The Crime Book

298

I

n 1984, 19-year-old Paula

Godfrey accepted an offer to

work as a sales representative

for Equi-II. The balding founder

of the company, John Edward

Robinson, arrived at the Godfreys’

home on 1 September to pick Paula

up for training in San Antonio,

Texas. Two days later, a handwritten

letter, allegedly from Paula, was

delivered to her parents. It stated

that she was safe, but her father,

suspicious, went to the police. She

was put on the missing persons’

list, until a second letter, also from

“Paula”, arrived at the police

department. This letter claimed

that she did not wish to see her

family and, believing the letter to be

genuine, police dropped the case.

Three more victims

That same year, Robinson accepted

$2,000 (about £3,300 today) to

arrange an adoption for his childless

brother. Posing as “John Osborne”,

he lured 19-year-old Lisa Stasi and

her baby, Tiffany, to a motel on

10 January 1985. The following day,

Robinson met his brother and sister-

in-law at the airport and handed

the baby over to them along with

a set of forged adoption papers.

Lisa Stasi simply disappeared.

In 1987, Robinson struck again.

After answering a newspaper job

advertisement, Catherine Clampitt,

27, left her child behind in Texas

and moved to Kansas City. Her

family never saw her again.

From 1987 to 1993, Robinson

served time for a number of fraud

convictions. At Western Missouri

Correctional Facility, Robinson

befriended prison librarian Beverly

John Edward Robinson used

online forums for BDSM – bondage and

discipline, dominance and submission,

sadism and masochism – in order to

select his murder victims.

IN CONTEXT

LOCATION

Kansas and Missouri, US

THEME

Classified ad killers

BEFORE

1900−08 Belle Gunness kills

dozens of the suitors she meets

through classified ads.

1947−49 Martha Beck and

Raymond Fernandez, known

as the “Lonely Hearts Killers”,

meet their victims through

classified lonely heart ads.

AFTER

2005 In Osaka, Japan,

Hiroshi Maeue seeks sexual

gratification by strangling

three people that he meets

via an online suicide club. He

receives the death sentence.

2011 Preacher Richard Beasley

and his 16-year-old accomplice

Brogan Rafferty kill three

middle-aged men, that Beasley

lures into the Ohio wilderness

with a Craigslist ad for a job

on a cattle ranch.

READ YOUR AD.

LET’S TALK ABOUT

THE POSSIBILITIES

JOHN EDWARD ROBINSON, 1984–99

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299

See also: Harvey Glatman 274–75 ■ Ted Bundy 276–83 ■ Andrei Chikatilo 292 ■ Jeffrey Dahmer 293

SERIAL KILLERS

Bonner. When he was paroled in

1993, the 49-year-old Bonner

separated from her husband and

moved to Kansas to work for one

of Robinson’s companies. Once her

mother began to forward her

alimony cheques to Robinson’s P.O.

box, Bonner also disappeared.

The move online

In the early 1990s, Robinson was

part of a secret sadomasochist

group called the International

Council of Masters, and he turned

to the same type of community

when his hunt for victims moved

online. Under the username

“Slavemaster”, he searched internet

messageboards for women who

classed themselves as sexual

submissives. In 1994, he met

45-year-old Sheila Faith on a forum.

Claiming to be wealthy, he offered

Sheila a job and promised to pay

for her wheelchair-bound daughter

Debbie to have medical treatment.

Sheila believed she had met her

dream man. That summer, she and

Debbie went to Kansas City to meet

Robinson. Their social security

cheques were soon redirected to a

P.O. box in Kansas. At Christmas,

Sheila’s sisters received typed

letters with Sheila’s signature, but

she was already dead.

Robinson continued to lure

women to Kansas City with job

offers and a slave/master sexual

relationship. Some women balked

at signing blank stationery, or

escaped when Robinson’s

behaviour in the bedroom turned

into outright sadism.

Others were less lucky: first,

Polish immigrant Izabela Lewicka,

then 27-year-old Suzette Trouten

both fell prey to him. Suzette,

however, would be Robinson’s

downfall. She had agreed to keep

in regular phone contact with her

mother, but on 1 March her calls

were replaced by emails. These

emails sounded nothing like

Suzette, and her sister, Dawn,

called the police on 25 March 2000.

Robinson’s ruse was soon

discovered. Searches of his trailer

and storage locker revealed it all:

financial papers belonging to Lisa

Stasi, Beverly Bonner, and the

Faiths; blank paper pre-signed by

Suzette; photographs of Izabela

in bondage; videos of Robinson and

his victims engaging in BDSM;

slave contracts, and more.

The following morning, a K-9

police dog search of Robinson’s

Linn County farm revealed Suzette

and Izabela’s bodies in big plastic

drums. Beverley Bonner’s and the

Faiths’ remains were found soon

afterwards in a storage locker in

Raymore, Missouri. Although Stasi,

Godfrey, and Clampitt were never

found, Robinson was convicted

of eight counts of murder and

sentenced to death. ■

Sends letters and emails to the victim’s family

Lures victim away from her home with

false promises

Murders the victim, steals

her identity, and continues to

cash her cheques

Using an alias, trawls

online forums to meet

potential victims

Places an ad for

a fake job under a

false name

Anyone could create an

email account and sign it

as you. If you would

telephone, I would feel

much, much better.

Andrew Lewicki

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