TRANSCRIPTION 🔗
00:00:02
Speaker 1: Previously on Happy Face.
00:00:05
Speaker 2: Keith H.
00:00:06
Speaker 1: Jesperson forty made his admission Friday to Detective Rick Buckner in a telephone conversation.
00:00:12
Speaker 3: In nineteen ninety five, when I heard the news about my dad, I was dating a guy named Nick. It was a very dysfunctional relationship. When things were good, they were good. When things were bad, they were extremely bad.
00:00:25
Speaker 2: Physical.
00:00:27
Speaker 4: There was something about your dad you wanted to tell me, and you weren't sure what to believe in. It was shocking and I didn't know what to think either.
00:00:34
Speaker 5: Yeah, we were as young.
00:00:35
Speaker 1: I went back to my truck and rehearsed the lies I planned to tell when I was arrested. What made me cross the line into murder? Maybe it was my nature.
00:00:45
Speaker 6: There was a statement from the son of Julie Winningham, the victim.
00:00:50
Speaker 3: Obviously he's torn up at devastate, rightfully.
00:00:53
Speaker 5: So, and wanted my dad to be killed.
00:00:56
Speaker 2: I got pregnant my freshman year, so right after found out is when the news hit about my dad.
00:01:03
Speaker 3: So I felt like the only option for me to break out of this was to not have a baby. A couple months later, I got a letter from my dad. He said he deserved to be in prison with me. You're a killer just like me.
00:01:15
Speaker 2: The biggest spearing is that I can be like my father.
00:01:18
Speaker 7: I look like my father.
00:01:20
Speaker 2: I wonder about DNA.
00:01:22
Speaker 1: And the vies in the fes with the sun. I don't know shine.
00:01:31
Speaker 8: I was shiver.
00:01:35
Speaker 9: Oh through.
00:01:51
Speaker 4: One of the things people ask is how did Keith get away with it for so long? And people offer a variety of reasons. Some say he was smart or careful in many ways. But when you look at the case of his first victim, Tanya Bennett, he really just got lucky for a few years, at least on Lauren Dray Pacheco. This is happy Face.
00:02:22
Speaker 1: From I The Creation of a Serial Killer by Jack Olsen. On a chilly winter day in Portland, Oregon, Tanya Bennett kissed her mother goodbye and said she was off to meet a boyfriend. She disappeared from sight in the direction of a bus stop. Her walkman plugged into her ears. Tanya was mildly retarded from oxygen deprivation at birth. She'd been a difficult child. In a cooking class at Cleveland High School, she assaulted a classmate in a quarrel over a piece of cake. Addicted to alcohol, and drugs. She hustled drinks, shot pool and got into trouble with men. Recently, she'd complained to her mother that a man had taken her home from the B and I tavern, beaten her and quote pimped me out end quote. She said she was afraid to go back to the same bar, but her memory had always been short.
00:03:17
Speaker 4: When you read the Jack Olsen book or the news articles from the time, it's apparent why Tanya Bennett was chosen as prey. She comes across as pretty and sweet, but also naive and troubled. What happened to her is tragic, But what's strange about the crime is that there's so many people who wanted to take credit for it. There's a couple Laverne Pavlanak and John Zevsnofsky, who come forward and get arrested.
00:03:51
Speaker 1: The Oregonian January seventeenth, nineteen ninety one, by Fred Leeson Laverne A. Pavlnac is accused of four counts of agriva murder, rape, sex abuse, kidnapping, and felony murder for the death of Tanya A. Bennett, a twenty three year old woman whose nude body was found last January in the Columbia Gorge, Deputy District Attorney James McIntyre told a Moltnoma County Circuit court that Pavlanak fed police anonymous tips that led to the arrest of her longtime boyfriend John A. Sasnovsky. Then, McIntyre said Pavlanak later told police that she had tied and held a rope around Bennett's neck while Sisnovsky beat the woman and sexually assaulted her.
