Daughter of serial killer's victim wins $5 billion judgment

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A 22-year-old woman has won a $5 billion judgment against the serial killer who murdered her mother and arranged for her adoption by his own unwitting brother.

The judgment is intended to ensure that John E. Robinson Sr. -- convicted of killing eight women in two states -- will never profit from his crimes through a book or movie, Jackson County Circuit Judge Thomas Clark said in announcing the award Thursday.

"This court does not have the authority to silence defendant John E. Robinson Sr.," Clark said. "But this court does have the power to enter a judgment that will take away the profiteering agenda of defendant John E. Robinson Sr."

Heather Robinson filed the lawsuit in 2004, four years after learning that she was really the daughter of Lisa Stasi, who was 19 when she became the first of three women killed by John Robinson in Kansas.

Stasi had given birth in September 1984 at a Kansas City, Mo., hospital where John Robinson convinced a social worker he was a businessman seeking to help unwed young mothers. Lisa Stasi disappeared in January 1985, leaving behind the 4-month-old daughter she had named Tiffany.

Using fake documents, John Robinson arranged for the infant's adoption by his brother and sister-in-law -- in what the couple believed was a legitimate transaction -- and they raised her as Heather Robinson. She still goes by that name.

John Robinson was convicted in Johnson County, Kan., in 2002 of murdering three women there from early 1985 through early 2000. As with five other women he later admitted killing in western Missouri, Robinson was acquainted with all the victims.

Many of the victims were found stuffed in barrels in the two states. Lisa Stasi's body was never found.

John Robinson, 63, remains in a Kansas prison sentenced to death. In a deposition taken as part of Heather Robinson's lawsuit, he gave only his name and refused to answer anything else.

Court documents reveal Heather Robinson's horror at discovering as a 15-year-old that the man she had known as her uncle was really her mother's killer.

After Robinson was accused of multiple murders, she withdrew from school while enduring constant hounding from the media, she said. Friends rejected her, and she lived in fear of losing the only parents she ever knew.

"I used to be a very outgoing person," she said in a deposition last year. "And ever since this has happened, I just crawl up into this little ball, and I do not know why I do this."

She has experienced recurring thoughts about her mother's death.

"I did the Ouija board to meet and commune with my mother," she told one doctor who treated her, according to the doctor's deposition. "At age 16 I sat with a crucifix wishing I were dead. I detached myself from feelings."

She has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, which the judge termed Thursday "equivalent to a living death."

"It's hard for people to get a handle on how much she's suffered," her attorney, Timothy Monsees, said after Thursday's hearing. "I think there is such a profound sense of emptiness in her."

She and her parents, who have adopted her legally since John Robinson's arrest, did not attend Thursday's hearing. The role of the hospital and its worker in connecting John Robinson with Lisa Stasi was the subject of a previous confidential court settlement.

In entering the judgment Thursday, Clark said he shared the concern of Monsees, who suspected that John Robinson's failure to "come clean and provide some closure" in the case was motivated by a desire to someday profit from his story.

The judge said he hoped his decision Thursday would prevent that from happening.

"Hopefully, this is the final chapter in this saga of treachery and evil," Clark said.

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Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com