Steven Robbins

Diagnoses

Passions

Vocation

Family

American homicide, beat his estranged wife, Kathy Jean, to death and put a knife in her throat on 5 December 1993. A white male who worked as a pest exterminator, Robbins was an abusive husband and father to his two small daughters, ages six and two. As a hobby, he tortured squirrels and seagulls, once killing a small bird to torment his older daughter. He set fire to a squirrel, then tied it to a tree for target practice, and made a necklace out of severed seagull heads. In 1990, after he poisoned a flock of birds, he was charged and given three years probation. Sentenced to psychiatric therapy, he was discharged with a favorable review. In August 1993, Robbins was charged with trying to strangle his wife and released, but his wife, Kathleen, left him, taking the girls. His family made visits to him on the weekends. On 5 December 1993, Kathleen and the kids were visiting Robbins at his place, a house in Barnstable which he shared with Katherine's brother, Frank Golliff. The family went shopping and out to dinner. Kathleen put the kids to bed and she and Robbins watched a steamy video. When Frank came home, they were asleep on the couch. When he got up in the morning, he found his sister beaten to death with a baseball bat, after which a knife had been plunged into her throat. Robbins had taken the kids away in the car and ultimately drove to Wellfleet where he turned himself in to the police. He was held without bail and taken to trial.