00:04:36
Speaker 4: But Laverne and her boyfriend John weren't the only ones trying to claim credit for this case. When they were arrested for the Bennett murder. Keith wanted credit for his crime, so he started sending anonymous letters to The Oregonian and graffitiing truck stop bathrooms for attention. But the thing is, Keith gets so many of the details wrong, and you can start to wonder did he really do it? We wanted to hear the details from Phil Stanford, the Oregon journalist who received those letters and covered the case.
00:05:12
Speaker 10: Quote honor about January twentieth, nineteen ninety 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 by pushing my fist into her throat unquote.
00:05:30
Speaker 8: Right away. Something doesn't fit in the.
00:05:33
Speaker 10: First place, as you already know if you follow local crime news. The name is Tanya, not Sonya Bennett, and she was killed according to the experts who examined the body on the night of January twenty first, not the twentieth. But that's not the biggest problem here. The problem, if that's the word for it, is that two people are already serving time in prison for the crime.
00:06:02
Speaker 4: After her dad's arrest, Melissa started reading Phil Stamford's articles in The Oregonian at her local library. It's how she learned the horrific details of her dad's crimes and who her father really was. So naturally, she had a lot of questions for Phil about why her dad wasn't caught earlier.
00:06:20
Speaker 6: Could you tell me who these people are, these strangers, and how they're associated with my dad's case.
00:06:26
Speaker 8: Well, the reason Laverne Pavnmak and John Sosnovski ended up in prison for the Tanya Bennett murder is that Laverne, who's this sixty three year old ding that was trying to get rid of her boyfriend, who was actually much younger. A barfly coud get out work at the sawmill every day and head for the bar, and she'd have to go
Load full transcript
pick him up at the truck stop bar and bring him home, putting to bed and go. At least he was working, but she wanted to get him out of house, and she had tried before several times calling his parole officer, tried to get him at least taken out of the house. It didn't work. So when she read the story inside of The Oregonian about how body had been found in the gorge, she made an anonymous call to the Sheriff's office saying she thought it was this guy, John Saysnovski, And when that didn't work, she made another call like that that they eventually figured out who was coming from. So the Sheriff's office went out and talked to her and she said, yeah, she was at the bar and she heard him bragging about wasting a woman in the gorge. And they came back the next day with a search warrant, and she didn't have anything more to say, but on the search warrant they said they were looking for that fly that had been cut off her jeans and her first that was missing. Next day Laverne called in and said she had the fly and the first she found him in the trunk of John's car. So they said, oh boy. So they came out and got them. Well, they analyzed them. Then they realized it wasn't the fly from her jeans, and it wasn't her purse.
00:08:15
Speaker 2: I wasn't aware of that.
00:08:17
Speaker 8: Without telling the whole story, she kept lying again and they'd find out the next lie was wrong, and so she opped it, and after about five visits she convinced him by saying she had participated in the murder with John Sosnowsky. In fact, it held the rope around her neck while t racher wow, which was nonsense, and they said, thank you very much. So she wasn't any longer a witness who might be making up story. She was an accomplice. They charged her and the boyfriend she was trying to get out of the house. Of course, by the time the case came to trial, she said, no, I was just making it up. With the videotape they'd made of her false confession against the jury, they convicted her, and when Sazanovsky saw what was happening, He took a plea because he realized that if he went to trial and they had already convicted Laverne, he'd probably end up getting executed, so he pled guilty. That's Laverne, Kadlanak, and john Sasnovsky.
00:09:27
Speaker 4: So this is all intriguing, but we wanted to know how did the police get this so wrong? We spoke with private investigator Chris Peterson, who worked as a detective for the Moltnoma County Sheriff's Department at the time of Tanya Bennett's murder. So they were already tried and found guilty and sent to prison.
00:09:48
Speaker 9: That's correct. When I got involved, they were They had been in prison for some time.
00:09:53
Speaker 4: What was the police reaction to the letters and the graffiti claiming the actual killer was still at large?
00:10:02
Speaker 9: You know, I really don't have a good answer for.
