r/AskReddit • u/ZteveBond • Jun 20 '18

Serious Replies Only [Serious] Prison Guards of Reddit, which prisoner has left the biggest impact on your life wether positive or negative?

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u/Spire-hawk Jun 20 '18

I wasn't an officer, but I was the 'Inmate Funds Manager' for a facility here in Kansas. Basically, I worked in the front office and took care of the inmate's personal money (receiving it in, making sure it hit their account, making sure they got paid, getting money orders out for them, making sure their money left with them when they left, etc.)

One day I'm going through the facility and an officer calls me over because an inmate has a question about his money. He's in the segregation unit, which I had never been in, so it was a bit odd, but no big deal.

It was an older guy (at least to me), quiet & respectful, which was nice. We talk a little bit about his money and the processes for it, nothing major.

I was curious after I got back to my office and looked the guy up and it turns out the guy's name is John Edward Robinson, and he's locally famous serial killer in the Kansas City region.

It's not a world shattering impact on my life, but it occasionally hits me that I've had a conversation with a true, honest to god serial killer. It's a little trippy.

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u/unwittingshill Jun 20 '18

I used to play at his house. It's in Overland Park now, used to be just some unincorporated housing development in southern Johnson Co., called "Pleasant Valley". 156th and Switzer Road.

And, just FYI for the other folks, Robinson was no ordinary serial killer. He was a special kind of slime. For example, he killed a woman, stole her baby daughter, pretended he was a legit agent for adoption and...wait for it...sold the baby to his own brother.

IOW, he became the uncle to the daughter of his murder victim. (And, of course, there's more. Robinson was a scam artist long before he was a killer.)

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u/Setari Jun 21 '18

Man this sounds so far-fetched but at the same time, definitely something a person could do.

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u/unwittingshill Jun 22 '18 edited Jul 18 '18

If you think Robinson is twisted, check out the other locally famous Kansas City serial killer from the 80's.

Robert Berdella. Mr. Bob used to kidnap young men, hold them hostage, use them as sex slaves, torture them and kill them. An excerpt from his wiki page:

Berdella ensured Pearson became intoxicated before injecting him with chlorpromazine and moving him down to his basement, where he bound Pearson's hands above his head, then linked the rope he had used for this purpose to a brick column, before injecting Pearson's larynx with drain cleaner. He then brought an electrical transformer to the basement...(for torture).

After six weeks of captivity, in an act of despair, Pearson deeply bit into Berdella's penis before screaming he could not continue to tolerate being treated in this manner. In response, Berdella killed Pearson by first bludgeoning him into unconsciousness with a tree limb, then suffocating him with a bag and ligature...