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The Happy Face Killer — Through His Daughter’s Eyes
Melissa Moore is a stunningly beautiful woman, who just happens to be the daughter of a serial killer.
Melissa Moore’s father, known as the Happy Face Killer, murdered eight or more women. Rather than fall victim to the trauma surrounding her father’s crimes and arrest, she processed the events of her childhood and now works with families of perpetrators from around the globe.
In recent years, Melissa spoke about her memories, sharing the early warning signs of the monster hiding inside of the man she knew as Dad.
Early memories of her serial killer father
One of Melissa’s early memories of her father is the time when he came upon her playing with some kittens. The young girl had found the babies in the cellar of the family farmhouse and moved the pets outside to play with.
When Keith Jesperson found his daughter stroking the little kittens, he took them from her. Melissa remembers that her Dad then ‘casually hung them up on the clothes line, and began to torment them.’
Five-year-old Melissa had screamed and begged for the kittens to be spared but could see only joy on the face of her father as he tortured the little creatures.
Melissa later found the bodies of the kittens, discarded on the ground.
Happy Face was desperate to talk about his crimes
When she was 13 years old, Melissa took a drive with her father through the beautiful river-land between Washington and Oregon states. As father and daughter approached Multnomah Falls, Jesperson suddenly gushed, ‘I know how to kill someone and get away with it.’
The serial murderer then told his young daughter how a killer needed to remove shirt buttons to avoid leaving fingerprints. Happy Face also described how cycling shoes were an excellent choice of footwear for criminals as they leave flat and indiscernible prints at the crime scene.
