George Brinkman murders

George Brinkman Jr. is an American murderer who took the lives of five people during a 2017 killing spree. His first victims were Suzanne Taylor, who he had been friends with since elementary school, and her two daughters, twenty-one-year-old Taylor Pifer and eighteen-year-old Kylie Pifer. On June 10, 2017, Brinkman took the women captive inside their home in North Royalton, Ohio. He killed Taylor in front of her daughters before killing them as well. Brinkman then went to the Lake Township, Ohio home of seventy-one-year-old Rogell “Gene” John and his sixty-four-year-old wife Roberta “Bobbi” John. Brinkman, who had known the couple for over ten years, shot them both to death.

Brinkman pleaded guilty to the North Royalton murders in November 2018 and to the Lake Township murders in October 2019. He was sentenced to death for murdering Taylor and her daughters in December 2018. In October 2019 he received another death sentence for murdering the Johns. Brinkman is currently on death row at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution in Chillicothe, Ohio.

Background

Suzanne Taylor was from Parma Heights, Ohio. She graduated from Valley Forge High School in 1990and went on to attend Hiram College where she earned a bachelor of arts degree in psychology, sociology, and political science. She worked as an administrator at REO Property Consultants, starting in 2012, and as a real estate appraiser for Forsythe Appraisals, starting in 2013. Taylor lived in the Cleveland suburb of North Royalton, Ohio, with her two daughters, Kylie Pifer, eighteen, and Taylor Pifer, twenty-one. Taylor Pifer was a 2014 graduate of North Royalton High School and had just completed her junior year at Kent State University. She played softball while in high school and worked at the Kent State Fashion Management Store while in college. She was working towards a bachelors in fashion design and merchandising. Kylie Pifer was set to begin her sophomore year at Bowling Green State University in the fall of 2017. She was involved in theater and studied biology, and aspired to become a forensic scientist. She would have turned nineteen on June 18 the following Sunday.

Rogell E. “Gene” John II (born 1945) was a graduate of East Canton High School and Bowling Green State University. He was also a Vietnam War veteran. John worked in the circulation department of The Canton Repository and served as the circulation director at The Massillon Independent and GateHouse Ohio. He then started his own business distributing telephone books and publications. He was married to Roberta R. “Bobbi” John (born 1952), a North Canton Hoover High School, Ohio University and Akron University graduate. Before retirement, Bobbi John worked as the Director of Special Services for Stow-Munroe Falls City School District. She also worked for the Alliance and Louisville school districts. Both Bobbi and Gene John were active members of Mt. Tabor United Methodist Church, the Osnaburg Historical Society. The couple lived in Lake Township, Ohio.

George Brinkman (born 1972) knew all of his victims well. He went to elementary school with Suzanne Taylor and remained friends with her through adulthood. Neighbors of Taylor and the Pifer sisters say that Brinkman often visited their home. Taylor let Brinkman do various jobs around her house and also allowed him to sleep in her house during times when he was homeless. Taylor's family believe that Brinkman wanted to be “more than friends” with her. According to witnesses, the Pifer women looked up to Brinkman like a “second father.”

Brinkman knew the John couple for more than ten years. He formerly dated Gene’s daughter and lived with her for several years. Brinkman worked for Gene’s business as a phone book delivery person. He had also worked making furniture out of his garage and as a mechanic. Right before the murders, Brinkman was watching the John couple’s home and caring for their seventeen-year-old dog while the couple was away on a beach vacation in North Carolina with one of Bobbi’s sons and his children.

Brinkman was found guilty of disorderly conduct in 1990, criminal mischief in 1991, and passing bad checks in 1998. He spent time in prison for his crimes.

Murders

North Royalton murders

On June 10, 2017, Brinkman held Taylor and her daughters captive inside their home. Investigators concluded that Brinkman bound the women at their wrists and ankles and killed them one by one. Investigators also believe that he cut off Taylor’s flowing long hair which she took pride in. Brinkman first killed Taylor within arms reach of her daughters by stabbing her in the head and slitting her throat. After murdering their mother in front of them, Brinkman murdered both Pifer sisters. He killed Taylor Pifer by smothering her with a pillow. He then killed Kylie Pifer by strangling her with a phone cord. Brinkman placed the victims' bodies in Taylor’s bed and covered them with blankets and fled to the Johns' home in Stark County, Ohio.

Lake Township murders

When at the Johns’ home, Brinkman got out Gene’s .45 caliber handgun and loaded it. According to his interrogation, Bobbi accused him of not giving their deaf-blind dog its medication, leading to argument. After Gene questioned him about the gun Brinkman says he ordered the couple to an upstairs bedroom. Prosecutors would later argue that Brinkman chose that specific bedroom because it was farthest away from the neighbors. The Johns locked the door so Brinkman shot at the door knob to enter the room. He shot Gene three times and struck Bobbi in the head with the gun, fracturing her skull. He also shot Bobbi twice. Brinkman then stole $40 from Gene’s wallet and $100 from Bobbi’s purse so that he could flee the state.

