Blog Six/June 2021: Keith Jesperson (The Happy Face Killer) Part Three

In this last part of Keith Jesperson’s story, he explains how he ended up getting arrested and eventually confessing to the murder of Taunja Bennett in addition to seven others. While in custody, he became determined to free Laverne Pavlinac and John Sosnovske, who were both wrongfully convicted and incarcerated for the murder of Taunja Bennett. Jesperson explains the many obstacles he faced while trying to free them, exposing the flaws within the US criminal justice system that allow for wrongful convictions to occur.  

In Jesperson’s Own Words:

Guilty Details

Part Three: Real Justice

It is really easy for me to become sidetracked when talking about this case. Why? Because I have eight murder cases in all, and each case pulls me in that direction. However, the Bennett case is key to all the other cases. I felt a need to get them out of prison. If successful, all the other cases would settle quickly. No prosecutor would want to have the Bennett case connected to theirs at sentencing. More on this later.

I could have done a lot of things differently than I did settling my Julie Winningham case, which would have changed the outcome to this case. Like: I’m Canadian and could have run off to Canada to avoid prosecution. Had I not sent my brother Brad my suicide note/letter, we would only have settled the Winningham case. Once released, I.C.E. would have dropped me off in Canada. Call me stupid, I guess. But I was naïve to just how the American system really works. Arriving in the Clark County Jail in Vancouver, Washington, I was about to get a crash course in the American justice system. Tossed into a pod of the building with thirty plus other men dealing with their own problems, facing convictions to various crimes.

Over the phone in Arizona, I told Detective Buckner I only killed Julie, that I had not raped her. But at arraignment, in front of Judge Harris, I faced a host of various crimes including sexual assault because her body was found nude. I’d meet my court appointed attorney there, Thomas Phelan. We waived the fast and speedy trial to give him time to prepare for trial later in the year around October 1995. My bail was set for $250,000. Thomas told me to keep quiet; don’t talk to anyone about it. That the justice system moves slowly. Boy! Does it ever!

After talking to Brad on the phone, I felt better, believing he destroyed the letter. And then a bombshell broke my silence in early May when Phelan came to see me. He laid down a copy of the suicide letter in front of me. “Is there any truth to that?” he asked. He went on to say my family gave up the letter to police. That Detective Buckener was comparing the letter to the one sent to The Oregonian newspaper in 1994; The Happy Face Killer letter.

I was scared. Time to come clean with my inner secrets. One by one I told Phelan the details to each case. #1 the Taunja Bennett murder. #2 the Jane Doe murder by Blythe, California. # 3 the Jane Doe possible murder in Turlock, California—her body has never been found. # 4 Laura Ann Pentland of Wilsonville, Oregon. # 5 the Jane Doe found near Highway 152 west of Santa Nella, California. # 6 the Jane Doe found at exit 11 off I-10 in Florida. # 7 Angela Subrize in Nebraska, and # 8 Julie Winningham east of Camas, Washington.

“What do you want to do with them?” he asked.

“Settle all of them,” I told him.

Phelan went on to explain proper defense theory to such a dilemma. To settle these cases in reverse. The Bennett case last. So that there would be no preceding case to show a pattern. He even felt he could take the Winningham case to trial with an outcome of guilty of murder in the second-degree. A win in his eyes. He told me again to keep quiet. Warned me there would now be ears listening to everything I had to say. Be careful.

At about 10 am one morning in June 1995, breaking news came over the television we were all watching. All I could do was to watch as my face was shown. A reporter chimed in to say, “The Clark County Jail could possibly be housing The Happy Face Killer. Keith Hunter Jesperson is the suspected killer that wrote a letter back in 1994 to The Oregonian newspaper claiming five deaths, including Taunja Ann Bennett. Investigators are plowing through this case to have answers. Stay tuned.”

So, there it was. I looked around the room and saw all of them staring over at me. I retreated to my cell to think about what to do next. Let’s just say I had a line of visitors at my cell offering up advice. Probably all jailhouse informants.

This would be positive press for the prosecution and court. Detective Buckner was more than likely the source of the leak to the press. But who cares? It was what they wanted. The court didn’t impose a gag order stopping themselves from future press releases. Phelan came to me to stress not to comment to any of the press requests to talk to me. Leave it all alone! It didn’t stop the press from talking to those around me. I’d get a letter from Phil Stanford. He was requesting me to help him to get those two released from prison. I kept that letter.

We pick back up on the Los Angeles Times story here. How McIntyre learned about Jesperson being the possible Happy Face Killer and sitting in the Clark County Jail across the Columbia River in Washington State, out of his direct jurisdiction. He was an outsider with no real direct access to question Jesperson, to get to him for any sort of reason. Jesperson was under the protection of Detective Rick Buckner.

Because Buckner leaked his findings to his reporter friend, Bruce Westfall, of the Vancouver based newspaper, The Columbian, the news was a shock to everyone. No one saw it coming. Prosecutor Jim McIntyre calls them ramblings out of Clark County. He is pissed off, so he says in the text because some detective went to the police and not to him. But why him? Why would anyone call up the District Attorney’s office in Multnomah County, Oregon? They have been very adamant in past press releases that they had the correct people in prison for the Bennett murder.

We have to take note here. Jim McIntyre and company were in trouble. Now they had the possible Happy Face Killer in custody at a place they had no real access to. If they were really interested in fixing a wronged conviction, they would be patient to wait their turn to get to the bottom of it. McIntyre claims in the article that they were interested in looking into the case. However, their actions spoke volumes to the contrary. The real problem they faced is: Oregon had two murders linked to Jesperson.

The Oregon crime lab became busy to solve the Laura Ann Pentland case in Marion County. Jim McIntyre had no choice but to sit back and watch it happen. They didn’t have to wait long for the results comparing the letters to DNA and fingerprinting. On August 17, 1995, the Oregon crime lab reported to all connected parties that Keith Hunter Jesperson wrote the letter to The Oregonian newspaper in early spring of 1994. He was who the press called Happy Face Killer. This sent shock waves across police agencies having to deal with his murders. They now had a real person to connect to the anonymous letters claiming he had killed those five women. The letter to his brother, Brad, claimed to have killed eight. Despite which direction Multnomah County would be taking this news, Marion County district attorneys were going forward with their hopes to prosecute Jesperson for the Laura Ann Pentland murder.

Back in Clark County, time kept dragging by. I saw cases around me go to court. They all said they were innocent. They all came back with convictions. It soon became clear to me: I’m guilty and at the end of my trial, I’ll be proven guilty. So, what was the upside? If you read the press, you will see how the lay person commented on each case.

A common question was asked: “How come guilty people will not take responsibility for their actions? To do what is right.” We all have heard it growing up, do what is right and tell the truth, and “they” will go easy on you. I heard Buckner tell me these very words. Police use those words to get people to confess. To do the right thing. To tell the truth and “they” will go easy on you. What we all have to understand is who the “they” are. They are my future jurors, the public. At that very moment, I was just a suspect to being the killer. Until I was proven in a court of law that I was The Happy Face Killer, or I openly confessed to being the killer, I would remain just a suspect.

In early September 1995, I decided to go public with confessions to being The Happy Face Killer. Easier said than done. All of my mail and phone calls were being monitored by the Clark County’s Sheriff's Department. We have to think outside the box. I needed a helper, someone to be able to move my mail to the outside of the jail before it was dropped in a mailbox.

I wrote out seven letters to seven press agencies in the area, each in a stamped and addressed envelope. I placed them into a 10x13 manila envelope addressed to Alan’s wife in St. John’s, Oregon. Alan met with his attorney on September 14,1995 and had the lawyer take the envelope outside to drop it in a US Postal drop box. He came back to tell me the package was on its way.

On Friday, September 15th, Marion County Sheriffs were at Clark County to collect hair and blood samples from me. My attorney was there while Detective Buckner watched as well. I told Phelan about the pending press release that was coming. Telling all I was who the press called Happy Face Killer and the one responsible for Bennett’s murder. He was glad I told him.

On Saturday, September 16th, Alan was talking to his wife on the phone. He gave me a thumbs up to say those letters were mailed out that night from St. Johns, Oregon. Shit was about to hit the fan. Those seven letters made it to those seven press outlets probably on Monday, September 18, 1995.

It was early morning around 6 am on Tuesday, September 19, 1995, when a couple of guards came to my cell to tell me they were proud of me and shook my hand. I was doing what no one else had done: the right thing, taking responsibility for my actions. My confessions were the breaking news all day. I was no longer the suspect. I was The Happy Face Killer.

On Wednesday, September 20, 1995, I was in front of Judge Harris to be told a gag order was now in place. We had a short argument and I lost. I kept silent for a while longer. Before I’d go public again, I needed to get more information.

In the article, McIntyre touches on to this subject a little but skips through it again. It is in the details I tell you. How this case moves in a direction he doesn’t want to go. We did go there! He did mention I wanted the famous lawyer Gerry Spence to represent me. That had to do with my Nebraska case. An inmate named Ken Monsebroten, AKA “Duke,” had told me about Mr. Spence out of Wyoming. He was also a wealth of information in law. What he really was, was a rat, a jailhouse snitch that I made a deal with in order to secure a source to send my mail to the streets. Duke would make a deal with prosecutors to testify against me in Wyoming for a possible death sentence. Duke turned my Nebraska case into a Wyoming case. We are getting sidetracked here.

You can imagine the press going after the Multnomah District Attorney’s office for comment over Jesperson’s claims. If you followed the press reports, you will read they claimed Jesperson was lying about being Bennett’s killer.

So, here is where it gets interesting. I met with Phelan to discuss the Bennett case. Told him to go over to Multnomah County and make a deal with them to a life sentence. Phelan’s only concern is he doesn’t believe in the death penalty. He was to accept any time offered to me, regardless of the years. I believed it was the right time to deal before I proved I killed her. That to prove I killed her first, would leave us bargaining power.

Here is another point we need to look at. Jim McIntyre wanted the courts to put a gag order on me for Oregon. However, because I hadn’t been charged with a crime in Oregon yet, the court wouldn’t grant his request. I’m not sure when exactly this happened, but it did happen.

What McIntyre doesn’t tell us in this article is my lawyer went to make a deal twice. The first time they told him to leave. No deal! But the constant push from the press changed their minds. After all, they must be curious about the evidence I could have to prove my guilt.

On Monday, September 25, 1995, Phelan met with the men at Multnomah County. Phelan offered up Jesperson to tell all as long as there was no death penalty. You can bet they didn’t want to deal at that moment because I hadn’t been charged with the crime. They talked it over with Michael Schrunk and came back with aggravated murder with a life sentence of 30 years minimum. Deal!

Certainly, McIntyre and company didn’t want to be in the position they were finding themselves in. One thing is certain, they needed to know what I had proving I was Bennett’s killer. A meeting would soon take place. On Friday, September 29, 1995, McIntyre showed up in Clark County Jail with Multnomah County Sherriff Detective Chris Peterson to talk to me. Who was Detective Peterson? What about Detective Corson and Detective Ingram? Fresh eyes or something else? Peterson’s son worked at the Clark County Jail as a guard, which means he could show up at the jail without being noticed out of place to see his son. You can read into this all you want. Knowing this, I would sleep with one eye open for a while. Would they go so far to suicide me before I proved my guilt in the case?

We would be discussing the night of January 21, 1990. The article has lies in it. I never had sex with her. I laid out what I had done to her and what I did with her body and property. About halfway into the interview, Phelan pulled me aside and told me not to guess, to tell them things only I was sure of. To guess wrong only helped them to discredit what I had to say. So yes, I didn’t know exactly what she had been wearing. But again, what is clear with this story is: had no one been arrested and convicted already, it was enough to send me to prison. I did drag the body down the embankment. More like we slid down the slimy, cold wet leaves past the finger tree at the top of the ravine. My credibility had taken a hit several times because I had guessed at things and guessed wrong.

After that long afternoon talking to the team from Multnomah County, I felt it was time to go public again. On Saturday evening, September 30th, 1995, I called several times to reporter Phil Stanford to discuss recent events, breaking the court ordered gag order. Stanford then worked for the Willamette Week newspaper. He would do a story that hit newsstands in a few days—either Wednesday, October 4th or Thursday, October 5th—titled: “Phone Calls with a Serial Killer” or something close to it. On Sunday morning October 1, 1995, I was moved from C Pod to an isolated cell in the medical unit with no access to a phone—personally.

