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Transcript

The Happy Face Killer pt.1 · Eerily Beloved

0:00
SPEAKER_01: Okay, welcome back to the podcast and eerie beloved we are gathered here today with Garrett.
0:07
SPEAKER_01: Mom.
0:08
SPEAKER_05: I don't think we did that last week.
0:10
SPEAKER_01: No, we didn't.
0:10
SPEAKER_01: We didn't.
0:11
SPEAKER_01: We forgot.
0:11
SPEAKER_01: We totally forgot.
0:13
SPEAKER_01: And happy October 1st.
0:15
SPEAKER_01: We're done with Spooky Lake Month.
0:18
SPEAKER_01: And this week to start off the spooky month, I have a a serial killer episode for you.
0:26
SPEAKER_01: Oh boy.
0:27
SPEAKER_01: From the 90s.
0:28
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know if you've heard of it.
0:30
SPEAKER_01: We'll see.
0:30
SPEAKER_01: Before we get started, make sure you rate and review the podcast wherever you listen to it.
0:36
SPEAKER_01: That'd be super wonderful.
0:38
SPEAKER_01: And also if you have any stories that you'd like us to read, so we can maybe do a Halloween Listener Tales episode, please email yourlybelovedpodcast at gmail.com.
0:50
SPEAKER_01: That'd be super amazing if we could do one of those at the end of this month.
0:54
SPEAKER_01: Because I think we have an episode right before Halloween on October 29th.
0:58
SPEAKER_01: So that'd be awesome if we could do a listener tales.
1:01
SPEAKER_01: Thank you to everyone who's emailed me so far.
1:04
SPEAKER_01: I do have a few of those, so keep them coming.
1:09
SPEAKER_01: This episode is a lot.
1:11
SPEAKER_01: There are a lot of players involved, and there are a lot of details that I didn't want to miss or brush over, so this is gonna be a two-part episode.
1:23
SPEAKER_02: Oh, so this is part one?
1:25
SPEAKER_01: Yes, this is part one.
1:27
SPEAKER_02: Do I get a research before part two?
1:29
SPEAKER_02: No.
1:30
SPEAKER_02: No.
1:31
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
1:32
unknown: No.
1:33
SPEAKER_01: That's why I asked.
1:35
SPEAKER_01: And this guy is just a sleaze bag and he's a pathological liar, so.
1:41
SPEAKER_03: Double trouble.
1:42
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
1:44
SPEAKER_01: Well, obviously, if he's a serial killer, he's not right in the head, period.
1:48
SPEAKER_01: But just on top of that, we'll get into that a little bit later.
1:59
SPEAKER_01: So on the morning of January 22nd, 1990, police were called to the Latural Falls area in the Columbia River Gorge after a biker had discovered the badly beaten, partially clothed body of a woman.
2:12
SPEAKER_01: She had a three and a half foot long white rope tied around her neck, her face was covered in abrasions, her bra had been pulled over her chest, and her pants were pulled down.
2:22
SPEAKER_01: Oh jeez.
2:23
unknown: Yes.
2:24
SPEAKER_02: Three and a half foot rope is not a very long rope.
2:27
SPEAKER_01: No evidence of the scene was able to help give insight into who the killer was, so investigators went about trying to identify the woman in hopes that that would give them some more information.
2:36
SPEAKER_01: When a sketch of the victim was circulated on TV, it wasn't long before Loretta Bennett identified the woman as her daughter, 23-year-old Tanya Bennett, and this was confirmed by the state medical examiner via dental records.
2:49
SPEAKER_02: Oh God, that would be a horrible way to find out that your daughter not only was missing but died.
2:59
SPEAKER_01: Tanya hadn't had the easiest time growing up.
3:01
SPEAKER_01: When she was born, she had been deprived of oxygen for an extended period of time, resulting in her being mentally disabled.
3:08
SPEAKER_01: In school, she struggled socially and often had violent mood swings.
3:12
SPEAKER_01: And when she was 21, she began drinking, which led to drug abuse, and then further spiraled into her living onto the street on the streets and participating in more risky behavior, including prostitution to help fund her lifestyle.
3:24
SPEAKER_01: Her behavior, exacerbated by ongoing drug use, resulted in her mother committing her to damage state hospital in Wilsonville for six months.
3:32
SPEAKER_05: Oh, not Wilsonville.
3:34
SPEAKER_01: Well, we did an episode on damage.
3:36
SPEAKER_02: So she was there for six months?
3:38
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
3:40
SPEAKER_01: After being released, she then moved in with her mother in northeast Portland and resumed drinking and going to local her local taverns to seek out men and socialize with her friends.
3:51
SPEAKER_01: Her mother, Loretta Bennett, often worried about her daughter saying she didn't realize really bad people were out there.
3:57
SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, her mom's worst fears were realized when Tanya didn't return home the night of January 20th.
4:03
SPEAKER_01: Tanya was last seen at the BI Tavern on Stark Street by multiple witnesses and friends.
4:10
SPEAKER_01: This is in Portland.
4:11
SPEAKER_01: As she was a regular in this part of town, the bartender was even able to tell investigators she had been there for a few hours with friends and then was playing pool with two men she didn't recognize.
4:21
SPEAKER_01: Some friends say they saw her leave with the man they knew as Keith Jesperson, but police wanted to focus on identifying the two unknown men.
4:29
SPEAKER_01: Keith Jesperson was cleared from their list of suspects when two weeks later, on February 5th, Detective John Ingram with the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office had a call transferred to him.
4:39
SPEAKER_01: The anonymous caller said that they had overheard a man at JB's, a restaurant at the truck stop in Wilsonville, bragging about how he killed Tanya Bennett.
4:47
SPEAKER_03: What?
4:50
SPEAKER_01: It's unclear why this tip was dismissed, but no further action was taken after after this initial call.
4:58
SPEAKER_01: A week later, on February 12th, the same anonymous woman who called the week before called police again, stating that the name she had given them, John Sovsnowski, was on probation in Clackamas County.
5:10
SPEAKER_01: That finally managed to get the attention of investigators.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: Because he already had a previous record.
5:17
SPEAKER_01: Detective John Ingram learned that 33-year-old John Sovsnowski's most recent offense was driving with a suspended license and he had racked up multiple DUI charges over the years.
5:27
SPEAKER_01: When he asked his parole officer who was making who he thought was making the calls, he immediately said Laverne Pavlinak, his long-term girlfriend.
5:37
SPEAKER_01: Laverne Pavlinak, 58, was the girlfriend of John Sovsenosky.
5:42
SPEAKER_01: Can we just call him John?
5:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
5:46
SPEAKER_01: So he's 33.
5:49
SPEAKER_02: And she's 58.
5:50
SPEAKER_01: And she was 58.
5:51
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
5:51
SPEAKER_02: Mom, basically his mom.
5:54
SPEAKER_01: Was the girlfriend of John and they had lived together for 10 years.
5:58
SPEAKER_05: Whoa, whoa, whoa.
5:59
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
6:00
SPEAKER_01: This was not the first time Laverne had called his parole officer or even police, saying that John had violated the terms of his parole and should be taken back to prison.
6:08
SPEAKER_02: Oh jeez.
6:09
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
6:09
SPEAKER_01: In one incident in 1989, she had seen a police sketch of a robbery and had contacted the FBI to report that her boyfriend had committed the crime.
6:17
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, gotta be him.
6:19
SPEAKER_01: He hadn't committed that crime.
6:21
SPEAKER_02: Oh, he hadn't?
6:23
SPEAKER_02: Mean she called she called him in for a crime he didn't commit?
6:27
SPEAKER_02: I mean, okay, she's not gonna win girlfriend of the year.
6:31
SPEAKER_01: When Detective Ingram met with Laverne, she confirmed that she was the one who left the anonymous tip and then provided her account of the night of the murder.
6:39
SPEAKER_01: So this is her story.
6:41
SPEAKER_01: Her story was on January 21st, she dropped John off at JB's, the restaurant at the truck stop, around 6 p.m.
6:48
SPEAKER_01: She had attended the birthday party of a family member and returned home roughly at 11 30 p.m.
6:53
SPEAKER_01: When she got home, John wasn't there, and she was woken up around 1 or 2 a.m.
6:58
SPEAKER_01: to his arrival, where he showered and went to bed.
7:02
SPEAKER_01: That was heard.
7:03
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
7:03
SPEAKER_01: Oh sorry.
7:04
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
7:05
SPEAKER_05: She killed someone because you take a shower before going to bed.
7:08
SPEAKER_01: She then told police that John was no stranger to violence and would often get physical with her after a night of drinking.
7:15
SPEAKER_04: Mm-hmm.
7:17
SPEAKER_01: So he has a previous record.
7:20
SPEAKER_01: He's known to be physically violent.
7:23
SPEAKER_05: I don't know if I believe all that.
7:25
SPEAKER_01: Well he does have a previous record of D he can't drive.
7:27
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't have a license.
7:28
SPEAKER_05: Okay, that's fine.
7:29
SPEAKER_01: Well, how'd he get there then?
7:31
SPEAKER_02: She dropped she No, how did he get home?
