‘Happy Face Killer’ To Sell Story Wants All Proceeds Sent To Relatives Of Victims

Convicted serial killer Keith Jesperson says he’s willing to sell his story but wants any proceeds to go to his victims’ families.

Jesperson, 40, has admitted to three killings - two in Oregon and one in Washington state - and is being investigated in connection with murders in Wyoming and Florida. He also claims he killed three others in California.

He is currently jailed in Clark County, where he is awaiting sentencing in the March murder of Julie Winningham, 43, of Camas, Wash.

In a letter received Wednesday at The Oregonian, he wrote, “I will grant interviews to different sources on the stipulation that all monies generated to pay for these interviews will be paid to the families of the victims that so far have been taken care of in court.”

Jesperson said he was aware of state laws that prohibit felons from profiting from their stories but that some of those laws had been found unconstitutional. He said the money made from interviews would be administered by Bob Heye of KATU-TV Channel 2 in Portland.

But Heye said he had not been contacted by Jesperson and did not know what such a request might involve.

“I have never been a trustee for anything,” Heye said.

Jesperson said he cannot give media interviews in the Clark County jail but promised to make himself available in Oregon.

“I would like to see some of the monies reach the families before Christmas,” he wrote. “I know I took away someone that was oh-so-dear, and I cannot bring them back to life.”

In addition to Winningham’s murder, Jesperson has been sentenced in Multnomah County to life in prison for the 1990 strangulation of Taunja Bennett, 23.

Jesperson also is charged in Marion County in the November 1992 strangulation of Laurie Pentland, 23, of Carlton.

Jesperson is known as the ‘happy face killer’ because he drew “smiley” faces on previous letters to The Oregonian.