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The Greensboro Serial Killer - Robert Sylvester Alston · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Greensboro, North Carolina, early nineties. Yeah, that sounds peaceful enough, right, Well,
• 0:05
  behind the peaceful facade, a string of murders was about
• 0:08
  to rock the city and the killer nobody would have guessed.
• 0:13
  You guys wanted a deep dive on Robert Sylvester Aulston,
• 0:15
  and let me tell you, this one gets dark. We're
• 0:18
  going through news articles and interviews you've sent in, and
• 0:21
  some of the details, let's just say they stick with you.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: It's amazing how often we see this, you know, the
• 0:27
  monster hiding in plain sight. Makes you wonder if we
• 0:30
  really know anyone at all.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Right, it's almost scarier that way, that evil can be
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  so normal. But anyway, Robert Olston, he was born in
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  Greensboro in sixty nine. Seems like a pretty average childhood
• 0:41
  on the surface. Yeah, but when you look closer, there
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  are these cracks, even as a kid who's a loner,
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  no close friends, super introverted.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a big one in criminal profiling. That's social isolation.
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  It's not a surefire predictor or anything, but it's definitely
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  a red flag. Makes you think about those dark triad
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  traits narcissism, machiavellianism, psychopathy, could be a sign of something
• 1:02
  darker brewing beneath the surface.
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  Speaker 1: It's like they say, be afraid when they go silent.
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  But here's the thing. Alston's family totally normal. His parents
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  said he had a stable upbringing, no abuse, no major trauma,
• 1:13
  at least not that.
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  Speaker 2: We know of, right, And that's important to remember. There's
• 1:15
  no recipe for creating a killer. It's way more complicated
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  than that. Biology, psychology, social factors, all mixed up like a.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Puzzle where we're always missing a few pieces. And speaking
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  of Alston being emotionally distant, seems like that followed him
• 1:28
  into adulthood too. His relationships were a mess, couldn't seem
• 1:32
  to form real bonds. Even had two kids with a
• 1:35
  woman in Delaware, but she left him after the second
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  one was born.
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  Speaker 2: And that, right there is key. Really. Relationships. They shape
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  how we connect with people, you know, empathy, all that,
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  and when those relationships are messed up, it creates this void, anger, resentment,
• 1:50
  all that bad stuff festers.
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  Speaker 1: And that's exactly what happens with Alston, abandoned by his
• 1:54
  girlfriend back in Greensboro, more isolated than ever. It's like
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  all that pain, all that anger, it had nowhere to go.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: But inward isolation breeds isolation, a vicious cycle and it
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  just keeps spiraling and sadly for the people of Greensboro,
• 2:09
  Alston's darkness was about to explode.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: All right. So we've talked about Alston's past, the isolation,
• 2:14
  the troubled relationships, but let's get into what he actually did.
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  And listener, just a heads up, this part gets pretty disturbing.
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  Alston's crimes weren't just brutal. They followed this chilling pattern.
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  He prayed on young black women, a lot of them
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  involved in sex work or struggling with addiction.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's classic predator behavior right there. They target
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  the vulnerable, the ones they think won't be missed, the
• 2:36
  one society often overlooks.
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  Speaker 1: It's heartbreaking. And his first confirmed victim was joe Anne Robinson,
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  just twenty three years old, April nineteen ninety one. They
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  found her body strangled, just a few blocks from where
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  Austin was living.
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  Speaker 2: See that's what gets me, that boldness living right there
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  in the thick of it. It's all about control for
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  these guys, control over the victim, control over their environment.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Chilling is the word for it. And then October that
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  same year, he takes another life, Sharon Martin, twenty six
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  years old. And this is where the brutality really escalates.
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  Sharon wasn't just murdered, she was dismembered. Her remains scattered
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  across Greensboro.
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  Speaker 2: And that, my friend, is a textbook sign of a
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  serial offender, the need for more intense stimulation, that desensitization
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  to suffering. It's a horrifying progression we see again and again.
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  Speaker 1: It's like something out of a nightmare. They found her
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  head in hand near a school. Can you imagine? Talk
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  about a community being shaken to its core. And on
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  top of all that, all the horror of the murders themselves,
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  there's this other twisted detail. Alston would call the police,
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  sometimes even to the crime scenes, talking about the murders.