7:34
SPEAKER_02: Mm-hmm.
7:36
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
7:39
SPEAKER_01: The following day, police returned with a search warrant in search of evidence that had been missing from Tanya's person and had not been revealed to the public at this point.
7:47
SPEAKER_01: Her black purse with its contents, the buttonfly of her jeans, and her Sony Sony Walkman were all missing.
7:54
SPEAKER_02: I love a Sony Walkman.
7:56
SPEAKER_01: Reports state that Laverne was helpful to the extreme when it came to pointing investigators where John might have kept any personal belongings.
8:03
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, no, that's her.
8:04
SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, police weren't able to recover any evidence listed on the warrant.
8:08
SPEAKER_01: However, what they did find was a letter on the back of which said T.
8:12
SPEAKER_01: Bennett, Goodpiece.
8:14
SPEAKER_01: What what did it say?
8:16
SPEAKER_01: T.
8:16
SPEAKER_01: Bennett.
8:17
SPEAKER_01: Her name, Tanya Bennett, Good Peace.
8:21
SPEAKER_01: Like P-I-E-C.
8:25
SPEAKER_01: Ew.
8:26
SPEAKER_01: All signs at this time pointed to John, and investigators heavily pursued this lead in hopes of answers and, of course, closure for the family of Tanya.
8:35
SPEAKER_01: But they needed concrete evidence that he had committed the crime in order to bring him in.
8:39
SPEAKER_01: Which they didn't have at that point.
8:42
SPEAKER_01: A few days later, Detective Ingram got another call from Laverne.
8:46
SPEAKER_02: Oh God.
8:46
SPEAKER_01: She said in the back of that car she discovered a purse that wasn't hers.
8:50
SPEAKER_01: Sure enough, when they arrived, they found a black purse in the trunk of the car containing a gene button fly.
8:56
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, this is sounding more and more like it's Laverne.
9:01
SPEAKER_01: Within minutes of the discovery, John was brought in for questioning, but he denied any involvement and was released after 11 hours.
9:09
SPEAKER_05: Wait, he can't even drive.
9:10
SPEAKER_05: How do you how was it in the back of the car?
9:13
SPEAKER_05: That's Hold up.
9:16
SPEAKER_05: Hey Laverne.
9:18
SPEAKER_02: I'm just as confused.
9:19
SPEAKER_01: We will yes.
9:20
SPEAKER_05: Hey Laverne, I got I got something to ask.
9:23
SPEAKER_01: Later that day, investigators got an interesting call from the Clark Crime Lab.
9:26
SPEAKER_01: The denim buttonfly found in the purse did not belong to Tanya, and there was no way that it could have.
9:32
SPEAKER_02: She was cooking up her own thing and it's like planting evidence?
9:36
SPEAKER_01: Hoping Laverne could provide an explanation, they went back to her house to question her about the fake evidence.
9:41
SPEAKER_01: Wait, she's a liar.
9:42
SPEAKER_01: She explained that, in quotes, she wanted him caught, and that despite the evidence she planted, she had additional information that could prove that John killed Tanya Bennett.
9:52
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
9:53
SPEAKER_01: But in order to do so, she needed to change her story.
9:58
SPEAKER_02: Liar, liar, pants on fire.
10:00
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so her second story.
10:02
SPEAKER_02: How am I gonna She's 25 years older than this guy?
10:07
SPEAKER_02: Garrett's been not paying attention this whole time.
10:09
SPEAKER_02: He's just been doing the math.
10:10
SPEAKER_02: Do you know that?
10:11
SPEAKER_05: I've been paying attention.
10:13
SPEAKER_05: And he wasn't driving.
10:14
SPEAKER_02: No, I mean you're just worried about the hit the age difference like last week.
10:17
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
10:17
SPEAKER_05: No, it's just like she's 25 years old.
10:19
SPEAKER_05: What's she doing all this for?
10:20
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
10:21
SPEAKER_01: Second the second story.
10:23
SPEAKER_01: At 1 a.m., the morning of January 20th.
10:25
SPEAKER_02: Oh, this is her this is her second story?
10:27
SPEAKER_02: No.
10:28
SPEAKER_02: Oh, so now she's gonna say, Oh, I lied.
10:30
SPEAKER_02: Now believe me this time, I'm really gonna tell you the truth.
10:32
SPEAKER_02: Wait, this feels like Casey Anthony.
10:35
SPEAKER_05: A little bit.
10:38
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
10:39
SPEAKER_01: So the second story.
10:40
SPEAKER_01: At 1 a.m.
10:41
SPEAKER_01: the morning of January twenty s 22nd, Laverne was home watching TV when John called claiming he was in trouble and that he needed her to bring a plastic sheet or a shower curtain to where he had been dropped off at JB's.
10:54
SPEAKER_01: So the beginning of her story stayed the same, that she had dropped him off at the truck stop restaurant.
11:00
SPEAKER_01: Correct.
11:01
SPEAKER_01: When she arrived, she found John between two park semis and someone laying on the ground.
11:06
SPEAKER_01: Laverne asked if she was sick, and John responded, worse, she's dead.
11:11
SPEAKER_01: The two of them then placed the body in the back of the car on a shower screen and drove out to the Columbia River Gorge.
11:17
SPEAKER_01: When they reached a secluded spot, John then dragged Tanya into the trees, and on their drive back home, Laverne threw the shower screen out the window.
11:25
SPEAKER_05: What about the rope?
11:29
SPEAKER_05: What about the rope?
11:30
SPEAKER_01: This new and very radically different timeline of events not only placed John with the dead body, but also implicated Laverne as being an accessory to the disposal of Tanya Bennett.
11:40
SPEAKER_05: So surely the cops would think at this point, like, can we trust this lady?
11:45
SPEAKER_05: Well, they just hound on John.
11:47
SPEAKER_01: Also, originally, well, they had questioned him for 11 hours, and he was like, I have no idea what you're talking about.
11:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I bet he doesn't because his mama is framing him.
11:56
SPEAKER_01: His mama.
11:57
SPEAKER_01: His sugar mama.
11:59
SPEAKER_02: Oh, sugar mama, yeah.
12:00
SPEAKER_02: It sounds like they're real living living large.
12:03
SPEAKER_01: To verify this version of events, because even at this point they're like Oh god.
12:07
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
12:07
SPEAKER_01: Lady, like you planted evidence, you lied to us the first time.
12:11
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
12:12
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
12:13
SPEAKER_01: To verify this version of events, they drove out into the gorge and Laverne successfully identified the area where Tanya's body was found.
12:20
SPEAKER_01: And where assume Cause she did it.
12:24
SPEAKER_01: And where the two of them had dumped her.
12:27
SPEAKER_01: The only possibility that she could have done this in investigators' minds is if she had actually been there.
12:33
SPEAKER_02: Okay, but maybe if it's like But maybe John wasn't.
12:36
SPEAKER_01: The middle of the Columbia.
12:38
SPEAKER_01: You know, like it's not it's quite large, very vast.
12:41
SPEAKER_01: You can't just say, oh, it was right there.
12:43
SPEAKER_01: What are the like what are the odds?
12:46
SPEAKER_01: With the puzzle seemingly coming together now that they had the real story, investigators were shocked to discover that the crime lab was unable to find any forensic evidence that the body of Tanya Bennett had been in the car at all.
13:03
SPEAKER_01: Undeterred that thus far no physical evidence tied the couple to the crime, they explained it away as a case of thorough vacuuming of the back of the car, which is why they couldn't find anything.
13:14
SPEAKER_05: Come on, who explained it away?
13:15
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
13:17
SPEAKER_02: This was the nineties.
13:18
SPEAKER_02: I mean bringing a cadaver dog.
13:20
SPEAKER_02: Come on.
13:21
SPEAKER_02: Still did evidence.
13:24
SPEAKER_02: We're not believing her.
13:25
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so she's on my non-believing list.
13:27
SPEAKER_02: So why are we even dealing with her anymore?
13:29
SPEAKER_01: Still other more glaring holes in her store didn't make sense either.
13:32
SPEAKER_02: No shit.
13:32
SPEAKER_01: The truck stop restaurant John was at in Wilsonville was twenty-four miles away from where Tanya Bennett was last seen.
13:39
SPEAKER_01: And neither her nor John, because of his record, could drive.
13:43
SPEAKER_01: Oh wait, no, Laverne couldn't drive?
13:45
SPEAKER_01: No, no.
13:46
SPEAKER_01: Tanya Bennett couldn't drive.
13:47
SPEAKER_01: Oh, oh, okay.
13:50
SPEAKER_02: Oh, so how'd they get to the truck stop?
13:52
SPEAKER_01: Right.
13:53
SPEAKER_02: With the dead man.
13:54
SPEAKER_01: Tanya Bennett, she's on Stark Street.
13:56
SPEAKER_01: That's like north.
13:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, I know, yeah.
13:58
SPEAKER_02: So how do you get to a truck stop between two trucks with a dude?
14:02
SPEAKER_01: Laverne was confronted confronted again by investigators because they were ready to be like Oh Laverne.
14:07
SPEAKER_01: Right.
14:10
SPEAKER_01: She was confronted again by investigators over the discrepancies, and once again, she changed her story.
14:16
SPEAKER_01: Are we done listening to Laverne?
14:19
SPEAKER_01: So version number three.
14:21
SPEAKER_02: On Joe.
14:22
SPEAKER_02: Okay, wait.
14:23
SPEAKER_02: Can you just get me to how many versions are we gonna go through?
14:25
SPEAKER_02: This is the last one.
14:26
SPEAKER_02: Are you su okay, you promise?
14:28
SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
14:28
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
14:31
unknown: Okay.
14:31
SPEAKER_02: Maybe Laverne dies.
14:36
unknown: Okay.
14:37
SPEAKER_01: On January 21st, Laverne went to JB's at the truck stop in Wilsonville and found John talking with Tanya in the parking lot.
14:45
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
14:46
SPEAKER_03: This how was she there?
14:48
SPEAKER_01: This The two of them got in the car.
14:52
SPEAKER_02: Oh wait, at the truck stop?
14:53
SPEAKER_02: At the truck stop.
14:54
SPEAKER_02: But we don't know how they got to the truck.
14:56
SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay, keep going.
14:57
SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry.
14:58
SPEAKER_02: Just this is dumb.
14:59
SPEAKER_01: The two of them got in the car with Tanya in the back, and Laverne offered to take her home.
15:03
SPEAKER_01: The girl relayed her address, and Laverne started driving north on I-5.
15:07
SPEAKER_01: During the drive, John and Tanya started arguing, and John reached into the back seat, punching the girl, stating she is not going home.
15:15
SPEAKER_01: What?
15:16
SPEAKER_01: John then proceeded to grab the steering wheel, forcing her to head east on I-84 towards the gorge.
15:21
SPEAKER_01: They stopped at the Vista House landmark and Tanya and John got out.
15:25
SPEAKER_01: A short time later, only John came back to retrieve a rope from the car and instructed Laverne to follow him inside.
15:31
SPEAKER_01: Inside, Tanya was laying on the ground, and John told Laverne to hold the rope around her neck while he sexually assaulted her.
15:38
SPEAKER_02: Oh wait, so now she now she's not only going to participate in a in a homicide, but now she's gonna watch sexual assault.
15:45
SPEAKER_02: Okay, this is this is just a charge her to put her in prison.
15:52
SPEAKER_01: So then after this, that's when they put her in the back of the car on the shower screen.
15:57
SPEAKER_02: Oh, we're back to the shower screen.
15:58
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh and then dump her in the gorge.
16:01
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
16:02
SPEAKER_01: It was during this third confession that she told detectives, in quotes, I didn't plan to kill her, I was doing what I was told.
16:09
SPEAKER_01: Her new confession now solidified her as an accomplice to murder.
16:16
SPEAKER_01: Both Laverne and John were tried separately with the kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder of Tanya Bennett.
16:22
SPEAKER_01: The evidence presented is even quoted as problematic on official court record websites.
16:28
SPEAKER_01: The only evidence that was provided was the fact that Laverne had successfully identified the location where the body was found by police.
16:34
SPEAKER_01: A location that had been published by multiple news outlets at the time with great detail.
16:40
SPEAKER_01: Finding a wooded area one one and a half miles east of the Vista House lip landmark wasn't difficult, especially considering there's still evidence in the area of previous police activity, including spray paint markings where the body had been located.
16:54
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I know where that is.
16:56
SPEAKER_02: Let's go find that spray paint body.
16:59
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
17:00
SPEAKER_02: But still John.
17:04
SPEAKER_01: Is he the serial killer?
17:06
SPEAKER_01: So no physical evidence connected the couple to the murder.
17:09
SPEAKER_01: A handwriting expert hired by the defense concluded that the note found when police had searched the house initially was not written by John.
17:16
SPEAKER_01: Of course not.
17:17
SPEAKER_01: Laverne.
17:18
SPEAKER_02: Laverne.
17:20
SPEAKER_02: Laverne, you're a bad word right now.
17:22
SPEAKER_02: Laverne.
17:23
SPEAKER_02: Laverne finally came clean on the stand.
17:25
SPEAKER_02: Oh God.
17:26
SPEAKER_02: Oh no.
17:27
SPEAKER_02: This is story number four.
17:28
SPEAKER_02: You told me we were done with the story.
17:30
SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, this isn't It's still a story.
17:33
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
17:35
SPEAKER_01: I'm well, okay.
17:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
17:38
SPEAKER_02: So story number four.
17:39
SPEAKER_01: Story number four.
