In February 1990, Oregon State Police arrested John Sosnovske and Laverne Pavlinac for the vicious rape and murder of 23-year-old Taunja Bennett. 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 Bennett. He began a twisted one-man campaign to win the release of Sosnovske and Pavlinca. 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, he drew a happy face, earning for himself the grisly nickname 'The Happy Face Killer'.Based on access to interviews, diaries, court records, and the criminal himself, this is Jesperson's horrific story. Jack Olsen lets the killer tell his story in his own words, offering unprecedented insight into the twisted thought process of a serial murder.This book is based on scores of interviews with the killer and his family. True crime continues to be one of the bestselling genres on the market and Kieran jack Olsen is a world renowned true crime writer.

Prize-winning journalist Jack Olsen, armed with unprecedented access to one of the most infamous serial killers in American history, provides a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a murderer in the killer's own words . . .

In February 1990, Oregon State Police arrested John Sosnovke and Laverne Pavlinac for the vicious rape and murder of Taunja Bennet, a troubled 23-year-old barfly who had suffered mild retardation since birth. 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.

And the real killer wasn't about to let anyone take credit for his kill. Keith Hunter Jesperson was a long haul truck driver and the murderer of eight women, including Taunja Bennet. As the case wound through police precincts and courts--ending in life sentences for both Sosnovke and Pavlinac--Jesperson began a twisted one man campaign to win their release. To the editors of newspapers and on the walls of highway rest stops, Jesperson scribbled out a series of taunting confessions:

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.

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. It chronicles his evolution from angry child to sociopathic murderer, from tormentor of animals to torturer of women. It is also the story of the fate that befell him after two innocent citizens were imprisoned four years for one of his killings.

Edgar Award winner Jack Olsen lets the killer to tell his story in his own words, offering unprecedented insight into the twisted thought process of a serial murderer. Olsen takes his readers along on Jesperson's vicious cross-country killing spree, letting him describe how he played his "death game" with eight innocent victims and how he finally came to grips with the fate he deserved.

I: The Creation of a Serial Killer is one of the most revealing and insightful pieces of crime reporting ever published.

The bestselling author of Son and Doc investigates a chilling series of alleged murders that exposes the sinister underworld of Gypsy culture in America

In June of 1994, the Oakland Tribune cracked a story of a string of bizarre deaths in the San Francisco area. The victims were elderly, well-to-do and, in each case, had been befriended by members of an extended Gypsy family -- the Tene Bimbos.

Fay Faron, also known as Rat Dog Dick, a dynamic and unconventional private investigator in the Bay Area, was contacted by a lawyer to investigate the strange accusations of an elderly widow who claimed she was being swindled out of her hilltop mansion by a young man named Danny Tene. Within days, the widow was dead and Danny Tene stood to inherit a fortune. Olsen chronicles Faron's hunt for Danny Tene, his mother Mary Steiner, and his beautiful sister Angela -- a family of suspected con artists who may have been responsible for the deaths of as many as five helpless elderly men and women, whose property -- and possibly whose lives -- the family allegedly stole.