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Editor’s note: This article contains spoilers about events related to the show Happy Face.
If you’ve start the new Paramount+ series Happy Face or seen its trailer, you’ll know the show is based on terrifyingly real events. The series is inspired by the true story of Melissa Moore, who discovered her father, Keith Jesperson, was the notorious “Happy Face Killer” when she was just a teenager.
Early on in Happy Face, an incarcerated Keith (portrayed by Dennis Quaid) confesses to a ninth murder that’s been pinned on another man. To make matters worse, the wrongfully convicted man, Elijah, is on death row. With Elijah’s execution just two months away, Keith decides to come forward but insists on only divulging the details of the murder to his estranged daughter, pulling her back into his life. Melissa (played by Annaleigh Ashford) is then faced with the choice of walking away or investigating the woman’s murder and, in the process, owning up to her long hidden identity as the daughter of a serial killer.
While the plot certainly makes for great entertainment, just how accurate is Happy Face’s interpretation of the real-life events? Here’s what’s fact and fiction in the series.
The Happy Face Killer has eight confirmed victims, not nine
Keith Hunter Jesperson, infamously known as the Happy Face Killer, was caught in 1995. Don Ryan – AP
Just like on the show, the real-life Happy Face Killer, now 69, is serving multiple life sentences for the rape and murder of eight women in the 1990s. He was arrested in March 1995 after admitting to the murder of his girlfriend Julie Winningham.
Before his arrest, Keith wrote a letter to his brother in which he confessed to killing eight people within a five-year span. In addition to his girlfriend, his victims consisted of acquaintances and sex workers. While only these eight murders have been confirmed, Keith has claimed to have killed as many as 166 people.
However, the serial killer hasn’t explicitly confessed to a ninth murder, as the show portrays. In Happy Face, the supposed ninth victim was murdered in Texas, but Keith is only known to have killed in Washington, Oregon, California, and Florida.
His nickname did come from his anonymous messages
As depicted in the series, Keith earned his nickname as the Happy Face Killer by anonymously confessing to his crimes in messages signed with a smiley face symbol. Eager to claim credit, he wrote about his first murder on the wall of a bus terminal bathroom. Later on, he sent anonymous letters to The Oregonian newspaper about his multiple murders, all signed with a smiley face. This prompted a reporter to dub him the “Happy Face Killer” and the nickname has stuck ever since.
Some details about Melissa were changed for the show
Happy Face stars Annaleigh Ashford and Dennis Quaid with one of the show’s inspirations Melissa Moore Getty Images
Happy Face alters some basic biographical facts about Melissa. For one thing, her character’s name is Melissa Reed, not Melissa Moore like in real life. The show also presents her as 15 years old when her dad was apprehended, but she was actually 16 at the time of his arrest.
Despite these details, the series does accurately portray other aspects of Melissa’s childhood, including the fact that her parents were divorced and that her father would say inappropriate things to her as a child. Melissa has written all about her upbringing in her 2009 autobiography Shattered Silence: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer’s Daughter, on which the show is based. She also hosted the 2018 podcast Happy Face about her dad’s case.
Someone really was blamed for one of the Happy Face Killer’s murders
Similar to the series, one of Keith’s killings was initially pinned on not one, but two people.
Following the discovery of his first victim, Taunja Bennett, in 1990, a woman named Laverne Pavlinac lied to the police claiming she had helped her boyfriend John Sosnovske commit the murder. Laverne apparently made this false admission in order to escape her abusive relationship and later recanted her confession. But in 1991, both she and John were still found guilty. Neither of them, however, were placed on death row.
Four years later, while Keith was in custody, he provided police with graphic details of his victims’ murders, including the location of Taunja’s purse. This led authorities to believe they had wrongly convicted Laverne and John for her murder, and both were released from prison in November 1995.
Melissa has seen her father in prison
While Melissa has seen her father in prison, her visits weren’t nearly as frequent as portrayed in Happy Face. With no ninth murder investigation to solve, she only visited her father twice.
The first time was shortly after he was charged with Winningham’s murder in 1995, during which he advised Melissa to change her last name. Seeing this as an admission of his guilt, she agreed.
The second visit took place a decade later. According to Melissa, she brought her kids and then-husband to meet Keith for the first time in 2005, but he was mainly interested in talking about his crimes. This only affirmed her previous decision to distance herself from him. While her father has continued to send her letters, Melissa hasn’t seen him since.
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