Kathy Jean Robbins

American homicide victim, beaten to death and knifed by her estranged husband on 5 December 1993. Robbins was an abusive husband and father to his two small daughters, ages six and two. 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 Kathleen and released, but she left him, taking the girls. They made visits to him on the weekends. On Sunday, 5 December 1993, Kathleen and the kids were visiting Robbins at his place, a house in Barnstable which he shared with her 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.