’90s Serial Killer Hauled Freight Across Idaho And Hunted Women

Did you know that one of the country's most sinister serial murderers and rapists used Idaho interstates for years to transport freight throughout the western United States while hunting his prey? This monster of a man also was known for his twisted nickname that he would later brag about in prison.

I caught a very interesting documentary on television the other night. The multi-episode, true crime series told the story of a British Columbia native who murdered eight women between 1990 and 1995 throughout the country.  Many of the murders took place in states that bordered Idaho and made for convenient stops for the long haul truck driver by trade.

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Keith Hunter Jesperson is currently living out a life sentence at the Oregon State Penitentiary. Jesperson, 67, was arrested on March 30, 1995, and confessed to all eight murders. News media nicknamed him the "Happy Face Killer."

As a truck driver, Jesperson hauled various products across western U.S. state lines while stopping to drink and socialize at bars and truck stops where he approached his female victims. He killed women in Florida, Nebraska, California, Oregon, Washington State, and Wyoming, and used the Columbia River Gorge to dump bodies on more than one occasion, according to an online biography.

He gained his nickname by leaving small happy faces on letters he wrote to media and friends. It's frightening to think that this killer likely gassed up on many occasions in Twin Falls between deliveries and crimes in Wyoming, Oregon, and Washington State and his home in British Columbia. Many southern Idaho women in that time period were lucky to have not crossed paths with the "Happy Face Killer."