00:10:04
Speaker 10: That, Detective Ingram wrote the report on the night bartender Ann Wilson quote. Miss Wilson was asked specifically about January twenty first, nineteen ninety and she recalled Tanya Bennett being in the tavern at five pm when she arrived for work. Miss Wilson said Tanya Bennett seemed to hang around with two guys who were playing pool at a table at the east end of the tavern. Unquote, Wilson described one of the men as being about thirty years old, about six', two with, short blonde. Hair all she could remember about the second one is that he was somewhat. Shorter although the detectives never did succeed in identifying the two young men seen playing pool With tanya on the night of the, murder at the, time they could have been excused for thinking that they were on the right. Track before the day was, over though they would have have reason to change their.
00:11:01
Speaker 4: Minds it's like a sick comedy of. ERROR i mean it's.
00:11:10
Speaker 8: Oh, yeah it's a very, dark dark.
00:11:12
Speaker 10: Comedy the, caller a, woman said she had overheard a man In, jabs a restaurant at The Burn's brothers truck stop In, wilsonville bragging that he had Killed Tanya. BENNETT a week, Later february, twelfth the same woman called The Clackamus County Sheriff's department and gave them the same information as she reminded. Them the, man his, name she said Was John, sazanovsky was on probation In Clacamus. County maybe they could check him. Out ingram Called sasanovsky's parole, Officer Steve, bracey and together they figured out who was probably making the. Calls her name Was Laverne.
00:11:54
Speaker 4: Pavlanak as we heard the detail of the, story there is a little doubt that creeps In keith got the names and dates. Wrong and As melissa, realized there's one Detail laverne got.
00:12:09
Speaker 2: Right he did come up.
00:12:11
Speaker 6: With one really critical piece of. Evidence AND i don't know how she manufactured, this but she brought the detectives to Where Tanya bennett's body was.
00:12:22
Speaker 8: Found how, well they drove her out to the place along this old scenic. Highway and one of the things that the sectors thought was so convincing was that she, said, oh it was over. There, well they'd already marked the place with red dye or some sort of red marker along the.
00:12:41
Speaker 6: Highway So laverne saw the marker on the highway and realized that's probably where the body.
00:12:48
Speaker 8: Was, yeah there's obviously a crying.
00:12:50
Speaker 10: Scene on the strength Of pavlovac's, confession which she tried to explain away at, trial a jury convicted her to avoid a possible death sentence for aggravated. Murder sasnovsky then pleaded no contest to felony murder and. Rape three years, Later sasnovsky has exhausted all his. Appeals padlanak's plea for a new trial was rejected this month by The Oregon court Of. Appeals never a high profile case to begin with the murder Of Tanya bennett became a closed, one and quite likely if it weren't for the anonymous letter that arrived At The oregonian earlier this month from a man claiming to
have killed five women In oregon And, california Including Tanya, bennett the case might well have remained.
00:13:45
Speaker 4: Forgotten as Reporter Phil stamford told, us Had keith not started writing the, newspaper police might never have found. Him but to hear more about, That melissa AND i reached out To jim, McNeely a retired detective from The Moltnomah County Sheriff's.
00:14:09
Speaker 11: DEPARTMENT i got involved when we started getting the letters sent to us from your. Dad somebody sent us some pictures of from writing on the wall in the restroom In montana where they said two people are in jail for something, idea and that was followed up by a letter that came to The Washington County court or, something and they forwarded it to. Us and then another letter came to A Phil stanford reporter in The, oregonion and that letter goes came to. Us and then when we followed up on the, case when your dad, came there was a lot of talk around the department that we still had the right people and whoever was writing these letters was making this stuff. Up WHEN i got involved with, it in my, Partner Chris, peterson we followed up on it from.
00:15:06
Speaker 10: There in an interview this week at The Oregon State, Prison, sisnovsky once the passive, barfly bristled with anger when asked whether he was guilty of Killing Tanya. BENNETT i never met the, girl he, SAID i never killed anybody in my. Life he blames, everything he said in a rambling diatribe on a conspiracy that includes The Oregon state bar The Moltloma County District attorney's, office the detectives who investigated the, case and of course his former Housemate Laverne. Pavlinak she framed, me he, said.
