0:00

Previously on Happy Face. John

0:04

Finley is the son of Julie

0:06

Winnie Ham, my father's last victim.

0:09

I had heard that he wanted

0:12

to do the things that my dad did to his mom

0:15

to me. I want him

0:17

to know how sorry I am

0:19

for what my father did. And

0:22

he's behind me. He he looks,

0:24

he looks tense. She walks

0:27

up to down and without saying

0:30

anything, he opens up his

0:32

arms and they embrace. She

0:34

was a kind hearted, good soul, and

0:36

he broke every rule that he ever had

0:39

said for victims that he was going to do this to

0:41

right. My mom broke every

0:43

rule because of her soul. He felt something

0:45

different with her. The detectives

0:48

came up to Spokane and they

0:50

questioned my mom that she said,

0:53

your dad's jail for ruder.

0:57

I want to know what you saw. No one

0:59

knows this. I haven't told me anybody.

1:02

They opened up a room, white walls,

1:04

silver table. My mom has

1:06

a sheet covered up to her. Nick that's

1:09

the last time I saw that. This

1:11

was a multi year relationship.

1:14

And if he could do that to her, he

1:16

could do that to anybody. Julie

1:18

was found when a local resident stopped

1:21

to take a scenic picture. Why did

1:23

the universe tell that person to stop right

1:25

here? If your mom's

1:27

body wasn't found, he would still

1:29

be out there today and the

1:35

sun don't shine.

1:40

Oh

1:44

oh nice room?

1:59

What did you think about doing? Keep?

2:03

Do you really want to know that? Yeah?

2:08

I mean I've had I wanted

2:10

to torture him.

2:13

I've thought of burying

2:16

him up, dude, And you know what I mean, just cutting

2:18

little cuts, linen animals. You know, all

2:20

kinds of sick and twisted thoughts.

2:23

Those aren't normal thoughts. What

2:27

do you think when you had those thoughts? They

2:31

were wrong? It's

2:34

not right, but it was Yeah,

2:37

I've had wild, wild,

2:39

wild thoughts. Gandhi

2:46

once said the weak can never

2:48

forgive. Forgiveness

2:50

is the attribute of the strong. But

2:54

how does some find the strength to forgive the

2:56

unforgivable. I'm

2:59

Lauren Bright Checko and this

3:01

is happy face from

3:10

the Oregon I In December by

3:14

John Painter Jr. The

3:16

last of Keith Hunter Jesperson's sentences for

3:18

three Northwest murders was handed down

3:20

Tuesday, when a Clark County judge ordered

3:22

him to serve a minimum of thirty four and a half years

3:25

in prison for killing a Camus woman

3:27

last March. He earlier

3:29

had admitted strangling Julie Winningham

3:32

and the sleeper of his long haul truck. The

3:34

sentence will be served consecutively to two

3:37

consecutive Oregon murder sentences,

3:39

guaranteeing that Jesperson forty

3:41

will die in prison. At

3:43

the sentencing, Winningham's son Don

3:46

Finley, described the mother as a kind

3:48

person willing to help others. Quote,

3:51

you killed her, putting her family

3:54

in darkness. Melyssa,

4:00

Noel and I had spent an emotional

4:02

few hours with Don. We'd had

4:05

him walk us through what he'd gone through after

4:07

Keith had brutally murdered his mom, Julianne

4:09

Winningham. How hard it was

4:12

to be surrounded by the things that reminded him

4:14

of his mom and the tails spin

4:16

it had put his life in. But the

4:18

thing that Melissa wanted to truly understand

4:21

was after carrying such anger,

4:24

how did Don come to a place where he truly

4:26

felt healed and how did he learn

4:28

to forgive? Did you

4:31

did you think about bringing a gun into the

4:34

Oh? Yeah, they didn't

4:36

have mental detectors. Every

4:38

day of the trial, they didn't have mental detectors.

4:42

One day, I walked out of the court

4:45

I was from me to your father. There was nothing

4:48

stopping me. He was full shackles,

4:50

nothing stopping me from just going at him.