Criminal Proceedings

Investigation

On June 12, 2017, Taylor Pifer’s boyfriend became worried when he couldn't reach her on her phone. He went to her house, where he noticed that Suzanne Taylor’s bedroom door, which was always open, was shut. Upon opening the bedroom door, he found the three deceased women in the bed under a blanket. The police were called and responded, finding the three women "face down in bed all lying right next to one another." After finding the women's bodies, Pifer’s boyfriend called Brinkman to inform him. He reported that Brinkman seemed surprised and genuinely sad upon hearing about the deaths. Family and friends of Taylor and the Pifers and police later found Taylor’s hair around the house. This lead investigators to believe that Brinkman cut off Taylor’s hair before killing her.

The Johns' bodies were discovered on June 12 by Gene’s son, who had gone to check on them when his father didn't show up to work. Like Taylor and her daughters, the Johns were covered with blankets.

After committing the murders, Brinkman went to the home of a woman he knew in Brunswick, Ohio. There, he started a police standoff, during which he spoke on Facebook to a TV reporter about the murders. The stand off lasted nine hours, beginning at 9:30 pm June 12 and ending at 5:30 am the next day. A SWAT team surrounded the house and officers entered, finding Brinkman armed with a gun. They subdued him with a stun gun and arrested him. When taken into custody, Brinkman was possession of evidence linking him to the murders of the Johns. He confessed to killing the Johns and to throwing evidence out of a vehicle window while on Interstate 77 in Summit County. Brinkman was held in jail on a 75 million dollar bond.

Guilty pleas and death sentences

On November 5, 2018, Brinkman pleaded guilty to the North Royalton murders. He also waived his right to a jury. Judges Peter Corrigan, Michael Shaughnessy and Timothy McCormick officially found him guilty of murdering Taylor and the Pifers on November 26. Though Brinkman’s defense attorneys offered for him to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life without parole, District Attorney Michael O’Malley and his office refused to drop their pursuit of the death penalty.

On November 27, the judges found that Brinkman should face the death penalty for the murder of Taylor and her daughters. Brinkman’s attorneys argued that he should be sentenced to life without parole due to the mitigating factors. Brinkman was formally sentenced to death for the murders on December 28. During his victim impact statement, Taylor and Kylie Pifer’s father Brian Pifer said:

“For nearly a year and a half now I’ve been attending all of these pre-trial hearings, reading all the motions filed by the defendant, each arguing that he has specific rights...but today I’m asking you honorable judges to be the voices for the rights taken by Mr. George Brinkman Jr. The right of Taylor to finish her last year at Kent State University. The right of Taylor to graduate, to get a job in the fashion industry that she was so passionate about, to get her first apartment, her first car, her first house. Taylor’s right to get married, to have children, to celebrate the holidays, her right to play another game of softball and sing in the car and go to concerts. Kylie’s right to become a forensic scientist that she always wanted to be, to finish her education at BGSU and to get her masters that she had planned on....her right to get married and have children and all of our rights to a part of those things.”

Mr. Pifer also said:

“The rhetoric used by the defense in the entire second half of these proceedings was meant to diminish the impact of the crimes, referring to them as ‘a situation, an event, an incident.' That is not accepting responsibility for what you have done. The reality is that George Brinkman Jr took from all three of them the very right to breathe when he carried out his plan last June, when he brutally murdered Taylor, Kylie and Suzanne. When he bound them, murdering them one by one, he didn’t show any mercy. Yet he has the audacity to ask this court, you, for mercy on him. They (the victims) didn't deserve this. That's why I am asking you to be the three voices for the three lost. I’m asking you to remember all the testimony that you heard and all the rights Mr. Brinkman ripped from them, from all of us."

O'Malley said of Brinkman's death sentence “if there's an individual who deserved the death penalty it was George Brinkman who, over the span of two days, murdered five people,” and that "Brinkman is a mass murderer who should quickly be executed." Brinkman's execution date was set for January 15, 2020. In addition to his death sentence, Brinkman was sentenced to forty-seven years in prison.

In October 2019 Brinkman pleaded guilty to the aggravated murder of the John couple. Though Brinkman plead guilty, a trial was conducted because he faced the death penalty. After deliberating for thirty minutes Judges Chryssa Harnett, Kristin Farmer, and Taryn Heath found Brinkman guilty of all charges regarding the couple’s deaths. During the sentencing phase, defense counsel argued that Brinkman’s life should be spared due to his history of homelessness and mental health problems, and his childhood. Brinkman, however, argued in favor of his own death sentence. He said in a statement “they (his victims) were extremely kind, caring and wonderful and people who did not deserve to be killed by me.” He also said that he was “so very sorry for all the pain and suffering I have caused the families and friends of Gene and Bobbi. I know that will never be enough but it’s all I have.” In regards to the mitigating circumstances, Brinkman said “yes, I had a horrible childhood ... yes, I’ve had a lot of bad things happen to me in my life, so what? Other (people have) had it worse and never went around killing people they care about.”

Judges Harnett, Farmer and Heath agreed with Brinkman and the prosecution and sentenced Brinkman to death on October 4. In her victim impact statement, Bobbi’s sister told Brinkman “you are a monster, a vile evil being that deserves to be put to death." Gene’s granddaughter said “my opinion of you has somewhat changed. I decided to not let the anger and hate that I felt for you consume me. I do not hate you, though I thought you were a good man and that is why grandpa and bobby had faith in you. All I want for you in exchange for my forgiveness is the facts, but that is something we will never know."

Brinkman is currently on death row at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution.