Catching Killers (2021) s01e04 Episode Script

1 Thirty years ago, in January, 1990, I started the investigation of the death of a young woman by the name of Taunja Bennett.
Whoever did it had to be a sick individual.
That's the first time I'd ever seen anything like that.
Two people, Laverne Pavlinac and John Sosnovske, were convicted for the murder of Taunja Bennett.
And now, here it is, '94.
Letters started to surface that were alleged to have been written by the individual claiming responsibility for Taunja Bennett's murder.
It was April 29th, 1994.
I was a writer on the crime team at The Oregonian which was a very successful paper in Portland.
It was early afternoon, and I was sitting out, uh, on the floor.
The editor came by and handed me this letter.
He said, "It It looks pretty crazy, but you might wanna look at it.
" It was striking, to be sure.
Uh, the printing was very irregular and violent almost.
Capital letters, small letters, and little happy faces all over the place.
Happy faces.
Uh, should I go? "I would like to tell my story.
" "I have always wanted to be noticed so I started something I don't know how to stop.
" "On or around January 20th, 1990, I picked up Sonya Bennett and took her home.
" "I raped her and beat her real bad.
" "Her face was all broke up, then I ended her life.
" It was Taunja Bennett.
The writer had called her "Sonya" Bennett, but it was Taunja Bennett.
"She was my first, and I thought I would not do it again, but I was wrong.
" Newspapers get all sorts of crank calls, tips, but if it was true these two people in prison, Laverne Pavlinac and John Sosnovske, are innocent.
- Okay, happy to go? - Yeah.
Rolling.
Go.
The letters had been sent to the courthouse and sent to The Oregonian.
Once we received the letter from The Oregonian, the district attorney told me to take a look at it.
You want me to read the whole thing? "I am a good person at times.
" "I always wanted to be liked.
" The first paragraph gave you an indication more of what he really wants, which is attention.
"I want to know that it was my crime, so I tied a half-inch, soft white rope, cut on one end and burned on the other, around her neck.
" There was a rope, but it wasn't burnt on one end.
There are both factual accuracies and inaccuracies contained within the letter.
"Her face was all broke up, then I ended her life by pushing my fist into her throat.
" Factually, that doesn't fit with the autopsy report.
This isn't making sense.
There's nothing that makes me think I have the wrong two people in prison, because Pavlinac and Sosnovske implicated themselves.
I thought that someone was probably just trying to play a sick joke or was trying to do something to help Pavlinac and Sosnovske and shift the blame off of them.
Hello again.
I do remember getting a phone call from, uh, Jim McIntyre informing me that a letter had been received.
I'm thinking, "Oh, God.
" "Is this thing gonna start all over again?" "Was that nagging feeling I had valid throughout this whole case in the beginning?" As far as I was concerned, this case was closed and done three years before.
But the district attorney thought these letters could be a problem.
He said, "We can't let it just lie.
" "Something has to happen, 'cause Phil Stanford from The Oregonian is going to write about it.
" So, that was the marching orders.
Either figure it out or throw it out, but don't ignore it.
Phil Stanford was an Oregonian columnist, who, um He picked a lot of columns and topics that were regularly poking at issues in the public sector, whether it was law enforcement or politics.
From my perspective, he was a columnist that was more than happy to say anything that'd get him a wider readership.
We didn't get along, but you can tell him I said hello.
I think law enforcement people regarded me as a pain in the ass.
Coming from the people it's coming from, I take it as a a compliment.
The letter writer claimed to have committed five murders, but I needed more proof.
So, I started going down the list.
"One day in California, I picked up a girl named Claudia.
" "On the way out of LA, my mind went wild with the thought of a sex slave, and when I stopped at a rest area, I took her.
" Oh! Jesus.
"A hooker became my next victim.
" "I placed her body in the dirt and stepped on her throat.
" "This triggered something in me.
It was getting easy.
" "Real easy.
" So, counting Taunja Bennett, there were five murders described in the letter.
I started making calls to the different jurisdictions.
The detectives I talked to in each each one of those locations said, "Yeah.
" "That's one of our bodies.
" And in several cases, the detectives told me that the letter writer had information that they hadn't released to the public.
Four out of five of the murders had pretty much, uh, well, checked out, so time to go back and look at the Taunja Bennett case.