17:40
SPEAKER_01: She was innocent of any crime and had only been wanting to get away from her abusive boyfriend.
17:45
SPEAKER_01: When she had tried to leave him in the past, he threatened to harm her children.
17:48
SPEAKER_01: And when she saw Tanya's image in the paper, she saw an opportunity for John to be taken away for good.
17:54
SPEAKER_01: She didn't realize how her anonymous calls had snowballed into now being tried for murder.
18:00
SPEAKER_01: And at any point because liar, liar, just kept she just kept going.
18:07
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
18:08
SPEAKER_02: She just kept going.
18:09
SPEAKER_02: Laverne.
18:09
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so what happens to Laverne and John?
18:13
SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, the prosecution played her graphic confession tape and she was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of ten years before becoming eligible for boarding.
18:20
SPEAKER_01: Why'd you say unfortunately?
18:22
SPEAKER_01: That's fortunately.
18:23
SPEAKER_01: No, I mean unfortunately for her.
18:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for her.
18:26
SPEAKER_01: Well, because she's saying I'm innocent.
18:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, we know that's not a good thing.
18:30
SPEAKER_02: She clearly has a part in something.
18:32
unknown: Right.
18:33
SPEAKER_01: What wasn't presented to the jury, however, that might have influenced their decision was a note left on a bathroom wall in Livingston, Montana.
18:41
SPEAKER_01: Partway through a trial, investigators were informed a custodian at a town's Greyhound Depot depot discovered this scrawled on the wall.
18:49
SPEAKER_01: I killed Tanya Bennett January 21st, 1990, in Portland, Oregon.
18:54
SPEAKER_01: I beat her to death, I raped her, and I loved it.
18:57
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I am sick, but I enjoy myself too.
18:59
SPEAKER_01: People took the blame and I'm free.
19:02
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's a truck driver.
19:03
SPEAKER_05: That's like the OG serial killer.
19:05
SPEAKER_01: The OG.
19:07
SPEAKER_01: Because I can just go wherever and shortly after, a similar message was discovered at a truck stop in Umatilla, Oregon.
19:14
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so Eastern.
19:15
SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah.
19:15
SPEAKER_01: Killed Tanya Bennett in Portland.
19:17
SPEAKER_01: Two people got the blame, so I can kill again.
19:19
SPEAKER_01: In parentheses, cut bun cut buttons off jeans.
19:23
SPEAKER_01: Proof.
19:25
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
19:26
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so we got the real creeper now.
19:28
SPEAKER_02: Laverne did totally distracted from people trying to find out who the person or people who killed this young lady.
19:42
SPEAKER_02: And so now what there's going to be more.
19:44
SPEAKER_01: Judge Redding and investigators believe that there was no way to tell these weren't the writings of a former cellmate, of either person involved or a family member or friend wanting to cast doubt on the case.
19:54
SPEAKER_01: A week after Laverne was convicted, John pleaded no conta no contest and settled for life with a minimum of 15 years before becoming eligible for parole.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: After seeing how Laverne's trial went, he didn't want a chance it with death with the death penalty on the table for the charge of aggravated murder.
20:10
SPEAKER_04: I think you would have been okay, dude.
20:12
SPEAKER_02: Okay, but he didn't do anything, did he?
20:14
SPEAKER_04: I think he would have been fine.
20:16
SPEAKER_02: Oh now and now he's out, right?
20:17
SPEAKER_02: It's well the 90s, so in theory, he's been out for a long time.
20:23
SPEAKER_02: Laverne.
20:24
SPEAKER_02: Oh boy, that is like Laverne is a dirty.
20:28
SPEAKER_01: Three years later, after failing to get the attention of anyone at the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office, the Oregonian received a series of letters.
20:36
SPEAKER_02: From the serial killer.
20:38
SPEAKER_01: Oregon staff writer Phil Stanford, who covered crime, justice, and public safety, opened the first letter, titled One of Five So Far.
20:46
SPEAKER_02: Oh God.
20:47
SPEAKER_01: Adorned with a neat smiley face at the top of the page.
20:50
SPEAKER_01: Laverne.
20:52
SPEAKER_01: Laverne distracted from all of this.
20:56
SPEAKER_01: This letter was less of a confession and more of a taunt to the police and the media.
21:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because you believed a pathological liar.
21:03
SPEAKER_01: So this yeah, this is three years after they were convicted.
21:07
SPEAKER_01: Then an author starts off by saying, I would like to tell my story.
21:12
SPEAKER_01: It all started when I wondered what it would be like what it would be like to kill someone, and I found out.
21:16
SPEAKER_01: What a nightmare, what a nightmare it has been.
