John Edward Robinson
John Edward Robinson is called the Internet Serial Killer, but not all his victims were those he met online. Rather, John Robinson was an unusually accomplished con artist whose adept scams and multiple cons and frauds kept him at large and supporting a family for decades. Operating in the Midwest and the heartland, Robinson captured the attention of women looking for a new start or the “right” man, and delivered them unto death.
Robinson is titled the Internet Serial Killer because he was the first criminal serial killer whose exploits developed the Internet as a predatory hunting ground for new victims. A master swindler and determined scammer, Robinson juggled multiple schemes of women and plans that were fictitious and formed to exploit women and derive profit thereby. At trial, Robinson’s defence team would allege he was the fourth generation of a depressive and clinically dissociative personality. Yet his mind for the swindles was always razor sharp.
The Internet Serial killer was not only significant for his plumbing of a new medium for victims. The life of any serial killer generally ends with them being caught and put for trial after a limited gruesome career, with notable exceptions such as the Green River Killer. But the sheer burden, cost, handling chores and normal legal defence responses absorbed much more time than normal. The victims’ families, witnesses, and jury pool selection extended year after year long after Robinson’s arrest.