I got a nice bound volume of all the police reports, and I started reading it.
And it didn't take that long to see that, uh it was a very shaky case.
The whole thing starts with Laverne Pavlinac and her taped confession.
Thanks.
When you arrived there, Laverne, what did you find? A female.
I asked if she's sick.
He says, "Worse than that, she's dead.
" The big problem is that she'd kept changing her stories.
W hen you entered the lot what did you see, if anything? I seen John standing with a young lady.
And they appeared to be arguing in a playing way.
Each time she gives them a story, it turns out to be false.
Why are they pursuing it? Why do they want it? It's hard to explain.
The more complicated it got and the more convoluted it got, I had a feeling of uneasiness that I think is the best way to put it.
But when she pointed almost directly to where that body had been located then I thought she's been telling us the truth all along.
It blew me away.
There was no forensic evidence that could prove Pavlinac and Sosnovske had committed these murders.
I I mean, there's just none.
So, I called McIntyre for a quote.
I'm surprised I talked to Phil Stanford at all.
Um He was not eager to be pursuing this line of inquiry, that's for damn sure.
And, uh, he he let me know that he he didn't really like it.
I answered him the way I did everybody else, "I don't know who's writing these things.
" "I'm not sure what their intent is.
" "I don't know whether they're linked to Pavlinac and Sosnovske or not.
" With what we have, we've got nothing.
Uh I wasn't in a position to tell him that I thought his explanation was full of it.
So, I decided I needed to go visit Pavlinac and Sosnovske.
I wanted to find out what really happened.
Laverne Pavlinac was a a frail little grandma.
She was in her mid-sixties.
She'd been in prison for three years at this point.
I I asked, "Why did you do it?" "Why did you confess?" She claimed that Sosnovske had been abusive to her, that he had threatened her kids, that he pushed her around, and she just wanted him out of the house.
So, instead, she got them both convicted of murder.
"It just snowballed on me.
" She said that several times, "It snowballed on me.
" That That's how she explained it to herself.
I asked how she would have known where the body was left.
And she told me that when she pointed out the spot that it had been almost pinpointed in the newspapers.
Like, I I felt sorry for her.
She wasn't angry, she wasn't sad.
She wasn't anything.
She was just sort of beaten.
Sosnovske was beside himself with anger.
And And, um, it it's easy enough to understand why.
He just said Laverne framed him.
That's the way he saw it.
He said, "They're gonna execute me.
" So, he plead no contest.
He He was broken.
When I I spoke to him, he was broken.
I had no doubt that Pavlinac and Sosnovske were quite innocent of that murder or any other murder.
So, I told my bosses I'm gonna write a series.
And so, they let me do it.
It took I I think less than two weeks, and and, uh, that was it.
I thought about it from the beginning.
What am I gonna call this guy if it turns out to be a real story? And there were happy faces.
As those articles appeared, I would glance at them.
I didn't I never I don't think I read a single column, line for line.
I actually thought that the way I had taken apart the state's case made it clear that these people were innocent.
I thought that, "Oh, of course the DA will see this, and McIntyre will see it, and they'll say, 'Whoa, we made a mistake.
'" Of course, that was foolish of me.
Hmm.
This isn't a case where the state said, "Laverne Pavlinac, we know you killed Taunja.
" Laverne Pavlinac's in prison because she said she killed Taunja Bennett.
John Sosnovske is in prison because he plead no contest.
Stanford fashioned himself a crime reporter who was uncovering the things the state had always done wrong.
I'm certain he thought he was probably on his way to a Pulitzer Prize.
I thought it was nonsense.
That's what was really driving me nuts, because I was convinced the real killer was still out there.
I had not heard anything about the case for over a year, and then we have this hand grenade go off.
Yesterday, in an exclusive interview with Channel 2 News, alleged murderer Keith Jesperson confessed to being the so-called Happy Face Killer.
Make a hole, people.
Let's go.
This Keith Jesperson fella was up in custody in Clark County, Washington, pending trial on a murder of a girlfriend.
He comes forth and confesses, "Yes, I am the Happy Face Killer.
" And he seemed proud of it.
There is no doubt in my mind.
I am him.
I am the Happy Face Killer.
The fact that Keith Jesperson was seeking so much media attention gave me pause to believe that he was being truthful about, really, anything.
