4 comments about Slave Master (Pinnacle True Crime).

1. The book is lacking in the use of resources; however, Dr. Godwins'talents could have been used more in this book.
   In a nutshell, not enough Dr. G in this edition.

   Checkout Dr. Maurice Godwin in your search for his books and you will see what I mean.

   Doc




2. This is the second book on Slavemaster John Robinson and pretty much an also ran after John Glatt's far Superior Internet Slavemaster. Ms. Wiltz appears to rely on Glatt's book for much of her information without giving any acknowledgements.

   I found her book tedious and unfocused, jumping around through the story and losing direction at the end. I would have expected Maurice Godwin to play a far more important role instead of being relegated to just a couple of pages of summing up Robinson at the end....

   This is definitely not the definitive book on one of the most fascinating serial killers in American crime history and I would advise reading Glatt's book for the real story.




3. I Liked this book! Its the story about what can happen to you if you meet people off of the internet! I was shocked to learn the kind of online games people are playing.I think everyone should read this book who gets online or has children getting online!! It may save your Life!!!



4. The book was well described, but the shipping time was insane, it took forever. I will never buy another book this way.

5 comments about Internet Slave Master (St. Martin's True Crime Library).

1. Living in the Kansas City area I was particularly interested in the John Robinson case and followed it avidly. Glattt has done an excellent job in recounting the case and his research is first class. He also goes further and breaks new facts on the case which have never come to light before. I was very impressed by his writing style and attanetion to detail. I would recommend this to all true crime fans and have done so. This one is way up there with In Cold Blood.



2. This story blew my mind. I had just finished the book when I stopped for fuel at the NM/AZ state line on I-40. There was a state police computer printout hanging on the door, warning women against chatting with men on the internet because of the "internet slavemaster." The state police (NM) were asking for any information in connection to this internet entity. I couldn't believe it.

   Then, when I arrived in Holbrook, AZ, I ran into four highway patrolmen at a truckstop diner and asked them about the notice. We engaged in an hour-long conversation about how a predator like this can disguise himself as an upstanding member of the community and keep everybody fooled. We had the book out and several people seemed mesmerized by our discussion of this story. It has that effect! It is just so unbelievable that people are astounded.

   If you have not read this book, get it! This man was the first to harness the internet for serial killing. Boy, it will drive home the fact that there is no safe ground anymore. If you have children, you will be concerned about what they are doing online. It will make you look at your computer in a whole new light. It will also make you start wondering about all those upstanding citizens that you know so well ... or do you really know them at all?

   There is a flip side to this story - the world of S&M and the women that were surfing for a "master." This man could not have lured them if they had not been presenting themselves as victims. That is where the game is so dangerous - you just never know when it is going to get out of hand. I would think that it is not something you would readily trust to a stranger. I think that is the part of this story that astounds people the most. Why would a woman readily place herself into the role of slave to a complete stranger?

   The author has done a fabulous job of presenting the facts in a flowing narrative that keeps you reading. I couldn't put the book down until I finished it. I can't imagine what he could have done to improve it. It was outstanding!




3. John Robinson was a businessman, Eagle Scout and Man of the Year. Very few people knew the real John Robinson. Three quarters of the book deals with the prior crimes committed by John. He was always setting up new businesses and trying to get people to invest. Each time the police caught him, he would start up another business.
   While only a quarter of the book dealt with his new found internet lifestyle. The book was well written except for the ending, when the reader is left wonder what actually happened.



4. This is a must read book for all of the people who interact on the net with "FRIENDS".



5. I first came across this book as it was listed in another reviewer's listmania list. Given its lofty reviews, I was excited when I finally came across a used copy of this out-of-print book. For the most part, the book did not disappoint.
   
   John Edward Robinson may go down as the first internet serial killer. However, the route to his crime was less than conventional. From fraud, theft, to various other scams, Robinson fits the profile of a career criminal. It was only when his BDSM lifestyle began to spiral out of control that his criminal world closed in on him. Like many criminals, his crimes became sloppy toward the end of his run. Even if Robinson appears reasonably clean early in the book, the search warrants toward the end lend an explosive image to the crimes.
   