Most telling, on October 2nd, says Jim McIntyre in the interview that I got the wrong ravine. Wow! Here is what really happened the rainy Monday morning of October 2, 1995: My attorney Phelan came in early. We were both put into Detective Buckner’s car and drove over to the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Department on the corner of Gleason Avenue and 122nd Street. We made our way into the building, and Peterson sat me down in a cubicle that had the Bennett case photos posted everywhere. I chose to not notice them. A set up. We would eventually all walk out to their motor pool to get into a 9-passenger white Dodge van. It would be my job as tour director to point out where to drive to.

We first drove to 18434 NE Everett Street and parked at the front of the red brick ranch style home. No way could we go inside to look for the specks of dried blood I told them would be there. Instead, they wanted to argue with me on whether or not I had painted the living room after I killed her. A tell. See, I lied to them about painting the room. Why? Because the only person that knew I didn’t paint it would be Roberta Ellis. I knew right then that they had talked to her.

Remember when I was arrested in Rock Island, Illinois in early January 1991? Before being led to jail, I had told Roberta that I could be going to prison a long time because when she was gone, I had killed a woman in the house. At the time, Roberta didn’t believe me. Well, I’m not really sure what I actually told her that night at the weigh station. I believe it wasn’t clear exactly. Roberta has asked me to kill her ex-husband several times. I could have referenced that versus killing Bennett. In any event, they had already talked to Roberta Ellis by the time we were in that van.

Gave directions to the B&I Tavern. Again, we didn’t go inside. We drove the back way to Crown Point. Before driving down the scenic roadway past the Vista House Monument, the driver covered the odometer with a towel so I could not see it to count off mileage.

We drove down and I yelled to stop here in front of the ravine. They kept driving. About two miles down the road, I told them to turn around. “Are you sure?” we drove back to the top of the ravine and again I told them to stop. They stopped about two hundred yards up the hill. We all got out into the constant drizzle. Walked down to the ravine and I was about to walk into it when Peterson told me to stop. “What about this ravine over here?” I looked at Phelan and he told me to play along. “What about this one over here?” He pointed to another one.

McIntyre came up with a game. “Best guess; is it ravine #1, 2, or 3? Which one is most likely the one, and so on?” To play along, I pointed to the correct ravine as most likely, and so on. They did not want me to go down into the correct ravine to stand exactly where I put her.

I knew then that I couldn’t tell them where exactly I put Bennett’s purse without first getting someone to make sure it would not be destroyed. I could not trust them to do what is right on their own. We drove up Sandy River Road until I yelled to stop. We stopped so fast, we almost fell out of our seats. Then we got out.

From where we were, I could see exactly where I tossed her purse. But I made sure where I told them to look wasn’t it. I told Peterson not to go past the old tree stump under the phone lines. I pointed down into a ravine full of blackberry vines. Even cracked a smile. “Are you sure?” Peterson asked. We all got into the van and back to their office we went. McIntyre says they left the station and returned to the place I had told them to look. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. McIntyre and Peterson were going to look for it by themselves, hoping to be able to destroy it. But eventually they would have to call in the team of explorer scouts.

Detective Chris Peterson was said to have talked to Laverne Pavlinac on Wednesday October 4th. Maybe he did. Maybe not. Just because it is said in the article doesn’t mean it happened. She did tell him that the detectives had talked to her about releasing Sosnovske if she didn’t change her story. But again, he called her a liar.

There I was locked down until late each night. No access to a phone. Dale Thompson was the only innocent man in Clark County Jail that I knew. He was celled up in the medical unit with me. We talked. He was willing to help me get phone calls and mail out. We had to get busy.

I wrote out the real location to her purse and ID card and put it in an envelope to reporter Phil Stanford. Directions to follow. He was to answer the phone when Dale called him on Wednesday, October 11th to confirm he got the letter with where to guard over the evidence. Only then would I tell Detective Chris Peterson where to look. Dale would place the letter into one of his letters to his girlfriend and sent it out as quickly as possible.

I had a problem with the gag order on me. I knew the only way it would come off is to settle my case in court. To plead guilty. But Phelan had every intention of taking it to trial. Not in my plans. So, what am I to do? I have to ruin my fair trial and force Phelan to plead me out. How do you do that? During the day on October 5th, I had sent word to Detective Rick Buckner that I needed to talk to him. At 11 pm that night he had me delivered to his office and we discussed the Julie Winningham murder. I told it all. At 6 am Friday morning, October 6th, I was back in my cell. At 9 am on October 6th, Buckner delivered Phelan and myself to the Oregon State Police Office in Multnomah County. I was scheduled to take a lie-detector test. I had a sore throat, and they said it didn’t matter. But it did when I passed the test. The man testing me said it was not a fail or a pass. Inconclusive.

As we sat there, I noticed lots of Band-Aids on the arms of the detectives. All had scratches that could have come from blackberry bushes. It wasn’t long before the prosecutor in my Clark County case called to report to Phelan what I had done. I told him to plead me guilty to killing Winningham, not to have me sentenced until I was sentenced in Oregon, making my time to do in the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem. He argued I had not proven my case yet. I assured him it was coming.

On Saturday, October 7, 1995, Multnomah County explorer scouts went to where I told them to look. They found nothing. That is what I expected if they followed my precise directions not to go past the old dead stump to the south. Later that day, Phelan told me the news. I again assured him that they will find it. I just had to keep it a secret for now.

On Wednesday, October 11, 1995, reporter Phil Stanford accepted a collect call from Dale Thompson. He confirmed the letter getting to him and that he would be guarding the location for a next search to happen. That afternoon, I got word to Peterson’s son that I needed to talk to him ASAP.

On Thursday, October 12, 1995, Detective Chris Peterson met me in a room to hear what I had to say. “I lied to you on October 2nd during the drive around. I told you a lie where to look for her purse and ID card. I have been able to confirm reporter Phil Stanford has gotten my letter telling him where to look for it. He is probably out there looking now.”

“Where is it, Jesperson?” he demanded.

“Remember me telling you not to go further south than that old dead tree stump?”

“Yes, what about it?”

“Forty feet south of the stump and about forty feet from the Sandy River Road.”

Detective Chris Peterson ran out to secure the new search area. Was Phil really out there looking for it? You’ll have to ask him. The fear that he could be scared Peterson.

