Michael H. Kenyon

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For other persons named Michael Kenyon, see Michael Kenyon (disambiguation).

Michael H. Kenyon (born circa 1944) is an American criminal nicknamed the Enema Bandit.[1] He pled guilty to a decade-long series of armed robberies of female victims, some of which involved sexual assaults where he would give them enemas. He is also known as the "Champaign Enema Bandit," the "Ski Masked Bandit," and "The Illinois Enema Bandit."

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[edit] Attacks and conviction

His earliest attacks were in March 1966 in Champaign, Illinois. Early one morning he entered a home through a window and, wearing a red argyle ski mask and carrying a gun, administered enemas to two sisters, aged 16 and 18. After stealing $70 from their father's wallet, he left them, tied with torn strips of bedsheet, with a promise to call the police within 15 minutes to free them. Kenyon's largest attack was on five sorority girls. He often gained entry through sliding glass doors that were typical in student apartment buildings in Urbana and Champaign at the time, and provided the impetus for landlords to provide bars to block sliding doors from opening from the outside.

Kenyon graduated from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1969 with an accounting degree. The attacks ended in Champaign when Kenyon was drafted into the U.S. armed forces, but as he was moved on his way to Vietnam attacks were repeated in Manhattan, Kansas; Norman, Oklahoma; and Los Angeles, California.

Kenyon took an accounting job with the Illinois Department of Revenue around the time the attacks resumed. In May 1975, Kenyon returned to Champaign. In a single night of terror he administered an enema to a Champaign woman, robbed and bound four women, and gave two enemas to the same woman. He was involved in a minor traffic accident later in the night. [2]

Kenyon was arrested in suburban Chicago a few weeks later in connection with a number of robberies there. Under questioning he began to talk about the enema bandit. He was found to be legally sane, and pled guilty to six counts of armed robbery in December 1975. He was sentenced to six to twelve years in prison.

He was later questioned and released in connection with the Tylenol Crisis of 1982 after a prisoner claimed Kenyon boasted that he planned to do something worse upon release, which occurred shortly before the Tylenol incident.[3]

[edit] Pop culture

Former FBI agent John Finley, who researched the case for FT, notes that Kenyon was a subscriber to Enema Digest, a specialist magazine for devotees of water sports. There is no record of further enema assaults since 1981.

"Enema Digest" is mentioned in the song "Porno" by the Limbomaniacs, a very Zappa-influenced funk/rock band from California. Their lyrics dwell on sexual and scatological themes. At least one of the members is part of the Zappa cover band Caca.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Kacich, Tom (2002). "The Enema Bandit" from Hot Type: 150 Years of the Best Loved Stories from the News-Gazette. Sports Publishing LLC,ISBN 1582614822
  2. ^ Morita, Stirling. "Area man believed to be Enema Bandit.", Daily Herald, Chicago, Illinois, June 04, 1975. Retrieved on 2007-04-04. 
  3. ^ DeLong, Candice (2007). Special Agent: My Life On the Front Lines As Woman in the FBI. (page 82). Hyperion, ISBN 978-0786867073

[edit] Sources

  • Clipping file, Urbana Free Library, Urbana, Illinois,Dated Newspaper clippings, Newspapers not always identified.
  • Champaign Urbana Courier, April 30, 1966
  • Champaign Urbana Courier, December 23, 1975