Laverne Pavlenak
Appearances
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
The homicide investigation is finally picking up speed. Laverne Pavlenak says she heard her boyfriend talking about killing a woman.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
It is nothing like shoplifting. You're killing somebody.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
Remember, when Tanya's body was found, the fly had been cut out of the jeans. Now, police think this is a huge break because this appears to be that missing piece of denim.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
John writes out a seven-page statement and reads it out on tape.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
Nelson Mandela walking free in South Africa after spending decades in prison.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
For the detectives, their investigation hits a major roadblock when they examine evidence found in Laverne Pavlinak's trunk.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
Laverne tells police a new story, that she got a call from John in the middle of the night and that he had a request.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
Vern Pavlenak says she immediately recognized the woman to be Tanya Bennett, a former patient at the mental hospital where Pavlenak herself once worked.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
So they say to her, OK, take us to where you disposed of Tonya's body.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
Multnomah County detectives believe they have finally solved the murder of Tanya Bennett. They arrest John Sosnovsky.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
And a few days later, they get another call from Laverne Pavlinak, and she has more to talk about.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
They slam that metal door on you. That's when I started to realize what I had done. Like it woke me up.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
So once behind bars, alone with her thoughts, Laverne Pavlenak has a stunning about face. She says her dying grandson pleads with her to finally come clean.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
I finally told my attorney, what would you say if I told you I didn't, that I made all this up? I lied. He said he wouldn't believe me. But I says, well, I did. I lied.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
The jury finds her guilty of felony murder and sentences her to life.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
These cryptic messages were found hundreds of miles away from the courthouse, one in Montana and one in eastern Oregon.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
Now, remember, Laverne had implicated her boyfriend John in the murder of Tanya Bennett. She even claimed that she was involved. But now there's a whole new suspect.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
He'd tell anybody who'd listen, I'm the happy-faced killer.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
For more than 25 years, Bonnie and Darlene have literally saved everything related to their mother's case.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
Their mother, Laverne, told police a series of stories that implicated not only herself, but her boyfriend, John Sosnoski, in the murder of Tanya Bennett. She confessed to not only putting a rope around Tanya's neck, she pointed out the exact spot where they found Tanya's body.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
Stanford's a journalist, so he decides to go back and take another look at Tanya Bennett's police file.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
Nothing ever really came of the happy face letter. Think about it. Detectives in Multnomah County weren't about to reopen a murder case just because of anonymous letter, especially because they already had two people in prison serving time for the murder of Tanya Bennett.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
Then in March of 1995, another dead body in the Columbia Gorge, but this time on the other side of the river in Skamania County, Washington.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
It's Tanya Bennett all over again. Another woman found dead with no ID. A naked body found in the Columbia River Gorge. Death by strangulation. And another phone call to police confessing.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
It's been a year since the Happy Face articles appeared in the Oregonian. Laverne's daughters are trying in vain to clear their mother's name in the murder of Tanya Bennett. But the news cycle has already moved on.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
april 6 1955. i got introduced to truck with my father in jesperson contracting in 1972 when i was still in school how did you get the nickname the happy face killer i had the opportunity to speak with keith jesperson back in 2010 and i found him to be polite and yet he spent a lot of time talking about himself what was your uh childhood like well i considered it
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
These photos and videos, licensed from his daughter, Melissa Moore, provide a glimpse into Keith Jesperson's life.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
Dr. Robert Shug is a forensic psychologist, and he evaluated Jesperson by speaking with him multiple times.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
What the detectives don't know is that Jesperson is desperate to cover his own tracks.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
Michelle White's younger sister hadn't been home for a week. No one knew where she was. And then one night, a neighbor told her to watch the news.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
You have to remember, Jesperson was in jail for only one murder. And he did not want police to find out about the other seven murders he confessed to his brother in that letter. So he told him to flush the letter down the toilet.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
reporters covering jesperson's arrest remember the happy face letters and they start putting two and two together when they start seeing the similarities between the bennett case and the winningham case when we compared the two letters you can easily see the similarities in the handwriting and that matched the dna the fingerprints the saliva on that letter also matched the happy face anonymous happy face letters so clearly they now had
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
Meanwhile, Jesperson is still behind bars, seemingly enjoying his notoriety. He'd tell anybody who'd listen, I'm the happy-faced killer.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
When I interviewed Jesperson, he told me step by step what led him to murder.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
How do you reconcile those two personalities?
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
Jesperson says a month later, he killed another woman. Her body was found behind a local cafe in Turlock, California. What about Lorianne Pentland?
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
In April of 2022, victim number five is finally identified as 45-year-old Patricia Schipel of Colton, Oregon, thanks to cutting-edge DNA research. Victim number six is still unidentified.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
It was shocking to hear him describe these victims so callously with no regard for their lives, for their humanity.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
It is nothing like shoplifting. You're killing somebody.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
Remember victim number one, Tanya Bennett? Jesperson finally revealed, after all these years, her final moments.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
Jesperson's not able to point out the right spot for the location of the body. He couldn't remember where the body was, but Laverne Pavlenik did.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
In the fall of 1995, Keith Jesperson finally pleads guilty to killing Julie Winningham and Tonya Bennett.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
The number one question on everyone's mind is how in the world did Laverne Pavlinak manage to dupe the authorities? It was easy. So did you just remember what they said?
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
I just did it from the papers and a search warrant. Oh, so you got to read the search. I read it when they were busy doing something else.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
I use the term disturbed. I was a very disturbed person back then. I didn't think of it as lying, even. It was just a way to get him out of my home.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
Just real happy. Go ahead and hit the door.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
As for Keith Jesperson, I had to ask him the ultimate question. Does he have any remorse? What, if anything, are your biggest regrets?
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
She was carrying her Soul to Soul cassette tape. Listening to her favorite song, Back to Life.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
The two men she was last seen playing pool with at the bar were eliminated as suspects. So it was back to the drawing board for the detectives.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
The anonymous tip line starts blowing up, and it was one caller who provided the break in the case they were looking for.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
By day, John worked at a lumberyard, but at night, he drank. John was an alcoholic.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
Laverne Pavlenak says she heard her boyfriend talking about killing a woman.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
A decade-long relationship that can only be described as dysfunctional, to put it mildly.
20/20
True Crime Vault: Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
They begin a decade-long relationship that can only be described as dysfunctional, to put it mildly.