0:01

Previously on happy Face. There

0:04

was some dark force that

0:06

was trying to get rid of us,

0:08

and I felt that that force was

0:11

your dad. The first year

0:13

was Melissa had went through two fires.

0:16

Then shortly after that we

0:19

go camping and then I

0:21

heard a bear. He cleaned

0:24

fish in front of the cabin, and he

0:26

was sleeping in the car. The

0:29

moment I walked in that house, I felt like I wasn't

0:31

alone, that there were spirits

0:33

there, that I was being watched.

0:36

And it was my first night in

0:39

this new house. I

0:41

fall asleep a little bit, but then I'm awakened

0:43

by being touched. It's not a heavy touch,

0:45

it's a light touch. And

0:47

so I laid on the hallway floor

0:50

with a light on, curled up in a ball,

0:52

hoping that the night would just go away fast.

0:55

And in the morning my dad stepped

0:57

over me and he said, did

1:00

you fall asleep in the hallway? And

1:02

I said, I was being touched, Dad, And

1:05

he said, oh, don't pay any attention

1:07

to them. They bothered me all the

1:09

time at night. Don't

1:12

pay them any mind. And the

1:15

pines with

1:19

the sun, I don't know

1:22

shine oh

1:28

oh nfe through

1:41

a bond. Melissa and her father's

1:43

share involves the spirits they both

1:45

claim to encounter. Even to

1:47

this day. It's

1:49

not a fearful feeling. It's almost a

1:52

peaceful feeling that I have these I have company

1:54

with me. Okay, it's

1:56

like they're they're all watched me so and I would like they're waiting

1:58

for something to happen, like who am I going

2:00

to do next? Or or somebody. That's almost like

2:02

you're my company and I can't get rid of them.

2:05

So I may I have my own little party in my

2:07

own cell, and I'm all by myself, but I've got all these

2:09

eight spirits with me. Perhaps

2:15

these are her father's victims, or

2:18

perhaps something else. Could

2:21

they be the manifestation of the psychopathy

2:24

she fears her father has passed

2:26

on to her. To

2:28

quote Edgar Allan Poe, the

2:31

boundaries which divide life from

2:33

death are at best shadowy

2:35

and vague. Who shall

2:38

say where one ends and

2:40

where the other begins. I'm

2:43

Lauren Bright Pacheco, and this is

2:46

happy face. As

2:57

we drove through her hometown, military

3:00

called her first real encounter. My

3:04

first experience with a spirit was

3:06

when we lived in Charlie parkins Cela

3:08

Washington, a

3:11

neighbor man was watching me. I

3:14

was laying on the couch and

3:16

I remember looking up over the

3:18

couch and seeing

3:21

this white being and

3:24

it was protecting me. So

3:27

in a weird way, it was kind of normal

3:29

in your family. What did your dad talk

3:32

to you about. He

3:35

would comment about seeing

3:37

spirits as well, so

3:39

I felt that he understood what I was

3:41

seeing. It wasn't like an everyday

3:44

conversation. Is just once in a while he would

3:46

talk about a supernatural

3:49

event in his life. There was

3:51

a time where he was

3:54

in a massive car accident where his truck went

3:56

off a cliff, totaled the semi

3:58

truck and fell off the cliff, and

4:00

he said he saw spirits that

4:03

were around him. But my

4:05

first memory of

4:08

seeing anything was

4:10

that was when I was probably

4:12

about four years old, seeing

4:14

a white being and

4:16

it was hovering. I wonder

4:19

if I would have been harmed by the man

4:21

that was watching me, and maybe that being

4:24

was protecting me, But I don't know. I

4:26

don't know how that works. But ever since

4:29

I've seen them.

4:31

Your dad talked a lot

4:33

in his first book

4:35

with Jack Olson about the ghosts in Roberta's

4:38

house. Yeah, what did

4:40

he say that they

4:42

tormented him

4:47

after Keith left Melissa's mom.

4:50

He moved in with his then girlfriend Roberta,

4:53

but he claims they shared her home

4:56

with spirits. In

4:59

one of his conversations with al Carlyle,

5:02

Keith even seems to confirm the

5:04

theory that perhaps these are

5:07

his victims and describes what

5:09

he felt with Tanya Bennett while

5:12

I killed her. I felt like I

5:15

felt like she just absorbed into me. I

5:18

felt like she just came right up in something like I

5:20

could feel she was right there

5:23

like asking me why and all this. I mean, it

5:25

was like she's just right there

5:27

and she just like over just surrounded me. And

5:31

you know, I don't think it frightened

5:33

me, because I've been in a haunted house

5:36

for two years almost

5:38

I felt this stuff before. I felt I

5:41

heard someone hung themselves in the house. But

5:44

I do feel the spirit. I

5:46

feel her when I think of her. Well,

5:49

I'm at night or something like that. I'm laying there and I think they're

5:52

all sitting around watch ma'am in my cell. I think they're

5:54

all sitting there wait for me to go. When

6:01

I was at my dad's house at

6:03

night, I would feel like I was being watched and

6:06

it was multiple as multiple

6:08

female spirits that I couldn't

6:10

see them. I just felt their presence. Not

6:13

bad spirits, but they were uneasy

6:16

spirits. They were like

6:19

trying to get my attention. Nobody

6:23

else will talk to me about the spirits about my dad.

6:26

I'm embarrassed actually telling you about this, because

6:28

I'm thinking you guys are gonna think I'm crazy. But

6:31

I truly I

6:33

actually hear them too. They talk sometimes,

6:35

and they don't talk like audible. I'll

6:38

just have an understanding of

6:40

what they're trying to convey and they

6:42

don't need words for that. The

6:49

house is haunted, and that's my understand

6:51

I actually felt it was too, because the bird

6:53

said it was sort of a mother, and some

6:56

strange things happened that house while I was laying

6:58

there, and like you feel coldness, you feel

7:00

this and that. And so when after

7:02

I killed Tanya, I kind

7:04

of like looked up and I yelled into the

7:06

office and now, you evil son of a bitches, Now I'm

7:09

the most evil person in here. Now shut the funk

7:11

up, leave me alone what I said. And

7:13

I have no problem with the goes after that. From

7:21

Melissa's perspective, her father's

7:24

acceptance of spirits almost

7:26

made her feel like seeing them

7:29

was normal. This is

7:31

making me feel validated

7:33

because it's something that I'm

7:36

afraid that people would think coming crazy.

7:39

After he murdered Tanya

7:42

in that home, he told

7:44

Roberta that maybe the ghosts now

7:47

would leave him alone because they'd know what

7:49

he's capable of. It's

7:52

weird. I know some serial

7:54

killers collect souvenirs like driver's

7:57

licenses or panties, or

8:00

jewelry or hair. Yeah, maybe

8:03

my dad collected spirits. As

8:09

we gathered interviews for this story, a

8:11

pretty distinct theme began to appear, the

8:14

appearance of ghosts. It

8:16

was a twist that honestly split our team

8:18

for a variety of reasons, but it

8:21

was an undeniable one. People

8:23

we spoke to spoke of sensing

8:25

ghosts. Whether these encounters

8:27

were something sparked by psychosis,

8:30

the manifestation of trauma, or

8:32

spirituality remains a question,

8:35

but they were a shared experience

8:37

for Keith, Melissa and Julie's

8:40

son Don. Here's don with

8:43

your mom. Did you ever to refueler

8:46

with you? I

8:48

dried taxi now. I felt my mom in the back of

8:51

my cab. Even when it first happened

8:54

and I had a girlfriend at the time, she didn't

8:56

believe in it, but she felt empties on the edge of

8:58

the bed. My mom called me.

9:02

She called you. They

9:04

say, when the other side contacts you, they

9:07

have made peace. Shortly

9:11

after the first set of trials, I

9:13

went back to San Diego. No

9:16

one had my phone number. I was living

9:19

in a rentom room with a bunch of Mexicans

9:21

that were illegal workers doing tar roofing.

9:25

One night, I decided to answer the phone. Hello,

9:29

sweetie. No one

9:31

ever called me sweetie, and I know my mom's

9:34

voice. Mom.

9:38

Mom.

9:40

I dropped the phone, curled up in a

9:42

corner till daylight. She's

9:45

okay, Okay, my mother

9:48

is at peace. Her and my grandmother

9:50

have come to see me in my dreams.

