JOHN ROBINSON: NET OF DECEPTION

It’s hard to pinpoint when serial killer John Robinson decided his early dreams would not suffice. Believe it or not, family and acquaintances have fond memories of a well-rounded young man: his proud days as an Eagle Scout, his moving speech dedicated to Queen Elizabeth the Second, early ambitions of entering the priesthood and moving to Rome. None of those aspirations were consistent with his internal driving force: the overwhelming desire to enter a world of sexual domination, torture, and carnage.

John E. Robinson: a master manipulator. Insecure women with low self-esteem were his experiments; the internet his microscope. For fifteen years (1984-2000) not one woman— regardless of intelligence or street smarts— had been capable of turning away from his arsenal of irresistible charms. For his murder victims there was no avoiding his finely spun webs of lies and coercion. Robinson did not seem to have what many would consider typical good looks working in his favor. What he did have, however, apparently made up for his lack of physical presence: an infectious personality, a warm smile, and a way with words. At least that’s what everyone who knew him attested to. Everybody from congressmen to charity organizations believed he was a man of success and philanthropy. In reality, his only true achievements were living on the money of others and embezzling cash from his various employers. Writing letters to people with influence and forging signatures on important documents enabled him to cast favorable light on himself. He was easily able to polish his image as the need arose. His assembly line of lies, as outrageous as they were, kept coming: owning productive companies. Being devoutly involved with charities. Receiving an award as leader of a handicapped organization. Running an adoption agency. These outright lies were part of his narcissism and plotting. He knew what people wanted to hear and exactly how and when to tell them. Mind games of this kind made it impossible for anyone to predict his next move. Using these masterfully formulated lies kept his conniving and murderous path uncluttered.

His victims were always so entirely convinced of his sincerity that they were known to turn over their lives to him, signing fraudulent contracts that allowed him to take power of attorney over their life savings and important decisions. His pledge to them: He would take care of their needs, pay their bills, and in return they would only have to become his sex slaves. Some of the girls he preyed on were willing to skip town on a moment’s notice. Robinson forced them to draft letters to their families explaining that they might not hear from them for a while: They would be traveling a lot, he told them. Occasionally he found it to his advantage to lie about contacts he had in the entertainment industry. He’d ask women to provide him with Social Security numbers and publicity stills; and, being submissive, these women willingly gave him what he asked, hoping golden opportunities would surface. None of them could resist the temptation of possibly becoming actors or models or whatever else his world of promises had to offer. Of course none of them could have known the infinite trap of horror they were falling into.

He took great pleasure in beating and sexually ravaging women he’d met through chat rooms on the internet and from articles he placed in a self-published mobile home magazine. His wife Nancy was the manager of the mobile home park they lived in. When she went off to work in the morning, her husband went to a job of his own: online stalker and hunter.

When things didn’t go as planned, John Robinson made his anger violently known too. John Robinson was not to be crossed. One day his mistress Teresa (Nancy knew of his infidelity and sexual urges), failed to cooperate properly with one of his schemes. An enraged Robinson burst into her apartment and jammed the barrel of a loaded gun into her vagina, threatening to kill her. Somehow, Teresa managed to escape. She was one of the few.

John Robinson, like many lunatics, exercised extreme caution when selecting his victims, stalking women whose lives were deficient in the usual ways: They were lonely, widowed, overweight, sexually deprived, needy, and sexually curious. The more gullible, the easier the target was to focus on and to corrupt. Spotting them was effortless and part of the thrill of the hunt that Robinson thrived on. Once he took command of their life, swindling money was just as easy as giving it away. When Robinson was at his best nobody was all that difficult to fool. Beverly Bonner, a librarian from the Missouri Correctional System, learned that lesson firsthand. He seduced her during his short-term incarceration. She eventually left her loving husband to work for Robinson in one of his make-believe companies. Shortly thereafter her body was discovered submerged in a chemical drum and hidden in a storage locker. It was not just women who fell for his schemes. Dr. Wallace Graham, a respected radiologist who hired Robinson after initially being impressed by his forged credentials, learned after a short time that Robinson had embezzled thousands of dollars during his employment— funds set aside for employee bonuses and incentives. The list could go on.

