The Happy
Face
Killer
The Case
Files of
Keith
Hunter
Jesperson
Keith’s Childhood
• Keith’s father was abusive, mentally and
physically. He beat him when he did something
wrong and treated Keith different from all his
other siblings. Keith had to pay rent and he
also had to do all the chores that his siblings
didn’t have to do.
• His mother was emotionally unattached.
• Keith learned from his father about killing
animals, especially neighborhood cats, at a
young age. Throughout the book, experts stated
that one of the signs of a serial killer is
torturing/murdering animals as a child.
Murder Number One: Taunja
Bennett
• Keith met Taunja outside a bar in
Portland, Oregon. Taunja was mildly
retarded.
• Keith took Taunja back to his house
and he raped her. He punched her
face over 22 times, breaking her
nose, her jaw, and causing her
teeth to cut through her lips.
However, she was still conscious.
Finally he strangled her for 5
minutes before she finally died.
Taunja Bennett cont...
• Keith then took Taunja’s
body to a ravine near
Crown Point in Oregon,
where he dumped it.
• He cut aways the buttons
on her jeans so any
fingerprints that may
exist wouldn’t connect
him to the murder.
• Then, he threw her purse
and walkman into a
blackberry patch. This
proves to be a very
vital move later in the
case.
(Location of Taunja Bennett’s purse)
Laverne Pavlinac and John
Sosnovske
Laverne Pavlinac confessed to helping her
boyfriend, John Sosnovske, murder Taunja
Bennet. He received life in prison and she was
sentanced to 10 years as an accomplice in the
murder. Laverne proved they murdered her by
showing police the buttons that was believed to
have been cut from Taunja’s jeans.
Murder Number Two: Claudia
•
•
•
Keith picked up Claudia
at a truck stop. He
wouldn’t buy her drugs so
she threatened to turn
him in for assaulting
her.
To keep her from escaping
he tied her up using duct
tape and strangled her.
Then he raped her
multiple times . He
played a “death game”
with her and finally
strangled her to death.
He dumped her body in a
brushy canyon in Blythe,
California.
(Location of Claudia’s body)
Murder Number Three:Cynthia
• Cynthia was just in the wrong place at
the wrong time. She asked Keith for a
good time and he said he wasn’t in the
mood, maybe later.
• Then, she busted into his truck later in
the night and he just snapped. He
strangled her to death.
• He broke her neck, making sure she was
dead, then simply threw her body into a
garbage pile outside the Blueberry Hill
Café near Livingston, CA.
Murder Number Four: Laurie
Pentland
• Laurie was a “lot lizard”
which is a nice word for
a hooker.
• After Keith paid her she
told him he had to pay
double and that made him
angry. He strangled her
off and on for an hour,
playing his “death game”
with her until he finally
killed her.
• He dumped her body in a
pile of brush behind GI
Joe’s in Salem, Oregon.
Murder Number Five: Cindy
• Cindy was a homeless woman in Corning,
California. She just wanted to get to
Salines, California and begged Keith to
take her there. He killed her because he
said she was “asking for it.”
• Keith told her that he was going to kill
her but she didn’t believe him. Finally,
after he got what he wanted from her, he
played his game with her and killed her
after her fifth time of losing
consciousness.
• He dumped her body behind some rock
piles somewhere along I-5 in California.
Julie Winningham
•
•
•
Keith met Julie at a truck stop
in Troutdale, Oregon. He talked
to her for hours and invited her
to come with him on his next
trip. She accepted.
He started to fall in love. The
only thing wrong with her was she
did drugs, and didn’t like that
he didn’t do them. However, he
did buy her marijuana.
Soon she began cheating on him
with his friend so he dumped her.
They had been dating off and on
for a year and a half. But that
wasn’t the end of their story…
Murder Number Six: Susanna
(Keith is unsure of name, probably Susanna)
• Keith picked up Susanna in Florida.
She wanted a ride to Lake Tahoe,
California and he told her he could
take her.
• He was unsure about whether to kill
her or not, but in the end he killed
her. He was scared of getting caught
because she screamed whenever she
could.
• He dumped her in the brush alongside
the road somewhere and fastened white
plastic zip ties around her neck to he
could claim her as his kill once he
got caught.
Murder Number Seven:
Angela Surbrize
•
•
•
Keith met Angela at the Ridpath
Hotel in Spokane, Washington. They
had a really good night together
and she actually survived. Then she
asked him to take her to Denver to
see her father. He agreed.
But soon, her dad didn’t want to
see her so her plans changed and
now she was headed to her boyfriend
in Indiana.
She told Keith she thought she was
pregnant and she was going to trick
her old boyfriend into thinking
it’s his. Then she said that she
thought about tricking him (Keith)
but he would have wanted to marry
her and she didn’t want that.
Ridpath Hotel, Spokane,
WA
Angela Surbize Cont.
• Soon Angela got impatient about getting to
Indiana. That was her downfall. She kept waking
Keith up while he was trying to sleep and finally
he had had enough.