Forty-year-old Keith Jesperson came to court today in Clark County to get something off his chest.
You understand the consequences of a guilty plea? Yes, I do.
I was sitting at my desk.
I got a phone call from a friend.
He said, "Did you know there's this guy who says he's Happy Face Killer?" And I said, "You gotta be kidding.
" "It's happening.
" He's confessed to as many as eight murders.
Does he plan to plead guilty to any more? Uh, that's a little too early to tell.
I know he's responsible for killing one person for sure, 'cause he's in custody on that.
At this stage, they're still running investigations in those other states to see if they can find things to corroborate the statements he's making.
A year before, we had found DNA on The Oregonian letter, in the saliva on the stamp.
That at least established a profile.
I had the lab check the DNA from the stamp against Jesperson's DNA.
Jesperson is then identified as being the author of the Happy Face letter.
Does that mean he is is the murderer of Taunja Bennett? We were miles and miles away from answering that question.
I'm coming forward with the truth.
I wanna make sure it's out there.
I don't know what he's up to, but he's up to something, and he's engineering it.
On the 25th of September I was contacted by Jesperson's lawyer.
He said, "My client's told me to tell you that he's responsible for the Taunja Bennett killing.
" I let loose with something like, "I'm so tired of hearing about your client in this case.
" "You know, this whole thing is ridiculous.
" And he kind of pulled up short and said, "Jim, you need to listen to this.
" "You need to listen to what I have to say.
" "This is important.
" "I believe my guy.
" Coming from the lawyer, who I knew personally, that was one of the first times I got concerned that, shit, this could be a problem.
Um It could be that Pavlinac and Sosnovske didn't do this crime.
The date is September 29th, 1995.
The time is 10:35.
Present at the Clark County Sheriff's Office Defense attorney Tom Phelan, Deputy DA Jim McIntyre, Multnomah County Sheriff's Office, Det.
Chris Peterson, Multnomah County Sheriff's Office There were four of us inside of a small interview room, inside the jail in the courthouse.
My first impression was he was huge.
He's a very large guy.
But, I mean, I'm not small.
I was 6'2" and I weighed about 190 pounds, and, um, Jesperson was probably 6'6" and about 260 or 270 at a minimum.
He held his hand out, um, and I I shook his hand thinking that I As soon as I get out of there, I was gonna wash my hands.
Ahem.
I understand that you wanna talk to us about a homicide that occurred in, uh, Multnomah County, uh, in 1990, is that correct? - That is correct.
Yes, I do.
- Okay.
My role there was to listen and observe.
Okay, at some point, did you meet a female that you, uh, killed? - Yes, I did.
- Do you know what her name was? I found out it was Taunja Bennett.
I went out for a walk, and I decided I'd go out and play some pool.
Walked in the tavern, and, uh, this gal walked over and gave me a hug like I was like I was somebody she knew.
I just thought she was overfriendly, but she actually gave hugs to about everybody there.
His description of the way Taunja acted when he came into the bar was completely consistent with what we had been told earlier about how Taunja assumed everybody she talked to was a nice person who'd treat her nicely.
Keith says he was there in the afternoon, um, hanging out, saw Taunja hanging out with a couple of other guys.
Um, he goes back to his house, which is nearby, and decides to go back to the bar later in the afternoon.
I invited her to dinner, but I was conscious that I didn't have enough money, so I told her, "Well, I could go back to the house and get a $20 bill out of the dresser.
" Jesperson said that he drove Taunja back to the house.
They went into the house, and she was acting attracted to him.
I kissed her on the neck, went from there, but something just didn't seem right.
I don't know if it was clicking for her or not.
She was complaining she wasn't excited yet.
And, uh, she made a comment, something like, "I'm not getting there.
Why don't you get it over with?" That pissed me off.
I, uh tagged her with my right arm.
What do you mean, tagged her? What does that mean? I just lost my cool, and I struck her in the side of the face, and I never stopped striking her until she was laying there.
He goes through it very flatly.
It's clear he doesn't feel any emotion towards Taunja.
She said things that my wife used to tell me when we were having sex, and and it just brought back memories.
I was not I don't think I was all there at that time.
How he was telling the story didn't surprise me at all.
It's a good detailed description if it's memory.