00:15:54
Speaker 6: So then when you get this letter from my, dad and he, SAID i Killed Tanya.
00:15:58
Speaker 2: Bennett did you instantly believe this letter was? True what did you think about this?
00:16:03
Speaker 8: Letter, well there was something very believable about. It he knew what he was talking, about and he had information on those murders that hadn't been in the papers down wherever the bodies were. Found so there was something to. It and it was a matter that of going back and analyzing The Tanya bennett, case the, investigation and WHAT i contributed really was sort of a deconstruction of the, case showing that they'd manufactured the, case they'd manufactured the.
00:16:33
Speaker 6: Confession so when you got that, letter that was one, letter but you ultimately received more.
00:16:41
Speaker 2: Letters is that?
00:16:42
Speaker 5: Correct?
00:16:43
Speaker 8: Yeah after he was, captured we, corresponded, okay we were trying together to prove that THE da was wrong and he was guilty of The Tanya bennett.
00:16:55
Speaker 2: Murder which is interesting that he's trying to prove his. Guilt he wanted. Credit. Yeah, yeah did you ever meet my dad in? Person?
00:17:08
Speaker 8: Oh, yeah after he was. ARRESTED i talked to him in The Clark county jail and they just let him. Out there was a big folding picnic, table and HERE i was sitting across from this hawking. GUY i mean he's very, BIG i guess six' seven something, like that and talking to him About The tanya. Bennett murder and as the conversation, quickly developed how we were going to prove that he was guilty Of The tanya? Bennett murder.
00:17:42
Speaker 4: What was he saying?
00:17:42
Speaker 2: To You he.
00:17:46
Speaker 8: I'm not sure to this day how to read him at. That point at, THE time i thought he was sort of unburdening his soul if he wanted. To confess another way of looking at out of, the course would be that he wanted to get credit, for this and it was his way of sort of proving that he was establishing.
00:18:08
Speaker 4: This identity did he come across as wanting, Your, help.
00:18:12
Speaker 8: Well he wanted, my help and OF course i. Wanted his, you KNOW what i needed was some way to prove that he was telling the Truth About. Tanya bennett and so he offered two ways of. Proving it one was that when he, told her he said blood was everywhere and even splattered on. The ceiling oh.
00:18:34
Speaker 6: MY gosh i actually stayed in the House Where tanya bennett, was murdered and there was a NIGHT that i went and slept in the living room on, the COUCH and i remember looking up at the ceiling and seeing splatter on, the ceiling thinking it was, spaghetti sauce and just staring at IT as i was trying to go, To sleep and when you just, SAID that i WONDER if i was looking.
00:18:59
Speaker 2: At blood oh.
00:19:02
Speaker 10: My.
00:19:03
Speaker 8: Yeah YEAH so i went back to. The house it had been bought, and sold and they had the new owners had painted, that room, the bedroom including. THE ceiling i went TO the da with THAT and, i said you could scrape the paint off and DO a, dna analysis and, he, said no we don't want to. Do that the other thing, he said the key said was after he Dropped off tanya's body in, the gorge, driving back he threw her purse out at a certain place and he remembered where it was as. A field and, in fact that is eventually how it was proved to the, DA's satisfaction to the, court satisfaction that he was telling the truth and that He Killed, tanya bennett because one of the sheriff's deputies, m McNelly who's really the hero, in this took a troop of boy scouts out to that field and for two or three days cut away the BlackBerry bushes that had grown. UP there i mean they grow Fast in oregon and four. Years, Growth yeah i've been.
00:20:16
Speaker 2: Up there it, gets dense and they found the purse.
00:20:19
Speaker 9: WITH her i. D Wow.
00:20:37
Speaker 4: So jessperson kind of saw you as a partner.