9:52

They came to see me, and I cried

9:54

and they left. They weren't there to make

9:57

me cry. They were letting me know they're at

9:59

peace. Okay. For

10:08

all of Keith's talk about the

10:10

ghosts of his victims, somewhere

10:12

inside he feared them

10:14

for what they really could be a

10:17

manifestation of his own evil.

10:20

Even in jail, he couldn't escape

10:22

Tanya or the rest of his victims.

10:25

Did that seem real to use? Yeah?

10:28

Yeah, it did seem real. Did you feel her

10:30

presence? Yeah, I felt I feel it

10:32

myself. I feel it all the time though, I feel everyone

10:36

everyone I've killed the film.

10:39

I've heard that from others talk

10:41

about it's just a feeling

10:44

that they're just like I feel. If I turned around

10:46

fast enough, I can see him right behind me. Now

10:49

they're guiding me right now, I think is that they're

10:51

they're just there. I mean everywhere I go, there there, They're

10:54

waiting for me to die so that I can be in

10:56

their world. That's what I can

10:59

do. I think they're gonna get even. Yeah,

11:03

they're gonna rule my rous because by that time,

11:05

I think they're going to have control of where they're at and

11:08

I'm just a new guy in the block down. For

11:34

Melissa and perhaps for Dawn, the

11:37

ghosts serve as a way to process

11:40

their trauma or alleviate

11:42

the magnitude of their loss. But

11:45

for Keith, he's become their

11:47

prey. They both haunt and

11:50

hunt him, and to exercise

11:52

his demons, he attempted to purge

11:54

them on paper. Letters

11:59

have definitely been a same you know, with

12:01

my dad on the road

12:03

before he was arrested, he would send us letters.

12:06

He would send us postcards, and

12:09

that's his way of communicating with me my siblings

12:11

while he was on the road as a truck driver. So

12:13

I'd have all these postcards and letters

12:16

from all these different destinations

12:18

and I would look forward to them. Then

12:22

my father was caught by writing a letter,

12:24

a confessional letter to my uncle and grandfather.

12:26

Then when he was arrested,

12:29

he starts writing to the Agonian. And

12:31

then after that he continues

12:33

to write letters to me and tries to stay in communication

12:36

with me, And he writes letters

12:38

to media outlets, and he writes letters

12:40

to want to be writers and biographers.

12:44

He keeps using letters to be his

12:47

medium to the world. When

12:50

speaking about his letter to the Oregonian, Jesperson

12:53

almost makes it seem altruistic

12:56

to free to innocent people, but

12:58

he's unable to con seal his narcissism.

13:02

The good feeling I had when I wrote that smiley

13:04

faced letter and sent it to him that I shouldn't do it, but

13:07

I said, I'm going to do it because I'm trying to get those

13:09

two people out, or I'm trying

13:11

to stir up a hornlessness to get these people out without

13:13

turning myself in. That's when I said, why

13:15

did you care? I didn't

13:18

think it was right that two people could take the blame

13:21

be prosecuted for my murder. I figured

13:23

that I was responsible for that.

13:26

Nobody should be able to take that responsibility from

13:28

me. And then it's

13:31

it's kind of funny in a way that harr I'm a cold

13:33

blood and murder and had I'm worried about two people in president

13:35

doing my time. It makes sense when

13:39

you say I didn't want them to take that responsibility

13:42

away. What do you mean, Well,

13:44

it was my murder, my body count.

13:47

It was like my victim, she hangs

13:49

around me. She's not hanging around them, hanging around

13:51

me, and they're like, we're into wound. We're kind of like

13:55

And the fact that I did eight at

13:57

the end there towards the end, when I said I did it, I did

14:00

it. And it became also important

14:02

on credibility that they believed

14:04

that was mine. He

14:06

wrote a confession letter to his brother after

14:08

Julie's murder, which he later

14:11

claimed meant to serve a dual purpose

14:13

as both confession and suicide.

14:16

Note why take a chance, but

14:19

confessing to him, well,

14:22

I had to when I

14:24

left to go up in the mountains. I

14:27

wrote my letter to my brother, feeling I wasn't

14:29

gonna come back. That

14:31

was my suicide note.

