KEITH HUNTER JESPERSON

Article BY Frederick Madden

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April 6, 1955. The birth of a monster. That was the night that Keith Hunter Jesperson was born to Leslie (Les) and Gladys Jesperson in Chilliwack, British Columbia. The young Jesperson was the middle child, having two brother and two sisters. The father, Les, was an overbearing parent who said his paternal grandfather was also violent when les was just a child. Of course, Les Jesperson denied being an abusive parent himself, hard-working, yes, but not abusive. Jack Olsen, researching his book "I" The Creation of a Serial Killer, confirmed much of the abuse that Keith Jesperson claimed to have gone on during his childhood.

The middle Jesperson child was often treated differently by everyone else, and so received less attention than his other siblings. The Jesperson family soon moved to Selah, Washington where Keith had trouble making friends and fitting in because of his large size. Because of this, his brothers gave him the nickname of "Igor" which stuck through the school years, and refused to help him when he got into fights. Because of his behavior, Keith was shy, often preferring his own company. His abnormal behavior was often punished by his father, which included beatings with a belt, sometimes in front of company. In one instance, his father ordered him to urinate on an electric fence put on the farm, shocking the young Jesperson. Years later, Les would claim that it was a joke, and just wanted to see if the fence worked.

At about five, Keith Jesperson began capturing and torturing animals; he enjoyed the feeling he got from ending their lives. Keith also enjoyed watching animals kill each other. This was something his father was proud of, and made it Keith's job to keep the farm clear of varmints. This behavior would follow him into adulthood. Jesperson would capture, corner, and strangle stay dogs, cats, and birds while living in a trailer park with his family. Soon, he started to wonder what it'd be like to kill another human.

This fascination with killing manifested in two murder attempts. The first occurred when Jesperson was just ten years old. His friend Martin and him would often get into trouble together, however, Martin would blame the incidents on Keith, causing him to get beaten by Father Jesperson. Keith later attempted to beat Martin to death, this lasted until Les Jesperson pulled Keith off of the boy. he later claimed to have meant to kill Martin. The second occurrence took place a year later. While swimming, a boy pulled the young Jesperson's head under water until he blacked out. At the school pool, Jesperson retaliated by trying to drown the boy as well, until a lifeguard pulled him away.

Though Keith Jesperson was successful with females, he never attended a dance or prom. He has claimed to lost his virginity in high school at the age of 14 during an act of rape. Keith graduated high school in 1973, and married in 1975 at the age of twenty to Rose Hucke. He never attended college because his father never believed he could do it. The couple had three children together, two daughters and one son. To support his family, Keith took a job as a truck driver.

Several years later, Rose began to have doubts about Keith's loyalty and suspected him of having an affair. As time went on, marital tensions increased and after fourteen years of marriage, Rose had enough and moved two hundred miles away to Spokane, Washington to live with her parents. Their oldest child, Melissa, was ten years old. When in town, Jesperson continued to spend time with his children. Keith and Rose Jesperson finally divorced in 1990.

Keith Jesperson, now thirty-five, standing at six-feet six-inches tall and weighing in at two-hundred and forty pounds, pursued his dream of becoming a Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a "Mountie;" however, an injury obtained during training ended this journey. That was when he once again took work as a long-haul truck driver after moving to Cheney, Washington, and realizing that the job afforded him the freedom to kill at will, without fear of being suspected of the murders.

Keith Jesperson's first victim was Taunja Bennett. On January 23, 1990 near Portland Oregon, Jesperson approached Bennett at a bar and introduced himself. He later invited her to his house, claiming to need to grab his wallet before grabbing a meal. Instead, Jesperson propositioned her for sex, to which she refused. In response, he raped her then punched her beyond recognition and strangled her to death. He later dumped her body by the side of a road where it was found a few days later.

This is where long-time lovers Laverne Pavlinac and John Sosnovske come in.