4:53

I didn't know then, but I know now why

4:55

I didn't do it, because

4:58

he would have won. We

5:00

are not here to take another life. Okay,

5:04

it would have been over. He would

5:06

have won because I went to his level

5:08

of killing another human being. And

5:11

now I am happy

5:13

he's in there because your

5:15

life has been miserable.

5:18

My life has been miserable.

5:21

I have healed. Your father will

5:23

never heal, and that is no longer

5:26

your burden, no

5:28

longer your burding.

5:39

Do you know about the two people

5:42

that were convicted for the crime. I

5:45

know that Laverne was assisted, that her

5:48

boyfriend John was guilty of

5:51

this crime, and that she manufactured evidence

5:54

too got him convicted

5:56

and ultimately got her convicted as well. But they

5:59

were found guilty in that they served some prison

6:01

time. And can I ask you a question, do

6:03

you think they deserved to stay in prison for

6:05

what they said they did or do you

6:07

think they should have been released? It should have been released.

6:11

Okay, Well,

6:13

my opinion is he should

6:15

have been released and she should have stayed in because

6:18

she's the one who made the accusations.

6:20

But they get out. As soon as they get out, they

6:22

make a movie about it instantly, within

6:24

a month, about their life story. Who

6:26

are they to bring this up? I

6:29

was really piste off because if

6:31

they wouldn't have confessed, they may

6:34

have caught your father before

6:36

my mom. But no, and

6:39

it screwed everything up. He

6:42

could have been caught. It may have never happened to my mom.

6:44

It could have saved four or five women. Because

6:47

this lady confessed to a crime she didn't

6:49

commit to get out of an abusive relationship.

6:52

I've had to forgive her also to

6:54

be able to move on. I have to

6:56

forgive the detectives for not doing

6:58

a thorough investigation. I had to

7:00

forgive all these people for

7:03

not doing their job. And then I had to

7:06

truly forgive your father. I

7:08

had to truly forgive my my own father.

7:11

I've had a lot of forgiving, and

7:13

you have to forgive, not forget,

7:16

to be able to move on. For

7:24

all of Don's words about forgiveness,

7:27

it was apparent that Jasperson

7:29

had very much gotten into his head. Do

7:32

you know who Saundra London is? No,

7:35

I've never heard the name. This is what your father

7:37

did. Sandra London,

7:39

who was in love with the serial killer named ban Rawlings

7:41

in Florida. He executed

7:43

seven women with the machete.

7:46

She wrote a book about him.

7:49

Your father wrote Sandra London to

7:52

ask her to write a book.

7:55

She said no, but I will create

7:58

a computer book, diary or whatever her

8:00

So your father proceeds to write her

8:03

telling her how great it is to be in

8:06

jail, how to get away with murder, how to

8:08

do this. It's still on the internet

8:10

today. It's like twenty

8:12

two pages from

8:18

The Oregonian September by

8:22

J. Todd Foster. Last

8:25

year from prison, Jesperson wrote at Jacksonville,

8:27

Florida. Woman who is fascinated with

8:29

serial killers and thinks society

8:31

should have unfettered access to their minds.

8:35

Sandra London fifty then posted

8:37

Jesperson's letters word for word on the Internet,

8:40

as she has other killer's letters. On

8:42

Jesperson's page, which features a rotating

8:45

skull, he compares his victims

8:47

to garbage he discarded along America's

8:49

roadways as a long haul truck driver.

8:53

His most disturbing writings, however, are

8:55

contained in the self Start serial Killer

8:57

Kit, which offers web browsers a

9:00

size blow up doll named for one of his victims,

9:03

Julianne Winningham.

9:06

Winningham's son Don Finley

9:09

of Vancouver, Washington, read Jesperson's

9:12

website Tuesday and was appalled

9:16

he put in part of this

9:18

stuff that he wrote

9:21

get yourself Start Serial Killer

9:23

Kit. It comes with a two hour

9:26

VHS tape of life and death situations

9:28

that are guaranteed to scare the piss or arouse

9:31

you are both. Take your Julie Winningham

9:33

blow up doll with an extra springback

9:35

neck, take her mouth, put it over

9:37

the head of your cock, and you'll soon have the living strength

9:40

to squeeze the ship out of anybody. Why

9:44

did he pick my mom?

