WEBVTT - Ghosts and Letters 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:02.679 Previously on Happy Face. 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:08.200 There was some dark force that was trying to get 0:00:08.280 --> 0:00:11.040 rid of us, and I felt that that force was 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:14.920 your dad. The first year was Melissa had went through 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:20.640 two fires. Then shortly after that we go camping and 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:24.960 then I heard a bear. He cleaned fish in front 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:26.000 of the cabin. 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:27.280 And he was sleeping in the car. 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:30.960 The moment I walked in that house, I felt like 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:34.680 I wasn't alone, that there were spirits there, that I. 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:35.599 Was being watched. 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:39.960 And it was my first night in this new house. 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:43.360 I fall asleep a little bit, but then I'm awakened 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:45.960 by being touched. It's not a heavy touch, it's. 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:46.600 A light touch. 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:51.000 And so I laid on the hallway floor with a 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:53.519 light on, curled up in a ball, hoping that the 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:56.600 night would just go away fast. And in the morning, 0:00:57.000 --> 0:01:00.240 my dad stepped over me and he said, why did 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:03.200 you fall asleep in the hallway And I said I 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:07.200 was being touched, Dad, And he said, oh, don't pay 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:10.119 any attention to them. They bothered me all the time 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:12.920 that night. Don't pay them any mind. 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:21.160 In the fight, in the fight with the sun, I 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:30.800 don't know shine oh sh oh. 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:44.520 Through a bond. Melissa and her father's share involves the 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:48.160 spirits they both claim to encounter. Even to this day. 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:51.200 It's not a fearful feeling. 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:53.560 It's almost a peaceful feeling that I have these I 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:57.520 have company with me. Okay, It's like they're all watch me, 0:01:57.680 --> 0:01:59.440 so I'm now was like they're waiting for something to happen, 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:02.080 like who am I going to do next or something. 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:04.240 But it's almost like my company, and I can't get 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:06.840 rid of them. So I I have my own little 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:08.680 party in my own cell, and I'm all by myself, 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:10.160 but I've got all these apes spirs with me. 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:19.519 Perhaps these are her father's victims, or perhaps something else. 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:25.079 Could they be the manifestation of the psychopathy she fears 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:29.440 her father has passed on to her. To quote Edgar 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:34.359 Allan Poe, the boundaries which divide life from death are 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:39.079 at best shadowy, and they who shall say where one 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:44.200 ends and where the other begins. I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco, 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:59.360 and this is happy face. As we drove through her hometown, 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:02.520 military called her first real encounter. 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:07.679 My first experience with a spirit was when we lived 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:12.400 in Treli Park and Sela, Washington. A neighbor man was 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:16.799 watching me. I was laying on the couch and I 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:22.000 remember looking up over the couch and seeing this white 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:25.080 being and it was protecting me. 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:29.520 So in a weird way, it was kind of normal 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:33.440 in your family. What did your dad talk to you about. 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:39.800 He would comment about seeing spirits as well, so I 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:43.360 felt that he understood what I was seeing. It wasn't 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:46.160 like an everyday conversation. Is just once in a while 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:50.440 he would talk about a supernatural event in his life. 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:54.720 There was a time where he was in a massive 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:57.800 car accident where his truck went off a cliff. Totaled 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:00.520 the semi truck and fell off the cliff, and he 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:05.280 said he saw spirits that were around him. But my 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:11.360 first memory of seeing anything was that was when I 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:16.440 was probably about four years old, seeing a white being 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:20.039 and it was hovering. I wonder if I would have 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:22.719 been harmed by the man that was watching me, and 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:25.680 maybe that being was protecting me, But I don't know. 