True Crime Campfire - Ctrl + Alt + Delete: Serial Killer John Edward Robinson Pt 1

Episode Date: March 6, 2020

Serial killers have most likely been around as long as people have, long before we had the term. In fact, some scholars believe that the early stories about vampires, werewolves, and other such creatures were actually created to explain the kinds of violence people didn’t have any other way to explain. The kind of violence perpetrated by what we now call “serial killer.” Ugh. Even that term is chilling, isn’t it? This is the first time we’ve told the story of one of these killers, and we’ve chosen one who—although his crimes aren’t that different from those of BTK or some of those other infamous names—is unique in at least one aspect. He was the first serial killer to find his victims via the brand-new internet. And the way he wooed them was so methodical, so cold, so premeditated, that we struggle to imagine what it would be like to live inside a mind like that. He was a consummate scammer, too, a criminal to the core.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.

Hello campers. Grab your marshmallows and gather around the true crime campfire. We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie. And I'm Whitney. And we're here to tell you a true story that is way stranger than fiction. We're roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime campfire. Serial killers have most likely been around as long as people have, long before we had the term. In fact, some scholars believe that the early stories about vampires, werewolves, and other such creatures were actually created to explain the kind of violence people didn't have any other way to explain. The kind of violence perpetrated by what we now call serial killer. Ugh, even that term is chilling, isn't it? This is the first time we've told the story of one of these killers on the show, and we've chosen one who, although his crimes aren't that different from those of BTK or some of the other infamous names, is unique in at least one aspect. He was the first serial killer to find his victims via the brand-new internet.

And the way he wooed them was so methodical, so cold, so premeditated, that we struggle to imagine what it would be like to live inside a mind like that. He was a consummate scammer, too, a criminal to the core. This is Control Alt Delete, the story of John Edward Robinson. So, campers, our story begins in Cicero, Illinois in 1943. Cicero, strangely enough, is most famous for being home to Al Capone, the gangster. It was the kind of neighborhood that had mafia flavor on every street corner. What is mafia flavor? Some kind of pasta, probably.

Maybe cannolly? Yeah. Spaghetti. You have to say it like that, like Tony Sprint. Right. I'm sorry. So John Edward Robinson was born the third of five children. His father Henry was a machinist for Western Electric, and more importantly to our story, a binge drinker. And his mother, Alberta, was the family disciplinarian and has best been described as cold.

So not a super nurturing environment for a child. Is anybody surprised? I'm not. No. Little Johnny Robb dreamt of being a priest. And failing that, wanted to follow in hometown hero Al Capone's footsteps and become a gangster. So no conflict of interest there, right? Not at all.

priest or a gangster. Either I'll be in the mob or I'll save people's souls. This is an interesting juxtaposition there. And I think telling in terms of the mindset of this guy, he wanted a position of authority. He didn't care with the morality of it was, right? Exactly. At 13, he attended a prestigious Catholic school called, I love this Quigley Preparatory Seminary, which aside from sounding like a made up school in a British children show, made him the pride of his neighborhood and put him on track to fulfill his first dream. But he was mostly just an average student. Most of the adults in his life described him as not brilliant, but they did describe him

as shrewd and cunning, which is creepy when applied to a child in particular. Which would you rather be campers? Brilliant or Cunning? Probably brilliant. I think I'm going to go with brilliant, because cunning just sounds like you're a Batman villain. Plotting, yeah. Exactly, with a white cat on your. Well, I like the idea of the cat on your lap.

So maybe I have to reconsider. His Boy Scout leader, Richard Shotkey, said, John was a good kid. He didn't talk a great deal, but when he did talk, it was to produce an effect he wanted. Charm is a tool that John used a great effect. Remember what Gavin DeBacker says about charm, y'all. It's a verb. John became the youngest ever Eagle Scout at 13, according to him, at least. Yeah, I knew a couple of guys in high school that became Eagle Scouts our senior year.

So this is pretty impressive, if true. I will say that the prestigious source, WikiHow, said you could become an Eagle Scout in 17 months if you worked at it pretty much nonstop. So it's theoretically possible, but like, we'll find this out. But John is a born liar through and through. So who can say? I bet WikiHow had amusing illustrations. They sure did. Because they always do.

