I: The Creation of a Serial Killer

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More About This Book

Overview

In The Killer's Own Words...

"I killed Tanya Bennett...I beat her to death, raped her and loved it. Yes I'm sick, but I enjoy myself too. People took the blame and I'm free.... . Look over your shoulder. I may be closer than you think."-Keith Hunter Jesperson, the Happy Face Killer

In February 1990, Oregon State Police arrested John Sosnovke and Laverne Pavlinac for the vicious rape and murder of 23-year-old Taunja Bennet. Pavlinac had come forth and confessed, implicating her boyfriend and producing physical evidence that linked them to the crime. Authorities closed the case. There was just one problem. They had the wrong people...

Keith Hunter Jesperson was a long haul truck driver and the murderer of eight women, including Taunja Bennet. He began a twisted one-man campaign to win the release of Sosnovke and Pavlinac. To the editors of newspapers and on the walls of highway rest stops, Jesperson scribbled out a series of taunting confessions. At the end of each confession, Jesperson drew a happy face, earning for himself the grisly sobriquet "The Happy Face Killer."

Based on access to interviews, diaries, court records, and the criminal himself, I: The Creation of a Serial Killer is Jesperson's chilling story. Edgar Award winner Jack Olsen lets the killer tell his story in his own words, offering unprecedented insight into the twisted thought process of a serial murderer.

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble
In 1990, Oregon State Police arrested a couple for the savage rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman. One newspaper reader realized that the cops had made a grievous error and began a solitary campaign to win freedom for the wrongfully accused couple. But the man was no zealot libertarian or maverick investigator; he was the killer. In several chilling letters, Keith Hunter Jesperson reenacted the gruesome attack and slaughter of not just one woman but eight. At the bottom of each taunting confession, he drew a crude happy face, earning him an ironic nickname. Using those documents and exclusive interviews, award-winning true-crime author Jack Olsen takes us into the mind of one of the most sadistic serial murderers in our history. A riveting, heart-stopping book.
Publishers Weekly
Veteran true-crime writer Olsen (Salt of the Earth, etc.) takes the profiling of a psychopath a step farther than usual; drawing on interviews and his subject's own diaries to intimately reveal the life and inner workings of Keith Hunter Jesperson, currently serving life in prison for the murders of eight women in the 1990s. Jesperson was called the "Happy Face Killer" for his token symbol on taunting letters sent to authorities. Cutting between Jesperson's rough rural childhood in the Pacific Northwest (with a hard-drinking, belt-swinging father who put him to work and charged room and board), and his mad glee in hunting down, raping and strangling women, the book plays more like a carefully detailed autobiography than a neutral investigation. While the gruesome details are nailed down with morbid precision, some readers may be disturbed by Olsen's abandonment of the objective narrator's voice in chapters where the first-person account puts the reader right inside the madman's mind it's a distinctly unpleasant place, where women are "lot lizards" and "bitches" paraded toward rape and death. Even chapters in the third person clearly represent Jesperson's viewpoint. Olsen's writing is clear and concise, but the voyeurism of the murder scenes will disturb some readers, and the attempt to create understanding of a serial murderer might be interpreted by others as an attempt to create sympathy. Eight pages b&w photos not seen by PW. (Aug. 20) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
More Reviews (2) Fewer Reviews
Library Journal
During the 1990s, the Pacific Northwest was besieged by a serial killer, Keith Hunter Jesperson, who taunted the police for incarcerating the wrong people for one of his eight victims; he signed his letter to the police with a happy face and hence became known as the Happy Face Killer. Renowned true-crime author Olsen (Hastened to the Grave) uses diaries, court records, and interviews with the killer himself to present Jesperson's version of why he became a serial killer and how he killed his victims. As a truck driver, he was able to travel cross-country and kill young women who, he thought, were going to present a problem for him. With each of his victims, he played a "death game" in which he choked them, then revived them a few times before killing them. The book's flaw is that it is one-sided. The reader is not told how law enforcement officers caught on to Jesperson or about the trial. Nor does it provide details as to what happened to the wrongly convicted. Nevertheless, Olsen's popularity in the genre will make this a popular choice for public libraries. Michael Sawyer, Northwestern Regional Lib., Elkin, NC Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Veteran true-crime author Olsen (Hastened to the Grave, 1998, etc.) explores the crimes and motivations of a truck-stop murderer. In an alternating first-person/third-person account, Olsen relates the story of Keith Hunter Jesperson, a.k.a. The Happy Face Killer, who murdered eight women in the early- to mid-1990s in the West and Pacific Northwest. The narrative flashes back and forth between a suspenseful chronicle of the murders and Jesperson's dysfunctional childhood. The black sheep of his family, brutalized physically and psychologically by his father, he grew into a powerful six-and-a-half-foot galoot capable of volcanic rage and with a penchant for torturing small animals. He drifted into a career as an over-the-road trucker, which offered the perfect half-invisible lifestyle for an angry loner. At first indulging his taste for rough, domineering sex with truck-stop prostitutes, Jesperson began to have homicidal fantasies and ultimately started murdering them by slow strangulation. Women who sold their bodies deserved their fate, he believed. He successfully eluded detection or suspicion but began to be plagued by guilt because two innocent people were wrongly jailed for his first murder; he deliberately became careless so that he could be tracked down and caught. The author examines various possible reasons why Jesperson became a serial killer, but his conclusion seems to be that given the right combination of harsh life experiences, rage, opportunity, and lack of self-control, almost anyone could go that route. The pretense of exploring and understanding Jesperson's psychology is a bit of a sham, as the real purpose here seems to be to serve up a titillating account of squalidmurders and violent sex. But for the genre, this is crackerjack stuff. Olsen obviously had thorough access to Jesperson (who is currently doing life), his family, and friends. One unexpected reward is the fascinating insider's glimpse of the world of long-haul truckers. True-crime entertainment at its best.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780312983840
  • Publisher: St. Martin's Press
  • Publication date: 8/18/2003
  • Format: Mass Market Paperback
  • Edition description: Reprint
  • Edition number: 1
  • Pages: 320
  • Sales rank: 334,297
  • Product dimensions: 6.82 (w) x 10.94 (h) x 1.08 (d)