John Robinson’s intelligence and persuasive skills rank among the most refined of any serial killer. Mass murderers and serial rapists are renowned for being smart and well-spoken, a large number boast genius IQ’s. But this serial murderer possessed the rarest of gifts—infinite charm and charisma— and he used them as tasty, irresistible bait.
It should come as no surprise that John Robinson is considered the first internet serial killer. For years his fascination with computers and technology intensified and he pushed himself harder to grasp the mastery of cyber stalking. He lurked within online dating services and sadomasochistic websites: The members of these organizations hungered to act out their sexual fantasies of pain and endurance. Robinson carefully laid the groundwork and drew them to him. Using his writing ability he lured women into his traps with promises of sexual compatibility, money, and tempting job offers; he guaranteed the sex-starved victims that he was the answer to their hottest fantasies. He worked under the name “The Slavemaster.” If women agreed to meet him he would then push them into signing “slave” contracts that outlined their duties to him as submissives.

But it wasn’t always about sex and torture with John Robinson, at least not with Sheila and Debbie Faith, California residents who had no chance of avoiding his twisted game and manipulative skill. Examine this scenario as John Robinson himself did. Put yourself in his mind and imagine what a man so sick and sinister was thinking: Sheila Faith’s husband died at an early age. Her daughter Debbie had been ravaged by spinal bifida and cerebral palsy, confined to a wheelchair, hardly possessing the energy to operate the control panel. And Sheila, desperate to find a man in hope of a new life, decided to roam the internet for a fresh start, a special person, someone to help her heal a life ridden with emotional and physical wounds. What she found online was danger in its purest form. What she did then was make the biggest mistake of her life: John Robinson was hungry and waiting and they let him in. He put on the front of a rich man who would put Sheila to work, attend to her considerable medical expenses and support her and her daughter. Sheila and Debbie faith could not resist the “too good to be true” offer. They packed their bags and left with Robinson...and soon thereafter... disappeared. For years following their disappearance John Robinson did what he did best— his job— and returned to the Faiths’ home, collected their Social Security checks as they arrived, and then continued his hunt.

It’s downright horrible to imagine what Robinson did before he killed his victims, aside from acting out his sexual dreams of pain, suffering, and dominance. For example, what did Suzette Trouten and Izabela Lewicka experience before their remains ended up outside of Robinson’s trailer park in chemical barrels, obscured underneath overgrown vegetation, the smell of decayed flesh so repulsive it shook seasoned officers to the core. Police determined that Robinson’s victims likely died instantly and not necessarily in the heat of sexual aggression or acts of perversion. Some of their corpses were studied by medical examiners. Their skulls often had large holes in them from the impact of one strike— one fatal blow. From a hand? An object? Nobody knows.

Facts divulged by those closest to Robinson continue to puzzle the media and the victims’ families: How could John Robinson’s family ask for his life to be spared yet not attend the hearing when the verdict was read? Why did his wife Nancy, knowing he’d been unfaithful, stay with him for all those years? According to reports she wanted to divorce him several times but for the sake of her children failed to follow through. Was that a wise decision? Or, on a different level, was Nancy Robinson terrified of becoming one of his victims?

The pure truth is this: John E. Robinson was a brilliant man in all the most horrible ways. Up to and including his days in prison, and despite evidence mounting from further investigations, his family still saw him as a loving and caring man, a darling husband and devout grandfather. Somehow only family can overlook a serial killer’s string of repugnance and hold on forever to feelings of love and compassion. How is that possible? Is it because none of this horror befell them? John Robinson will always be known as a man who deceived, tempted, and manipulated everyone he met. District Attorney Paul Morrison said it best: “John Robinson was a gamesman to the end.”