9:58

Your other ha goals

10:01

to wink getting court, it

10:03

was fucking funny.

10:07

Almost I jumped over the fucking

10:10

barrier. It was grabbed because

10:13

this man. You

10:23

could see how much Dahn was

10:25

affected by Keith. He

10:27

still carries that hurt. But

10:31

perhaps what's most impressive is, even

10:33

in that emotional state, how

10:36

he handled himself on the stand. Tanya's

10:39

brother and sister you know didn't

10:41

really do in court like I didn't.

10:44

You know, you didn't see the whole thing on court

10:46

you know, I had to. I did the rebuttal to

10:48

your father, and I told him,

10:51

this is the last thing I told him. I

10:53

said, as Christians, I

10:56

forgive you, and God will punish

10:58

you in the way you deserve to be punished. Your

11:00

father put his head down. The

11:03

judge had a tear coming out of his

11:05

eye. The

11:09

only reason your father is not dead is

11:11

because he didn't kill two women in the state of Washington.

11:13

But he did kill one right over there and right over there, just

11:16

a mile and a half difference. You

11:27

what are your triggers? Like? What

11:29

triggers you? Even even now, having

11:31

done all the work and feeling like you've

11:33

healed, you were saying that it's

11:36

everywhere, It's like Emoji's, it's Walmart.

11:39

Why? Oh, it was because

11:42

only because of the simple fact of the

11:44

title they gave him on the Happy Face Killer.

11:47

Psychologically, that messed with my head.

11:49

Everywhere I saw it would be a reminder of him.

11:52

Now that I'm healed, I'm over it. But it

11:55

was his thing. He's not. I can't let that beat

11:57

me up because he'll still win. As long as

11:59

I have something going in me that he did,

12:02

I'm never gonna him. So I have to release

12:04

it no matter how much it hurts, So

12:06

you would. You saw it everywhere

12:08

everywhere, everywhere, back

12:11

of jeeps, Walmart,

12:13

people's clothes. How many people walk around with the

12:15

happy face with the bullet in the head, you

12:18

know, how many people walking You know what I'm saying. All

12:20

that stuff goes through my head, you know, and

12:23

I'm like just a flashback everywhere

12:25

I go. I see this guy. Now many

12:27

years it took me to get past that. I don't even

12:29

know. It's like it's

12:31

it's literally like being haunted by their real life

12:33

boogie man like it. And

12:36

I an overthinking and

12:38

I believe your father did that on

12:40

purpose. But then on the other hand, I think

12:43

that he was just

12:45

being mischievous

12:47

and smart assets signing it with the happy face,

12:50

not realizing why.

12:52

It's exactly why he winked at you

12:54

in court. It's his taking

12:56

something so sinister and

12:58

heinous and spinning

13:01

it to the polar opposite of like putting

13:04

it's it's his sixth sense of humor. It's

13:06

his way of mocking people's pain.

13:09

It's his he gets pleasure from that, and the

13:11

smiley faces as a mockery.

13:14

Yeah, but why do you

13:16

feel that your dad

13:20

used my mom's name in the thing I

13:22

told you about that you never knew about, and didn't

13:24

use Tanja Bennett or one of the other six victims.

13:27

She was not his typical victim.

13:29

I mean he broke all of his rules

13:32

with her. I think it's because

13:35

she stopped him.

13:38

She's the reason he got caught, and

13:40

so he resents her from

13:47

I the creation of a serial killer by

13:49

Jack Olsen. From

13:51

his County jail cell, his curly brownish

13:54

mane shorn by an inmate barber,

13:57

Keith Jasperson continued his campaign

13:59

to muddy the legal waters. Most

14:02

of his confessional letters were sent after

14:04

his own lawyer told him to shut up. The

14:07

notes were uniformly upbeat quote

14:10

have a nice day from happy

14:13

Face. Regardless

14:27

of how Don defines the relationship

14:29

between Keith and Julie, Melissa

14:31

saw her as a woman who could have

14:33

been her stepmother, that in

14:36

some parallel universe Melissa

14:38

and Don could have been would

14:40

have been step siblings. Instead,

14:43

they're now forever linked by the

14:45

emotional scars of Keith's

14:47

crimes. This is

14:49

a I don't I

14:52

have my own answer to it. But do you think justice

14:54

was served at first?