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:29.240 I don't know how that works. But ever since I've 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:33.240 seen them. 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:36.000 Your dad talked a lot in his first book with 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:39.960 Jack Oltson about the ghosts in Roberta's house. Oh really, Yeah? 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:48.560 What did he say that they tormented him? After Keith 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:53.279 left Melissa's mom. He moved in with his then girlfriend Roberta, 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:59.600 but he claims they shared her home with spirits. In 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:03.960 one of his conversations with al Carlyle, Keith even seems 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:07.799 to confirm the theory that perhaps these are his victims 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:12.479 and describes what he felt with Tanya Bennett Well. 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:15.719 I killed her. I felt like I felt like she 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:16.839 just absorbed into me. 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:20.520 I felt like he just came right up in somebody, 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:23.880 Like I could feel she was right there, like asking 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:25.719 me why and all this. I mean, it was like 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:29.200 she's just right there and she just like over surrounded me. 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:34.600 And you know, I don't think it frightened me because 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:38.600 I've been in a haunted house for two years almost 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:41.280 I felt this stuff before. I felt that I heard 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:45.360 someone hung themselves in the house. But I do feel 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:49.920 the spirit. I feel her when I think of her. Well, 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:51.520 I'm at night or something like that. I'm laying there 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:53.359 and I think they're all sitting around watching ma'm and 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:53.719 my cell. 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:55.440 I think they're all sitting there waiting for me to go. 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:03.880 When I was at my dad's house at night, I 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:06.960 would feel like I was being watched and it was multiple. 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:11.080 There's multiple female spirits that I couldn't see them. I 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:15.080 just felt their presence. Not bad spirits, but they were 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:16.960 uneasy spirits. 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:17.919 They were. 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:24.000 Like trying to get my attention. Nobody else would talk 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:26.920 to me about the spirits about my dad. I'm embarrassed 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:29.440 actually telling you about this because I'm thinking you guys 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:33.480 are going to think I'm crazy. But I truly I 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:36.240 actually hear them too. They talk sometimes and they don't 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:40.360 talk like audible. I'll just have an understanding of what 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:43.440 they're trying to convey and they don't need words for that. 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:51.880 The house is haunted, and that's from my understanding. I 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:54.320 actually felt it was too, because Roberta said it was. 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:57.160 It's sort of a mother and some strange things happen 0:06:57.200 --> 0:06:58.880 in that house while I was laying there, and I 0:06:59.200 --> 0:06:59.640 feel cold. 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:00.840 You'd see all this and that. 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:05.040 And so when after I killed Tanya, I kind of 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:07.640 like looked up and I yelled at the office and now, 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:09.240 you evil son of a bitch is now I'm the 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:11.280 most evil person in here. And not shut the fuck up, 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:13.120 leave me Alone's what I said. 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:15.160 And I have no problem with to goes after that. 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:26.760 From Melissa's perspective, her father's acceptance of spirits almost made 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:29.600 her feel like seeing them was normal. 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:34.760 This is making me feel validated because it's something that 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:38.480 I'm afraid that people would think coming crazy. 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:45.240 After he murdered Tanya in that home, he told Roberta 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:48.760 that maybe the ghosts now would leave him alone because 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:50.320 they'd know what he's capable of. 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:56.520 It's weird. I know some serial killers collect souvenirs like 0:07:57.480 --> 0:07:59.200 driver's licenses. 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:01.600 Or panties, or jewelry or hair. 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:07.480 Yeah, maybe my dad collected spirits. 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:12.440 As we gathered interviews for this story, a pretty distinct 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:16.640 theme began to appear, the appearance of ghosts. It was 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:19.760 a twist that honestly split our team for a variety 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:23.560 of reasons, but it was an undeniable one. People we 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:28.120 spoke to spoke of sensing ghosts. Whether these encounters were 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:33.480 something sparked by psychosis, the manifestation of trauma, or spirituality 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:38.040 remains a question, but they were a shared experience for Keith, 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:44.120 Melissa and Julie's son Don. Here's Don with your mom. 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:46.600 Did you ever do refueler with you? 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:46.880 Oh? 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:50.680 Yeah, I drive taxi now. I felt my mom in 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:53.480 the back of my cab. Even when it first happened, 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:56.840 and I had a girlfriend at the time. She didn't 0:08:56.880 --> 0:08:58.760 believe in it, but she felt empties on the edge 0:08:58.800 --> 0:08:59.200 of the bed. 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:00.920 My mom called me. 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:03.400 She called you. 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:07.439 They say, when the other side contacts you, they have 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:13.840 made peace. Shortly after the first set of trials, I 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:18.080 went back to San Diego. No one had my phone number. 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:20.520 I was living in a rental room with a bunch 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:25.760 of Mexicans that were legal workers doing tar roofing. One night, 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:31.800 I decided to answer the phone, Hello, sweetie. No one 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:34.640 ever called me sweetie, and I know my mom's voice. 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:37.040 Mom. 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:39.560 Mom. 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:43.600 I dropped the phone, curled up in a corner till daylight. 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:49.679 She's okay, Okay, my mother is at peace. Her and 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:52.480 my grandmother have come to see me in my dreams. 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:55.680 They came to see me, and I cried and they left. 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:58.600 They weren't there to make me cry. They were letting 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:01.840 me know they're at peace. Okay. 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:11.840 For all of Keith's talk about the ghosts of his victims, 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:16.000 somewhere inside he feared them for what they really could 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:21.480 be a manifestation of his own evil. Even in jail, 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:25.040 he couldn't escape Tanya or the rest of his victims. 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:27.480 Did that seem real to you? 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:29.680 Yeah, yeah, it does seem real. 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:31.520 Did you feel her presences? Yeah? 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:33.640 I felt I feel it myself. I feel it all 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:37.480 the time though. I feel everyone, everyone i've killed, I feel. 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:43.560 I've heard that from others talk about it. It's just 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:44.440 a feeling there. 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:46.720 It's like I feel if I turn around fast enough, 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:50.160 I can see him right behind me. Now they're guiding 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:52.240 me right now, I think is that they're They're just there. 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:53.480 I mean, everywhere I go, they're there. 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:56.719 They're waiting for me to die so that I can 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:59.880 be in their world. That's what I can do. I 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:00.839 think they're gonna get even. 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:05.959 Yeah, they're going to rule my rules because by that time, Yeah, 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:07.680 I think they're going to have control of where they're 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:10.400 at and I'm just a new guy in the blockdown. 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:39.000 For Melissa and perhaps for Dawn, the ghosts serve as 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:43.600 a way to process their trauma or alleviate the magnitude 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:48.240 of their loss. But for Keith, he's become their prey. 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:53.400 They both haunt and hunt him, and to exercise his demons, 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:55.920 he attempted to purge them on paper. 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:01.200 Letters have definitely been a theme, you know, with my 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:05.240 dad on the road. Before he was arrested, he would 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:09.320 send us letters. He would send us postcards, and that's 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:11.640 his way of communicating with me and my siblings while 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:13.680 he was on the road as a truck driver. So 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:17.360 I'd have all these postcards and letters from all these 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:21.200 different destinations and I would look forward to them. Then 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:24.800 my father was caught by writing a letter, a confessional 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:29.239 letter to my uncle and grandfather. Then when he was arrested, 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:32.600 he starts writing to their agonian and then after that 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:35.480 he continues to write letters to me and tries to 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:38.760 stay in communication with me, and he writes letters to 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:41.880 media outlets, and he writes letters to want to be 0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:46.679 writers and biographers. He keeps using letters to be his 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:48.880 medium to the world. 