   The one major flaw I saw with the book is its inability to finish the story. The book ends with the case going to trial. Why end the book before the story is finished? I needed to do an internet search to learn of the court rulings.

5 comments about Anyone You Want Me to Be : A True Story of Sex and Death on the Internet.

1. This is a fast paced true Crime novel about the murderer John Robinson, who started off his criminal career with fraud and embezzling money. Later as the Internet became more popular he would surf the net looking for his victims. Finding women who he could lure into his sadistic life.
   
   This book has some really graphic parts and also deals with the world of S&M, getting into detail about his relationships with some of the girls and how he made them sign slave contracts.
   
   Once again it is amazing to see what someone can accomplish and get away with for so many years just by being a smooth talker and knowing how to read other people. Compiling more and more information on them through casual conversations and then using that knowledge against them. Quite sick. Makes you really think about how much information you give out over the internet, do you really know who you have been talking too???
   
   This book also contains 8 pages of photos of John Robinson and some of his victims.



2. After all, it has been said (by Mr. Douglas or someone else - I can't remember which) that 'Night Stalker' Richard Ramirez wasn't. In Mr. Robinson's case the same elements are present -- and the same elements are missing.
   
   Both of these guys were nasty SOB's. But Ramirez's killings weren't sexually based. He didn't go around killing people for the gratification it got him, nor did he have a need to go out and kill again when the gratification from the last killing dissipated. He was fundamentally a burglar. If he picked the wrong house and someone walked in, he'd kill out of sheer spite -- or he'd run away. Or if a woman was home, he'd commit a rape of opportunity -- or he'd just slap her around and let her go. All serial killers are sociopaths, but not all sociopaths are serial killers.
   
   John Robinson's contribution to us was a dandy of a demonstration as to how the internet could be used by a serial killer to lure his victims to him, rather than make him have to roam about looking for them. Mr. Robinson's winning formula is that he's a con artist, a scammer, a swindler. He's also into BDSM sex -- probably another way his desire to manipulate/dominate/control shows up. But his killings don't follow naturally as a result as they would with a true serial killer.
   
   Linkage blindness alert: old wives tales about sexual minorities. Remember the one about how 'all homosexuals (gay men specifically) molest children'? Or how a lesbian can be easy -- and indeed, a wild woman in bed who'd challenge your sexual prowess -- if just the right guy makes just the right advance? These came about because of the sort of thinking that equates other-than-strictly-hetero sexual practices with a fulfillment issue -- 'any guy who'd use another man for gratification (or allow another man to use him as one would a woman) will do anything to get off . . .', or 'any woman who'd use another woman just needs a guy to satisfy her: the problem is, not every guy has what it takes . . .'. Not necessarily true. Nor is it true that BDSM has to culminate in sexually-based homicide, or even accidental death or serious injury from playing risky games with those whips and chains and spiked dog collars. (If BDSM is indeed as popular as this very book would have us believe -- and I don't doubt that -- then you'd see a lot more bodies turning up if more than a very, very small minority of its practitioners engaged in practices that resulted in death or high risk of death or serious injury). I point this out, however, because a) those in behavioral science agree that linkage blindness is sometimes a problem and b) I've indeed seen investigators reach bad conclusions by linking things that had no correlation, or by missing significant links that were indeed there. That they know to watch for the error doesn't make them immune from making it.
   
   Evidence that Mr. Robinson't killings weren't sexually based?
   
   First, the number of women that he lured into his web that he let go, that he didn't kill. Barbara Sandre. Alecia Cox. Vickie Neufeld. Jeanna Milliorn. (In Neufeld's and Milliron's case, even late in the series). Others.
   
   Second, the missing pieces in Robinson himself. We see no elements of the 'homicidal trial' in his early life. We see a long record of fraud schemes and con games, but no nuisance sex offenses other than the occasional risque crack to a woman neighbor.
   
   Third, there is no indication of ritual elements in the way the killings were carried out, nor in Robinson's postoffense behavior. True, it's odd that he kept the bodies in 55-gallon barrells on his properties, but for souvenir value? Or perhaps because he'd given no thought as to a better way to dispose of them. Or because they were so heavy that moving them would require an accomplice -- and a potential witness against him if things went wrong later.
   
