OLATHE, Kansas — Jury selection began this week in the first of two capital murder trials awaiting John Edward Robinson Sr., a father of four who is accused of killing six women, some of whom he lured via the Internet.

The first of 1,200 possible jurors — the largest group this Kansas county has ever summoned for a single case — began reporting Monday morning to the Johnson County Courthouse in Olathe, Kansas. Robinson, 58, is also the first capital murder defendant to go on trial in the county in more than 30 years.

The defendant is charged with killing the three women in Kansas in a case that became the focus of national attention two years ago when the bodies of two of the victims were found stuffed headfirst into 55-gallon barrels on Robinson's 16.5-acre rural property.

The body of Izabela Lewicka, 21, (above) was found stuffed inside a barrel on Robinson's property in June 2000.

Authorities say Robinson killed a total of six women over a period of 15 years, in Kansas and in Missouri, after luring at least a few of them through promises of money and jobs and requests for sadomasochistic sex through Internet chat rooms. Robinson used the online name of "slavemaster."

In Kansas, he faces capital murder charges in the bludgeoning deaths of Izabela Lewicka, 21, of West Lafayette, Indiana, and Suzette Trouten, 27, of Newport, Michigan. Robinson will also face murder charges in connection with Lisa Stasi, 19, who disappeared with her infant daughter, Tiffany Stasi, in 1985. (He avoided a capital murder charge in that case because Kansas did not have the death penalty in 1985).

In a bizarre twist, Robinson is alleged to have killed Stasi and arranged the adoption of Tiffany to his brother and sister-in-law, Don and Helen Robinson, pocketing $5,500 for his services. Tiffany, almost the age her mother was when she disappeared, is believed to still be living with her adoptive parents in suburban Chicago. Her mother's body has never been found.

Once the Kansas case is completed, Robinson faces trial on three counts of capital murder in Cass County, Missouri, in the bludgeoning deaths of Beverly Bonner, 49, of Cameron, Missouri, and Sheila Faith, 45, and her 15-year-old daughter, Debbie, of Pueblo, Colorado. The bodies of the teenager and two women were found stuffed into 55-gallon barrels in a storage unit in Raymore, Missouri, two days after the bodies of Lewicka and Trouten were discovered in La Cygne, Kansas.

Court officials had hoped jury selection would take only a week but it quickly became clear they would need more time for the thorough questioning crucial to selecting jurors in a capital murder case. The start of testimony has been delayed until Sept. 30. "We have never been through a process of this magnitude," noted Johnson County District Judge John Anderson III.

By week's end, about 600 potential jurors had appeared and about half of them immediately asked to be excused because of the personal hardship of serving on a jury in a case that is expected to last four to six weeks.

Prospective jurors not seeking a hardship dismissal and those whose requests are denied are also being subjected to a second round of questioning to determine their exposure to pretrial publicity and to elicit their opinions about Robinson's guilt or innocence and their thoughts on the death penalty.

The prosecutors and defense spent the better part of Friday morning arguing over the line of death penalty questioning adopted by defense attorney Patrick Berrigan earlier in the week.

He had repeatedly asked prospective jurors if they could not only consider mitigating evidence, such as a defendant's background or history of abuse, but if they would be willing to give it a certain amount of weight in their decision. He emphasized that jurors would only be asked to do so if a panel had already convicted Robinson and had to decide whether to impose the death penalty or a sentence of life in prison.

District Attorney Paul Morrison argued that jurors are only required to consider the mitigating factors — not necessarily give them a certain weight. "It's ridiculous to get a juror to promise in voir dire that they will give weight to aggravating and mitigating factors," Morrison said. "It is not the law and it flies in the face of common sense as well."

But Sean O'Brien, the other lead defense attorney, asked the judge to reconsider his decision to keep five jurors who he felt were just paying lip-service to the notion of considering mitigating factors. "We're not trying to elicit promises," he said. "We're trying to find out what their preexisting views are. Consider means more than just passively listen."

After hearing their arguments for more than an hour, Judge John Anderson sided with the prosecution. "We're not going to get into a situation where we're going to require a juror to commit up front that they will give a finite amount of weight to evidence they have yet to hear," he said.

By lunchtime Friday, Johnson County District Judge John Anderson III had approved only 13 men and five women to advance to the third and final phase of questioning. The court still needs to pass at least 33 more jurors — or at least 51 total — to be considered for the final panel. The prosecution and defense will ultimately be allowed 17 strikes each in deciding which 12 jurors and five alternates will be seated to hear the evidence against Robinson.

A former correspondent for Newsweek and People Weekly, Sue Miller Wiltz is currently writing a book about Robinson for Pinnacle Books. She is covering the trial for Courttv.com.