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:53.840 When speaking about his letter to the Oregonian, Jessperson almost 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:58.720 makes it seem altruistic to free two innocent people, but 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:01.199 he's unable to con heal his narcissism. 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:04.160 The gut feeling I had when I wrote that smiley 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:05.880 faced letter and send it to him that I shouldn't 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:08.720 do it, but I said, I'm gonna do it because 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:11.400 I'm trying to get those two people out, or I'm 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:12.960 trying to stir up a horner sense to get these 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:14.400 people out out turning myself in. 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:16.480 That's when I why did you care? 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:19.600 I didn't think it was right that two people could 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:23.560 take the blame be prosecuted for my murder. I figured 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:27.000 that I was responsible for that. Nobody should be able 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:31.160 to take that responsibility from me. And then I it's 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:34.079 it's kind of funny in a way that here mccoldblood. 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:34.040 And murdered they had. 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:36.040 I'm worried about two people in president during my time. 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:37.040 It it makes sense. 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:40.520 Uh hm when you say I didn't want them to 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:45.000 take that responsibility away, what do you mean, Well, it 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:47.520 was my murder, Yeah, my body count. It was like 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:50.679 my victim, she hangs around me. She's not hanging around them. 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:52.760 She's hanging around me, and they're like, we're inter wound. 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:53.440 We were kind of like. 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:58.160 And the fact that I did eight at the end 0:13:58.200 --> 0:13:59.640 there towards the end, when I said I did it, 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:02.920 I did it, And it became also important on credibility 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:04.640 that they believed. 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:04.920 That was mine. 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:09.480 He wrote a confession letter to his brother after Julie's murder, 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:13.439 which he later claimed meant to serve a dual purpose 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:16.640 as both confession and suicide note. 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:21.080 Why take a chance by confessing to him the notes. 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:21.440 The letters? 0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:23.120 Well, I had to. 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:26.960 When I left to go up in the mountains, I 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:29.320 wrote my letter to my brother, feeling I wasn't going 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:29.800 to come back. 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:34.480 That was my suicide note. I was going to let 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:38.640 my brother know. March Yeah, March twenty fourth, ninety five, 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:39.240 I sent a letter. 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:42.280 I said I'd killed Julie in the truck, then tried 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:45.600 to explain that I had killed seven others here I 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:47.720 let the cat out of the bag, even though I 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:50.960 just instead of just being down for one murder and 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:54.400 a suicide, I was trying to explain to my brother 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:57.640 why I turned out this way. And I couldn't you 0:14:57.680 --> 0:14:59.360 know in a short letter, how can I explain it? 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:04.200 I felt lost at that time. I was not feeling myself. 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:06.520 I was like, I have to end it. I can't 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:10.680 let the cops get me and let the others go 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:12.400 so your family wouldn't know that. 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:16.720 Well, when I was arrested, when I turned myself in, 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:18.520 I thought I could just call my brother up and say, 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:19.280 just ignore. 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:22.320 The letter, destroy the letter, and that way I'll just confess. 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:23.960 To the one murder. And I told him all the 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:26.280 phone there's nothing to the letter. It's all bullshit, right, 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:27.560 so just leave it at that. 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:29.600 And I figured I'd just confess to the one murder 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:31.400 and then I'd be punished for the one murder period 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:33.400 and I'd be the end of that and I'd get 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:36.440 out in fifteen twenty years after doing Manjuan or Man two? 