Michael Hubert Kenyon, (born c. 1944[1] in
Elgin, Illinois) also known as the "Illinois Enema Bandit", is an American criminal. He pleaded guilty to a decade-long series of
armed robberies of female victims, some of which involved
sexual assaults in which he would give them
enemas. He is also known as the "Champaign Enema Bandit", the "Ski Masked Bandit", and/or simply the "Enema Bandit".[2]
Kenyon returned to Champaign, and the attacks resumed, in 1972.[4] In May 1975, Kenyon took a job as an auditor for the
Illinois Department of Revenue in
Lincolnwood, Illinois.[5] He then committed additional attacks, including three
Cook County flight attendants.[6] He also attacked four women in an
Urbana sorority house, one of whom was administered an enema.[1][7][8] He was involved in a minor traffic accident later that night, but was not arrested.
Kenyon was eventually apprehended in suburban Chicago a few weeks later in connection with a number of robberies there.[9] During questioning he began to talk about the enema bandit. After his arrest he was judged to be legally sane; in December 1975, he pleaded guilty to six counts of
armed robbery[10] and was sentenced to six to twelve years in prison for each count, but was never charged for the enema assaults.[11] He was
paroled in 1981 after serving six years.[12]
In popular culture
In the 1974 novel The Odd Woman written by
Gail Godwin, the protagonist, Jane Clifford, a professor in a Midwestern university town, fears the Enema Bandit, who represents her fears of losing control of her life.[7]
The crimes of which Kenyon was accused were the inspiration for the 1976 adult film Water Power, starring
Jamie Gillis, which was later reissued under the title Enema Bandit.[13] The term "enema bandit" came into wider use following the incidents.[14]
Kenyon became the subject of
Frank Zappa's song "The Illinois Enema Bandit", that he and his group played live from September 1975, recorded live in December 1976 and first released on Zappa in New York (1978).[15] After the song's first live performance, Zappa made it part of the set list of every tour, including the final tour in 1988.
^Hunter, Jack (2002). The bad mirror. Creation cinema collection, Vol. 10.
ISBN978-1-84068-072-0
^Murray, Thomas Edward, and Thomas R. Murrell (2002). The language of sadomasochism: a glossary and linguistic analysis. Greenwood Press,
ISBN978-0-313-26481-8
^Staff report (December 11, 1993). Absolutely free: Frank Zappa [obituary]. The Economist