I love WikiHow's weird little illustrations. In fact, he got selected to lead the Eagle Scouts in his own. show for Queen Elizabeth in London for the Royal Command Performance, which is a fundraising event that occurs every year. And also in attendance at the shindig were Judy Garland and Gracie Field. So this was kind of a big deal. And it's funny to me how many serial killers got to meet or be photographed with famous people. Like there's Gacy, that famous picture of him with First Lady Rosalind Carter. And of course, Bundy worked for the governor of Washington for a while. It's just interesting, right? They sometimes seem to enter the orbit of like prominent people a lot, which

creepy. So fast forwarding to the end of high school, John was pretty much average in all ways, which I bet chapped his ass because he wanted everybody think he was the bees' knees. Yeah, and keep in mind, so he's so far been described as charming. Yeah. Or glib and average, which is a trait that psychopaths can have. Yeah, in fact, glibness and superficial charm is the first item on the PCLR, also known as the hair test, which is the diagnostic tool for psychopathy. And if you've never had a look at it, you should, because it's fascinating and it's super fun to apply it to everyone that you don't like exactly i knew it anyway and acting perfectly normal can also be a mark of psychopathy now obviously not by itself because

duh but my point is that you often have to be paying real close attention to spot a psychopath they can just seem like the average guy next door and sometimes you can't spot them even if you are paying attention because the mask is that firmly in place so john didn't really have the grades to continue to seminary school. So instead, he went to Morton Community College where he started studying to become an X-ray technician. Now, that's a perfectly respectable career choice, but it wasn't impressive enough for John Boy. He wanted to be a doctor. But it wasn't meant to be, and John flunked out of school his sophomore year. So womp, womp. And when he was 24, a blonde young woman caught his eye. This was 20-year-old Nancy Joe Lynch, a local Chicago girl. So they started dating, and on their third

or fourth date. John proposed to Nancy, and for some incomprehensible reason, she said yes, and then promptly got pregnant, because nothing bodes better for a relationship than knowing each other for like a month and a half and then throwing a baby into the mix, right? Good choice, good life choices. I know it was a different time, but still, please don't marry somebody you just met. P.S.A. from True Crime Campfire. So with a baby on the way, the deadline to marriage was fast approaching, because people did not do that back then. So they were shortly married in a Catholic, ceremony in Cicero and their families were less than thrilled but John's parents hope you know maybe this will force him to buckle down after his string of failures right yeah but that's going to work out

great so mere months into their marriage Nancy Joe was out to hear pregnant and John was working at a hospital now we couldn't find anything specific about what he was doing there in terms of what his job was but apparently he had access to money because it quickly came out that homeboy was embezzling cash And instead of calling the cops, his magnanimous employer made a deal where John could repay the money and they wouldn't press charges. This happens a lot in embezzlement cases for some reason. People are like, just give us the money back. We don't want to press charges. I guess it makes sense because what you really want is to not have lost all that money.

Sure. Yeah. But anyway, this was 1964. So maybe standards have changed. But this just seems like a bad idea because you know they're going to do it again. But I guess the idea is that, well, they're not going to do it to me. So who cares? And I get my money back.

So the same year that they met and got married, John Edward Robinson and Nancy Joe basically fled Chicago with their reputations and tatters. And they went to Kansas City, Kansas, where John applied for a job as a pediatric x-ray tech at Children's Mercy and General Hospital. And in the interview, he presented himself as a med student who needed a night job to pay for classes. And he gave him certificates and letters of recommendation that said he was a trained tech, a nuclear medical technologist, and a medical technologist. a medical lab technologist, which, as you might be thinking, campers, was a load of horse shit. This reminds me a lot of Dyson Koft and the fake transcripts, remember, that he used to get into med school? Oh, yeah.

So, again, patterns, man, it's the Da Vinci Code, man. There are themes in these cases. And initially, John's boss, Dr. Charles Schofner, was impressed by his charm and attitude, but it didn't take long for them to realize that this dude knew fuck all about taking x-rays. They had to teach him everything, like, here's how to run the machine. and here's how to work with patience, so I know you all are shocked to hear this, but he actually did not know his job.

And by this time, his son John Jr. was born, but that did not stop John Sr. from slamming ass all over town. He could not keep it in his pants, as so many of the lovely dudes that we talk about can't. And I can't help but wonder if his marriage to Nancy was just pretty much an effort to appear normal, just part of the mask.

