Chapter 28
Edwards Gets Out 1967
When Neal answered, Cameron instructed him to grab his copy of the book and come on over. Bailey greeted him with his usual barrage and it took a few moments to get him and Cameron both calmed down before any conversation could ensue.
“It’s his book, Neal! It’s got all the answers! It goes miles beyond what we originally suspected. Let me lay it out. To start, the copy you bought was inscribed, ‘To Patrolman Ken Carver, Please read this book with an open mind and remember that it is written as I lived my life. I do hope that this book will help you in some way with your work.’ Obviously Edwards handed this book to Officer Carver as a taunt. He meant it literally—writing to a cop that the book is of some help to police work. We know that was true now. I found something in the book that proves that point beyond anything else we have discovered.
“Early in the book, Edwards introduces a Catholic Service League worker named Mr. Robinson. Edwards chides this man for lying to him. The man succeeded in convincing Edwards to walk into the Catholic reformatory in 1948 without a court order, and trapped Edwards when he was 16 into a two year sentence into a horrible reformatory at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. It was Edwards’ first reformatory lockup. The name change in the book was deliberate. He was leading the reader to look at the name Robison and the time frame of 1968, just before the Zodiac started.”
The Robison Family 1968
On July 22nd, 1968 near Cross Village, Michigan, a family of six was found executed in their summer cabin. Through the Freedom of Information Act, Cameron had obtained the entire police investigation of a case known as The Good Hart Murders. The crime was the worst in Michigan’s history. He spent weeks pouring over police reports, photographs and news articles, interviewing surviving relatives. The case was unimaginable.
The Robisons were headed on a planned vacation to Kentucky and Florida on the day they were murdered, June 25th. Almost a month passed before the crime was even discovered. The mother and father had been killed with two shots to the head. The 7 year-old daughter Suzie had been brutalized with a claw hammer. The victims were ritualistically laid out throughout the house and the cabin door was locked from the inside. A note was left by their killer on a window near the entrance.
Note Left on Robison Door “Be Back By 7-10, Robison”
Mr. Robison was the owner and editor of Impressio Magazine, a popular monthly movie and entertainment publication. The family was Lutheran and Richard was a member of the Masons. The Robisons were well off and raised their 4 children in a loving, healthy environment. They lived in Detroit, but spent summers on Lake Michigan near Good Hart and Crossover.
The original investigation meticulously documented that sometime in April of 1968; Mr. Robison began dealing with a mysterious man only known as Mr. Roebert. He was described as a prominent, wealthy tycoon from Canada, who claimed to be the head of the Superior Table, an international organization working toward world peace. No one besides Richard Robison had ever actually met Roebert. An exhaustive police investigation was conducted and the Superior Table’s existence never verified. Police found Superior Table documents in Mr. Robison’s property after his death, describing the structure of the organization.
Document Recovered by Police from Robison Family Murder, Good Hart, Michigan
The documents listed Mr. Roebert as the Chairman and Director. The names of the other organization members were listed as Mr. Joseph, Mr. Martin, Mr. Thomas and Mr. Peters. These names were all connected to Catholic saints. Edwards was Mr. Roebert and he left a letter at the scene implicating that Mr. Robison had written it to Mr. Roebert. Under the EBE in Roebert are three strange dots. These dots also appeared in the above Superior Table document. The highlight was the initials EBE.
The entire writing was a parable written by Edwards as to what happened to the Robison family and eventually Mr. Robison’s partner, Joe Scolaro, who became the prime suspect in the case and killed himself in 1975 as the police were hounding him for years.
Edwards got out of Leavenworth prison just months before the killings. He detailed the Robisons picking him up at the airport.
“I was met at the airport by my friends, the Winthrows. After treating me to a delicious steak dinner, they took me home with them. I was still having sporadic attacks of the shakes and still had to fight the recurrent, terrifying feeling that I’d wake up at some point to find out that I had dreamed up the whole release episode.”