It's also a good detailed description if you're making it up.
We're still not out of the realm of him just telling a good story.
I was thinking of the fingerprints I left on the on the buttons so I took the buttons off her jeans.
Okay.
 Uh, what happens next? I'm sitting there really listening and waiting for new information.
I take off in the car, and I go looking for a place I can go dump her body.
He says he gets in his car and goes for a drive and ends up going up above the Sandy River, the scenic highway to the Vista House.
I noticed a bunch of people parked around the Vista, maybe three or four cars.
I finally figured I'd just keep on going down the hill until I found a place.
At that time, I was really getting kind of panicky, and, uh I saw a big tree on the right, and then I stopped in front of it.
I just grabbed her and dragged her down the hill.
I'm waiting for him to tell me something that is unique to him and not known to anybody else and not found anywhere else.
You've talked about a purse? Yes, I I got rid of her purse the next following morning.
All of her other personal items and identification, a purse was never found.
I drove back out of there.
Followed generally the same path across the river and I pulled over to a wide spot.
I took the purse, and I tossed the contents and the purse out over the area.
Purse probably went 40 feet down off the bank.
Now that Jesperson was beginning to discuss those items, this became, um, very significant, because they had been missing from the beginning of the case, and no one else would know where they were.
Now we have information to check, to verify, to see whether or not this person is in fact involved with the killing of Taunja Bennett.
It was just a typical Oregon day.
It was early in the fall, so it was cool.
We were in an unmarked panel van that had Jesperson, his lawyer, uh, my detective, and three other armed sheriff's deputies to act as guards.
And we had an unmarked patrol car behind us to act as additional security.
We took him all the way up the Gorge to the Vista House and began to make the route up to where he believed he had dropped Taunja Bennett's body.
Jesperson had us stop the van.
We then all got out of the vehicle.
He walked around for a while, and then he pointed and said, "I think it was in this area right around in here, but I'm not sure.
" Both my detective and I knew that it was not the right spot.
Um He was two switchbacks east.
Now what are we down to? We're down to only one thing left.
Where did he throw the purse? We headed southbound up the Sandy River, to the point that he said, "This is where I threw the purse.
" Then he went out and he pointed down that embankment.
I hadn't been up there in probably five years.
Probably since before the murder.
And the embankment was now completely overgrown with blackberries.
The search took place around October 7th.
They searched that entire day and they did not find anything.
I went in and told the district attorney what was going on, and that we had again run into a dead end.
Things were beginning to erode on Jesperson being directly tied to the murder of Taunja Bennett.
Then, about a week later that Sunday I got a page from the detective.
And he said, "Are you sitting down?" And I said, "Yeah, I am.
What's going on?" And he said, "Well, I have Taunja Bennett's Oregon ID card in my hand.
" And he said that he had had the Explorer Scouts gone back to the embankment.
He had them cut the blackberries and the bushes down to the earth.
They had unearthed her state of Oregon identification card.
Keith Jesperson had to be the killer.
I was stunned.
When I learned that Jesperson was indeed the killer, I I was I was not happy with myself.
It really, really hurt me to learn that seven other women had died.
It ruined Laverne's life and her family's life.
And I felt I really felt bad for for John.
Yeah, he had a history of alcohol abuse, but it didn't make him a killer.
He may have had a lot of other faults, but he certainly didn't belong in prison for the murder of Taunja Bennett.
I'm not guilty of murder.
For five years and nine months, Laverne Pavlinac has been behind bars for a murder she confessed to.
A murder authorities now agree she did not commit.
It was extremely difficult.
I know that we do have the wrong two people in jail.
The next step was the battle to get them released from jail.
Prosecutor Jim McIntyre put the two in prison and now works to get them out.
I never felt like I owed it to Pavlinac.
In fact, this was the beginning of my growing anger at Pavlinac, because every killing after Taunja Bennett may have been prevented if the investigation would have never been sidetracked in 1990.
That bothered me a lot.
Every once in a while, I write something good and say, "You hit it.
" And And that that's how I felt about this one.
Two people got out of prison, and I'd like to think I had something to do with it.
This case is always on my mind.
I wish we could have went back and went over the whole damn thing again.
From the beginning.
Perhaps it would have changed the whole scenario.
But you can't go back and change things.
They're done.