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  Speaker 2: See, that's where the psychology gets really interesting. Why call?
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  Was it a power trip? Did he want to insert
• 3:47
  himself into the investigation, or could it have been some
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  kind of twisted remorse, like it was all just a
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  game to him. It's hard to say for sure, but
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  it definitely points to a deeply disturbed mind.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Yeah, cases like this they really make you confront
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  the dark side. Of humanity. But what's also fascinating is
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  how close Alston came to being caught before he actually was.
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  Nineteen ninety four, he picks up a woman who's hitchhiking,
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  and somehow she actually manages.
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  Speaker 2: To escape, and that right there, that's the turning point.
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  Her description of Alston of his car, it was what
• 4:19
  finally led to his arrest. This time, he didn't get
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  to decide who lived or died.
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  Speaker 1: You'd think with Alston behind bars, that would be it, right,
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  case closed. But this is where it gets even more
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  messed up. Alston, even in prison, he finds a way
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  to hold onto power. It's like this whole other level.
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  Speaker 2: Of twisted exactly even behind bars, guys like this, they
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  crave control. It's all about manipulating the system, keeping everyone
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  on edge, like he.
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  Speaker 1: Was still playing those twisted games even from his cell,
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  and that's exactly what he did. Alston confesses to the
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  murder of Lois Elizabeth Williams, thirty five years old, found
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  strangled back in ninety three, gets a life sentence for that.
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  So that's got to be it, right, not even close.
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  Speaker 2: A few years later, Alston drops another bombshell, confesses to
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  two more murders Joanne Robinson and Shamaica Warren. Remember those
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  were his first victims. And he does this from prison.
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  Think about it, he's not getting out early. What's the angle.
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  It's control, pure and simple.
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  Speaker 1: It's bone shilling, honestly. And if that wasn't bad enough,
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  guess what Alston refuses to say. Where he put Joanne
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  in Shamaica's bodies.
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  Speaker 2: Classic power play, denying the family's closure, holding onto that
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  lash shred of control even in death. It's sickening, but
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  we see it all the time.
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  Speaker 1: I was reading through the court transcripts you sent and
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  there's this one detail that really got to me. When
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  they sentenced to Allston, he smiled said he'd found peace
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  with God.
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  Speaker 2: Man. That sends shivers down my spine. Genuine remorse or
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  just another manipulation, who knows, But he goes to show
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  we're dealing with a mind we can barely comprehend here.
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  Speaker 1: It's like he was living by a different set of rules,
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  a different moral code altogether. And what makes it even worse,
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  the system screws up too. They actually lost the remains
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  of Sharon martin the Medical Examiner's office. The family after
• 6:03
  all that, all the fighting for justice. All they got
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  was a fifty thousand dollars fine.
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  Speaker 2: Tragic. The system fails these women again and again. It
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  highlights why we do what we do. We have to
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  keep fighting for accountability, for justice that these victims deserve better.
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  Speaker 1: They absolutely do. And then there's Bernice Robinson and Cherylynn Mason,
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  both murdered in Greensboro around the same time. Alston was
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  the prime suspect, but he was never.
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  Speaker 2: Charged, leaving so many unanswered questions. Those women, their families,
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  they deserve justice. It's cases like this that remind us
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  there are some things we may never know.
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  Speaker 1: And Alston, of course, he just adds to the mystery.
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  In interviews, he hinted that there might be more victims,
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  but he wouldn't say anything else. It's a thought that
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  just sticks.
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  Speaker 2: With you, you know, absolutely a haunting reminder of how
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  much darkness is really out there. We may never know
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  the full extent of what Alston did, and that's a
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  heavy thought.
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  Speaker 1: It really is. Robert Austin's case. It reminds us that monsters,
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  they don't always work in the shafido. Sometimes they're hiding
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  in plain sight, living seemingly normal lives. And the most
• 7:04
  terrifying mysteries. Sometimes they are the ones we can never solve.
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  We dove deep into the life of a killer, but
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  we also confronted something bigger, something darker. The truth is
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  there's a lot about human cruelty we may never fully understand.
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  You're left with this question. It's uneasy. It's not just
• 7:18
  about what Alston did. It's why, What creates a monster
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  like that? And how can someone find peace in God
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  while inflicting so much pain on others.