By JoAnne Feddeler
Would you be shocked to learn that one of your loved ones confessed to serial murder? Keith Jesperson’s children struggled to understand how the father they had loved and looked up to, could kill eight women and seem to be proud of it. In retrospect, there were red flags that his children and rest of his family had noticed but dismissed as a character flaw at the time.
Keith Hunter Jesperson was born April 6, 1955 in a small town called Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada. His father, Les, was a domineering alcoholic with a violent temper that according to Jesperson’s family members, was abusive as was Les’ father. The middle of five children, Keith was a large, shy child often bearing the brunt of the abuse for bad behavior. His brothers nicknamed him “Igor” which stuck with him throughout his school years, making him the subject of ridicule and driving him further into loneliness.
As young as five years old, he showed a propensity for torturing, killing, and watching small animals fight each other to the death. He demonstrated his violence when at 10 years old, he had wondered what it was like to kill a human. He had gotten into a fight with a friend whom he admitted to attempting to beat to death, fortunately for the boy he was stopped. A year later, he attempted to drown another boy in a neighborhood pool until the lifeguard pulled him off. These urges only intensified as he aged into adulthood.
Not a successful ladies’ man, it’s not surprising that Jesperson married the woman with whom he had his first real relationship. In 1975, at 20 years old, he married Rose Hucke and had three children. After a series of odd jobs, Jesperson eventually found a job as a long-haul truck driver, which in retrospect was the perfect job for an up-and-coming serial murderer. Although he doted on his children, the time on the road afforded him opportunities to engage in extramarital affairs at the various truck stops along his route.
When some of Jesperson’s lady friends began calling the house, Rose became suspicious of her husband’s escapades. After 14 years of marriage, she packed up the children and moved 200 miles away to Spokane, Washington into her parents’ house. They finally divorced in 1990, but Jesperson continued to help support them and spent time with his children whenever he was in town. At 35, standing 6 feet 7.5 inches and weighing about 240 pounds, he set the goal to become a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman but an injury derailed his dream. He relocated to Cheney, Washington and resumed his job as a long-haul truck driver. The realization that he was now free to pursue any woman that suited his sexual appetite was an appealing way to satisfy his growing murderous inclinations.
It was January 23, 1990 near Portland, Oregon when his first victim, Taunja Bennett had the misfortune of meeting Keith Jesperson in a bar. She agreed to accompany him home but when she refused to submit to sex, he beat her. Worried that she would report the assault to the police, he “put his fist into her mouth” until she died from suffocation. He then went back to the bar for drinks and to mingle with the patrons until he was satisfied that he had established a credible alibi. Bennett’s body was found three days after Jesperson disposed of her and her belongings.
Early in the investigation of Taunja Bennett’s murder, news reports surrounding her death afforded Laverne Pavlinac an opportunity to escape from an abusive relationship with her live-in boyfriend, John Sosnovske. Using the details she had read in those reports, she had met with the investigating detectives and provided a detailed story accusing Sosnovske of forcing her to help him rape, murder and dispose of Bennett’s body. They were both arrested on March 5, 1990 and convicted of the murder on February 8, 1991. Sosnovske plead guilty to avoid the possibility of facing the death penalty and was sentenced to life in prison. Pavlinac was sentenced to no less than 10 years to her surprise, as she though her punishment would be more lenient since she claimed to be Sosnovske’s pawn. She soon admitted to fabricating the whole story but was ignored. They would be released in January 1996 after Jesperson and his attorney offered his confession and convincing evidence of his culpability.
In keeping with the typical psychopathy of a serial murder, the fact that someone else had taken credit for his murder did not sit well with Jesperson. In a passive-aggressive response and probably to taunt the police, he wrote his confession on a bathroom wall inside of a truck stop and signed it with a smiley face. Disappointed at the lack of attention after this, he began writing letters to media outlets and police departments confessing to his murders, signing each one with a smiley face. The Oregonian journalist, Phil Stanford, dubbed him “The Happy Face Killer”, which Jesperson most played into, enjoying the attention it brought.
Two and a half years would pass before Jesperson killed his next victim in Santa Nella, California. An unidentified woman he called “Carla” or “Cindy” was found in June 1993. The police initially attributed her death as a drug overdose. A month later, the body of Cynthia Lyn Rose was found in Turlock, California. He claimed that she was a sex worker that let herself into his truck at a truck stop while he slept. In November of the same year, Laurie Ann Pentland, another sex worker in Salem, Oregon, was discovered. Jesperson claimed that she attempted to double the fee she charged for servicing him and then threatened to call the police. He strangled her for trying to extort money from him, which angered him immensely. Another Jane Doe was found September 1994; this time in Crestview, Florida that Jesperson called “Susanne”.
But it was the murder of his girlfriend, Julie Winningham, that made him a person of interest to the police. In the days following police questioning, Jesperson felt certain that he was going to be arrested. After two attempts at suicide, he sent his brother a letter confessing to murdering eight women in the course over five years. His brother turned him in and Jesperson was formerly arrested on March 30, 1995. This led to police agencies in several states to reopen old cases and many were found to be possible victims of Keith Jesperson. He is serving three consecutive life sentences in Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem.
He was extradited to California in December 2009 to face murder charges in which he received a fourth life sentence in January 2010. Although he has claimed to have murdered over 160 people, those claims have not been corroborated by law enforcement. During subsequent interviews while in prison, Jesperson had shown himself as the classic psychopath complete with pathological lying, manipulation, self-absorption, no remorse, boasting and placing the blame on either his father or the victims themselves. Being sexually motivated, he justified his killing of the eight women by explaining that by refusing to submit to his advances, they disrespected him, and in a fit of rage killed them as they were considered an unworthy class of people.
When speaking of his victims, though, it must be remembered that his family are also his victims. His three children, by his own admission, were his pride and joy. However, Jesperson’s eldest daughter, Melissa G. Moore describes in her book Shattered Silence: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer’s Daughter that she knew as a young girl that her father was different from her friends’ fathers when she witnessed Jesperson hang stray kittens on a clothesline and laughed while they fought for their lives. Her story is an amazing feat of survival as she overcame the shame of being known as the daughter of the Happy Face Killer. She currently helps familial victims cope with the destructive psychological impact of having an association with a serial murderer.
Keith Jesperson’s turned the world for his children upside down when he revealed that he was indeed the “Happy Face Killer”. How was he able to keep his monstrous side hidden? How could he claim to have loved a wife, 2 daughters and a son while suppressing heinous urges to kill another human? Take a good look at your loved ones, friends, neighbors, colleagues, etc. How well do you really know them?
Editor's note: this article ran in Serial Killer Magazine and is reproduced as written. It matches this archive's record closely. Keith Hunter Jesperson is carried here at eight established deaths, and the roster entry notes the thing this article sets out at length: his confession freed Laverne Pavlinac and John Sosnovske, who had already been convicted of the murder of Taunja Bennett. Pavlinac invented the account that convicted them both, tried to retract it, and was not believed until Jesperson wrote to the police. His claim of more than a hundred and sixty murders is uncorroborated, and the article says so.