On October 14, 1995, explorer scouts again went looking for Bennett’s purse and ID card. It didn’t take long to recover it. About a hundred yards south of the first search area. That Sunday night, October 15th, Phelan called me with the news. “Good job!” And he told me that on Monday, October 16th I’d be pleading guilty before Judge Harris to murdering Winningham. He also told me the Multnomah team was considering just telling everyone I had been in it with Laverne Pavlinac and John Sosnovske. We all killed Bennett. I had a press release to write. The gag order was about to come off. I’m sure Jim McIntyre probably wished they could put the evidence back in the bushes.

The next morning in front of Judge Harris on October 16, 1995, I pled guilty to murdering Julie Winningham in March 1995. Sentencing would be put aside for another time. I handed a press release to Phelan and told him to take it over to McIntyre. He returned back with an offer: If I stayed out of the press, they would prove I acted alone in her murder and get those two people out of prison. Phelan told me to do it. These men were in a corner. They needed space to work. “Don’t push it, Keith! Desperate men could resort to desperate measures!” I chose to agree. After all, it works both ways. They also have an obligation to fulfill. Phelan called over to tell them it was a deal.

As it just so happens, on October 16, 1995, they located Roberta Ellis officially and she was corroborating evidence that I had killed Bennett. That was quick, huh? In the article where I told her was wrong like I said it was at the weigh station in Rock Island, Illinois in 1991. But who cares now? They were working to free Laverne Pavlinac and John Sosnovske. They had a lot of back peddling to do.

On Tuesday, October 24, 1995, I was taken to the Portland office of the FBI to be given another polygraph test. I passed the test, proving I hadn’t raped her, and I had worked alone in her murder. Laverne Pavlinac would also be tested. She passed as well, proving she had nothing to do with her murder and didn’t know me. We have never met. Sosnovske wasn’t tested. The following day, Phelan asked my permission to show McIntyre his notes taken back on May 11, 1995, when I told him about all eight cases. Phil Stanford wasn’t well liked by Multnomah County. They feared he had given me vital information to help me prove I killed her. Phil had tried to over the phone that Saturday evening on September 30th. Material I stayed clear of because I didn’t remember it. I will, however, use it further down the road. McIntyre would have to call his boss Michael Schrunk to tell him they had the wrong people in prison. All the evidence proves it.

On October 25th, the Multnomah team went to the Marion County Courthouse to present their findings to the court for a decision. This is called “damage control.” The courts will slow down the case to give everyone time to come up with a solution to let them go. Presiding circuit court Judge Paul Lipscomb would take everything into consideration before making his ruling.

Four days later, he handed down his ruling.  He could not simply set aside the convictions of the other judge. Laverne Pavlinac and John Sosnovske had to remain in prison until both sides came up with a different solution to resolve this dilemma.

On Thursday, November 2, 1995, I was driven to the Multnomah County Courthouse to plead guilty to the Bennett murder. I’d receive a 20-year minimum life sentence. At this time, all three of us were in custody for a murder I alone had committed.

On the Monday following Thanksgiving, November 27, 1995, Judge Lipscomb finally had a solution provided to him by the attorneys on all sides. He would concede that Laverne Pavlinac and John Sosnovske were innocent.

What everyone feared was a new trial for Laverne Pavlinac. She would be asked where she really got the help to find all of the evidence provided to her, who helped her in her stories. No, a new trial was out of the question. Was there a secret pay off to accept their solution? I didn’t hear about any. Sosnovske’s release would be simple. A claim that Laverne wore a wire to try to entrap him was raised. Because his civil rights had been violated, he could be set free.

Pavlinac’s release was a little harder. She had been convicted by trial and a jury. To continue to imprison a factually innocent person would violate Oregon’s constitutional guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment. Even though she remains legally guilty of murder, she could be set free. Both were taken back to prison to gather their things and walked out the prison’s gates free.

One thing should be mentioned here. At the time of their release, a major storm had hit the area. It was more news than their release had been. Could it be they waited for something to help downplay the press in this case? How convenient it was though. The wind knocked over trees onto houses. Roads were closed due to flooding. The area had a lot of damage to report on, and somewhere in the metro section a report on their release. Mmmm.

Is it over? Detective Al Corson came to see me in December 1997 to try to get me to change my story to say I didn’t kill Bennett so he could re-arrest Laverne Pavlinac and John Sosnovske. He just didn’t want to let it go. His boss would have to threaten to fire him and take away his pension to make him quit.

On November 8th, I met with the Marion County prosecutors to settle the Laura Ann Pentland case to a life sentence. Because the murder happened in Wilsonville, Washington County, I was in Washington County Court on December 15, 1995, to plead guilty and get 37 ½ years to follow my life sentence in Multnomah County. Then on December 19, 1995, I was in court in Clark County to get 34 ½ years for the murder of Julie Winningham.

In the years to follow, in June 1998 I pleaded guilty in Cheyene, Wyoming to the death of Angela Subrize in Nebraska, picking up 25 years to life to follow Washington’s time. Then in July 2007, I was in San Jose, California to get a life without parole for the murder of a Jane Doe left next to Highway 152 west of Santa Nella, California. Then in 2010, I received a 25-years to life to run concurrent with Oregon time out of Riverside County, California. My Florida case is closed because I have too much time already.

Nine years after Sosnovske left prison I got a letter from him asking for my help to get him a lawyer to sue them at Multnomah County. “A little late,” I told him. “The statute of limitations had come and gone already.”

-End Part Three-

Blog Four/April 2021: Keith Jesperson (The Happy Face Killer) Part One

Over a five-year span in the 1990s, Keith Hunter Jesperson killed eight women by strangulation. However, it was not until 1995 when he was first arrested for the murder of his girlfriend, Julie Ann Winningham. He would later be called the Happy Face Killer when he would send one letter to The Oregonian Newspaper in the spring of 1994. In this letter, he claimed to be responsible for the death of Taunja Ann Bennett in 1990 along with the deaths of four other women in California and Oregon. Dubbed the Happy Face Killer after his arrest in 1995, he taunted the press with letters of guilt to manipulate his court cases to force them to settle out of trial, signing them with a happy face. Currently, he is serving two consecutive life sentences and one concurrent life sentence at Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem. He also has two life sentences and one life without parole sentence in two other states, running consecutively to Oregon’s time.