21:18
SPEAKER_01: I went to truck driving school and learned to drive.
21:21
SPEAKER_01: While driving, I learned a lot and heard of people who had gotten away with such a crime because of our nomad way of life.
21:28
SPEAKER_01: The letter goes on to talk about the murder of Tanya Bennett with sick and very graphic detail, adding specifics that weren't released to the public like the orientation of her body.
21:37
SPEAKER_01: Next, the author talks about his second victim, a woman he referred to as Claudia.
21:42
SPEAKER_01: He kidnapped her in LA and brutally murdered her, and her body can be found outside the small town of Blythe, near the California, Arizona border.
21:50
SPEAKER_01: Did they find her?
21:51
SPEAKER_01: Victim number three, he strangled and dumped behind the Blueberry Hill Cafe in California.
21:57
SPEAKER_01: Victim number four, he picked up in Salem, Oregon.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: and strangle and strangled her behind a retail area, tossing her under blackberry bushes.
22:04
SPEAKER_01: Victim five was a woman from Corning, California, and he left her body by a pile of rocks twenty miles from Santanella.
22:12
SPEAKER_01: The author ends this letter with look over your shoulder, I might be closer than you think.
22:17
SPEAKER_02: Oh God.
22:19
SPEAKER_02: Well yeah because he's just traveling up and down I5.
22:22
SPEAKER_01: So he had sent letters to the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office and they just threw him away.
22:29
SPEAKER_02: So it wasn't until the Oregonian got it.
22:31
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm Okay and then the staffer opened it and now they're gonna make story of it despite the detail provided law enforcement was skeptical of the letter but they bel believe Laverne.
22:43
SPEAKER_01: Multnomah County Sheriff's Captain Bud Johnson said all police agencies in the country get letters from people.
22:48
SPEAKER_01: A lot of them have mental problems.
22:50
SPEAKER_01: You can read through the letters and see they have no credibility.
22:54
SPEAKER_01: But you believe Laverne Others thankfully weren't as quick to write the now dubbed smiley face killer off.
23:00
SPEAKER_01: Robert Robert Ressler who helped develop the FBI program for identifying serial killers said the crucial quest question is where the details in the letter match with circumstances of the crime scenes.
23:11
SPEAKER_01: That no one else would know exactly journalist Phil Stanford began contacting different police departments and connecting crimes that had happened as the killer listed in the letter because yeah he could have been making this stuff up yeah but he's gonna be telling the truth so victim number two Riverside County Sheriff's Department in California confirmed that a woman's body was discovered on April 30th 1992 she was found near the border town mentioned in the letter and her cause of death was never identified.
23:43
SPEAKER_01: So it was by the California Arizona border.
23:46
SPEAKER_05: Okay Blythe, okay wait never identified or never publicized the the the manner of death was never identified.
23:54
SPEAKER_01: Victim number three Merced County California confirmed that a body had been found badly decomposed on August 30th 1992 she was discovered by the Blueberry Hill Cafe described in the letter and her manner of death could not be determined but was listed as a drug overdose.
24:09
SPEAKER_01: She was later identified as 32 year old Cynthia Wilcox who went missing from the Southbound Highway 99 rest stop on August 27th.
24:17
SPEAKER_01: Victim number four in November of 1992 the body of a woman in Salem was discovered behind the retail store G.I.
24:24
SPEAKER_01: Joe's under blackberry vines her autopsy revealed she had died of strangulation victim number five Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department detective Michelle Sandry confirmed that a body by a pile of rocks had been recovered in July of 1993 by Laverne they maybe could have you know like thwarted five is there more than five not right now.
24:54
SPEAKER_02: Remember John and Laverne have been in prison for three years at this point.
24:57
SPEAKER_01: And there's all these other bodies and this person I did this mur other murder so all of these murders happened after they're already behind bars.
25:07
SPEAKER_01: So the biggest do they get out the biggest question was if these other crimes were verified and the smiley killer face killer confessed, wouldn't that also be the case for Tanya Bennett since he also confessed to her murder in the letter So then everyone was like we did the Multinoma County Sheriff's Office have the wrong people serving time for a crime that they did not commit District Attorney Michael Schunk said we feel we have the right people in custody however we will continue to look at information in the case.
25:38
SPEAKER_02: So they didn't get off and now the state owes them probably a bunch of money for wrongful Well the problem is Laverne though complicated this a lot by lying three stories and then a different story on the stand.
25:52
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm Forensic handwriting expert Dorothy Lemon examined the lever the letters compared to the messages on the bathroom walls and concluded that it was by the same person.