14:33

I was gonna let my brother know. Yeah,

14:37

mar a letter. I

14:39

said, I killed Julian the truck, then tried

14:42

to explain that I had killed seven others

14:45

here I let the cat out of the bag even all.

14:47

I just instead of just been down for one

14:49

murder and suicide,

14:52

I was trying to explain to my brother

14:55

why I turned out this way. And I couldn't you

14:57

know in a short letter, how can I explain it you

15:00

have? I felt lost at that time.

15:02

I was not feeling myself. I was like, I

15:05

have to end it. I can't let the cops get

15:08

me and let

15:10

the other go so your family wouldn't know

15:12

that well. I when

15:14

I was arrested, when I turned myself in,

15:16

I thought I could just call my brother up and say, just ignore

15:19

the letter, destroy the letter in that

15:21

way, I'll just confess the one murder. And I

15:23

told him all the phone, there's nothing to the letter, it's all

15:25

bullshit, right, so just leave it at that.

15:27

And I figured I just confessed the one murder and I'd

15:30

be punished for the one murder period, and I'd be the end of that

15:32

and I'd get out in fifteen twenty

15:34

years after doing man Juan or man to or

15:37

who are you clearing your conscious when

15:39

when you put the other home of side, that would

15:41

be good a good aspect to it. Keith's

15:45

letter to his brother led to his confession

15:48

to the other murders. I come to

15:50

the realization that I was going

15:53

to be convicted anyway. Like

15:55

I wanted to kill myself though the tooth wouldn't

15:57

come out. But now that I was in custody,

16:00

I knew the truth would come out. One

16:02

of the reasons why I turned myself into I thought, well,

16:04

you know, I said I should face my my problem.

16:07

The first thing I did was I called a cop

16:09

up and I said I did it. I confessed

16:11

to it. I confessed to the one murder I never said. I confessed

16:13

to all of them only after my attorney

16:16

came over and he showed me the letter that my brother didn't

16:18

destroy, and then I was

16:20

faced with having to deal

16:22

with all of them.

16:25

That was the clincher. Keith

16:29

also waged a nearly year long

16:31

letter war with less, his now

16:33

sober and dying father that

16:35

ranged from back and forth blame

16:38

to declarations of love from

16:44

I, the Creation of a serial Killer

16:46

by Jack Olsen, the

16:48

letter from Less the

16:51

last letter you sent me was full

16:53

of bitterness and resentment. It

16:56

left me with a feeling that it

16:58

was not my son that was writing

17:00

that letter. I have never

17:03

reprimanded you for your terrible

17:05

crimes. I have forgiven

17:07

you and have asked the Lord to

17:09

forgive you. Also, you

17:11

have to admit you put your

17:13

family through one hell of a mess.

17:19

Letter from Keith, Dad.

17:23

I do two hours in the morning of classes, so

17:25

if I get out of prison, I won't do this again.

17:29

The class is called anger Management, deals

17:31

with the way I was raised and the punishment

17:33

dished out to me as a child. We

17:36

talked openly about the belt and the wooden

17:38

spoon, and the fist and the back

17:40

hand and the verbal abuse. Under

17:44

the program, we have the prison pointing

17:46

into your corner on why I'm here

17:48

and why I turned out to be a serial killer.

17:52

But that's all right, Dad, I still

17:54

love you anyway.

18:09

Melissa wrote her father after his arrest,

18:12

and he wrote her back. He

18:14

was hurtful and planted seeds in her

18:17

mind that would fester and make her

18:19

wonder for decades if she was

18:21

like him, that his evil could

18:23

also be inside of her somewhere.

18:27

Her husband, Sam would often

18:29

read Keith's letters to act as

18:31

a filter to protect Melissa

18:34

from their worst content. I

18:36

think periodically she would get a letter

18:39

from him, and instead of reading

18:41

it, she would ask me to read it because

18:43

she didn't want to be impacted by his words because

18:46

he was so cruel. I would

18:48

read them, and then I would kind of decipher

18:50

what I thought would be helpful, and then

18:52

like filter out the things that weren't needed. So

18:55

it's not like I read things verbatim back to her. I literally

18:57

just kind of filter through and then go, this is

18:59

what he said, or this is what

19:01

I think might matter. I

19:04

don't think she really wanted to hear from him,

19:06

but she also maybe want to still stay

19:08

connected to him because it was her dad. And

19:11

what was your take on the personality behind

19:13

those letters? You said cruel? Yeah,

19:15

he was strange, weird,

19:18

like inappropriate. He made some of the most

19:20

inappropriate comments to

19:22

your daughter. He just was always out

19:25

of touch with what was appropriate.

