Comments on DemonKimmie's Journal

Origins: Information goes a long way in the Internet era, and this one's got the legs to outlast even AOL. There is some truth here, but the warning is outdated.

John Edward Robinson Sr., 56, was arrested on 2 June 2000 and charged with sexual assault on two women in the Kansas City area. Robinson lured the women (as he had others) into participating in sadomasochistic sex by contacting them over the Internet under the name "slavemaster." The two women filed charges after Robinson "brutalized them in a way that went beyond what they intended."

After Robinson's arrest, law enforcement authorities discovered two 55-gallon industrial barrels, each containing a woman's body, on land Robinson owned in Kansas. A few days later, they discovered three more bodies in barrels kept in a storage space Robinson rented in Missouri. All five women appeared to have been bludgeoned to death.

Robinson was also suspected in the mid-1980s disappearances of three women and an infant whose bodies had not yet been located. One of the bodies Robinson had stored in barrels was later identified as being one of these women, and the missing infant was discovered to have been adopted by Robinson's brother.

In October 2002, John Robinson was convicted of the murder of three women, the two found in the barrels on his land, and the third disappeared mother of the child he placed with his brother. In January 2003 he was sentenced to death for these murders. He has also been charged in the deaths of the three women found in Missouri.

The "slavemaster" is monstrously real, but so far he's well short of the 56 victims claimed for him, and he remains behind bars, not out trolling the Internet for additional victims.

This internet warning has taken on a life of its own, one quite independent of the facts. The small grain of truth (someone using the screen name "Slavemaster" has been arrested for the murders of women he contacted on the Internet) had almost been lost in the sandstorm of claims that he's out there now looking for more victims and that he's killed 56 so far.

As well, pranksters have been pulling off jokes by substituting their acquaintances' screen names in place of "Slavemaster," so now versions are circulating that warn netizens to be on the lookout for someone using the handle "Dodgecity53_," "SweetCaliGuy4evr," "ooosparklesooo88," "DreamWeaverGrey," "Monkeyman935," "Free_mumia911,""ineedatipdrill," "RatBonesBlakStar," "Silly Black Goose," or "spikey_mikey913," all screen names that have nothing to do with the real John Edward Robinson.

Basically, stop sending out these warnings. They do not exist anymore. So stop worrying about it so much.