Keith Hunter Jesperson (born 6 April 1955) is a Canadian-American serial killer who murdered at least eight women in the United States during the early 1990s. He was known as the "Happy Face Killer" because he drew smiley faces on his many letters to the media and prosecutors. Many of his victims were sex workers and transients who had no connection to him. Strangulation was his preferred method of murdering, the same method he often used to kill animals as a child.
After the body of his first victim, Taunja Bennett, was found, media attention surrounded Laverne Pavlinac, a woman who falsely confessed to having killed Bennett with the help of her abusive boyfriend, John Sosnovske.
Jesperson was upset that he was not getting any media attention. On a bathroom wall hundreds of miles from the scene of the crime, he drew a smiley face and wrote an anonymous letter in which he confessed to killing Bennett and provided proof. When that did not elicit a response, he began writing letters to the media and prosecutors.
His last victim was the crime that ultimately led to his capture. While Jesperson has claimed to have killed as many as 185 people, only eight murders have been confirmed.
Source Material for this Episode:
1) Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Hunter_Jesperson
2) Murderpedia: https://murderpedia.org/male.J/j/jesperson.htm
Youtube:
3) Various documentaries and news footage for: Keith Hunter Jesperson
Books
4) "I" The Creation of a Serial Killer. Written by: Jack Olsen.
Please visit our Buzzsprout website where you'll find all past and future episodes. https://homicideworldwidepodcast.buzzsprout.com/
You can find Homicide Worldwide Podcast on:
Twitter @HWWP10
Instagram @homicideworldwidepodcast
*This episode is dedicated to all of our great listeners and the Countries/Territories and Cities they represent.
From all of us at, Homicide Worldwide Podcast.
Thanks for listening every week.