The investigation showed the Robisons were supposed to pick up Mr. Roeberts at the airport on the day of their demise, June 21, 1968. Mr. Robison had met Roebert in San Francisco June 14th, 1968, which is Ed Edwards’ birthday. Mr. Robison handed the phone to Roebert when they were in San Francisco and Mrs. Robison spoke to Roebert. Nobody had ever met Roebert except Mr. Robison. Edwards went home with the Robisons using the name Mr. Roebert. He sat down to dinner with them, played cards and then jumped up and killed every one of them. He speaks of a confrontation with one of the younger Robison boys in the book.
“I was positive the plane was going to crash. Overcome by my neurosis I requested a seat change so I could get as close to the emergency exit as possible. Just as I started to relax, a kid about 13 years old was fiddling with fate. I was paralyzed with fear. I swear that kid almost had the door open. Wasn’t that something? Locked up all those years, finally freed and then some stupid kid almost destroys my life trying to be smart.” (*MOAC)
Randy Robison, the young teen, almost got away. Randy was found down the hallway and he wasn’t shot. He died from multiple traumas to the face and head. He was beaten to death. The killer did the two youngest last, after shooting Mom, Dad, Richard Jr., and Michael. All the biggest threats were executed first, with two shots to the head. Just like Patty and Duane were shot in Great Falls. The two youngest were most likely asleep when the shots were heard and awoke to the massacre, only to be chased down and brutalized with a claw hammer.
Cameron continued, “Edwards had conned his way into the Robison family within months of his release from Leavenworth. This is where all the ties start coming into JonBenet Ramsey. Remember in the Ramsey ransom note when Ed wrote, ‘We are a foreign faction. We respect your bussiness but not the country it serves.’ Well, he wrote that the Superior Table was a worldwide organization devoted to world peace when in fact it was just Edwards conning a rich editor of an arts and entertainment magazine. JonBenet was actually garroted with a paint brush and then smashed in the head. Seven year-old Suzie Robison was also smashed in the head with a claw hammer.”
“Mr. Robison believed he was about to be rich. Mr. Roebert had promised millions in an international computer headquarters located out of an airport in Michigan. The con had been so carefully planned that Mr. Robison even kept it secret from his closest business partner, Joe Scolaro. Police never could find Mr. Roeberts or any other viable suspect, so they tried to pin the whole deal on Scolaro. After all, ‘Who else could have possibly done it?’ they maintained. Scolaro committed suicide a few years later leaving a note proclaiming innocence of any involvement in the murders. My years on the force prove that such final notes are almost always truthful. Why lie on your way out?
“Mr. Robison had promised everyone in the company they would soon be filthy rich, giving them all raises just before he was killed. Roebert would be flying into Good Hart on June 25th to take them to Kentucky and Florida. Mr. Robison was going to buy a condo on the beach and look at some race horses.”
Cameron told Neal, “In the book, he calls the Robisons the Winthrows and describes being picked up at the airport that day. The murders occurred that night after supper, around 9:00 pm. That is when 5 to 8 shots were heard by neighbors. A deck of playing cards was found scattered on the floor of the cabin. The Robison family had been playing cards before their execution. A Saint Christopher medal was found. Crudely engraved on the back of the medal was the following:
“Richard — To my chosen son and heir — God bless you — 
.”
The medal was not Richard’s and the killer had placed it around his neck. Underneath the letters ebe in Roebert, the killer placed three dots, highlighting those letters. The killer also left a 5 page letter purported to be written by Richard Robison praising Mr. Roebert, using the term My Father when greeting him as if Roebert was God-like. Police have always tried to identify the author of this letter. Some experts said it was written by Mr. Robison, but the letter was written by the killer—Edward Edwards. Dots again were placed under the letters EBE.
Letters Greeting and Ending
Superior Table Memo
“EBE,” mused Neal. “Here’s something. Did you know that in the first Zodiac crypto there were eighteen unexplained characters, EBEORIETEMETHHPITI. Interesting that they start out EBE. Anyway, we have anonymous letters, taunting cryptic messages and an editor of a magazine being targeted and killed 6 months before the Zodiac, and Ed put it all in the book!” Neal excitedly concluded.