Since the beginning of March, I have been corresponding regularly with Jesperson via letters and phone calls, specifically about the first murder he committed in 1990. He had met Taunja Bennett at a bar and would later bring her back to his home with the intention to have sex. However, he instead ended up punching her in the face repeatedly and strangling her to death. In my interviews with him, which are posted below, he describes his motive for killing her and the unexpected aftermath of the murder in which two innocent people, John Sosnovske and Laverne Pavlinac, confessed and were convicted for the crime.

Jesperson has a theory regarding the investigation and the reason why law enforcement ended up arresting and prosecuting Sosnovske and Pavlinac. In detail, he explains facts and theories of this case in letters he has written to me. However, since the letters totaled 45 pages and his handwriting is sometimes not the easiest to understand, I have typed his words below.

In Jesperson’s Own Words:

Guilty Details

Part One: Justice for Taunja

The American justice system has two equally important groups of people to solve crimes. The police investigate the evidence or lack of it, and the District Attorneys who prosecute the offenders. They are supposed to work together to bring justice to those who are wronged. This is one of their stories.

If you have ever watched the popular TV series Law and Order, you will have seen the ins and outs of just how complicated it can be to achieve justice in America. Not everything works out. The cases are not always solved. And yes, not everyone sent to prison is guilty.

In 1996, the Los Angeles Times news magazine published a story called “A Question of Guilt.” (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-09-01-tm-39549-story.html)

They had interviewed Assistant District Attorney Jim McIntyre of Multnomah County, Oregon to listen to him explain how the Taunja Bennett murder case developed. It is in the details that he stressed in his recollection of events that seem so troubling to comprehend what really happened. He points fingers and casts blame. Specific details didn’t make it into his story. Important details. Questions needed to be answered. After reading this story, you will also have tons of questions that demand answers.

He was just fourteen years old when he was caught shoplifting. Graduated high school in 1973. Married in 1975 at age twenty. Divorced after just thirteen years and three children. He changed jobs frequently. Lived with his new girlfriend in Portland, Oregon while working for Copenhagen Construction of Clackamas, Oregon. He hoped it was all going to work out. But in early January 1990, his girlfriend doesn’t come home from work one night. She had quit her job and drove off with a truck driver. Alone again, he seeks company at local bars and taverns. His world was falling apart around him. He had been laid off from work and lived off unemployment insurance.

It was a cold foggy morning on Saturday, January 21, 1990 when the 34-year-old man looked out his window. He had moved his bed’s mattress into the living room in front of the TV. The smaller he could make his home appear, the less alone it made him feel. For days he sat by the phone hoping his girlfriend would call to explain what was going on. He missed her touch and voice, hoping she would come home.

At about 10 am, the morning sun began to burn off the fog. He locked the door behind him and went out for his daily walk around the various shops and buildings in the area. Eventually, he made it over to the B&I Tavern on Stark Avenue near 186th Street.

He stepped inside at about 1 pm to find it almost empty. A young woman ran over and wrapped her arms around him, pleading he join her small party. He looked over at two men staring back and decided not to. He left the building and made his way back home to 18434 NE Everett Street.

At about 4 pm he drives back over to the now crowded parking lot of the B&I Tavern, where by chance, he runs into the same young woman in the parking lot, minus the two men. He convinces her to get into his car for a drive back home. They went inside. His intention was to seduce her into having sex. It didn’t work out as he had hoped.

He would punch her in her face several times, causing severe damage. Put his hands around her neck and strangled her to death. Fearing she wasn’t quite dead, he tied a ½ inch diameter rope around her neck tightly. Because he had touched her buttons on her jean’s fly area, he cut out the fly to get rid of anything that could hold his fingerprints and destroyed it in the fireplace. Panic had set in. What to do next? Then the phone rang, and on the other end was his long, lost girlfriend wanting to talk to him. The hour he spent on the phone calmed him down to rationalize a plan to get away with the murder. Things had to be done to set that stage.

He drove back to the B&I Tavern to be seen leaving the place alone. Made a dry run up into the gorge before returning to haul her stiffening body to her resting place. He had picked a ravine east of the Vista House monument to leave her. He drove to another location along the sandy river road to toss away her purse and Oregon photo ID card. Back at home, he cleaned up and waited to be questioned by police. No one came.

It was around 10 am Sunday morning January 22, 1990 when a bicycle rider spotted something in a ravine that looked odd. Upon close inspection, the rider rode to the nearest phone to call police. Because of how police investigate crimes, the bicycle rider would be their first prime suspect until they could eliminate the bicycle rider from any involvement in the crime.

Because the body was found in Multnomah County, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Department responded to the crime scene with their CSI unit processing the area. Detective John Ingram of the Multnomah Sheriff’s Office picked up this murder to investigate. Along with county police, there has to be a state police detective assigned to the case as well. Should the evidence trail take them to other jurisdictions, someone has to be on hand to have the power to arrest any suspect. Detective Al Corson worked with John Ingram to investigate this case.

It would fall on state police detective Al Corson to make any calls on jurisdiction issues. He worked out of a separate building than where Detective John Ingram worked. Connected by telephone, they communicated between other cases they both worked. It is questionable if they both showed up at the same time as suggested by McIntyre.

Word of the new murder investigation soon reached District Attorney Michael Schrunk. He assigned his Assistant District Attorneys’ Jim McIntyre and Keith Meisenheimer to the case. Their job [was] to work with both detectives Corson and Ingram to build a case on any viable suspect. Just like on TV’s Law and Order series.

Reading the Metro section of the Oregonian newspaper on Monday, January 23, 1990, the killer saw a short story about how a woman found dead with a rope tied around her neck in the Columbia River gorge needed to be identified. The police were asking the public for help in the case. He decided not to take any walks over anywhere close to the B&I Tavern anytime soon.

Eight days later, Loretta Bennett identified her daughter, mildly retarded, Taunja Ann Bennett, 23, of Gresham, Oregon. She told how Taunja liked to hang out in the local bar scene. People go to bars to get a little crazy with alcohol. Taunja had a three-beer head start without touching a drop. Around goofy people, she fit in perfectly.

When the killer picked her up, she had been drinking beer for at least three hours. Not knowing her history of mental illness, it would be a hard sell to say he could notice it at all. However, you can bet the newspapers and prosecutors will make the most of her ability, or lack of, when the case goes to trial.