00:20:42
Speaker 8: In, this yeah it was. Very strange we were. Conspiring together here we were as working for a newspaper and he was trying to confess to. A murder we both knew that two people were in prison for a crime, he committed but, the Authorities the sheriff's department and the DA's office certainly weren't going to
admit they'd made a mistake, like that and basically but developed as that we were conspiring to prove that he.
00:21:14
Speaker 4: Was guilty now you have to remember This is phil's opinion on the way the investigation. Was handled the police have their.
00:21:27
Speaker 7: OWN story i got word from a friend of mine At the sheriff's office that the detective.
00:21:37
Speaker 8: Could been the leader in getting the false Confession From laverne pablomak In The tiny. Bennic case had been down in the state prison Talking, to jesperson encouraging him to SAY that i had given him the information that he had given to the police to prove that He Killed. Tiny bennett in, other words it's trying To get jefferson to, frame me and to his, eternal credit as Far as, i'm concerned he did not lie. About it he, said no it, didn't happen and it would have been very easy for him, to lie and, after all it wouldn't hurt him, at all and he might have even been able to bargain it into extra privileges for helping out. This detective but, he DIDN'T and i have TO say i honor him.
00:22:29
Speaker 9: For that.
00:22:35
Speaker 4: Keith's code of honor is more than a bit. Twisted here he wouldn't tolerate, dishonest cops thought himself, above them and yet he was a brutal rapist. And murderer.
00:22:48
Speaker 6: So when my dad was ultimately Convicted For tanya, bennett's murder what Happened to John?
00:22:55
Speaker 8: And, laverne well they, were released, Of course.
00:23:00
Speaker 2: And how much time did they serve in prison before they.
00:23:03
Speaker 7: WERE released i think about a couple.
00:23:06
Speaker 10: Of.
00:23:06
Speaker 8: Years WOW and i don't know Anything about LaVerne's experience, in prison but it was particularly Hard, On, john saysnovsky who was not a very strong person to. BEGIN with i mean he was, an alcoholic and he was he sort of. Lost it they put him in a room in prison for the people who were. Mentally disturbed it's Called. The thunderdome what? A?
00:23:35
Speaker 2: Thunderdome why what happens in?
00:23:38
Speaker 8: The thunderdome it was a big holding tank with a guard sort of suspended in the middle on. A grate AND what i remember about the story Is that saysnovsky would. Just howl here he was locked up for life for something he had pled. Guilty to but even at the time he, pled guilty he knew he was not guilty up it was. Completely.
00:24:05
Speaker 2: Innocent though that would drive. Me, crazy yeah that would drive. ME crazy i. Yeah that what else could you do?
00:24:12
Speaker 10: But?
00:24:12
Speaker 2: Scream? Oh yeah did you ever Talk to Laverne? Or john do you think that they? REGRETTED this.
00:24:21
Speaker 8: I Talked, with LAVERNE and i don't think She really i'm sure she, regretted It but i'm not convinced she ever really understood how how wrong what she. Did was she was emotionally. DULLED herself, i mean she was taking a lot, of pills fantasized, a lot read a lot of cheap, detective stories which is probably how she got the idea that she could turn someone in for a murder and it would just all.
00:24:56
Speaker 7: Go away.
00:25:01
Speaker 4: MELISSA and i, were, curious though How did John and laverne react to. Being Freed Here's Detective chris, Peterson Again.
00:25:09
Speaker 9: John SISTOVSKY when i went down to interview him in the prison with the prosecutor, a prosecutor he. Was incoherent he. Was babbling it was actually a little. Bit scary verne acted like a grandmother when we were working. WITH her, i mean she was, pretty, calm collected and she did her very best to convince me that she wasn't responsible for, the murder which. WAS true i think we had her take. A polygraph i don't think We had sisnovsky take a polygraph because of his, metal state but.
00:25:47
Speaker 4: It sounds like he was another One of jefferson's.