19:27

For sure. He

19:29

was always kind of condescending to and

19:33

always trying to tell Melissa that she was.

19:36

I don't think he thinks she's that smart, or

19:39

he feels like it's his job to make her feel

19:41

not smart. He was

19:43

never very kind, never loving

19:45

by any means. Over

19:53

the years, Melissa received many

19:56

letters from Keith, and many

19:58

of them remained unread. They

20:01

just collect. As you can see, they're old. And

20:04

now I'm wondering if

20:07

these are more honest than actually meeting

20:09

him in person, that if these are

20:11

the true his true confessions,

20:13

like a diary versus what

20:16

he would say to my face. I

20:18

don't know why I collect them. Sometimes

20:20

I throw them away when they come in the mail,

20:22

and sometimes I just saved them,

20:24

maybe because I'm not ready to read them

20:27

when I received them, but maybe I think

20:29

that I'll be ready to read them

20:31

another time when this one

20:36

so nine. Dear Melissa, I'll

20:39

let you in on a secret you should be well aware

20:41

of by now, but haven't come to

20:43

understand just yet. It

20:45

matters little what the real truth is

20:48

when telling stories in the press. You see

20:51

most people reading those press reports don't

20:53

know the true facts, and

20:55

they're relying on the reporter to get

20:57

them the story. Therefore

21:00

they read it and believe they are getting

21:02

the truth. Or as close

21:04

to it as they can get. It

21:06

is of entertainment value. People read

21:08

it to pass the time. People

21:11

right to throw across to the public, recording

21:13

it a message. What is the message?

21:17

It's to sell, It's to get

21:20

enough to believe them and not the

21:22

other guy. Does

21:24

it matter that Angelus a Breeze

21:28

was alive when I dragged her

21:30

body down the freeway.

21:34

Does it matter that I plan to kill Laura and Pentland

21:38

hours before I drove over to Wilsonville just

21:40

to see her. Doesn't

21:42

matter that when I drove into

21:44

the rest area at Turnlock that I was going

21:47

to kill someone the first

21:49

one I saw. Doesn't

21:51

matter that every victim to come to

21:53

me after Claudio was going to die

21:57

because I fulfill the plan once

21:59

I decided to kill them.

22:02

My story is the story I wanted

22:04

to tell, the truth, according

22:07

to Keith, the story

22:09

to sell to the public. But apparently

22:12

it won't sell because people such

22:14

as sick, perverted, bloodthirsty monsters

22:17

like publishers and true crime writers and victims

22:20

and their people want to read about

22:22

it. The gore the thought

22:24

process to why I killed. They

22:26

want to tell a morbid tell to

22:28

put me in a certain light of darkness in

22:31

order to sell their books. But Dad,

22:33

you're not telling the truth. I'll tell

22:35

you a story. Musnew it all. Neither

22:38

are you. I know you

22:40

think you can say anything you want and it will be

22:42

published because you are the victim

22:44

here. You are a killer,

22:46

yourself called

22:50

so because you killed your baby, but

22:52

you had a reason right well,

22:55

still murder, killing a baby that

22:57

could have lived and not had

22:59

one thing to do with why she was

23:01

born. Are you caring

23:03

what I did and holding it high to tell the

23:05

world, Hey, look at me. I'm the daughter of the happy

23:08

face killer. I'm a victim here.

23:11

But it seems now that you want

23:13

the world to know who you are, not

23:16

Melissa More but the daughter of the happy

23:18

face killer. I've

23:23

created a monster in you because

23:26

you're telling him you are a victim. He

23:29

wrote what you say and

23:31

believe it even though it isn't true. You

23:34

know this. I

23:36

don't know. He's

23:38

insane and that's not This

23:41

is why I don't read these fucking letters.

23:43

This is why I don't freak them. What

23:46

do you want to say? This is why I don't read them.