Detectives soon track down Taunja’s last known whereabouts: the B&I Tavern. The bartender tells them she spent all afternoon drinking beer, playing pool with two unidentified men. The case grew cold. They needed to contact those two men soon. A press release went out to hopefully generate leads to go on. In writing out these press releases, police and prosecutors have to be so very careful to not use information only the killer could know. With every press release comes calls from crazy people claiming guilt or pointing fingers at people they want to be found guilty. The release has to be properly worded to help them weed out the nuts from the real people with vital information.

They were looking for two men last seen at the B&I Tavern on Saturday afternoon January 21, 1990. As soon as it was published in the local newspapers, the detectives waited for the calls to come in. They got two anonymous phone calls by a woman.

In America back in the 1990s, every home had a phonebook for the county they live in. If you looked up a number to call police, the phonebook told you to call the police in the area you lived in. The first anonymous phone call went to the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office. She wanted them to listen to her. Pointed at John Sosnovske as the killer of the girl found in the Columbia River gorge. Her call would be transferred to Multnomah County Sheriff’s Department landing in Detective John Ingram’s ear. The second call went directly to Detective John Ingram. “You have to arrest John Sosnovske.” Were these crank calls? Or was this John Sosnovske really Benntt’s killer?

Detective John Ingram typed into his computer the name John Sosnovske: Sosnovske was on county probation. This is a point that ADA McIntyre downplays the significance of this detail. Almost like he wants you to skip past it. But one can’t skip past these very important details. This is after all why police go to Laverne Pavlinac’s home to confront her over her two anonymous phone calls to point fingers at John Sosnovske as a murderer. Detective John Ingram either calls county probation or goes over to talk to Sosnovske’s case worker. It is a good guess to say county probation cooperated fully with the investigation into Sosnovske as a possible murderer. Sending over a copy of the complete file on Sosnovske which included his life with Laverne Pavlinac. The question asked by detectives is: who do you believe would make an anonymous phone call to police to point fingers at Sosnovske as the murderer? Without hesitation, the case worker says, “That has to be Laverne Pavlinac, the woman he lives with.”

“Why her?” is the follow up question.

“For the past three years, every time they get into a fight, we get a call trying to violate his probation so she can be rid of him.”

In 1987, Laverne calls to report Sosnovske is a bank robber. Other calls into 1989 and 1990 come in to point to him. The file on all the documented lies told by Pavlinac were well established.

John Sosnovske worked as a sawyer at a local lumbermill. Without his thick glasses, he is legally blind. He cannot drive a car. He has to be driven to places by other people. Always on medication, he is very moody. At times he explodes on his live-in girlfriend that calls police on him.

Pavlinac’s first husband divorces her after 26 years and four children. Her second ones dies of cancer. Sosnovske worked as their hired hand. When her husband dies, he stepped into the role. He is 18 years younger than Laverne. She looks after him. When he abuses her, she wants to be rid of him. Because he is on probation, she uses the legal system to help her. She hopes one day someone would believe her.

At this point in the story, we are not clear as to what Detective John Ingram tells his partner Detective Al Corson. Or what he tells McIntyre. One thing is clear: after talking to the county probation officer about Sosnovske, they drove out to visit with Laverne Pavlinac to confront her about those two anonymous phone calls to police. She opens her door to the detectives, invites them inside, makes a fresh pot of coffee. At first, she denies making the calls. But eventually, she owns them.

Her story is: she overheard him at JB’s Lounge at exit 286 off I-5 near Wilsonville—the Burns Brothers truck stop, talking at a man she didn’t recognize. Talking about the dead girl he had taken into the Columbia River gorge and strangled her. Well, there it was: the two men theory. Problem with this story is Detective John Ingram had just been told by the probation officer that Sosnovske couldn’t drive. How could he have taken her into the gorge at all? Certainly, the detectives caught this inconsistency with the facts. Dealing with Laverne Pavlinac’s stories should have reminded them of other crack-pot callers. But somehow this story doesn’t stop here. Why???

Later that day in mid-February 1990, both detectives meet with their counterparts to the case to update McIntyre and Meisenheimer on what was happening to the Bennett case. Somehow, John Sosnovske was a suspect. What exactly did they tell them to build up their case on Sosnovske? McIntyre tells his story about Pavlinac’s history of false claims. That they got to her going to see county probation. How can she be credible?

But according to ADA Jim McIntye, she is believable because Detective John Ingram claims she is believable because—and get this: her house is clean. Not stinky or dirty. She met them friendly and served them fresh coffee and pastries—maybe even cookies. You would think the first request out of the detectives’ mouths to Pavlinac would be to ask her to take a polygraph test to see if she was not lying to them. What is telling is: they don’t test her. After all that was said and done, the detectives were talking to the prosecutors to serve, hopefully, a “search warrant” to search Pavlinac’s home, which was also Sosnovske’s residence as well.

Could it have happened like this: they talked about Sosnovske on probation and how desperate Pavlinac was to be rid of him. That just maybe they wanted to see just how far Pavlianc was willing to take this frame-up to send Sosnovske to prison? That maybe it became a game for them as some sort of entertainment. If at any moment the case fell apart, they could walk away and not think too much about it. But if it works, and a jury buys it, then it becomes another solved case that might not have been solved at all. No polygraph is given because they all know she is lying. In order for this frame-up to work, Laverne needs to be credible in the eyes of the law. She is credible because they need her to be. The search warrant is granted.

The next morning, they tear into the home of Pavlinac and Sosnovske and find no real evidence to connect Sosnovske to Bennett’s murder. Just a note in Sosnovske’s papers written in pencil, “T. Bennett. Good piece.” The crime lab would take the note and later compare it to Pavlinac’s handwriting. She had written it.

Imagine how Laverne Pavlinac was feeling about all of this attention over her stories about Sosnovske. Finally, she probably believed they were believing her. She was being played and didn’t even know it. So, what does she do? She can’t help herself and calls up the detectives to offer more information. Every day she calls. But exactly who did she really talk to?

Jim McIntyre claims she called both Al Corson and John Ingram to discuss the case. However, I find it hard to believe Oregon State Police Detective Al Corson would go along with such a plan to create a frame-up of an innocent man. There is a conspiracy theory that supports the idea that Multnomah County police and prosecutors duped Al Corson for credibility issues in court. What if it was Detective Ingram to rehearse with Pavlinac her stories before calling over Al Corson to listen to the final confession? He could testify in court that it came out to him one time. He could safely argue he didn’t rehearse any confessions before turning the tape on. Think about this conspiracy theory as you read on. We will come back to it much later.