14:58

No? Now

15:02

yeah, because

15:05

he loses. I told

15:07

you he has a miserable,

15:10

horrible life.

15:13

Me and you, we still have the opportunity

15:16

to have this open freedom,

15:18

positivity. He's around no, but

15:20

he's around nothing but negative energy all

15:23

day as his daughter. Take

15:25

back your power, take back

15:27

that guilt and turn it into a positive,

15:30

which you've tried to do by

15:32

helping and reaching out and doing

15:34

what you do for people. Melissa

15:37

has tried throughout her adult life

15:39

to use her career to connect the

15:41

families of victims with the families

15:44

of perpetrators in order

15:46

to bring about closure and healing

15:49

and ultimately forgiveness. I

15:52

think you're right, yeah, that

15:55

there is some sort of divine

15:57

intervention. But this is what I struggle with, don

16:00

I struggle with this, like, if there

16:02

is divine intervention, why

16:05

didn't that divine intervention intervene

16:07

and save your mom? If the

16:09

universe was telling this man to

16:11

come and take a picture, couldn't the universe have

16:14

told your mom to

16:16

not be with my dad? Like

16:20

I said, there's a plan. We

16:22

we are supposed to

16:25

help the screwed to the world that's out there.

16:27

We need to show them

16:29

that it doesn't the evil doesn't always

16:31

win. The villain doesn't always get away.

16:34

We are here, we are survivors.

16:37

We did this. It's been twenty

16:39

two years. We're done, we're

16:41

over it. Let's

16:44

do us. The only animosity

16:46

you have is something that you had no control

16:48

over and I had no control over. So

16:50

why should we let it control us any longer.

16:53

It wasn't your choice to do what he did. It wasn't

16:55

my choice. But yet we're letting his choices

16:58

control ourselves. That's wrong. Melissa's

17:15

most deeply rooted fear is that

17:17

she is somehow like her father, capable

17:21

of terrible things. Don

17:24

almost immediately sensed the opposite.

17:28

He didn't see the capacity for

17:31

evil in her at all. You

17:34

obviously are

17:38

not him.

17:40

Okay, obviously you're

17:42

not, So that needs to be the

17:45

first thing. I'm scared though. That's

17:47

the first thing you need to get out

17:50

is you're nothing. But I'm scared

17:52

I look like you. I have came

17:56

from here. That's okay, we can't

17:58

because my heart is so turned top. I'm afraid

18:00

of built like him that I

18:03

don't don't hurt people, But I'm

18:05

scared you're not like him. Because

18:07

of that, you're

18:10

like blocking feelings and being

18:13

cold, whatever you think it may be, because

18:15

this has been damaged so

18:17

bad, all it did was get covered

18:19

up and covered up and covered up and covered up

18:22

a scar. You

18:25

can bring this up a hundred more times on

18:27

television and that scab wouldn't

18:29

reopen. It is a scar. I

18:32

am okay. I am convinced

18:35

that he is where he deserves to be.

18:37

My mom's in a better place, and

18:39

he gave this to me and you to

18:42

pass on to people that no matter what

18:44

we go through in life, we

18:47

can make it. Don

18:56

also believed there was nothing accidental

18:59

about the in which was mother's body

19:01

was found. Life

19:04

leads us in a weird path, and

19:09

we are the ying and the yang

19:11

of one in three point one

19:13

million. Did you know that the

19:16

odds of what your dad did to my mom

19:19

is one in three point one million? Have

19:23

you met that many people in your life.

19:26

I have traveled to the United States, I have gone

19:28

as far as the Caribbean to run away,

19:31

and I still the universe

19:33

brings me back here. I moved all the way to St. Thomas,

19:36

to the top of an island. Leave me alone.

19:39

No one will know anything about me unless I

19:41

won't tell him. But I still

19:43

end up right back here. I

19:47

worked in the town for six years as a

19:49

local bartender, heard stories

19:51

about my mom. People come across

19:53

me every day and say, your name is not le Roy.