Meet the Author

Jack Olsen lived on an island in Puget Sound, WA, where he passed away at the age of seventy-seven on July 16, 2002.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 34 )

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(13)

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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 34 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted February 12, 2004

    Buy this book

    This book was one of the best true crime books I read so far. It started of scary and it didn't really stop. I liked how they talked about his childhood so that you can kind of see why he is the way he is. This book was well written from the author and the happy-face killer, I like how the happy-face killer was talking a lot in his own words.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted April 15, 2011

    one if my faves

    ive read this book about 300 times and it is still one of my faves. i love the work that the author and Keith Jesperson done. it still shocks me on how a loving father cud turn into such a monster. but i think we all have that monster inside and its up to us to keep it in. :). love ya keith

    1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted November 18, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    Captivating and Thrilling

    As a True Crime fan, I have to say this book made my "True Crime Must Reads" list!

    This is a fast read because you won't want to put it down. You learn the intricate details of one man's life and how all of these puzzle pieces seemed to have fit together to create this horrible person. The accounts of his crimes are truly from the perspective of a cold blooded murder and it will make you look at things very differently after this read.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted January 25, 2009

    captivating

    This is definitely Jack Olsen's best work. This read is on my all time greats list and its a MUST read. I was not able to put it down until I had finished it! Its thrilling, frightening, detailed and traggic. I could just go on and on. Totally enthralling. I read this several years ago, and to this day have a hard time being comfortable if a truck pulls up next to me at a stop light!! Its hard to believe that people are that nutty out there! Scary!!

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted July 6, 2008

    A reviewer

    I was enthralled by the writing but at the conclusion had serious doubts of the honesty of Jesperson's explanations of the crimes. Seemed to be a self centred promotion of his skills with women and ability to outwit the police. Self praise is no recomendation and he does a good deal of that. However, the book was an absorbing read. Probably Olsen's best.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted August 13, 2007

    A Must Read!

    This book is sincerely one of the better true crime books published today. It's not just a recount of facts from a file, it's a look inside the head of a serial killer. It's a gruesomely detailed account of what makes one serial killer click. This was a great read and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to see why True Crime Fans, love their True Crime!

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 2, 2007

    Unbelieveable

    I've recently started reading True Crime, I have several books under my belt, but this book is just unbelieveable, I finished it in 4 days. It was almost impossible to put down, Jack Olson is such a captivating author. If your into True Crime this is definatly a 'page turner'

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted September 3, 2004

    Hard to believe

    I went to high school with the Jesperson kids. I was interested how the author was going to portray their growing up. I remember Keith to be quiet but very likeable. I was shocked to hear and read about his morbidly twisted adult life. The authors accuracy was right on.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 16, 2012

    Anticlimatic Writing

    I was very disappointed in this true crime. Found the writing difficult to read and I thought this book lacked a lot of info on the actual cases. It is more of a psychpath's ramblings and while normally I like that insight into the killer's mind I felt this book lacked in a lot of areas. Very disappointing.

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  • Posted August 3, 2011

    Difficult to read

    There were far too many errors in this book to be an enjoyable read.

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted March 25, 2011

    Great Book!!!

    Couldn't put it down, if you enjoy true crime books this is the book for you.

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  • Posted March 24, 2011

    Good story, very bad translation to nook or no copyeditor?

    I enjoyed this story, but the book is painful to read with so many typos, misprints, and spacing errors. It seems as though the book had no copyeditor. Or is the conversion to nookbook really that tough on original books? I found a lot of instances where citations were shown and their explanation interjected randomly in later paragraphs. Really strange to follow with those errors.

    And, there were so many spelling and misused words and spacing problems that I can't understand how this made it to printing if the printed version is the same. Is the translation from print to nook normally hard on books or did this one just have problems even in the print version? Hard to read because of these issues.

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted January 30, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    Great book, from a new perspective

    this book was good, it was a different true crime book in that it was wrote from 1st person of the serial killer using his words and accounts.

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  • Posted December 26, 2010

    Refreshingly different

    I read a lot of true crime, and I found the writing here interesting with a unique twist. Rarely do we get to hear directly from the killer.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 6, 2011

    No text was provided for this review.

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    Posted December 26, 2010

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    Posted January 8, 2011

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    Posted October 8, 2011

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    Posted May 11, 2012

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    Posted April 22, 2012

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