I: The Creation of a Serial Killer [Hardcover]

Jack Olsen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312241984 | ISBN-13: 978-0312241988 | Publication Date: August 20, 2002 | Edition: 1st

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.

Editorial Reviews

From 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.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From 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 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (August 20, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312241984
• ISBN-13: 978-0312241988
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #163,828 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #54 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Reference & Collections

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One-of-a-kind look inside the contradictory rationalizations of a serial killer, January 17, 2007

By 

Jessica Lux (Rosamond, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I: The Creation of a Serial Killer (Mass Market Paperback)

Keith Hunter Jesperson is an American serial killer who raped and murdered eight women while he worked as a long-distance trucker in the early 1990's. He is also notoriously media-hungry, known for having set up personal web pages with his delusional rants against the government during his early imprisonment, as well as starting a serial murderer pen pal club.

Author Jack Olsen recounts Jesperson's story in two parallel story lines. One is told in the first person, from Jesperson's point of view, starting with his first murder of a mentally incapacitated barfly through his multi-state crime spree and incarceration. The other story is an objective, journalistic look at Jesperson's childhood and life in the media.

This book is different from any other true crime story because Olsen allows Jesperson to speak uncensored (occasionally accompanied by footnotes with direct contradictions of Jesperson's version of events). Jesperson blames external factors--his father, women who are "bitches," society, bullies--for his desire to torture and kill both animals and women. Jesperson's narrative is an exercise in contradictions--he goes back and forth between loving and loathing his father, especially in their correspondence during his imprisonment. In one notable example, when Jesperson is suicidal and ready to turn himself over to authorities, he reflects on his experience with a woman with an infant he met outside a liquor store in Shasta, California. By his own account, Jesperson forced oral sex from the woman and roughhoused her against her will, then gave her a ride home when he was unable to kill her with ease. She filed charges against him. Several years later, at the end of his murderous career, Jesperson speaks of the incident as follows: "I thought about how hard it is to kill people. I snapped that Shasta woman's neck three times and she was still alive to lie about me." Jesperson seems to have forgotten that, by his own account of the encounter, he was violent and sexually abusive towards the woman, providing her ample reason to file a complaint with the police.

Author Olsen lets Jesperson's account stand on its own, for the most part, and the reader is left to note the inconsistencies and contradictions for him/herself. Jesperson enjoys the spotlight, and toyed with the media during his trial in such a way as to disrupt the prosecution's case and make the public doubt his sanity (he claimed responsibility for hundreds or murders and made other outrageous, exaggerated claims). By allowing Jesperson to speak freely, Olsen provides an unprecedented glimpse inside the mind of a rapist and serial killer--Jesperson speaks candidly about the "death game" he played with his victims, how he desired to stretch their death out as long as possible, and his loathing for women jumps off the page at the reader. Not for the faint of heart.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Apologia of a Serial Killer, March 7, 2005

By 

Sires "I enjoy mysteries, historical and proc... (Chesapeake, OH, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I: The Creation of a Serial Killer (Hardcover)

I don't mean Apology, I mean Apologia, a formal, written explanation of actions. In this case the Happyface Killer tries to explain how he became a serial killer because of 1) his family; 2) society; 3) women and 4) alcohol. This list is not exclusive nor in any specific order. I was rather tired of his self serving whining after the first chapter and it would have been better if there had been some balancing exposition from Mr. Olsen-- a writer I generally respect.

This is certainly an antidote to the Hannibal Lector myth of the superior serial killer. Jesperson is a remarkably banal sort of killer-- focused on sex and money. Probably the most queasy making part of his story involves his claims of being a doting father intertwined with graphic scenes of brutality.

Definitely recommended for those who want to romanticize the breed.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning!, June 7, 2004

By 

JMack (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: I: The Creation of a Serial Killer (Mass Market Paperback)

I have amassed quite a collection of true crime books in my life. Aside from Helter Skelter, this may be my favorite true crime book. Aided by a very forthcoming killer, Jack Olsen displays a wealth of knowledge on his subject. While I found the brevity of chapter to be discouraging, the contend creates an exceptional product. While some authors in this genre continually repeat themselves, Olsen tells a seamless story with a continual supply of fresh information.

Keith Hunter Jesperson is the "Happy Face Killer". He earns this name through his washroom stall vandalism and letter writing signature. Jesperson's killing spree involves eight women. In the case of his first murder, others went to jail for his crime. His final death toll could have been larger if he had not killed his "fiance". The story is unique because the killer is a truck driver. This facet of the story gives unique insight into the life of a truck driver. The murders are spread through a large area with victims that a largely prostitutes. Jesperson places much of the blame for his murders on his father. The childhood stories depict his father as a manipulative, abusive alcoholic. Even from the stories in the present, his father seems this way. If the stories he describes are true, his father does hold some responsibility for his son's crimes.

True crime fans must add this book to their collection. The stories are detailed and give insight into the acts of a serial killer which have never been seen before.