Episode 257:

Monster Machine

The Revenge of Miriam Rodríguez

Karen

The Happy Face Killer

Georgia

Episode 257: Monster Machine

In this week’s episode, Karen and Georgia cover the revenge of Miriam Rodríguez and the Happy Face Killer.

The Revenge of Miriam Rodríguez

The Revenge of Miriam Rodríguez Notes:

Image Header Source: Photo by Filip Gielda on Unsplash

Other Images:

Miriam Rodríguez (via New York Times)

Karen’s “Drama Certificate” *pictured

Karen’s story suggested by listener El

"Miriam Rodríguez clutched a pistol in her purse as she ran past the morning crowds on the bridge to Texas. She stopped every few minutes to catch her breath and study the photo of her next target: the florist.

She had been hunting him for a year, stalking him online, interrogating the criminals he worked with, even befriending unwitting relatives for tips on his whereabouts. Now she finally had one — a widow called to tell her that he was peddling flowers on the border.

Ever since 2014, she had been tracking the people responsible for the kidnapping and murder of her 20-year-old daughter, Karen. Half of them were already in prison, not because the authorities had cracked the case, but because she had pursued them on her own, with a meticulous abandon..."

— Source: New York Times article by Azam Ahmed

The Happy Face Killer

The Happy Face Killer Notes:

Header Image Source: Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Other Images:

Keith Hunter Jesperson aka The Happy Face Killer (via New York Daily News)

Melissa Moore (via Search and News)

Georgia’s Montessori report card *pictured

"Keith Hunter Jesperson (born April 6, 1955) is a Canadian-American serial killer who murdered at least eight women in the United States during the early 1990s. He was known as the "Happy Face Killer" because he drew smiley faces on his many letters to the media and prosecutors. Many of his victims were sex workers and transients who had no connection to him. Strangulation was his preferred method of murdering, the same method he often used to kill animals as a child.

After the body of his first victim, Taunja Bennett, was found, media attention surrounded Laverne Pavlinac, a woman who falsely confessed to having killed Bennett with the help of her abusive boyfriend, John Sosnovske.

Jesperson was upset that he was not getting any media attention. On a bathroom wall hundreds of miles from the scene of the crime, he drew a smiley face and wrote an anonymous letter in which he confessed to killing Bennett and provided proof. When that did not elicit a response, he began writing letters to the media and prosecutors.

His last victim was the crime that ultimately led to his capture. While Jesperson has claimed to have killed as many as 185 people, only eight murders have been confirmed..."

— Source: Keith Hunter Jesperson Wikipedia