Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Happy Face Killer
The Happy Face Killer
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 (Location of Taunja Bennett’s purse)
case.
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 (Location of Claudia’s body)
strangled her to death.
• He dumped her body in a
brushy canyon in Blythe,
California.
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)