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:39.760 Or were you clearing your conscience when you put the 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:40.720 other homicide? 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:42.920 I'd be good a good aspect to it. 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:48.600 Keith's letter to his brother led to his confession to 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:49.520 the other murders. 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:53.200 I come to the realization that I was going to 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:57.000 be convicted anyway. Like I wanted to kill myself though 0:15:57.000 --> 0:15:59.320 the truth wouldn't come out. But now that I was 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:02.800 in custody, I knew the truth would come out. One 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:04.960 of the reasons why I turned myself in. I thought, well, 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:07.200 you know, I said I should face my problem. The 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:09.400 worst thing I did was I called a cop up 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:11.720 and I said I did it. I confessed to it. 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:13.520 I confessed to the one murder. I never said I 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:16.560 confessed to all of them only after my attorney came 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:18.120 over and he showed me the letter that my brother 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:21.760 didn't destroy. And then I was faced with having to 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:26.920 deal with all of them. That was the clincher. 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:32.600 Keith also waged a nearly year long letter war with Less, 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:36.920 his now sober and dying father, that ranged from back 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:39.960 and forth, blame to declarations of love. 0:16:44.080 --> 0:16:47.480 From I the creation of a serial killer by Jack Olsen. 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:52.880 The letter from Less, the last letter you sent me 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:57.200 was full of bitterness and resentment. It left me with 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.360 a feeling that it was not my son that was 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:04.480 writing that letter. I have never reprimanded you for your 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:08.560 terrible crimes. I have forgiven you and have asked the 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:13.119 Lord to forgive you. Also, you have to admit you 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:15.800 put your family through one hell of a mess. 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:22.280 Letter from Keith. Dad. 0:17:23.400 --> 0:17:25.879 I do two hours in the morning of classes, so 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:28.280 if I get out of prison, I won't do this again. 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:32.200 The class is called anger Management, deals with the way 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:34.680 I was raised and the punishment dished out to me 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:38.280 as a child. We talk openly about the belt and 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:41.480 the wooden spoon, and the fist and the backhand and 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:45.840 the verbal abuse. Under the program, we have the prison 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:49.240 pointing into your corner on why I'm here and why 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:50.040 I turned out. 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:53.120 To be a serial killer. But that's all right, Dad, 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:54.680 I still love you. 0:17:54.760 --> 0:18:12.600 Anyway, Melissa wrote her father after his arrest, and he 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:16.840 wrote her back. He was hurtful and planted seeds in 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:19.639 her mind that would fester and make her wonder for 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:23.760 decades if she was like him, that his evil could 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:29.400 also be inside of her somewhere. Her husband Sam would 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:32.720 often read Keith's letters to act as a filter to 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:35.359 protect Melissa from their worst content. 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:39.680 I think periodically she would get a letter from him, 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:42.359 and instead of reading it, she would ask me to 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:45.159 read it because she didn't want to be impacted by 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:48.840 his words because he was so cruel. I would read 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:51.040 them and then I would kind of decipher what I 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:53.960 thought would be helpful and then filter out the things 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:54.720 that weren't needed. 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:57.080 So it's not like I read things verbatim. 0:18:56.760 --> 0:18:57.080 Back to her. 0:18:57.119 --> 0:18:59.080 I literally just kind of filter through and then go, 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:01.879 this is what he said, or this is what I 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:06.000 think might matter why. I don't think she really wanted 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:08.359 to hear from him, but she also maybe wanted to 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:10.200 still stay connected to him because. 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:10.600 It was her dad. 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:14.080 And what was your take on the personality behind those letters? 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:14.840 You said cruel? 