23:51

Just what he says, it doesn't make it true.

23:53

Just because he writes, it doesn't make it true.

23:55

It's not true. Do you

23:58

know what? Hell him? The

24:09

letters had undoubtedly opened

24:12

old wounds that had never fully

24:14

healed. It

24:20

also seems that, having

24:22

read the letters that he sends

24:25

you, that this

24:27

is an incarcerated man who

24:29

is still inflicting violence with

24:32

words. Absolutely, it's

24:35

just emotional abuse. It's

24:38

verbal abuse through the writin form.

24:40

So words are his weapon of choice

24:42

now I would

24:45

say words are his weapon instead

24:48

of his hands now, he writes.

24:51

Judging from Melissa's reaction, Keith

24:54

appears to have known exactly what

24:56

he was doing. What

24:58

has always been your eightiest fear with

25:01

your father? But I'm just like him,

25:03

he said, I'm just like him.

25:06

He has told me for years

25:09

growing up, and then after his

25:11

arrest, you're just like me, and

25:16

I believed it. And

25:18

what would that have meant in terms

25:20

of who you are? It

25:23

means I'm a horrible person. It means I'm

25:25

a murderer, I'm a monster, I am

25:29

not human, I am

25:32

I am nothing. And

25:34

what's your greatest fear about

25:37

your mind? Genetically

25:40

that I am wired to

25:42

be like my dad, that I'm

25:44

genetically created a clone

25:46

of my father. I look

25:49

like my father. I smile like my father.

25:52

My eyes are my father, my nose

25:54

is my father. I look in the mirror and

25:56

I see my dad. I

25:58

wanted to know, did

26:01

my insides match my dad too?

26:04

Everything that I am is

26:06

it my dad. I

26:08

thought I was choosing

26:11

to live against my nature and

26:14

that was delusional, and that people

26:16

could see through that, that my

26:18

nature was a psychopath

26:21

and my nature was my father, and

26:24

that I was going against the grain

26:26

of my DNA to be a

26:29

good person. And then you look in

26:31

your children's faces, and what do you say,

26:34

my dad? I

26:36

see my dad's hair, and my son.

26:38

I see my daughter's work, ethic, you

26:41

know, And that's so much to my dad. There's

26:44

so much, you know, that's Ruda and my Dad,

26:46

and I see him everywhere.

26:56

Vill Melissa hadn't heard her father's

26:58

voice and person in nearly

27:01

two decades, she still felt

27:03

as though he were right there with her,

27:06

speaking through his letters. And

27:09

he knew everything.

27:14

He knows all my fears, and

27:17

he put all my insecurities

27:20

on two pages of paper. And

27:24

I wasn't prepared to read his words,

27:26

and it felt a little prophetic in

27:30

some ways when he said you need

27:32

a doctor and tomorrow, I'm gonna

27:34

go see a doctor. Not

27:36

only a doctor could really tell me what's can

27:40

tell me the truth. In

27:47

the next Happy Face, Melissa's

27:50

pet scan brings her face to face

27:52

with a neuroscientist who understands

27:54

psychopathy on a very personal

27:56

level. There's a whole other part

27:59

of psychio with the which are

28:01

these positive or pro social,

28:04

pro social traits. It makes

28:06

sound like you're really nice to be around everything. It just means

28:08

that you can navigate through society

28:11

and everybody thinks you're okay. So

28:13

it makes you more dangerous than one says. So

28:15

you have these pro social traits. People

28:17

with just negative traits, everybody stays away from

28:19

me. Happy

28:25

Faces of production of How Stuff Works. Executive

28:28

producers or Melissa Moore, Lauren Bright,

28:30

Pacheco, mangesh At ticket Ur, and

28:32

Will Pearson. Supervising producer

28:35

is Noel Brown. Music by

28:37

Claire Campbell, Page Campbell and Hope for

28:39

a Golden Summer. Story editor

28:41

is Matt Riddle. Audio editing

28:43

by Chandler Mays and Noel Brown. Assistant

28:46

editor is Taylor Shacogne. Special

28:48

thanks to Phil Stanford, the publishers of

28:50

the Oregonian Newspaper in the Carlisle

28:53

family, burnt