With no real evidence to support the case going forward, something had to be done. Someone had to convince Laverne that in order for Sosnovske to be picked up, they needed evidence to show probable cause. What kind of evidence? A little birdy whispered into her ear. She would lead the detectives back to the trunk of her car.

Four days after the initial search at her home, they opened the lid and saw a small black woman’s purse. The purse contained newspaper clippings about the Bennett murder and a cutout section from the fly area of acid-washed blue jeans. The team had never disclosed publicly about the fly area cut from Taunja’s jeans. All of a sudden, evidence that only the real killers and police could know about had surfaced. So, where did it come from? Who helped Pavlinac to plant it? My bet is Detective Ingram. But at the time this was going on, Pavlinac was still willing to play along to be rid of her abusive boyfriend, John Sosnovske.

They now had probable cause to at least pick up Sosnovske and question him. What did they do first? Hooked him up to a polygraph test to see if he was lying. However, the test is a tool. Did he pass or fail? We really don’t know for sure. We were all told the results by McIntyre. But is McIntyre telling the truth? The examiner declared “Sosnovske had direct knowledge of or was responsible for the murder of Taunja Bennett.” He gave Sosnovske a second test and declared “Sosnovske killed Taunja Bennett.” Someone should track down the examiner that tested Sosnovske and take away his license to do polygraph tests.

Imagine John Sosnovske having to live with Laverne Pavlinac always calling police to tell on him for things he didn’t do. You would think he would grow tired of it and move away from her. The sex couldn’t have been that great. But maybe it was. In any event, he knew Laverne was lying to police. What he couldn’t understand is why the police were believing her lies. “Could they be that gullible?” he probably was thinking when he tried to talk himself out of the situation. The convict thing to do is lie to police to push them to someone else. Make them investigate other people. He had no idea the police knew Laverne Pavlinac was lying to them.

Sosnovske writes out a statement to claim he met Taunja Bennett at JB’s Lounge in Wilsonville. She had gone off with his friend Chuck Riley. Later, he asked Chuck for a ride home and Chuck drove him home with the body of the dead woman lying in the backseat. He didn’t go into the gorge that night. Of course, they check out Riley’s timelines and it became clear that he wasn’t involved. What is interesting about his story is that he claims to know who Taunja is. Or is McIntyre trying to convince us that Sosnovske told that story? The way this story is developing, it is anyone’s guess as to who is being truthful in what is being reported.

Hours after Sosnovske wrote out his seven page statement, McIntyre’s phone rang. All of the evidence found in Pavlinac’s car was bogus. Planted by Pavlinac herself. Detectives visited her after getting the reports of fake evidence to ask her about it. Again, she greeted them warmly, invited them in, fresh pot of coffee and pastries. She claimed she read in the search warrant a listing of those items. Could they be that stupid? McIntyre wants us to think so. He tells how both detectives arrived to tape her next confession. But what if Detective John Ingram got to her first to explain to her to keep silent about him helping her to get rid of Sosnovske?

Only after a rehearsal to get the next story told correctly, was Detective Al Corson called to meet Detective John Ingram at Pavlinac’s residence. Regardless of how it exactly played out, they both turned on the tape recorder to record Pavlinac’s confession.

Sosnovske had called her at home. Told her to come to JB’s Lounge and bring something plastic that won’t leak. She drove into the truck stop and found Sosnovske standing over Taunja Bennett’s dead body on the ground. He places the body onto the shower curtain and orders Pavlinac to drive out to Crown Point, the Vista House monument. As she drives, she hears him cutting Bennett’s jeans. Once at the gorge, he carries the body into the woods and tells Laverne not to say anything, or else. As they drive back, at some point they toss the shower curtain out the window.

So, again, Jim McIntyre tells us it is Detective John Ingram declaring Pavlinac credible because of the clean house theory. Fresh pot of coffee. So friendly—so inviting, like a grandmother. You would think they would have tested her with a lie detector test on this story. Most telling, the subject didn’t come up at all.

So, why the shower curtain? To explain why there is no trace of Bennett in her car. Did they find the shower curtain? Did they even look for it? He kills her in a crowded truck stop parking lot and is easily located by Pavlinac. No one sees anything. What is really telling is Laverne had been trying for years to be rid of Sosnovske and using calls to police to send them to him. Here she sees a dead body at his feet and doesn’t drive off to call the police on him. What a missed opportunity to really get rid of him!

What McIntyre is forgetting with this story is it matters where the person dies. Where the death occurs is where the case started. The Burns Brothers truck stop is in Wilsonville, Washington County Oregon. Having Sosnovske arrested for this evidence was going to quickly bite him. He ordered Sosnovske’s arrest, and Detective Al Corson recited proper jurisdiction law to take him to the Washington County Jail. The case would now fall into other prosecutors’ hands. Multnomah County would have to turn over everything they had in the case. New detectives would have to follow up on Laverne Pavlinac’s story. You can bet this new development didn’t sit too well with ADA Jim McIntyre and Detective John Ingram. Something had to be done.

Early the next morning to booster the case, both detectives picked up Laverne Pavlinac and drove her into the Columbia River gorge. As they drove, she remembered exactly what Bennett had been wearing. She even got her geography correct. When they passed where Taunja’s body was found, Pavlinac pointed to the exact spot. How could this be? Again, to the conspiracy theory.

Detective John Ingram went to see her and do a dry run of where he and Corson would be taking her. Given details only the police and real killer could know. You have to admit something like that had to have happened in order for Pavlinac to know it all. She wasn’t there when it happened. Sosnovske wasn’t there when it happened. The only people in that car driving to the gorge that could possibly know were the two detectives with Pavlinac.

John Sosnovske was arraigned in Washington County on February 22, 1990. Later that day, Detectives Carson and Ingram paged McIntyre to give him the news. Pavlinac was again changing her story. How convenient! Here Pavlinac had what she always wanted, Sosnovske back in jail. So why ruin it?

Years later she claimed the detectives had come to her with a problem. Unless she changed her story, putting the murder back into Multnomah County’s control, they would be forced to release Sosnovske to once again terrorize her at her home.