“Exactly,” Cameron said. “That takes me to my next point. Some investigators have maintained there was a Zodiac connection to this case even back then, but most dismissed the theory as too far-fetched. You are going to love this!
“The Detroit Free Press put up a reward fund and tip line to help solve the crime. An informant wrote them saying he had information, but in order to get it they had to place a classified ad. They ran it in September of 1968 and again in January, 1969, but there was never a response. Here’s the ad.”
DR GUIDINI: Your prescription
good. However, need additional.
-Zodius
Detroit News, September, 1968
“John, this is incredible!” exclaimed Neal. “He signed it Zodius!!! The first Zodiac killing was in December 1968, just 4 months later and he wrote the press demanding they print his Zodiac cryptos or else!”
“Once again, “Cameron said, “It all points to Edwards and the Zodiac and it’s all in the book. He describes having dinner with the Robisons, playing cards. He described how the 13 year old almost got away. He mentions being picked up at the airport for their planned trip to Florida and Kentucky. Edwards had strong connections to both Florida and Kentucky. The bodies hadn’t even been discovered and Edwards is running to Kentucky and Florida with his new wife Kay. That is exactly where the Robisons were headed.”
Cameron commented here, “Did you notice the similarities to all of Ed’s murders? A suicide, the religious connections, the deliberate placement of the bodies, stacked like the Chicago boys. Mrs. Robison was laid out like Marilyn Sheppard and she was covered with a blanket like JonBenet. The letter he left was intended as a clue. There’s a lot more connections, Neal; this all happened in Northern Michigan. Guess who has a summer home in the same area 20 miles away? The Ramseys! They were headed there the day JonBenet was found dead in their basement in 1996. Suzanne Robison was the same age as JonBenet. She had been laid out like JonBenet, only stacked on top of her brother and her other brother on top of her father. Even little Suzie’s head was smashed like JonBenet’s.”
“Everything fits like a glove, John. Sensationalism doesn’t even begin to describe the killings. Letters to the press, phone calls, and a 6-page rambling letter left as a clue, ties to Christianity. This matches every point on our profile of Ed.”
“The final point is—the killer took a couple of items. He took Robison’s watch and his wife’s expensive wedding ring. I obtained pictures of the watch and I have a picture of Ed wearing a watch similar in 1970.”
Edward Edwards Left Hand, Omega Watch, 1970
Edwards’ ability to con people was unsurpassed by any criminal Cameron had ever dealt with. The Superior table and Mr. Roeberts was just another con, manipulating the editor and publisher of Impressio Magazine months before starting the Zodiac killings.
Police spent most of their time trying to identify Roebert. Nobody knew his first name and nobody had ever heard of the Superior Table. Police concentrated on a group based in San Jose, California, that used similar symbols as were left on the notes and at the scene of the Robison murder. The group is known as The Supreme Temple, an ancient order that follows a philosophy against Christianity. They are a secret society. Some investigators were convinced that whoever wrote the Roeberts letter had been involved in such an order. The order was founded in late medieval Germany. Its logo symbol was called the Rosy Cross. Some of the symbols associated in the cross are found in the Zodiac ciphers.
Rosicrucian Rose Cross
Neal interrupted. “Wow, John, that contains some of the Zodiac cryptogram symbols. Do you realize what a Superior Table is? A magician’s prop. It’s the table he uses to pull the rabbit out and deflect the audience’s attention.”
Cameron responded, “I had no idea, but that is exactly what Edwards did his whole life. This order was into magic, allusions and the occult.”
Neal noted, “Four months after killing the Robisons, Edwards began killing in the Zodiac case. In between, police arrested three innocent men in Portland, Oregon for Edwards’ 1960 Peyton-Allan lover’s lane murders. A month after killing the Robisons, Edwards roared into action. He had crimes of recognition going on in Michigan, California, and Oregon—all at once—between 1968 and 1970. The Robison family murder has remained one of the most controversial unsolved crimes of modern times in the Midwest. I find it interesting that there was a Zodiac link to the Robisons and you discovered it, once again by following Edwards’ life. Just like the Stephanie Bryan case, we didn’t try and figure out who killed the Robisons. His book led us there.”