I mean, he had the job, he had the wife, he had the kid. He was the picture of success, if you didn't scratch the surface. But, of course, to his employers, he was a liability. And he got fired less than a year after starting at that children's hospital. But never one to be kept down for long. It didn't take long for him to find another job. A better one, in fact.

Yeah, and in comes Dr. Wallace H. Graham, who is an impressive figure. Very much so. Yeah, he was the head doctor at the, fountain plaza x-ray laboratory in kansas city but prior to that he was the personal physician of president truman he was an eagle scout a golden gloves boxing champion a general and a war hero in world war two and a great surgeon i'm exhausted just listening to that how does it how do people like i'm proud of myself if i do laundry and like put like it away in the same day i'm like yes

killing it today, killing it wit. This guy, like, I just can't even. Like, people were just like way more, like, energetic and better at stuff back then, I think. We're all just exhausted. Yeah. Yeah, they didn't have podcasts back then, though. So we do have true crime campfire. That's an achievement. I'm very proud of. He, this is my favorite thing that I've learned in researching this. This is bananas. Yeah. He was once the head. head of the medical team that was sent to help King Ibn Saoud of Saudi Arabia with severe arthritis and a growth on his head. And when he got there, the king's people told him that if the surgery wasn't successful, he'd be killed.

Holy shitballs. So no pressure, right? No. So my question here is, did they tell him what he'd get if it was successful? I mean, was it just you don't die, which I guess is nice. But did he get like a palace or something? thing, like, or like a bag of diamonds or, you know? No, he didn't get anything, but the U.S. got better relations with Saudi Arabia. So, win, I guess. So, this dude wasn't fucking around.

It's a hell of a story. Right? So, yeah, this guy was just the coolest person in the world. Now, I mentioned that he was an Eagle Scout, and of course, John used the, this to his advantage and schmooze the shit out of Dr. Graham. Dr. Graham's son, Dr. Bruce Graham, who was a 15-year-old intern at the time, said that his father was impressed by John's confidence. He said, he had all these big ideas. I never really liked him or trusted him. I thought he was creepy. Dr. Graham, the elder, had no such misgivings, though, and hired him on the spot.

Which is interesting to me, and this comes up a few more times, too, where people, like, I love this guy, I think he's creepy. Some people just have better radar, don't they? Yeah. That's true. And Johnny wasted no time in decorating his office with dozens of certificates and diplomas. He was in his early 20s at this point. So unless he was in a university at 12, he was posting forged documents. She's so pathetic. Remember Scott Peterson and all his fake diplomas, by the way. Yet another theme. Mm-hmm. Now, Bruce wasn't the only person at Fountain Plaza that had run-ins with Robinson. Graham's partner, Dr. Philip Reister, was also not a fan of John.

He thought the young hot shot's work was slipshod and was generally turned off by his personality. So naturally, John decided to do what anyone else would do when a colleague didn't like him. He bought him a fucking poodle. This has got to be the weirdest shit I've ever heard of my life. He bought him a poodle. as in a live breathing being, an actual dog for the co-worker that didn't like him. It's so weird.

God is so weird. All right, campers, take a moment. I want you to close your eyes, unless you're driving. Yeah, please don't close your eyes if you're driving. Eyes on the road. But anyway, if you're not driving, close your eyes. And imagine that your least favorite coworker shows up at your. your desk with the fucking dog that you're now responsible for. Like, how did that conversation

even go? I can't even imagine. I don't know. And here's the thing is we love poodles here at True Crime Canfire. Absolutely. But they are very high maintenance. They require so much upkeep. They've got to be groomed the right way. They're really high energy. So you're basically telling this person, you're responsible for this high maintenance dog. That's going to require a lot of money. Okay, that's just batshit crazy. I'm sorry. And it actually reminds me a little bit of in season one,

Jay Smith, bringing his secretary just an enormous vat of stuffed cabbage when she got mad at him. It's like, I'm a psychopath and I have no idea how to treat you with basic respects. So here's a ridiculous gift. Huh? Perfect. Hey? Is that going to do it? And then they're like, wait, but I got you this thing.

