An exact copy of the email is shown in full below:

START OF EMAIL
------------------------------------------------
Subject: STATE POLICE WARNING!! PLEASE READ!! 

       This is something I received from the State Police Please read this 
       "very carefully"...then send it out to all the people online that you 
       know. Something like this is nothing to take casually; this is 
       something you DO want to pay attention to. Think of it as a bit of 
       advice too. 
       If a person with the screen-name of Slavemaster contacts you, do not 
       reply. DO not talk to this person; do not answer any of his/her instant 
       Messages or e-mail. Whoever this person may be, he/she is a suspect for 
       murder in the death of 56 women (so far) contacted through the Internet. 
       Please send this to all the women on your buddy list and ask them to 
       pass this on, as well. This screen-name was seen on Yahoo, AOL, and 
       Excite, so far. This is not a joke! Please send this to men too...just 
       in case! Send to everyone you know! Ladies, this is serious. 
--------------------------------------------------
END OF EMAIL

This is a hoax - do not pass it on to anyone - simply delete it. If you did pass it on, simply let the other party(ies) know the truth now that you know it.

The first thing to take notice of is the fact it states a couple of times that it was received from the STATE POLICE.  Keep in mind you are dealing worldwide here with the Internet.  Whose state police issued this - and where is the official log, letter or links to make you belive this is true (any credible person with the right mind would also give you outside, reputable links to follow up on - such as cnn.com or abcnews.com, etc).  Nothing here - just a warning from someone who seems to care.  Always demand proof and see the proof yourself before passing supposedly helpful emails.

Second thing to notice, it has the old similar saying "pass this on to all you know and have them pass it on too".  This is your clue - anyone who wants you do pass things on to as many as you can has one goal in mind - the more people who are familiar with it, the more believable it will seem.

The truth of this email is this:

Yes, this did happen - over a year ago - June 2001 to be exact.  And yes, it did involve a screen-name of SLAVEMASTER.  And yes some woman were murdered - but it was only 5 - not 56 as stated in the email.  The man's name was John E. Robinson Sr. and he lived in Olathe, Kansas - not MIchigan as some of you may have thought.  This man was 56 years old at the time of his arrest last year - see the twist.  It was also though a woman from Monroe County, Michigan was one of the murdered women.  Now do you see the partial truth and partial hoax here.  Also, keep in mind, this was received, and is being sent on its rounds over 1.5 years later after the fact.

At first, I didn't know anything about this one too, but with 30 seconds of research, It all comes back to me - think back as you read the official news releases and you more than likely will too.

This man didi meet a couple of women on the Internet via chat usign the name SLAVEMASTER.  He also invited them to meet him at his house in Kansas, had sex with them that wouldn;t be classified as normal to most people, and then murdered the women.  As you read this warning, think to yourself simply about the screen-name - how likely would you be to talk to a stranger, let alone a stranger anmed SLAVEMASTER.  This is how you can guage how much danger you would be in.  If you are not the type of person to quickly chat sexually with the first person who chats with you on the Internet, quickly rush of to his house many states away and shack up with this guy - then you have nothing to fear - NOTHING.  If you are this type of person, you need much more than a silly email warning about it - you need professional help of some sort or you will be the one we read about in the newspaper, hear about on Oprah, etc.  This is just common sense, sorry to say, but it just is.

I think I will leave it at that.  I feel most of you are mature enough to figure out what I am saying here.  People who would engage in such activity wouldn't stop from a simple email - hopefully they would use their brain for a second and filter out such instances.  Some do not - this is true - but many do not heed the warnings on the side of a pack of cigarettes, their doctors advice, the warnings on alcohol, seatbelts, cholestoral, weight, health, etc.

This last info I could quickly turn up on this guy, was that he was held on $5 Million dollar bond.  I didn't dig any deeper, but I doubt he is still free.  If anyone finds any updated info, please pass it on and I'll post it here.

You can read the official press releases from last year at the following links below:

 http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/slavemaster000606.html 

 http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/slavemaster000607.html 

 http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSLaw0006/06_slavemaster.html