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  • Depraved

  • A True Story of Sadistic Muder in the Heartland
  • By: John Glatt
  • Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
  • Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
  • 4.9 out of 5 stars (7 ratings)

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Depraved

By: John Glatt
Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
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Publisher's Summary

John Edward Robinson was a 56-year-old grandfather from rural Kansas. An entrepreneur and Eagle Scout, he was even honored as "Man of the Year" at a Kansas City charity. To some of the women he met on the internet, he was known as Slavemaster - a sexual deviate with a taste for sadomasochistic rituals of extreme domination and torture...even killing.

Masquerading as a philanthropist, he promised women money and adventure. For 15 years, he trawled the web, snaring unsuspecting women. They were never seen again. But in the summer of 2000, the decomposed remains of two women were discovered in barrels on Robinson's farm, and three other bodies were found in storage units. Yet the depths of Robinson's bloodlust didn't end there. For authorities, the unspeakable criminal trail of Slavemaster was just beginning....

Depraved is a true story of sadistic murder in the Heartland, told by true-crime master John Glatt.

©2001 John Glatt (P)2021 Tantor

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Not what I expected

This review will contain spoilers.

I am very into true crime and I always like listening to books about a story/case that I don’t know anything about. The description of the book sounded interesting and Im usually quite a big fan of John Glatt’s work. While being a fan of true crime, I also am aware that I’m consuming content that is possible only due someone else’s absolute heartbreak and am aware that there are families of the victims out there who will suffer for the rest of their lives.

However, that being said, I really didn’t get into this book. I can’t explain exactly why, but I think it had something to do with a lot of focus being put into the other crimes (fraud etc) that it lost sight of the murder victims. I feel like they were glossed over in the grand scheme of things, I didn’t even realise how many victims there were until near the end of the book due to there being so little focus on some of the victims that I forgot the circumstances of their disappearances.

I also feel like there was quite a lot of emphasis put on BDSM. I thought it unnecessary to point out that at least one of the victims willingly took photos engaged in sex acts with the killer. She clearly trusted this man to be photographed in those positions and I didn’t think it necessary for those details to be brought up. I assume they were talked about in court but I thought there was quite a lot of emphasis put on BDSM in my personal opinion, it may have revealed quite a bit about the victims personal life that she may have preferred to keep hidden. Even if her friends and family knew, I don’t think it’s particularly respectful (in my opinion) to focus so heavily on her sex life and incredibly personal aspects of that when she isn’t here to defend herself.

I understand focusing so heavily on the sexual aspect when it’s a sex related crime, but most of these were actually murders for financial gain and he just lured them in with promise of being a master. Most of the women he killed he continued to claim social security benefits for so the crimes to me are more financial than sexual.

At the end of the day, I don’t think the aim was to disrespect victims in the slightest, I just felt uneasy when the book explored maybe too far into the sex lives of the victims instead of focusing on them as a person. They aren’t here to speak up for themselves and while information may have been available at trial, I don’t think the book needed to explore those facts so in depth when they could have focused on more than the sexual preferences of the victims, especially when I don’t consider these murders to be sexually motivated as much as they are financially motivated

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