I bought you a dog. And then. six months into his employment, a bookkeeper discovered that Robinson had embezzled $100,000 from the practice. And this is like in like, this is what, 60s money? That's so much money. Yeah, so Dr. Graham, understandably felt betrayed and confronted John. And John was as cool as a fridge full of cucumbers when he offered to pay the money back.

But that didn't fly with Dr. Graham. said no and went straight to the cops. Just for him. And after John's arrest, his co-workers went through his office and discovered a box full of blank certificates and diplomas in his office. Yikes. And wasn't this around the time when Nancy was pregnant with their second child? Yes.

Yeah. That's interesting, right? So you notice the theme. So I believe his wife was pregnant three different times. And all three pregnancies coincide with three of his biggest scam. So maybe he was trying to get off in a different way if he wasn't getting it at home. It could be or it could be just that he was sort of chafing against domesticity, like the idea of being just the dutiful husband and father and had to get some excitement somehow, which I guess is kind of just a different way of saying what you just said. It's not necessarily sexual thrill, but.

No. And it's super weird because I don't think they were hurting. for money. Yeah, it's for the thrill for sure. And also, I mean, I'm sure he's greedy, but Yeah, he's, but it's just so bizarre because it's like every single time there was like issues with his wife or she was pregnant or there was something with the kids. He'd be go do these ridiculous stunts. I just don't know. Well, and you know, one of the things that profilers have found is that oftentimes, at least with murder, there's a precipitating stress. is what they call it before the crime happens.

And I wonder if that also happens in, you know, financial frauds and things like that, that your wife is pregnant, that's stressful, you're going to have another mouth to feed. There's a financial, you know, stress associated with that. So maybe in addition to seeking out thrills, he was also just, it was a way to release pressure. Right. Yeah, I think you definitely have a good point there. So in 1969, John was convicted of embezzlement and received. a suspended sentence and was put on probation.

Now, for campers that don't know, a suspended sentence is where a judge chooses to delay a defendant's judgment while they serve a probationary period. Now, the charges for a suspended sentence usually come if they offend again. Yeah. Now, Robinson's medical career clearly wasn't working out. So he moved on to the corporate world. He got a job as a systems analyst for mobile oil. of course he forged all his references didn't mention that he was on probation and in september of

1970 he was caught stealing three hundred seventy dollars worth of postage stamps for god's stamps yeah now he worked out a deal with the courts to pay the money back and was able to plead it down to a misdemeanor now i'm not actually sure how he got away with this he committed the same crime and his probation officer was what fine with it or just you doing a shitty job and not paying attention? I don't know. It's bizarre. But you see it all the time.

Like people just get away with stuff and get away with stuff. So now his medical career and his reputation in Kansas weren't working out. So he and his family moved back to Chicago. He started working for an insurance company called R.B. Jones. And fun fact, I actually used to work for their parent company. Well, I'll be dinged. Yeah, R.B. Jones, at least now, specializes in environmental insurance. Anyway, this is where he hit his stride.

his bosses adored him but alas all good things must come to an end and he was caught stealing $5,500 and the police were called again and John was an old hat at this and readily admitted his guilt the Illinois state attorney agreed to dismiss the case if John paid the money back now is anyone noticing a theme here John has not faced a real consequence at this point despite showing the justice system that he was not to be trusted. Now, the courts in Illinois did advise the courts in Kansas about the case and his probation officer ordered him back to the sunflower state, because when you're on probation, you're not supposed to fucking move. Yeah. Now, as with before, like we were discussing, this embezzling case coincided with his wife's third pregnancy. In 1971, fraternal twins,

Christopher and Christine were born. All right. So when he got back to Kansas in 1971, John decided that working for the man just wasn't for him and moved into being his own boss. He started a medical consulting company called, all right, the most average name. It might as well be Acme. Professional Services Association. And after all, you can't really steal from yourself. Big brain time, right? Cleve up.