Again, we have to address the conspiracy theory that Detective Ingram coached her to tell her final story. That she helped to kill Taunja Ann Bennett up at the Vista House monument that Saturday night on January 21, 1990.

The new story is Pavlinac found Sosnovske at JB’s and Bennett was alive and well. He told her to drive to the Vista House monument. Parked, Sosnovske took Bennett to the doorway of the building and was having sex with her. He returned to the car for a piece of rope and asked Laverne to come and watch the deed. She joined in and said she held onto the rope tied around Bennett’s neck until she was dead. They would drive the body east at the monument and Sosnovske carried the body into the woods.

After the tape ended, both detectives left Laverne at her home and drove to meet up with Jim McIntyre. A confessed killer is left at home. Why? This time they needed to be sure. It would be McIntyre’s call on whether or not they needed more to get a conviction in a court of law. McIntyre listened to the taped confession and ordered them to go to Washington County Jail to transfer Sosnovske over to their jail for processing. He told both detectives to go and arrest Laverne Pavlinac for her part in Bennett’s death. One more piece of evidence had been found. A single hair of Sosnovske’s had been lifted off of Bennett’s body. Mmmmm.

The killer would read an article in the Oregon newspaper telling him two people, Laverne Pavlinac and John Sosnovske, had been arrested for murdering Taunja Ann Bennett. That one had confessed to the crime. Only in America, he thought, could you kill someone and two people are willing to take responsibility for it. He felt safe now. He began his daily walks again and even stopped in to play pool at the B&I Tavern.

In early March 1990, he got a call from his girlfriend’s brother in Dunsmuir, California telling him he had to come and pick up her two children left there by her ex-husband. When she called him several days later, he told her the news. A week later, he drove to Ellensburg, Washington to pick up his girlfriend and drove to Dunsmuir to get her children. Back in Portland, he became Mr. Mom as his girlfriend got another job at a restaurant.

About a month of being Mr. Mom was too much. He secured a job in Sacramento, the southern office of Copenhagen Construction. He would soon travel there, leaving his new family behind in Portland. His turn to take off without telling her.

He drove south late afternoon April 12, 1990. By 9 pm on April 13th, he was having a later supper behind Jerry’s Restaurant in Shasta, California. A woman walked over to him to start up a conversation. One thing led to another and they drove to a local make out spot. This didn’t work out to well either. He had wrestled with her a bit and later dropped her and her baby back at Shasta.

Early the next morning, he was questioned by police and told to check back with them in a few months. He forgot about it. Went to work and by June moved back to Portland, reuniting with his girlfriend at 18434 NE Evertt Street. In October 1990, he quit Copenhagen and moved to Spokane, Washington to drive trucks for Jafeco Trucking. His girlfriend would follow to be his co-driver, leaving her two children with a live-in nanny. They drove all 48 lower states and parts of Canada.

At the booking center, before Pavlinac was shown her new living quarters, she turned and gave both detectives big hugs. Why? What had they promised her? Could it be Detective John Ingram convinced her this would be just a formality to being rid of Sosnovske? Testify against Sosnovske and you’ll go free…She kept silent to her cause. Didn’t tell her attorney a thing. What would it take for Pavlinac to realize she had been duped? Unlike shows like Perry Mason, the real legal system slowly moved forward.

A possible deal was being worked out by her attorney Wendell Birkland. She would testify against Sosnovske and get six to eight years in prison. You can imagine how it shocked Pavlinac to find out she would also be convicted for killing Bennett. She quickly opened up to her attorney with what craziness she had helped to create in going after Sosnovske. No deal! She now claimed to be innocent of murder. But guilty of being stupid.

In November she would take and pass a lie detector test, proving she was now telling the truth. But it would be too late to stop it. The cases must go on to a jury’s decision. Even though the bulk of the case made little to no sense at all. The logistics just didn’t add up at all. Both Taunja and Sosnovske were 26 miles apart the night of the murder. Neither had a car nor could drive a car. No one had seen Sosnovske at the B&I Tavern. No one had seen Bennett at the JB’s Lounge.

Regardless of the details pointing in all directions, the Multnomah team knew all too well that this case had to go to a trial and left it in the hands of a jury to be sure no one saw through the frame-up. Pavlinac would be tried first. After all, she had been the one to confess to police. All McIntyre needed for a conviction was for the jury to hear her own words condemn her. He played the tape while Pavlinac sat in court crying.

The killer was trucking with his girlfriend out east. At the Rock Island Illinois weight station, the weigh master ran his name across the National Crime Index Computer (NCIC) and out popped a felony warrant from Yreka, California for the assault of Daun Slagle on April 13, 1990. He was taken into custody and spent the weekend in jail waiting for police in California to come and get him. On Monday, California dropped the felony to a misdemeanor and the killer was set free. He would at some point have to go to California to settle that case. He walked to the I-80 truck stop and hitched a ride to Des Moines, Iowa to get on a Greyhound bus back to Spokane. His girlfriend had taken the load to its delivery and would eventually drive back to Spokane to reunite with him.

At a bus station in Livingston, Montana, the killer left a message on a bathroom wall: “I killed Sonya Bennett in Portland, Oregon on January 21, 1990. Two people took the blame so I can kill again.” Little did he know the wall would be taken to court in Multnomah County during the actual trial of Laverne Pavlinac.

Prosecutors argued that it was not evidence and not allowed to be. McIntyre believed it to be the product of one of Pavlinac’s family trying to fix the decision. The jury verdict came back guilty of felony murder. She almost could have been put on death row.

The killer had lost his job as a truck driver because of the outstanding misdemeanor case in California. He would get a job in Dutch Harbor, Alaska on a fish processing ship. About a month later, injured, he returned home to Spokane and moved in with a man that enjoyed playing cribbage at clubs and tournaments. He paid the killer’s way to the Baker, Oregon Cribbage Tournament on the second weekend in March 1991. The killer would win third place overall and collect several hundred dollars and a trophy board.

On the way back to Spokane, they stopped at an Umatilla truck stop and the killer wrote another note on a bathroom wall about killing Bennett. That wall would also be taken to Multnomah County Courthouse as possible evidence.

With Pavlinac guilty and getting a life sentence, Sosnovske didn’t want to chance a death sentence and he pled “no contest” and picked up a 15 year minimum term. The killer had not been following the case. All that mattered was he was not caught.

-End Part One-