After the death of Taunja Bennett, employees of the bar where Taunja disappeared from recalled that one, John Sosnovske, boasted about murdering the young woman. “He was laughing. He thought it was a big joke.” John was already on probation for drunk driving with a suspended license. In the spring of 1989, just eight months for the slaying of Taunja Bennett, Sosnovske's long-time girlfriend, Laverne Pavlinac, who had a record of reporting John to police under false pretenses and phony charges, phoned the FBI, claiming that John was a bank robber. After Sosnovske was released by the G-men, and with Laverne still not happy, Pavlinac repeated the accusation to local police.

Laverne Pavlinac was pulled in for questioning, when old habits kicked in, and before long she had accused John Sosnovske of murdering Taunja Bennett. Upon receiving the accusation, authorities obtained a search warrant for the couple's residence. There were no personal objects of Taunja Bennett's, but an envelope addressed to Sosnovske was found. On the back was written: "T. Bennett - a Good Piece." Sosnovske denied having anything to do with the murder or the note on the back of the envelope.

Shortly after Laverne gave her account to authorities, she changed her story. In the first version, she said that she simply heard Sosnovske boasting about murdering Taunja Bennett, becoming convinced of his guilt due to the number of details he gave about the murder. This time, however, she admitted to aiding and abetting, watching as John raped and murder Taunja Bennett on January 21. Sosnovske was promptly brought up on murder charges; Laverne was brought up on charges of aiding and abetting.

Even with the account of Taunja Bennett's death given by Laverne, there were still problems with the story. Witnesses recalled Taunja playing pool with two unidentified males in Gresham the night she died, twenty-five miles away from where John allegedly met her. Neither one of those men were John Sosnovske. However, the jurors were hell-bent on getting a conviction and that piece of information was ignored. Laverne Pavlinac was convicted on grounds of aiding in the murder of Taunja Bennett and was sentenced to ten years in prison. John, who maintained his innocence, for the most part, became unnerved by Laverne's fate and struck a deal, life imprisonment with eligibility for parole after fifteen years served.

Officials thought the case was closed, but they ran into another roadblock while Sosnovske struck his deal. During the month of January, while Pavlinac was on trial, a message in a Greyhound bus depot men's room popped up in Livingston, Montana. It read: “I killed Taunja Bennett January 21, 1990, in Portland, Oregon. I beat her to death, raped her and loved it. I’m sick but I enjoy myself too. Two people took the blame and I’m free.” A few days later, in Umatilla, Oregon, a second note in a truck stop men's room appeared, this time the note stated: “I killed Taunja Bennett in Portland. Two people got the blame so I can kill again.”

Both note were signed with a circle which contained two dot eyes, and a broad crescent smile - happy faces.

Upon getting news of these note, detectives working the case figured that it was a friend of Sosnovske's trying to exonerate him of murdering Taunja Bennett, especially since the author of the notes was not able to be traced. In 1994, the newspaper, the Portland Oregonian received a letter. This letter contained the same awkward handwriting and same happy face signature as the restroom notes. In it, the author claimed to have killed six people: five in Oregon and one in California. The letter stated: “I feel bad, but I will not turn myself in. I am not stupid. In a lot of opinions I should be killed and I feel I deserve it. My resposibility [sic] is mine and God will be my judge when I die. I am telling you this because I will be responsibil [sic] for these crimes and no one else. It all started when I wondered what it would be like to kill someone. And I found out. What a nightmare it has been." Despite appearing to be remorseful, the letter close ominously, reading: “Look over your shoulder. I’m closer than you think.”

Keith Jesperson was picked up for questioning where he confessed to killing in the Pacific-Northwest, to include Taunja Bennett's. officials had strong doubts, until Jesperson led them to a roadside, to Taunja Bennett's purse, which remained untouched since he dumped them off on the side of the road at the time of the murder. It was on November 2, 1995 that Keith Hunter Jesperson pled guilty to Taunja Bennett's murder as well as two more in Oregon. He was promptly given a life sentence and, according to Media reports, cried with joy when John Sosnovske and Laverne Pavlinac were released on November 27th of that year.