But you also can't steal from yourself if you also don't make money, which John didn't because he wasn't at this job either. Yeah, and his first order of business hiring a pretty young secretary by the name of Charlotte Bauersock at $7 an hour. Now, remember what year it is here. So for our economically inclined campers, that's $44 an hour or $91,000 a year in today's money. That's just an obscene amount of money for a secretary. In fact, it's nine times the average yearly pay for a secretary in that same year.

so Bauersock now admits that she may have been a bit naive during her time at professional services and that perhaps she was being paid to keep her mouth shut you think a good chunk of her job was taking Robinson's handwritten letters and typing them up on fake letterheads for him to sign and when she asked him about these like obvious forgeries he assured her oh no no these are my close personal friends and they totally know I'm doing it I'm just saving them time and she decided, I guess, to buy that because she was making an insane amount of money. Insane amount of money.

I can't say as I'd do any different, to be perfectly honest. That's a huge salary. For many of his clients, he looked like the real deal. I mean, he drove an expensive car. He wore expensive suits. But his skills, on the other hand, as they always had, left a lot to be desired. The University of Kansas Medical Center

was one of his bigger clients, but the orthopedic surgery department started to doubt his aptitude, quickly. His response, to their doubts, was to present two separate letters to plump up his reputation. The first was a note from the Board of Regents from the University of Missouri, which informed him that the board had made him a full professor, signed by Dean Hamilton-Robinson of the School of Dentistry. The second letter was from a Mr. John Hartline, who was an executive director at Marion Laboratories, who was informing Robinson that they wanted to buy his company.

Now, this all sounds great, right? But there were just a couple of problems. First of all, the University of Missouri didn't have a board of regents. And second of all, John Hartline had actually already declined this business opportunity on behalf of Marion Lab's founder, Ewing Kaufman. Not only that, but Robinson managed to misspell not only Hartline's name, but also Kaufman. Good job, bud. Well played. Now, this forge letter also went out to prospective investors, and one of them, a guy called

Matt Cahall was intrigued. He called and he asked for a copy of PSA's balance sheet and in response, Robinson sent a very impressive balance sheet. I'm sure it was completely legit, right? So the investors sent him $2,500, which in 2020 is about $15,500 as a down payment for 10,000 stocks. Now, all that sounds peachy keen, except for the fact that Matt Cahall was buddies with the aforementioned founder of Marion Labs,

Ewing Kaufman. And when he mentioned it in passing, Kaufman was understandably furious. So Cahal immediately canceled his check and then called the Federal Securities and Exchange Commission, who opened an investigation. Oh, my gosh. Do I smell the scent of consequences? It smells like banana bread in case you're curious. My God, why would you bring up banana bread right now? Damn it. I'm sorry. I'm going to be obsessed for the rest of the episode.

And then I'm probably going to go eat five bowls of frosted flakes because we don't have banana bread, but we have frosted flakes. Damn it. I can't take you anywhere. Okay. So in December of 1975, a federal grand jury, I love the sound of that, indicted John on four counts for misleading investors, fraud and mail fraud. John pleaded no contest, which is basically just like saying, yeah, I did it. You got me. And instead of giving him a consequence that actually meant anything, he was just put on three more years of probation because that works so well with him. obviously. And because he pleaded no contest, he wasn't forced to pay the money back, which is infuriating and baffling to me. And also a theme in these cases. We see this over and over, Dahmer comes to mind as a case where somebody just kept getting in trouble and kept coming to the attention of law enforcement in the courts and just kept getting little slaps on the wrist, and then it all just went horribly wrong. So after this conviction,

such as it was, John became dedicated to embodying. the image of a good Midwestern father. The family moved into an up-and-coming little bedroom community just outside of Kansas City, Kansas, called the Pleasant Valley Farms Estate. Pleasant Valley Farms. He became a scoutmaster for his sons. He started teaching Sunday school, coaching baseball, refereeing for high school volleyball games, and becoming active in local horse associations, which is very much a wealthy person hobby.

You can have money if you want to do anything horse-related, right? So that definitely sort of smacks of like somebody who's trying to. to put forth a particular image. But, according to John Douglas and Stephen Singular's book, Anything You Want Me to Be, John's neighbors were constantly witnessed to his really volatile home life. He was constantly screaming at his wife and kids

and ordering them around. Not a nice guy. And we're going to throw a little content warning in here for some upsetting animal stuff, though we're not going to go into any detail, and it has a happy ending for all the animals. But if you want to skip ahead, like 30 seconds or so, that should do it.

