Very Scary People

S05E12 The Happy Face Killer: Part 2

Keith Hunter Jesperson, born on April 6, 1955, is a Canadian-American serial killer responsible for the deaths of at least eight women in the U.S. during the early 1990s. He earned the nickname "Happy Face Killer" due to the smiley faces he would draw on the letters he sent to both the media and law enforcement. Most of his victims were sex workers and transient individuals who had no ties to him. Jesperson typically employed strangulation to commit his murders, a method he had also used on animals in his childhood. He was ultimately apprehended and sentenced to multiple life terms in prison without the chance of parole.