Keith Hunter Jesperson

Keith Hunter Jesperson, born on April 6, 1955, is an American-Canadian serial killer infamously known as the Happy Face Killer. A truck driver by profession, Jesperson's criminal activities spanned from January 1990 to March 1995, during which he murdered at least eight women. His victims, often sex workers and transients, were typically killed through strangulation, a method he preferred.

The media spotlight intensified after the discovery of his first victim, Taunja Bennett. This attention inadvertently led to Laverne Pavlinac, who falsely confessed to the murder, influenced by her abusive boyfriend, John Sosnovske. Seeking recognition, Jesperson marked a bathroom wall with a smiley face far from the crime scene and sent an anonymous letter confessing to Bennett's murder, providing undeniable proof. This act marked the beginning of his taunting correspondence with the media and law enforcement.

Jesperson's final murder was pivotal in his eventual capture. Although he has claimed to have taken the lives of as many as one hundred sixty individuals, only eight murders have been substantiated. Currently, he is serving a life sentence at the Oregon State Penitentiary, with no possibility of parole until the year two thousand sixty-three.

In a poignant twist, Jesperson's daughter, Melissa, penned a memoir titled Shattered Silence in two thousand nine, detailing her experiences growing up with a father who was a serial killer. She later adapted her book into a podcast, Happy Face: A Family of Monsters, in two thousand eighteen, which served as the foundation for a television adaptation.