I get it. So John Robinson had horses and a dog at this time, and he neglected them to the point where neighbors noticed and intervened. One called the Humane Society, much to Robinson's annoyance, and all the animals ended up rehomed, thank God. And the neighbor's comment, which ended up being very prescient, was we all said that anyone who starved their animals would do anything. Wow. Yeah. And that's not the only person that made an observation like that. Like somebody who would do this would do anything.

Right. They were right, right. right we're going to find out he started a second company around this point and his company sold hydroponic kits to amateur gardeners it was called hydro grow ink

a little bit of a better name than professional services right yeah promotional info for the company boasted if it grows it grows it grows better hydroponically and called John Robinson a quote sensitive and stimulating human being whose lifetime goal in hydroponics is as far

reaching as his imagination Barf. So well written? Nope. A legitimate and honest representation of John's personality? Also no. You got that right. So, unfortunately, as with all his business practices, someone took the bait.

Yeah, somebody always does. A recently retired man was looking to invest money in order to help pay for his wife's cancer treatments. He put up a cool 25K and his dad. daughter even helped illustrate promotional material. Unfortunately, they would eventually lose all of their money in this scheme. Oh, my God, and he was trying to pay for his wife's cancer. And my guess is Robinson knew that. So what a 10-pound bag of shit this man is.

Oh, I hate him so bad. He's the worst. So, John, as you might have noticed, Campers, was very concerned with his reputation. Now, not concerned enough. to not be a complete hosebag piece of garbage, but, you know, we got to draw the line somewhere. You don't want to go crazy with it. No, no, no, no. And in 1977, he'd been missing some external validation and decided that he was going to do something to remedy the lack of idolatry going on in his new digs.

He was going to be named Man of the Year. Oh, I nominate him for Dick Wagon of the Year. There's a lovely trophy. I invite you to consider what it might look like. So he'd recently been voted in as the president for the Blue Valley Sheltered Workshop, a supervised workplace for people with disabilities. Now, this sounds like the perfect place for a man of his sensitive and compassionate nature, right, campers? Yeah. So this arrogant twat set up a luncheon, supposedly for local businesses that sponsored the supervised workplace programs.

He created this man of the year award out of whole. cloth right and then he invited the mayor and finagled himself a commendation on top of the fake award god the marketing manager for blue valley got a Missouri state senator to present the award and campers this man wrote the speech himself and handed it to her oh lord like she had a speech prepared presumably and he was like no no no I have one for you this was the first female state senator in Missouri. Oh, my God. I hate this guy.

I would love to have heard the speech, too, but it was so gross. He, so, so we'll get into this a little later, but he did have a tendency to write about himself a lot, and he just spoke of himself so highly. Gross. It's so funny. So, he also wrote his own six-page press release, which is just enormous. and signed it under another dude's name. Oh, God.

Because I guess even he realized how embarrassing it was that he'd arranged all this himself. And when he accepted his bogus award, he was all like fake surprise and humble gratitude. Jeez, Louise. Gross. Now, one person who was there that day says he immediately thought, this guy is bad news. If he'll use an organization that's trying to help the disabled to his personal advantage, he'll stop at nothing. There it is again, campers. He'll do anything.

As with most of Robinson schemes, it was an extremely short-lived victory. As soon as the Kansas City star ran the story, they were inundated with calls that pointed out that the award was bullshit. They launched an investigation and ran a scam. Gathing article about it. And even brought up his previous fraud charges. Serves you right, you arrogant dipshit. There is something so telling about the fact that this man manufactured an entire award to fluff up his own reputation. He was already the president of a charitable organization, but that wasn't enough for him.

Definitely. It's one of the most perfect examples of Robinson's psychopathy and narcissism. just coming together for a perfect storm of yuck. It's such a perfect storm of yuck. He wanted to be worshipped. And he was so impatient to get the recognition that he thought he deserved that he just pulled strings to get it. And it doesn't mean anything if you didn't earn it. That's the stupid thing.

Like, why did that not occur to you? But he's all about surface, you see. Yeah. Well, and it was more about other people seeing him and be like, wow. Yeah, exactly. That's what I mean. It's all about the. mask, you know. I'm the golden boy.