19:56

People call me up out of the blue. I've seen her

19:58

on television again, and I saw you on

20:01

television, So out of the blue, I would

20:03

get random calls. People would

20:05

be facebooking me from all around the country,

20:07

were thinking I can help them,

20:09

you know. So there was a lot going on. But

20:13

to be able to heal, I told myself

20:16

that your father needed

20:19

to be put away.

20:23

My mom lived a

20:25

fulfilled, happy life. It was

20:27

her time to go to a better place.

20:31

Yes, wasn't her time?

20:33

No, because God has a plan.

20:36

Okay, No, God has a Yes

20:40

he does. Well, let's not

20:42

call it God. Let's call it the universe. Our

20:44

universe has a plan for each and every

20:47

one of us, and the it

20:50

isn't a kind world. Can you see

20:52

it? So nice? I don't. I wish I could

20:54

see this. I want. I want to help you

20:57

feel it. You

20:59

gotta have to let at me because

21:01

otherwise you're

21:03

gonna end up the old cat lady. Yeah,

21:10

that would be horrible. Don

21:20

Lee Roy whomever he believed

21:22

himself to be at that moment, also

21:25

believed that the universe kept putting

21:27

people in his path for a reason, including

21:31

a man in the back seat of

21:33

his cab, I

21:36

dried taxi, and the weirdest stuff happens. I

21:40

met a gentleman who was about seventy

21:42

two years old. He

21:44

proceeds to tell me that he had a family and

21:48

after raising his family, he got tired

21:50

of working for the man, so he decided to start robbing

21:53

banks. Well,

21:55

he ended up in eighteen years. He

21:58

ended up an osp We

22:00

proceed to talk. It's a five hour journey. Come

22:04

to find out he has

22:06

been locked up the whole time. Your dad has been

22:08

locked up. So this man proceeds to

22:10

tell me what I already

22:12

knew, how bad life was in prison, but

22:14

how bad your father his

22:17

life is. The

22:20

stuff he told me made

22:22

me happy because

22:25

I am able to eat a steak, see

22:28

a beautiful lady, go out and

22:30

fish. You are still

22:32

able to do that. He

22:35

will never be able to do any of the pleasures

22:37

in life. Again, what did he say

22:39

that his life is like in prison?

22:42

Well, basically,

22:44

your dad lives in one building. He's

22:47

not allowed to go out of the building. He

22:49

isn't can't go outside. He

22:52

is in PC

22:54

protective custody

23:02

from I the Creation of a serial Killer

23:04

by Jack Olson. Most

23:07

of the cops and detectives who had worked the case

23:09

were piste that I had gotten two people out of prison

23:12

and beat the death penalty myself, but

23:14

some of them still had a morbid interest and

23:16

happy face. When we

23:19

pulled into the intake center and Clackamus,

23:21

one guard asked if I would pose with him for a picture.

23:25

I was put in solitary confinement in D Block

23:27

to keep me safe from other prisoners. Lady

23:30

killers and rapists ranked near the bottom

23:32

of the food chain in the prison system,

23:34

barely above child molesters and crooked

23:36

cops. I was allowed

23:38

one hour of yard time a day, no

23:40

books, no cards, no

23:43

nothing. Wherever

23:45

I went, the pointy fingers came out.

23:48

Everyone wanted a piece of the celebrity. So

23:55

I'm telling this guy the whole story,

23:58

and he proceeds to tell me how he's

24:01

seen your dad get beat up many

24:04

of times. Your dad is known

24:06

as a snitch. Your dad is

24:08

locked in his cell. He comes out like an

24:10

hour or two hours a day. How

24:13

big is he? Now? I can just imagine with no exercise

24:16

in a cage that's as big as he is a foot

24:18

wide. Think about his six ft eight the

24:20

sales six by nine. And if

24:22

all you do is put on weight, you gotta be uncomfortable.

24:26

He never gets interaction with anybody.

24:28

So this guy proceeds to

24:30

tell me that he's even met your

24:32

dad and had

24:35

controversy with him. And I have every right

24:37

to believe this guy because I feel it. I've

24:40

seen the tattoos and this is too odd.