• Keith tied her with duct tape and raped her
multiple times. He got angrier when she tried to
reach for her mace. (He had already taken it from
her purse.)
• He had to be sure he killed her because he had
connections to her like she used his credit card
and they had been seen together, ect. So, he taped
her hands in front of her so her fingerprints
would disappear. Then he tied her up under his
truck, behind the wheels so she wouldn’t be seen.
He tied her ankles to the bottom of the truck.
Then he drove. This grinded away her fingerprints
and her face so she couldn’t be identified. Then
he dumped what was left into a grassy bank.
The Return of Julie
• Keith spotted Julie at the same truck
stop in Oregon that they had met at
before. He knew she was going to use
him but he figured he would use her
first, so he played along with her
games. They even got engaged.
• Soon she was asking for money for
everything; her DUI’s, her wrecked
car, marijuana, court costs, ect. She
threatened him that if he didn’t pay
up she would report him for raping
her, which he actually didn’t do.
Murder Number Eight: Julie
Winningham
Columbia Gorge, Washington
• Keith strangled Julie
until she passed out.
Then he began to drive.
After awhile he slammed
on the breaks, making her
fall off the bed and cut
her forehead on the metal
part of the seat. Then he
raped her. Soon he played
his death game with her
and finally strangled her
to death.
• He dumped her body on the
Washington side of the
Columbia Gorge. After
this murder, he cried.
Jesperson’s Confessions
•
•
•
Keith confessed multiple
times before he turned
himself in.
He wrote a confession on
bathroom stall in a
Greyhound rest stop in
Livingston, Montana.
The confession stated, “I
killed Taunja Bennet
January 21, 1990 in
Portland, Oregon. I beat
her to death, raped her and
loved it. Yes. I’m sick,
but I enjoy myself too.
People took the blame and
I’m free.”
•
He also sent multiple
letters to Oregon’s
Statesman Journal with
confessions that were
ignored.
•
him
Confessions Cont.
After seeing an article about the alleged murderers of
Taunja Bennet in the paper Keith was furious that
everyone ignored his confession, so he wrote another one
and sent it to the Washington County Court house.
“I killed Miss Bennett Jan 20. 1990 and left her 1 ½
miles east of Lateral Falls on the switchback. I used ½”
soft nylon rope burnt on one end- frayed cut on the
other- and tied it around her neck. Her face her teeth
protruded from her mouth. Death was caused by my right
fist pushed into her throat until she quit moving. Threw
her Walkman away. Her purse $2.00- I threw into the
Sandy River. I cut the buttons off her jeans. I had
raped her before her death. I left her facing downhill
and her jeans down by her ankles. I did not know any of
them.”
He signed with a smiley face.
The confession was ignored, again.
Confessions Cont.
When his confession was ignored he
wrote another one. This time he
wrote a letter, fully describing the
murer and how much he enjoyed it. He
sent this letter to the Oregonian.
This time there was a reaction. The
Oregonian printed the letter but no
one believed it because the
“murderers” had already been caught.
Justice
After evading the law for around five years, justice finally
caught up with Keith Jesperson. He was arrested March
30th, 1995 for the murder of his fiancé Julie Winningham,
which he later confessed to. Soon after he confessed to
multiple other murders. No one believed him at first, but
he told authorities exactly where all the bodies were and
identified each of them specifically.
It is unclear how many murders he actually did commit
because he has been caught lying multiple times. An
interview with Keith explains why he lies...
“I built their cases foundation out of lies that I alone can
tear apart in court. When it is all over, the truth will
be shown to exist. The prosecutions case will fall apart
and my jury will know the truth. They will not like the
truth because it is relatively simple and not gory in
what the prosecution would like everyone to believe. I
have orchastrated this case from the start and know what
will happen in the end. The prosecution cannot have me
both ways. Either I'm credible or I'm not believeable. “
(http://www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/serialkillers/jesint.htm)
•
•
•
Closing the Taunja Bennett
Murder
Soon the truth came out about
Taunja. Keith took credit for
this murder by leading police
to the sight where he dumped
her purse, in the blackberry
patch alongside the road. It
was still there, 5 years
later. Her drivers license was
inside, identifying the owner.
Then the real story came out.
Laverne Pavlinac was being
abused by John Sosnovski. She
made up the tale of their
murder so she would be free of
his abuse. She hoped he would
be locked up forever and she
would be safe when she was
released from jail.
She later confessed she had
cut the buttons from her
daughters jeans.
Closing Thoughts
I believe that if Keith’s conscious hadn’t gotten the better
of him, he would have gotten away with murder. He was
smart. He made murder easy. As I read the book I was
shocked that he got away with it, but then I thought
about it and I wasn’t. He raped and murdered people
that no one would know was missing. He hid them, and
covered his tracks impeccably. He was the perfect
murderer. I do believe that his childhood played a role in
who he has become and I saw his struggles throughout
the book. It helped me to see the other side of the story.
The side of the murderer, not the victim. The inner
struggle between his murderous impulses and his
desperate need to be loved. That was all he wanted in
the end.
Someone to love him.