TV News: Lifetime Captures Chilling True Story Of the Happy Face Killer

In a press release:

LIFETIME CAPTURES THE CHILLING TRUE STORY

OF THE HAPPY FACE KILLER,

STARRING DAVID ARQUETTE AND GLORIA REUBEN

LOS ANGELES, CA (February 07, 2014) – David Arquette (Scream) and Gloria Reuben (Lincoln) star in the Lifetime Original Movie Happy Face Killer, premiering Saturday, March 1, at 8pm ET/PT. The movie follows the grisly true-crime story of a truck driver who, during his work travels across the country, kills numerous women and hauntingly leaves a confession of each murder with a scrawled happy face as cryptic evidence of his crime. Reuben portrays Melinda Gand, the FBI investigator leading the case.

Inspired by real-life events, Happy Face Killer follows the hunt and ultimate capture of serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson (Arquette). An aspiring cop turned long-haul truck driver after a failed marriage, Jesperson strangled his first victim following an argument and was back on the road again the very next day, killing at least eight women over a five-year span as he crisscrossed the country. Upset after a woman falsely confesses that she and her boyfriend are responsible for one of his murders, Jesperson begins to taunt the authorities by sending a series of disturbing letters to newspaper editors, even scribbling confessions on the walls of highway rest stops admitting that he loved killing his victims. By signing his morbid notes with a happy face, he earned himself the notorious nickname, “Happy Face Killer” and forever left his mark of fear.

Happy Face Killer is produced by Happy Face Productions/Front Street Pictures and executive produced by Tom Patricia (Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story) and produced by Harvey Kahn (Abducted: The Carlina White Story). The script was written by Richard Christian Matheson (Stephen King’s Nightmares and Dreamscapes) and directed by Rick Bota (Beauty and the Beast).