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:20.240 Yeah, he was strange, weird, like inappropriate. He made some 0:19:20.359 --> 0:19:24.040 of the most inappropriate comments to your daughter. He just 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:27.280 was always out of touch with what was appropriate. 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:27.880 For sure. 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:34.080 He was always kind of condescending too, and always trying 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:37.119 to tell Melissa that she was I don't think he 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:39.960 thinks she's that smart, or he feels like it's his 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:43.480 job to make her feel not smart. He was never 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:46.520 very kind, never loving by any means. 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:57.760 Over the years, Melissa received many letters from Keith, and 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:00.000 many of them remained unready. 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:04.800 They just collect. As you can see, they're old. And 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:08.720 now I'm wondering if these are more honest than actually 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:11.840 meeting him in person, that if these are the true 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:16.320 his true confessions, like a diary versus what he would 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:19.320 say to my face. I don't know why I collect them. 0:20:19.880 --> 0:20:22.560 Sometimes I throw them away when they come in the mail, 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:25.399 and sometimes I just save them, maybe because I'm not 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:28.680 ready to read them when I receive them, but maybe 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:32.240 I think that I'll be ready to read them another time. 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:39.680 And so nine, dear Melissa, I'll let you in on 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:41.920 a secret you should be well aware of by now, 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:46.639 but haven't come to understand just yet. It matters little 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:49.919 what the real truth is. When telling stories in the press, 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:53.560 you see most people reading those press reports don't know 0:20:54.200 --> 0:20:57.520 the true facts, and they're relying on the reporter to 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:01.280 get them the story. Therefore, they read it and believe 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:04.280 they are getting the truth, or as close to it 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:08.640 as they can get. It is of entertainment value. People 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:11.880 read it to pass the time. People write to throw 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:15.320 across to the public, recording it a message. What is 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:15.920 the message. 0:21:17.800 --> 0:21:18.440 It's to sell. 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:22.320 It's to get enough to believe them and not the 0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:29.080 other guy. Does it matter that Angelusa Breeze was alive 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:34.920 when I dragged her body down the freeway. Does it 0:21:35.040 --> 0:21:38.439 matter that I plan to kill Laura and Pentland hours 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:40.959 before I drove her to Wilsonville just to see her. 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:45.120 Does it matter that when I drove into the rest 0:21:45.240 --> 0:21:47.800 area at Turnlock that I was going to kill someone 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:52.400 the first one I saw. Does it matter that every 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:55.760 victim to come to me after Claudia was going to 0:21:55.920 --> 0:22:00.600 die because I fulfill the plan once I decided to 0:22:00.720 --> 0:22:04.879 kill them. My story is the story I wanted to 0:22:05.000 --> 0:22:10.120 tell the truth, according to Keith, the story to sell 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:13.880 to the public. But apparently it won't sell because people 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:18.520 such as sick, perverted, bloodthirsty monsters like publishers and true 0:22:18.600 --> 0:22:21.800 crime writers and victims and their people want to read 0:22:21.840 --> 0:22:25.840 about it, the gore, the thought process to why I killed. 0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:29.240 They want to tell a morbid tell to put me 0:22:29.280 --> 0:22:31.800 in a certain light of darkness in order to sell 0:22:31.840 --> 0:22:35.440 their books. But Dad, you're not telling the truth. I'll 0:22:35.520 --> 0:22:36.320 tell you a story. 0:22:36.400 --> 0:22:37.120 Must know it all. 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:38.280 Neither are you. 0:22:39.800 --> 0:22:41.720 I know you think you can say anything you want 0:22:41.840 --> 0:22:44.560 and it will be published because you are the victim here. 0:22:46.040 --> 0:22:51.040 You are a killer, yourself called so because you killed 0:22:51.040 --> 0:22:55.000 your baby. But you had a reason, right, It was 0:22:55.040 --> 0:22:58.560 still murder, killing a baby that could have lived and 0:22:58.720 --> 0:23:01.720 not had one thing to do with why she was born. 0:23:03.040 --> 0:23:05.400 Are you caring what I did and holding it high 0:23:05.480 --> 0:23:05.879 to tell. 0:23:05.760 --> 0:23:06.800 The world, Hey, look at me. 0:23:06.960 --> 0:23:09.520 I'm the daughter of the happy face killer. I'm a 0:23:09.680 --> 0:23:13.800 victim here. But it seems now that you want the 0:23:13.880 --> 0:23:17.080 world to know who you are, not Melissa Moore, but 0:23:17.200 --> 0:23:24.040 the daughter of the happy face killer. I've created a 0:23:24.200 --> 0:23:28.080 monster in you because you are telling him you are 0:23:28.119 --> 0:23:31.760 a victim. He wrote what you say and believe it 0:23:31.920 --> 0:23:36.800 even though it isn't true. You know this. I don't know. 0:23:38.720 --> 0:23:40.320 He's insane and that. 0:23:41.160 --> 0:23:43.440 This is why I don't read these fucky letters. 0:23:43.960 --> 0:23:45.400 This is why I don't read them. 0:23:46.080 --> 0:23:48.080