   Finally, all of the killings were disorganized. A hammer blow, or the use of some other blunt instrument to the head in each case? There are less messy ways of doing the job of intentional, premeditated murder.
   
   More likely, one by one, these women got out of control somehow, caught on to the fact they were being used, caught on to who was picking up the alimony checks and disability checks at the Mail Room and cashing them. Or maybe they just wanted out, but knew too much to be let go without putting Robinson at risk. A confrontation occurred. And each of the killings in turn was Robinson's response to just that thing going wrong, his need to cover up his activities and his frauds (the discovery of which would no doubt lead to an investigation and the discovery of his double life).
   
   Indeed, if the killings were done to cover up other crimes, that's a different classification of murder; not the sexually-based killings that are the mark of true serial killers.
   
   The killings followed in sequence, and were related to, someone's need for kinky sexual gratification. But they weren't part of that need. They didn't happen as even a result, never mind a necessary result, of Robinson's sick kinky sex games. They didn't necessarily follow.
   
   This one is like the Susan Smith tragedy in South Carolina, which I reinvestigated in more detail. The pieces go together if you hook them together one by one, as in the old 'Barrel of Monkeys' game that was popular in the '60's. But just because someone did that doesn't mean that one thing follows the next naturally, that the next thing that occurred had to occur because the last thing that happened happened. They only follow in sequence because someone hooked them together in a way that made sense at the time.
   
   Here, we have a string of related killings that follow sexual exploitation. Accordingly, we naturally assume a serial killer. But it doesn't add up to how we define a serial killer.
   
   Unlike Susan Smith's story, the moral of the story is still the same. If Robinson had indeed been a true serial killer, his ability to lure his victims via the Internet would be exactly what you would see happening. As for Robinson himself (again, unlike Susan Smith), he still did it (and quite intentionally), he still got exactly what he had coming to him for what he did, and he doesn't have my shoulder to cry on. He may escape execution, but he belongs in prison, forever, finally, keep him there, lock him up and weld the door shut. Period. For the victims and their families, it's still not a happy ending, but justice prevails.
   
   And when criminal behavioral science experts make a mistake, it's easy for someone, somewhere to catch if they don't simply accept his work without question. It's going to happen once in awhile. We all have our bad days on the job.
   
   John Douglas has done some great stuff, and I admire his work, but this isn't one of his better pieces.



3. This book drives home the point that we live in a world of technology that reaches into our homes and brings with it dangers and difficult challenges for law enforcement. John Robinson is the prime example of what can go terribly wrong when people trust strangers.
   
   What made Robinson so dangerous was his skill in adapting his criminal activity while lacking a conscience. He was charming and brazen.
   
   The progression of John Robinson from con-man to serial killer was uncommon.
   "Serial killers often have pasts that involve other violent crimes,but Robinson had seemingly evolved toward violence over decades.He'd graduated from one type of criminal to the next.He was always a work in progree."-page 212.
   
   Mr.Douglas described the three different types of serial killers.
   
   The prosecutions' difficulties presented by multiple jurisdictions was explained. The authors detailed some of the highlights of the death penalty trial in Kansas.
   
   This book is hard to put down! The authors have written a fast-paced book with few boring pages. John Douglas is an author that I have come to appreciate for his insights as a profiler.



4. So many names, so many places, I couldn't keep up with it. I didn't read much as I don't waste my time reading books for pleasure that I don't like.
   
   alienface



5. Do you think you or anyone else on .the internet is safe. Read this book. Those of us in the chat rooms of irc, yahoo, icq etc remember this guy and are glad he's no longer able to convince women to meet him. Don't ever think it wont happen to me, im sure the women he murdered thought the same. Scarrier are those who use the same id as his, I ask them do you really want to be associated with the first Internet Serial Killer, most are dumb and don't know what happen 10 plus years ago. But unfortunately alot weren't smart enough, and we had to learn from them.
   
   In memory of the women who thought the internet was safe and believed what everyone told them.