26:03
SPEAKER_01: The same she also ruled out John as having written the letters well he was because he was in prison and they they scan all the mail journalist Phil Stanford published a five part column in May of 1994 highlighting the missteps and the Tanya Bennett investigation and why Laverne and John did not and physically could not commit the crime they were in prison for.
26:27
SPEAKER_01: Deputy District Attorney Jim McIntyre was not pleased with the public accusations and said that the column and the content were complete nonsense.
26:35
SPEAKER_01: Despite the letters and everything that followed Laverne and John were still serving time and no others no other letters were received and the smiley face killer was silent as far as the press and the public knew Laverne you're not obliged now we're in May of 1994.
26:54
SPEAKER_02: Okay so they've been behind bars for three years.
26:56
SPEAKER_01: And that's where we're gonna end this this episode no no no no no I just need to know can you tell me without ruining anything for next week does Laverne get out she's probably she's still lying when when the letters came out her daughters even like wrote in to the newspaper Sorry my mom's a liar she's not as mad No they were like please come forward so my mom can be let out of jail because why is she serving time for a crime that she didn't commit I'm just I'm so baffled that they were able to like successful successfully convict her with a jury with no evidence besides her confession tape.
27:42
SPEAKER_02: I mean if you confess three times like Well she said she did it she had a purse she had a button in the purse she planted evidence I mean the lady if you want to go to jail sure nobody else is signing up for that just I feel like she they're lucky I mean I'm not look I'm gonna spend the next week wondering why hopefully she's still not lying I mean I don't think so to my knowledge you think that scared her straight?
28:12
SPEAKER_05: Maybe well 58 2026 something Yeah almost 90.
28:24
SPEAKER_01: Lorraine I really hope you're not oh I'm sorry Laverne I really hope you're not lying anymore and to think if they had just told the truth they just told the truth they're not going to be a little bit they could maybe find the right person that had killed these five women well before they killed the other four.
28:40
SPEAKER_02: Right just disgusting I am telling you okay well um I'm kind of I'm I'm kind of angry but you know I'm about liar so this really just is setting me off.
28:57
SPEAKER_02: Well not only liars but it just it seems like the police they just wanted to say alright case closed well they wanted to close the case of course because they don't want they don't want people the community thinking that they should be fearful that there's someone out there that could be harming you know young women I mean but even mid-trial when the literal writing on the wall came out they were like well that's an anomaly how did someone find that scrolls in the bathroom a janitor do the janitors read everything written on the bathroom I mean they saw this and I'm like uh that's a little concerning I mean isn't it like you know call Erica for a good time and it's you know well this 8675309.
29:40
SPEAKER_02: No but this this wasn't that so I mean good on the janitor I guess that really you know started this and at least gave the guy from the Oregonian something to start looking into.
29:51
SPEAKER_02: But Lorraine Laverne Oh God watched Laverne Laverne I wonder if her mom's name was like Larissa and her dad's name was Vern and they called her Laverne.
30:05
SPEAKER_02: Maybe Laverne sucks poor John and what's John doing with the 25 you know well and and had the the killer not written a letter Yeah like does he have some sort of guilty conscience I mean maybe John has a life down hopefully it's not with Lorraine Laverne.
30:26
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh I got it wrong again Well John doesn't sound like a stand up guy either he was an abusive junk and he couldn't drive do we know that because he That's just what Laverne said no he had a record.
30:41
SPEAKER_02: Oh he did okay he had a record he had a suspended license so he is kind of scummy okay all right well I don't like either of them Garrett what do you think I don't like either of them okay let's see what happens next week let's find the smiley face killer.
31:00
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm Yeah does he have a guilty conscience is that why he's writing to police no they probably wants attention he's probably upset that other people are getting Laverne getting credit for his his crimes Okay we'll see you next week can't wait yeah thank you happy Thursday thank you for listening to this episode next episode will probably be a little bit longer because there's a lot more but don't worry are there more deaths this is not the end of Laverne and John and this won't be the last time we've heard from the Smiley Face Killer unfortunately but there will be resolution I'm not gonna leave everyone hanging I realized that in the last few like true crime episodes mainly they have been unsolved or mysteries or missing persons or there's no resolution but I promise there's resolution in this case.
31:59
SPEAKER_01: And no Sasquatch Garrett and no Sasquatch so yeah thank you for listening again if you have any paranormal stories about true crime cases you want us to look into have you run into Sasquatch let us know early belovedpodcast at gmail.com rate and review us please I'd really appreciate it helps this podcast reach more people I'd really like that and happy October we will see you you'll hear from us next week.
32:33
SPEAKER_01: Bye bye