So, let's fast forward a year or so. It's 1979, and John decided that the fast-paced world of hydroponics just wasn't for him. Instead, he decided to start working for the man again. He was hired as the employee relations manager at Guy's Foods, a snack food manufacturer. Of course, John couldn't keep his greasy little hands out of the company coffers and quickly started embezzling money. Now, he had a few different schemes, but his most blatant, and my personal favorite, was hiring fake employees and then getting their wages direct deposited into his bank account. He also couldn't keep his hands off as co-workers and started a steamy affair with his secretary. Yep. The secretary knew about his illicit activities,

though, and finally she gave him a choice. Either he walk out on his wife and family, and marry her, or she'd yeat him under the bus. Because she knows what a loyal partner he is. So he's a real catch, a guy who's embezzling money and cheating on his wife. I'm sure she was just desperate to get a ring on it. God Almighty. Also, this is why you don't date your co-workers, campers. Not if you're married already anyway, because he can get messy.

So messy. So, Lord. So John, who we know as an ultra-ethical individual, actually declined her offer, and she gave him the old heave-ho directly under the 18-wheeler. Good for her. Right? And this time, this time, consequences would actually come for Robinson. Kind of.

He was charged with felony theft and was sued by his former employer in a civil case. He lost the civil case and was ordered to pay full restitution to a total of about $50,000. In December of 1981, John pled guilty to the criminal charges and took a deal. The maximum sentence for his crime was seven years in prison, but instead of facing real time, he got 60 days. For God's sake. The judge called it shock time. And he got another five years of probation, because his probation officers are doing such a good job at this point. learn. I don't know. So when he showed up to serve his sentence, Homeboy was laughing and joking about how 60 days in prison wouldn't be a problem for him. And when he got out, he bragged about it. He felt no shame.

Oh, no. But he did learn one lesson. Maybe corporate life wasn't for him, because I guess it's just too obvious when you're stealing. So he decided to start a third business, another consulting company that he called Equip Plus. He was asked to consult for a failing tech company called Online Computers. That name cracks me up to. I mean, you remember it was like the 80s, but that's just adorable. Online Computers. And to secure a buyer for the company. So this company's in trouble. He's like, you know, I'll find you a buyer.

I'll help you. I will rescue you. The former owners of online computers, father and son team named Bob and Scott Davis, have a really interesting story about their interactions with Robinson. They signed a contract with Equip Plus that agreed to pay. pay Robinson 30% if he could help them sell the company or find them investors. And shortly after, Robinson advised them that he'd found a bank that would extend them a $300,000 line of credit. But when they finally met their apparent saviors, the Davis's

had, let's call it, some concerns. Primarily, that their initial meeting was taking place at what looked like a mafia speakeasy, replete with a secret room and a portrait of Mussolini. Yeah, that's a red flag. Portraits of fascists is a red flag campers In case you need a telling So the Davises were caught looking into the secret room And they got scolded when the secretary like saw them peeking So God only knows what was going on in there

Oh my God Geez and crackers When they finally went to the bank The bank president asked a bunch of Kind of softball questions about online computers But he didn't have any questions about their business plan Or their plan for the $300,000 And that's sketchy right there right

So a few weeks passed And the Davises hadn't heard anything about the money So they called the bank And it turned out that the bank Had been shut down by the feds And was being investigated Great So online computers filed for bankruptcy

And Robinson was pissed He wanted his 30% Even though he hadn't done what he said he would do So instead of accepting that Sometimes you lose money Running a business He forged a fake contract Supposedly signed by Bob Davis

promising that online computers would pay him 30K no matter what. Uh-huh. And Scott told him, uh, no, you want this money, you got to see us for it. So Robinson's response was to send an intimidating letter to Scott Davis's bedridden elderly mother, threatening to send creditors after the company and make her homeless. Charming. Wow. Yeah.

Wow. So to me, this shows Robinson's mask really slipping, right? Yeah. Yeah. every now and again, right? Here was this helpless elderly woman, and he was threatening her over, like, just a little money. Yeah, it's horrifying.

