Online Safety: Slavemaster: A Cautionary Tale

Slavemaster: A Cautionary Tale

The Internet and chat rooms provide a relatively safe place for people to explore, in a non-physical way, various aspects of sexuality and fantasy; the ultimate form of safe sex... no condoms required.

Within the apparent safety of this medium, relationships are forged. Chat rooms are like 'neighbourhoods' and like a neighbourhood community, a certain familiarity grows between regular users.

It is not uncommmon for people to log on at times when they know 'their' group will be in the neighbourhood and within this setting there develops a curious feeling of safety, familiarity and intimacy. Friendships are forged and like any other neighbourhood, cliques, disputes and gossip are common. All entered and exited by the click of a curser.

The neighbourhood is alive 24/7. A refuge for the creative, the bored, lonely, seekers of education and information, entertainment, distraction or connection with like-minded people.

It was the Internet that brought BDSM within reach of everyone and this has been both a blessing and a curse for 'real life' practitioners whose main connection previously was more formal locally arranged 'munches' or club evenings.

On the one hand, the Internet has increased the pool of doms and subs, but it has also allowed dangerous malefactors to infiltrate the society and bring harm to innocent participants.


The following is a cautionary tale:


John E Robinson Sr, 58, the 'Slavemaster' is the world's first know Internet serial killer. Guilty of the capital murder for the deaths of Izabela Lewicks, 21 and Suzette Trouten, 27 and the first degree murder of Lisa Stasi, 19.

Robinson discovered the Internet and its usefulness in meeting people interested in domination and submission sexual activity. He had always been interested in technology, which he used for his own ends. Robinson was a master of manipulating a word processor to create forged documents and when the Web took off in the 1990s, he was an avid Internet user and frequent participant in sexually explicit chat rooms.

Robinson used the name "Slavemaster" to meet women who enjoyed playing the role of the submissive partner during sex.

His usual workday consisted of getting online and trolling for women willing to engage in submissive sex acts with him, both on the Internet and in person. Gradually, Robinson became well known and highly regarded in the BDSM chat rooms that were appearing online with increasing frequency.

Robinson the Slavemaster was thoroughly at home on the Internet. The anonymity of the medium reduced his need to playact and he easily slipped from his public persona of the kind, loving grandfather who mowed his lawn several times each week and shared gardening chores with his neighbors to a domineering master who demanded total obedience from the slaves who served him over the Web.

With just the written word and carefully staged photographs of himself, he was able to charm almost any willing submissive to do his will. At his expense, women interested in the submissive lifestyle would come to Kansas City, some for brief visits and others to spend the rest of their lives. The women who came to stay, lured by his promises of financial support and jobs (*in itself, such luring was found to be kidnapping) frequently ended up dead after he no longer needed or wanted them.

Amongst others, Robinson struck up an acquaintance with a college student named Izabela Lewicka. Izabela was a beautiful, young fine arts student with an interest in gothic horror stories and bondage. In late 1997, she told her parents that she was dropping out of school and heading to Kansas City, where a rich entrepreneur had offered her an internship.

What Izabela did not tell her parents was that she had also agreed to be Robinson's slave. Lured by the need to be dominated, the promise of a job and later marriage, Izabela arrived in Kansas City about the time Robinson was getting ready to eliminate his other 'slave' . After she moved to Kansas City, Izabela never returned home and only communicated with her parents by e-mail.

She signed a 115-item slave contract that gave Robinson almost total control over every aspect of her life, including bank accounts.

Izabela Lewicka disappeared at about the time Robinson found Suzette Trouten. Trouten was a bored licensed practical nurse who lived a double life, nurse by day, submissive slave by night. She frequented many of the same Web sites and chat rooms where John lurked and it wasn't long before the two found each other.

Trouten also cultivated online friendships with other subs from around the world who also knew she had gone to Kansas to be with John Robinson. She also signed a 115 point Slave Contract. Some of the women she traded instant messages with daily thought it was strange that she no longer appeared online.

The 'Slavemaster' , a balding, pudgy father of 4, exploited the Internet's world of sadomasochism. By haunting chat rooms, he pinpointed vulnerable women looking for romance and stalked them on-line, convincing them of his maturity, sensitivity, and financial stability. Most alarming is how he selected and lured his victims and how willingly they responded. Robinson expanded the hunting ground, techniques, and technology of the sexual predator.


In the book, 'Anything You Want Me To Be' law enforcement officers and prosecutors reveal what can go wrong in a world where relationships are devoid of physical contact, showing how easily we can be drawn into the underground of cybercrime. As technology proliferates, so do opportunities for criminals like Robinson. A cautionary tale about strangers and false intimacy.

http://www.courttv.com/trials/robinson/
-- Anyone You Want Me to Be: A True Story of Sex and Death on the Internet by John Douglas

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Wednesday October 4, 2006 - 08:00pm (EST)