Eighteen months after the murder of Taunja Bennett, Jesperson struck again. This time the victim would be a Jane Doe that he claimed was named Claudia, this occurred on August 30, 1992. The Jane Doe, "Claudia," was raped and strangled.

His third victim came around a month later in Turlock, California, where the body of Cynthia Lyn Rose was discovered. Jesperson said she was a prostitute who got into his truck at a truck stop while he was napping.

Victim four was Laurie Ann Pentland of Salem, Oregon, another prostitute. After having sex in his truck, she attempted to double charge him, when he refused to pay, she threatened to call the police. Jesperson then proceeded to strangle her. Pentland's corpse was found in November of that year.

Six month's later, he stuck again. The victim was another Jane Doe, a "street person" found in July of 1993, police originally considered her death a drug overdose. This took place in Santa Nella, California.

In September of '94, another Jane Doe, who Jesperson claimed to be "Susanne," was found in Crestview, Florida.

During January of 1995, Jesperson picked up Angela Surbrize and agreed to take her from Spokane, Washington to Indiana to meet her boyfriend. A week into the trip, she complained to Jesperson that it was taking too long. He raped and strangled her in response, then strapped her body to the underside of his truck and dragged her for "10 or 12" miles to get rid of any identifying prints. She wasn't found for several months, and only when Jesperson gave details to authorities.

Two months later, on March 10, 1995, in Washougal, Washington, Jesperson strangled his longtime girlfriend, Julie Ann Winningham, whom he strangled after Jesperson decided she was only interested in him for money.

Jesperson was arrested on March 30, 1995, for Winningham's murder. Questioned a week previous, he was released when they had no grounds to arrest him after he refused to talk. In the days following, and two failed suicide attempts, he turned himself in in hope of gaining leniency during sentencing.

Now in custody, Jesperson started revealing details of his other murders and making claims to many more, at one point as many as 160 victims, he later recanted most of them. His ever changing list of confessions were throwing roadblocks into prosecution’s case. A few days before his arrest, he wrote a letter to his brother confessing he killed eight people over a five year reign of terror. this led police agencies in several states to reopen old cases, many of which were linked to Jesperson as possible victims.

One such case reopened was that of Angela Subrize, very likely because Jesperson recanted due to Wyoming’s intent to extradite Jesperson. Keith now claimed to not have killed her, only that they slept together on occasion, and that they parted company a while on the road, Subrize heading towards the east when she died at someone else’s hands.

Wyoming wasn’t buying the story and filled papers for extradition in 1997
Jesperson then tried a new ploy, a new confession, this time in the slaying of Bobbi Crescenzi. Her husband, Jack Crescenzi, was already serving time for her murder, and it seemed Jesperson was trying to free him from prison by confessing to killing her. However, authorities found no evidence linking “Face”, as he now signed his letters from prison, and the victim. The prosecution claimed that a former cellmate was acting as a “go-between” for Keith Jesperson and Jack Crescenzi, giving Keith details of the crime, with Crescenzi paying Keith $10,000, made out to Jesperson’s children, for a confession that would release him.

This lead prosecutors to question Jesperson’s role in the Bennett case, but with Wyoming’s extradition looming on the horizon, Keith had other problems even though he planned to demolish the case against him by exposing his own lies, he then switched attack tactics.

Just after filing his plea, he told the media that he lied about killing Taunja Bennett. It made for good filler in the papers, but Jesperson had another thing coming if he thought it would reverse the Oregon sentence. Keith Hunter Jesperson was formally convicted of four murders but was suspected of at least four more by officials, including a 1994 slaying in Okaloosa County, Florida.

Keith Hunter Jesperson is currently serving three consecutive life sentences at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem. In September of 2009, he was indicted for a 1992 murder that took place near Blythe, California in Riverside County, and was extradited to face charges in December.