00:25:49
Speaker 9: Victims Indirectly john sisowsky was definitely a Victim of Jefferson. AND laverne, i mean, those People, particularly laverne had no place in. An institution she created a space and institution for herself by confessing on, a TAPE and i was played to a jury and they. Convicted her but he victimized those two and as well as a lot of victims that. Didn't survive did she ever? Thank you she was very unappreciative of our efforts to get. Her out the family never really spoke. To us they. WERE critical i think of, the POLICE and i think the district attorney's Office a, momma mccanti and the sheriff's Office in portland did a great job in terms of getting to the bottom of, this case and even a mistake had, been made and the district attorney and the sheriff both told me that we don't want you doing anything else until this matter gets resolved to. Our satisfaction and Just.
00:26:50
Speaker 5: Because i'm Curious with Laverne, and john were they immediately released after my dad was sentenced?
00:26:56
Speaker 8: That, day, no no.
00:26:57
Speaker 9: They weren't post conviction rey was a very complicated legal procedure and there is really no remedy for reversing a jury's decision in the State. Of oregon if a jury finds you guilty, of homicide it's kind of chipped. In stone so they were not. Released immediately it took a while to get them out. Of prison it wasn't like your dad gets convicted and the door. Is open my understanding Is That, John sissovsky I'm assuming john's, still alive still has a MURDER conviction iic record because post, conviction relief meaning changing a verdict's opinion of, a jury is very difficult to do in the State of oregon and.
00:27:39
Speaker 5: Most states that's how Horrible for john that he would have this still potentially on, his record even though he was. Completely innocent that must have impacted, his employment his life. After this that's, really, surprising though you know that it would be.
00:27:53
Speaker 9: Like, that yeah, it is but that was the state of the law twenty five, years AGO and i don't know that SHAME.
00:28:07
Speaker 1: From I the creation of A serial Killer By jack olsen in jail awaiting transport to the, state penitentiary he continued to play the lead role in his own. Dramatic production on the Day That john Sasnovski And laverne pavlanac were freed, for good he described his reaction To The associated, PRESS quote i. STARTED crying i couldn't help myself for about. TEN minutes i lost. TOTAL composure i was just. Very, overjoyed basically my Feeling is god. Blessed them. End quote he didn't explain why he'd allowed them to serve four years for. His Crimes.
00:28:53
Speaker 4: So, don fendley who is the Son of jessperson's last, Known Victim, julianne winningham he has a lot of Anger, towards laverne who is, now deceased but he believes that if she, hadn't lied if she hadn't tried To, frame john that there is a Chance that jessperson could have been stopped before he murdered seven, more women including his.
00:29:20
Speaker 9: OWN mother, I mean i understand, his concern and of course he didn't murder anybody after He murdered julie because he. Was arrested but, YOU know i don't want to speculate that that this thing would have been solved, any earlier but it's hard to. FOR me i can't say that if it had Meant from Laverne that keith would have, been arrested because he was not on. Anybody's Radar in molma mccunny over The, tiny.
00:29:56
Speaker 4: Benicades there's always been One person melissa has been afraid, to meet the Son of jesper since, Last Victim.
00:30:10
Speaker 2: Don findley i'm terrified that he's going to lash out on me and blame me.
00:30:22
Speaker 9: For his.
00:30:23
Speaker 2: MOM'S murderer.
00:30:27
Speaker 4: I texted him, for weeks and when he finally returned, my text he didn't want to meet you. In person he had a lot, of anger, you know from his point, of view you're the daughter of the man who murdered. His mother but we spoke for a couple of HOURS and i was finally able to convince him to.
00:30:51
Speaker 10: Meet You.
00:31:01
Speaker 1: Happy face is a Production Of How. Stuff works executive Producers Are, Melissa Moore, Lauren, Bright Pacheco, mangesha Ticketer And. Will pearson supervising Producer Is. Noel brown Music By, Claire Campbell paige Campbell and hope For A. Golden summer story Editor Is. Matt riddle audio Editing By chandler Mays And. Noel brown assistant Editor Is. Taylor chacoyne special Thanks To, phil stanford the Publishers Of The oregonian NEWSPAPER And katu News, In. Portland oregon