Solved The Smiley Face Killer

[Back Pocket Rocket]

I have recently read this guys autobiography. One weird dude. A trucky that picked up hookers and killed them. He used to play with them by strangling them nearly to death and then letting them regain consciousness before strangling them again. Another couple went down for one of his murders and he wasn't happy so he wrote confessions in truck stop toilets and signed off with

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Hunter_Jesperson

 

[Tuohy For One]

I'm not kidding when I say this but I know someone who spent a couple of years in the same penitentiary as this guy (for a crime that he did not commit but that's an entirely different discussion best served for another time). He often speaks about the Happy Face Killer (not Smiley Face but I guess it's the same thing). He said that in his experience inside that prison that there were very few people that he genuinely would consider labeling "evil". However, he felt that Jesperson was so cold, so callous, so downright insane that he was by far the most evil person that he had ever come across.

There is another book that my friend put me onto that was written by Jesperson's daughter. She details her rather fascinating life - the life of a daughter of a serial killer. To her credit she has emerged as a pillar of society - someone who has attempted to give back to society far more than what her father has taken away and has succeeded to a certain degree. She has also appeared on television shows such as Oprah, The View, etc, etc. in promoting both her book(s) as well as the causes that she supports. I personally find her story to be more enthralling than Jesperson's as most family members of serial killers do their absolute utmost to rid themselves of the public scrutiny and eye that has been marked upon them by merely being related to a murderer.

As far as Jesperson goes, my friend believes that while the couple that he "let off of the hook" so to speak were in fact innocent that there have been a very large number of other cases that he has not been involved in where he has attempted to take responsibility for. Allegedly he does this because other inmates, who are not doing life sentences but would be if they found out that they had been guilty of murder, make him offers of either money (which is still valuable on the inside) or some other form of payment that would ensure a better life on the inside.

A very fascinating serial killer. Good reading.

 

[Ghostwriter]

Spins me out how many of these serial killers have lived in the Pacific north west of USA, is it because of anonymity, a quieter more laidback attitude among people up there?, having worked in Oregon a few years back it chills me to read some of this stuff, even as recently as last year an ex con killed his parents then killed 2 more hitchhikers one came from a town about 5 miles from where I worked.

 

[kaiserchief13]

Spins me out how many of these serial killers have lived in the Pacific north west of USA, is it because of anonymity, a quieter more laidback attitude among people up there?, having worked in Oregon a few years back it chills me to read some of this stuff, even as recently as last year an ex con killed his parents then killed 2 more hitchhikers one came from a town about 5 miles from where I worked.

The majority of serial killers have lived at some point in California apparently. I've read somewhere that they want to be famous like hollywood stars.

 

[Silent Alarm]

I'm not kidding when I say this but I know someone who spent a couple of years in the same penitentiary as this guy (for a crime that he did not commit but that's an entirely different discussion best served for another time). He often speaks about the Happy Face Killer (not Smiley Face but I guess it's the same thing). He said that in his experience inside that prison that there were very few people that he genuinely would consider labeling "evil". However, he felt that Jesperson was so cold, so callous, so downright insane that he was by far the most evil person that he had ever come across.

See, I don't study criminology or anything. But this girl refused to kill a kid. He'd told a woman his complete details, which even half of could've lead to his arrest, and basically risked all that because he didn't want the kid harmed. Would a true psychopath have such a moralistic boundary?

 

[Interceptor]

The majority of serial killers have lived at some point in California apparently. I've read somewhere that they want to be famous like hollywood stars.

This concept is taken to the extreme in Natural Born Killers.
Interestingly the characters in that film were loosely based on Charles Starkweather and his 14 year old girlfriend, who went on murder spree in 1958.

 

[Duritz]

He was an attention seeker with low self esteem. Needed women to make him feel worthwhile, and if they didn't he'd kill them. Psychopath, certainly. His daughter is very interesting, that poster was right. She also stated that she felt he once came close to killing her, because he almost confessed to her. The bloke used to strangle cats, that kind of red flag s**t.

He loved the attention. The disappointing thing is that the woman who confessed to it, in order to get her husband in prison, very likely cost other people their lives by diverting the police attention away from catching the real guy.

 

[MSB ROYS]

There is a new podcast series about the Happy Face killer from his daughter's perspective - click here. I would recommend, especially for those interested in the ripple effect.