John Robinson has been described as being the Internet’s first serial killer.
I don’t know if that’s an accurate description but it is true that Robinson, who most of his neighbors and family knew as just being a somewhat eccentric businessman who always seemed to be in trouble with the IRS, did make contact with several of his victims in online chatrooms. No one is quite sure how many women Robinson killed in the 80s and the 90s. Robinson himself has given contradictory numbers. What is know is that Robinson started out by luring women to his home by claiming that he had a job for them. Many of the women who accepted his job offer were either never seen again or their bodies were eventually found on his properties in Kansas and Missouri. Eventually, after serving time on fraud conviction, Robinson started to use internet chatrooms to find his victims. He used the screenname Slavemaster, something that would have undoubtedly stunned all of his neighbors.
In Kidnapped By A Killer, Steve Guttenberg plays John Robinson. Now, it should be noted that Guttenberg doesn’t get much screentime and he’s also nearly unrecognizable under a ton of old age makeup. Guttenberg plays Robinson as being a creepy old man who uses the fact that he walks with a cane to put people at ease. The film doesn’t spend much time with Robinson and it doesn’t show any of his murders. Instead, the focus is on the police who investigated Robinson and also on Heather Robinson, a young woman who was Robinson’s adoptive niece but who was also the daughter of one of Robinson’s victims. After killing her mother, Robinson “gave” Heather to his brother and sister-in-law, telling them that her mother had been a drug addict who abandoned her baby.
The majority of the film focuses on Heather (Rachel Stubington), who is a teenager when John is arrested for the murders that he committed. Heather struggles to come to terms with the knowledge that her uncle — who seemed kindly, if a bit corny — murdered her mother and that she was essentially kidnapped and given away. What seemed like an act of kindness — Uncle John not wanting a drug addict’s daughter to get lost in the system — was actually John Robinson’s attempt to cover up his crimes. Much like the criminal who starts a business to launder money, Heather’s adoption was John’s attempt to launder evidence. Stubington does a good job as Heather, capturing her struggle to come to terms with her identity. The scenes of her dealing with her feelings towards John and the scenes of hardened detectives recoiling in shock as they discover the remains of John’s victims all serve as a reminder that murder is not an isolated crime. It’s something that effects communities and families long after the act itself has been completed.
Kidnapped By A Killer deserves credit for focusing on a victim instead of on John Robinson, himself. Too often, when it comes to true crime movies, the victims are forgotten while the serial killer gets all the best lines and the big moments. Kidnapped By A Killer presents John Robinson as being a rather pathetic old man and that’s perhaps the best thing about it.
Through the Shattered Lens 