Happy Face
This article includes discussions of murder, rape, and animal harm.
True crime is a plentiful genre that only continues to grow.
Paramount+ has added to the collection with the partly true but mostly fiction showHappy Face.
This specific praise is interesting, though, becauseHappy Faceis mostly fiction.
Keith Hunter Jeperson and Melissa Moore are real people.
In preparation for the show’s release, I listened to theHappy Facepodcast and purchased Moore’s book.
Custom Image by Ana Nieves
At one point, Jesperson claimed over 160 victims, but no others were confirmed.
However, it remains a possibility that other victims just havent been identified.
In the process of convincing the police of Sosnovskes guilt, Pavlinac implicated herself as well.
The pairs conviction allowed Jesperson to continue his murders without suspicion.
I beat her to death, raped her, and loved it.
Yes, Im sick but I enjoy myself, too.
People took the blame and Im free.
He signed his message with a happy face.
Theres zero remorse in his words.
On the first page, he drew a happy face, just like on the Greyhound bus station wall.
After this letter, he was given the moniker The Happy Face Killer.
The police couldnt arrest him since they didnt have the evidence.
However, the investigation was enough to spook Keith Hunter Jesperson.
Jesperson then turned himself in to the police, ending his reign of terror.
However, she did see his mask slip many times when it came to animals.
Within the first four chapters, she recounts three different incidents where Keith Hunter Jesperson tortured and murdered kittens.
I wont go into gratuitous details about these events because theyre really disturbing to read.
However, one specific incident involved pouring gasoline on a cat and burning it alive.
While many jump to the question of how could you not know?
In an act of desperation, she wrote to the Dr. Phil Show, hoping for his help.
This move thrust Melissa Moore into the public eye, revealing her true identity.
After participating in the retreat, she started doing magazine and newspaper interviews.
Then, she started writing her book.
Down the line, she met with at least two members of the families of her fathers victims.
Both meetings seemed tense, but neither White nor Findlay blamed Moore for her fathers crimes.
She found value in not only healing herself but also connecting with other family members of criminals.
Melissa and her mother appeared in Monster in My Family season 1, episode 2.
This self-help book shares her story and offers different steps toward healing that others with trauma can follow.
Finally, she started her podcasting endeavors.
Her first podcast,Happy Face, explores her experiences and those of Keith Hunter Jespersons victims families.
WhileShattered Silenceis emotional, theres something more intimate about hearing the story from the voices of everyone involved.
These individuals face the fallout, pain, and destruction of their family member’s actions, too.
Paramount+sHappy Faceexplores this idea in much more depth, offering Moores heavily fictionalized story as a case study.