24:44

And this man told me that

24:48

he wanted me to stop at a bank so

24:50

he could rob it and go back in to shank this

24:52

guy because he deserves to

24:54

die, because he knew you,

24:57

explained who you were to him, and the

24:59

whole time in the ca A Brad, he kept calling me the last

25:01

victim's son instead of by my name. He's

25:05

like the new generation

25:07

of inmates aren't willing to do

25:09

like the old school. Some up a long

25:11

story. He told me that he talks

25:13

to someone inside once

25:15

a month, he said. The next ass weapon

25:19

Jess personal notes from me. Did

25:23

it happened? How am I gonna

25:25

know? I don't know.

25:28

This was just a few months ago. Don't

25:30

you find that kind of odd that added the blue.

25:32

A guy like this gets in my taxi, all

25:55

of Melissa's fears about confrontation,

25:58

about God's hatred, anger

26:00

about her father and what he'd done to Don's

26:03

mother, everything, it

26:06

was just finally over and

26:08

there was peace. In

26:10

a sort of strange, if not slightly

26:13

broken way, there

26:17

was love. Uh.

26:20

I'm glad it's not the word. Um.

26:22

I'm thankful that you were willing to take

26:24

me out here and show me. I know

26:26

this isn't I can tell that

26:28

after this much time, you

26:31

you know this is a place you can go to. But

26:38

my mind is just racing. I'm thinking

26:40

of a million of things. I'm thinking about

26:43

thinking about my dad, and I'm

26:45

picturing it in my mind. I've

26:48

been in that cab of the truck. I'm

26:51

picturing exactly what he said, what he must have done,

26:53

Like how quickly we have taken

26:56

off. I

27:03

mean, it's it's definitely I can I can

27:05

visualize it. But how

27:09

has healing on your own?

27:12

How has it shaped you as a person? How

27:14

is it shaped like you

27:16

didn't ask to become this

27:19

person? How

27:21

does it shaped me? Well?

27:24

People will tell you now

27:26

that you've healed, are you gonna find Donald, or

27:29

are you gonna stay le Roy? Well,

27:33

I'm not sure yet Donald.

27:38

When Donald was the victim,

27:41

Leroy was the survivor. So

27:44

in my story would go how

27:47

it went from Donald Bernard Finley

27:50

two le Roy because

27:54

of the traumatic events that have happened

27:56

in my life. And

27:59

then at the end, when we're all done with

28:01

this, we

28:04

will see Donald. We

28:09

got a beginning, the middle, and an end, and

28:12

Donald came out because I hit We hit

28:14

the final piece, the puzzles complete.

28:18

Two people that have no answers from

28:21

anybody else, we can

28:23

now answer ourselves

28:37

after all of us, what is just person

28:39

to you? Now? What

28:41

is Jess person to me? Now? Just

28:44

a tax penny at waste?

28:55

Meeting one another was so therapeutic

28:57

for both Melissa and Don was

29:00

really a testament to human resiliency

29:03

and the triumph of good over evil.

29:08

When we left with Shugel, it was

29:10

with the feeling that ultimately Jesperson

29:12

had lost because two

29:14

of his residual victims had used

29:16

the power of forgiveness to

29:19

transcend the horror and hopelessness

29:22

he'd foisted upon them.

29:44

Happy faces of production of How Stuff Works

29:47

executive producers are Melissa Moore Lauren

29:49

Bright, Pacheco mangesh A ticket

29:51

Or and Will Pearson. Supervising

29:54

producer is Noel Brown. Music

29:56

by Claire Campbell, Page Campbell and Hope

29:58

for a Golden Summer. Story

30:00

editor is Matt Riddle. Audio editing

30:03

by Chandler Mays and Noel Brown. Assistant

30:05

editor is Taylor Shacoin special

30:08

thanks to Phil Stanford, the publishers of

30:10

the Oregonian Newspaper, and the Carlisle

30:12

family. All

30:18

his love place where

30:22

they catch

30:24

you when you fall.

30:32

Who He's

30:35

place where

30:38

they catch

30:40

you when you fall.

30:43

And we are