to keep her alive. Michael H. Stone & Gary Brucato. [2]:4, In 1984, having established two more fraudulent shell companies, Robinson hired Paula Godfrey, aged 19, ostensibly to work as a sales representative. As Pearson had once been a ward of the court in Wichita, his dental records were discovered and compared with the skull found in Berdella's backyard. The New Evil: Understanding the Emergence of Modern Violent Crime (Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2019), pp. Police questioned Robinson, who denied any knowledge of her whereabouts. [1] The theft charge finally gave investigators the probable cause they needed to obtain search warrants. Robinson also was convicted for the 1985 death of a third young Kansas woman whose body was never found. [4]:270, On April 10, 1985, an itinerant former lodger, 20-year-old Robert Sheldon, arrived on Berdella's doorstep, asking if he could again stay at his house for a short period of time. One of those traced, a young man named Freddie Kellogg, was able to state to detectives he and several other young men had intermittently lodged with Berdella since the early 1980s, and that Berdella had been in the habit of plying his lodgers with drugs typically intravenously before engaging in sex with them regardless of whether they consented or not. 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. Kansas Supreme Court hears barrel bodies killer's appeal - KMBC [2]:9, In 2002, Robinson stood trial in Kansas for the murders of Trouten, Lewicka, and Stasi along with multiple lesser charges. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering appeals in three such cases, including those of brothers Jonathan and Reginald Carr, who were convicted of dozens of crimes leading up to the murders of four people in a snow-covered soccer field in Wichita in December 2000. He was sentenced to three years' probation. Robert Berdella: The Butcher of Kansas City - The Lineup [2]:15 Robinson received a life sentence without possibility of parole for each of the five murders. By 1999, he had attracted the attention of authorities in Kansas and Missouri as his name frequently came up in missing person investigations. "There are [probably] other barrels waiting to be opened, other bodies waiting to be found."[1]. December 13, 1988. At the age of 72, serial killer Robinson currently remains on death row and could become the first convict executed by lethal injection in that state in Kansas. He previously. In a video that went viral on TikTok and other platforms, a man claimed that four Black girls . Kansas serial killer John E. Robinson Sr.'s death penalty appeal 7920 NW Tiffany Springs Pkwy., I-29 & Tiffany Springs Pkwy., Kansas City, MO, 64153-2310. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. [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. Suspected serial killer arrested for series of slayings within weeks in [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. John Robinson meets the queen of England. [6] Chris Koster, the Missouri prosecutor, insisted as a condition of any plea bargain that Robinson lead authorities to the bodies of Stasi, Godfrey, and Clampitt. He tersely explained his successive actions to investigators on December 14 with the statement that he was "capturing them first, and what developed, developed." On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [10], Shortly after the death of Berdella's father, his mother remarried; an action which was met with resentment by Berdella, who viewed the move as a form of betrayal against his father. )[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. Legal Statement. from CA$700.00 Straight & Spiral fluting. In 1975, Robinson's probation was extended again after an arrest on charges of securities fraud and mail fraud in connection with a phony medical consulting company he had formed. [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." Investigators also noted that posts on the bed had been extensively worn, suggesting that restraints had earlier been tied to these posts, and that the individual or individuals had struggled to free themselves. He would later claim to have become increasingly frustrated that many of these individuals were ignorant of his efforts to help steer them away from self-destructive behavior. Jones Company. [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). [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]). Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. [2]:4 In 1957, Robinson became an Eagle Scout and traveled to London with a group of Scouts who performed before Queen Elizabeth II. [6], In the summer of 1967, Berdella graduated from Cuyahoga Falls High School. As a child Berdella was intelligent, but a loner who rarely played outside his home and seldom had friends visit to socialize.