(NewsNation) — Keith Jesperson, the convict known as the “Happy Face Killer,” wrote a letter to NewsNation’s Ashleigh Banfield describing his prison routine.
Jesperson was convicted of killing eight women, earning his nickname by drawing “happy faces” on many of his letters to the media and authorities before being arrested in 1995.
His latest round of letters comes just three weeks after he spoke with NewsNation’s Laura Ingle, who received five double-sided, handwritten letters from Oregon State Penitentiary. During an interview with Ingle, Jesperson continued urging Rex Heuermann, who is accused in the Gilgo Beach killings, to confess.
Jesperson advised Heuermann to confess so that he could bargain to get a better prison like the one he is in.
“I pushed him hard to own his crimes and force a deal to come here to OSP to do his time. That is his only real option: a deal to be placed in a prison away from harsh New York’s system,” Jesperson wrote to Banfield.
According to Jesperson’s letters, OSP accepts inmates from out of state all the time, including “‘Stand your ground’ killer Michael Drejka from Florida, members of the Manson family and mob hitmen.”
In the letters to Banfield, Jesperson included a full, detailed daily schedule that describes how he spends his time in prison.
“Oregon’s prison system is based on incentives, things that can be taken away if we do bad things,” Jesperson wrote. “Clear conduct is rewarded.”
Jesperson emphasized he is normally housed in the honor block. There, inmates are given keys to their cells, where they can lock their cells anytime they leave them. On the honor block, inmates are given access to their own showers, 190-degree water, a pop machine, telephones, microwave ovens, exercise equipment, an Xbox, TVs and kiosks for video visits, Jesperson told Banfield.
Jesperson included a long list of outdoor amenities that inmates can use, too, including baseball fields, a volleyball court and eight horseshoe pits.
The only issue: Jesperson could be exaggerating the quality of the prison, Dr. Katherine Ramsland said.
“I don’t know that they are. He certainly exaggerates a lot,” she said Thursday on “Banfield.”
Ramsland, a forensic psychologist who has spent decades researching serial killers, said she wasn’t the least bit surprised that Jesperson wrote Banfield back, saying he wants to stay in touch with anyone in the media so he can keep his name and face out there.
“He loves attention,” she said. “I’m sure he wrote right away when he had the opportunity.”
“I’m sort of an icon here. All the guards know me and most of the inmates,” Jesperson wrote in the letter.
Ramsland explained he is trying to make Banfield think he’s very important, has great privileges and has good advice for people.
“He doesn’t want you to have any disdain for him, or to think his life is diminished in any way,” she said.
He wants people to believe that he’s in a position where he can give Heuermann advice, Ramsland said. She continued, explaining Jesperson wants to be the guy that got Heuermann to confess.
“He doesn’t care about him,” Ramsland said. “He cares that he would be the guy that got him to confess, that persuaded him that he has the power to do so.”
Ultimately, Jesperson wants to associate himself with someone who has media attention, Ramsland said.