And in the best possible move, Scott and Bob declined to bend to his will, and Robinson just eventually gave it up. Turns out, forge contracts, not legally binding. Dang, right? Would be so great if we could just all forge whatever we wanted and get whatever we wanted. It doesn't work that way. And according to John Glatt, author of Depraved, which was our main source for this episode, episode. And I quote, now it seems he believed he could get away with anything. Maybe even

murder. That summer, Robinson was in the market for a new sales rep for his Equipus company, so he hired a 19-year-old named Paula Godfrey, a pretty athletic Olathe High School graduate. Paula was the oldest of three kids. She had a passion for ice skating, and her dream was to go professional. But it was kind of on hold at the moment because she had done really badly during an audition for Disney on Ice after she graduated. And she did want to try again the next year, but in the meantime, she needed some cash. Enter John Robinson. Now, Paula, bless her heart, she liked John. She raved to her mom about how nice her new boss was. He was planning on flying her and several other young women that worked with her to San Antonio for a course in typing,

filing, and computers. So she was excited about this. She got a trip out of it. Making good on his promise, John showed up at Paula's house in Olathe to take her to the airport. And that campers, was the last time anyone saw Paula alive. So her parents, the Godfries, were immediately concerned when Paula never checked in from her hotel. And after four days of not hearing from her, her dad, Bill flew himself out to San Antonio to look for her. And when he showed up at the hotel where she told him she'd be staying, the clerk told him that she'd never checked in. Scary. So he promptly flew back to Olathe and filed a missing person's report.

And he confronted John Robinson. I love this dad, bless his heart. Robinson was shocked that his employee was missing. And the dad wasn't having it. He said, I'd better hear from her in three days. Two days later, a letter was delivered to the Godfrey's in Paula's handwriting. I want you to remember it was in her handwriting. That's going to creep you out later on.

That told them that she was fine and not to worry. And at the same time, a letter in the same handwriting was sent to the Olathe the police department that assured them that she was fine and so, so thankful for John Robinson's help. She said she was living in western Kansas now, she didn't want to speak with her family, and that was that. This was a clear and immediate indicator to her dad, Bill, that Robinson had something to do with his daughter's disappearance, but despite this, stunningly, the police department disagreed. They had a letter. She said she's fine. It's her handwriting. They called off the missing person's investigation, which is just so frustrating. Although I guess if I'm

thinking about it, like, I mean, even her parents say it's her handwriting. People do run off, but knowing what we know, it's just, yeah, like, can't you at least, yeah, exactly, go to this place. Call over there, have one of the officers in that town go check on her. They didn't do that. They called it off. Now, years later, Paula's name would come up again in a typewritten note allegedly sent to Robinson, which was procured during a separate investigation for illegally cashing a government check. One of Robinson's former employees at that time, a guy named Irv Blatner, had turned on Robinson by that point and had started cooperating with the FBI. Irv knew more than he was comfortable knowing about Robinson's various frauds and flim flams,

and he was so freaked that he photocopied this note and kept it in an envelope in his house, like as a safeguard. This note was full of typos and swear words, which was not at all typical of Paula and this is sort of shades of the Liz Gollier Carrie Farber case if you'll recall when you know Carrie's family were getting these emails from her and they were all misspelled and they're like Carrie doesn't use language like this right so it's a red flag now I'm going to read you this letter this is purportedly from Paula and he got this letter years after she disappeared John I'm really sorry about this but you have just been fucked out of

your money I also took your car I will write and let either you or that dumb shit Ralph, no, were, I leave the car. I would imagine that Larry is really going to be pissed at you. I got your money, your car, Ralph's money, and Larry's shit. Not a bad haul in one day. Tell Ralphie that it serves him right for treating me so bad. I gave him everything and got nothing back in return from him. I don't know what he wants. His kid was over the other day at his place and he doesn't even want to stay. I hope you understand. I didn't want to screw you up and I know Larry is going to be looking for me, but by the time you read this, I will be long gone. If you go to the cops about your car, I will have to tell them all about your dealings and Ralph's too.

So just both of you be cool. I will make sure you know how to get your car back. I haven't decided on Cleveland, Chicago, or Denver. Oh, well. Love ya. Paula. Huh. Okay. Convincing.

So I know that's rather astonishing place to leave it, but we're going to leave it there for Part 1 campers. But, because we release both parts of an episode on the same day, you can go right ahead and start part two now if you want or save it for later whatever creams you're twinkie but for now lock your doors light your lights and stay safe until we get together again around the true crime campfire you can follow us on twitter at tc campfire instagram at true crime campfire and be sure to like our facebook page if you want to support the show and get access to extras please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com slash true crime campfire