You cant have an advocate whos hesitant, McIntyre liked to say. Laverne claimed that Taunja was still alive when she and John met her on the night of January 21. Sosnovske was brought in for questioning and denied any involvement. Its correction time, she said. Both were convicted of the crime but were released five . Those two should not be in jail. She walked with him to Vista House, where Bennett was lying in the doorway, laughing, her jeans around her ankles. . This case, after all, could be read as a tremendous error on McIntyres part. Just after McIntyres impassioned final argument, just hours after he once more played Laverne Pavlinacs taped confession, 12 Multnomah County citizens proclaimed the defendant guilty of felony murder. Yes, theyd be fools to say the system hasnt convicted innocent people. What the hell, he decided. That was when she read about Taunja Bennetts murder in the news and hit upon a plan to escape her relationship. The Craziest False Confessions In History - Grunge Taunja Bennett Murder: How Did She Die? Who Killed Her? - The Cinemaholic She urged them to sit down; she made them a fresh pot of coffee. Then Jespersons appointed defense lawyer, Tom Phelan, called. At Pavlinac, at Jesperson, at the whole situation. I must have tightened it as I was hanging on., Did you pull the rope tight? Corson asked. The further he delved, the murkier everything looked. McIntyre could not. A jury had convicted a Portland woman named Laverne Pavlinac based on her detailed confession to police that she helped her boyfriend John Sosnovske rape and kill the 23-year-old. She inferred certain information from the questions the detectives asked her. Her first husband divorced her after 26 years and four children, her second died of cancer. . Once authorities determined that Laverne and John were a couple, they brought them in for questioning. By 5 p.m., he was under arrest for the murder of Taunja Bennett. Once he developed his theory, though, he felt no hesitation at all. First to the cops, then to her own daughter. Both grumbled when McIntyre spoke to them. The judge refused to vacate Pavlinacs conviction, chastising her for abusing the judicial system. He was divorced, with two children. Keith Jesperson was at the bar where Taunja Bennett was the night before her murder. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages. "She slapped him. Phelan looked back and forth at these two prosecutors. She tells this to her own daughter.. Not until the spring of 1995, almost a year after the Happy Face Killer letters arrived, did McIntyre once again hear about a serial murderer. Sosnovske commanded Pavlinac to drive to the Vista House monument, overlooking the gorge. I did not go up to the gorge that night.. Peoples stories evolve as you keep talking to them. She felt trapped within the confines of her toxic relationship, and believed she had to go to extreme lengths in order to distance herself from him once and for all. I killed Miss Bennett Jan 20 1990 and left her 1 1/2 miles east of Lateral Falls on a switchback . "She was very giving. This dog wont hunt. You listen to those words and that emotion, he told the jurors, and you will look at Laverne Pavlinac and see the face of a murderer.. For days after McIntyres visit with Keith Jesperson at the Clark County sheriffs office, the truck drivers credibility rose and fell in the prosecutors eyes. McIntyre resisted for one more day. Mike was in grade school at the time. Where Are Laverne Pavlinac and John Sosnovske Now? Update - The Cinemaholic It was easy, Pavlinac replied. According to Pavlinacs account, the murder happened at the Burns Brother Truckstop, which is in Washington County, not Multnomah. And it was a reminder that in our heads, we might have shame about something and no one really cares.". As they drove out there, she just watched the odometer. How A Witness Derailed The Hunt For A Killer: Laverne Pavlinac He wanted everything put on the AP wire. McIntyre felt angry. The Happy Face Killer is a nickname given to a serial killer who took the lives of at least eight women in the 1990s. Details of the murder were made public by the police in the hope that someone would come forward with insider knowledge. McIntyre seethed and paced about. . . When he did, he started to hear the full story out of Clark County. If Jesperson threw anything, it should still be here. The first time she publicly said her real age, Cox revealed, was at a speaking engagement in January of 2019. On the same day the crime lab report arrived, so did a deadly, unexpected diagnosis: His father had liver cancer. In a recent special with ABC that documents the shift in transgender visibility within mainstream American, actress and activist Laverne Cox opened up about her own childhood growing up trans in Mobile, Alabama. They still could convict Pavlinac. . Everyone but his detectives, after all, had been shown to be liars in this case. Laverne Pavlinac convinced investigators she and John Sosnovske had killed Taunja Bennett, when they hadn't. Could she really see the patrol cars odometer from the back seat? Hed called around, checked them out. Hardheaded, volatile, a pit bull, but honorable and conscientious--that was McIntyres professional reputation. Pavlinac then confessed to her. Her own daughter. She would pop in and pop out, and over the years, She was that type of person.". If you need help or need help supporting someone else, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. He described Bennetts underwear and shirt incorrectly. "[Julie] was beautiful inside as well as outside. . She was a victim. Police had never known where even to look for Bennetts purse or its contents. Mac, he said. The detectives swung into action. The experience shaped him. The next morning, in a cardboard box containing Sosnovskes papers, they found a half sheet of paper with the words T. Hed fed his children dinner earlier that evening, then left them in the care of his eldest daughter, now 13. They went to her home first thing that morning. McIntyre was not in a good mood. He hit her in the face, first once, then many times. Pavlinac and Sosnovske had nothing to do with it. His pager flashed Petersons number. In April 1989 shed called the FBI to say a bank robbers photo resembled Sosnovske. McIntyre waited for the pen to come out, waited for the release order to be signed. Episodes three and four of Netflix's Catching Killers details the story of the 'Happy Face' murders, including the elderly couple who spent four years in prison for a crime they didn't commit. I will say this about McIntyre and Schrunk, they were very dogged, said Phelan. She'sgiveher the shirt off her back," McAlpine said. Chris Peterson visited her at the Oregon Womens Correctional Institute in Salem. They werent afraid to backtrack, to look, to see if they had the right people in prison. Reports about two anonymous letters. Once at the gorge, he carried the body into the woods, then threw the shower curtain from the car window. I feel helpless. When the Bend mans lawyer finally told them to put up or shut up, McIntyre backed off. Case tapes reveal woman's incriminating confession to involvement in In late March, detectives had arrested Keith Jesperson, a long-haul trucker whom Winningham had been dating. OK, he said. But a few days later, they got another call from Pavlinac. Why Did Laverne Pavlinac Come Forward? McIntyre now felt certain Jesperson was involved in the crime. Laverne used those details as well as what she could gather from the news and concocted a story. Then she took--and passed--a polygraph exam. The detectives looked at each other, then turned on their tape recorder. She knew from news reports and a search warrant receipt that it was 1 1/2 miles east of Vista House, below an embankment, in a loop between switchbacks before Latourell Falls State Park. Al Corson did not readily embrace the notion of chasing press reports on a murder hed already solved. Whoever wrote them says he killed Taunja Bennett. McIntyre glowered at the phone, sport coat in hand. Each theory had its supporters. Hes lying. Aggravated murder with a life sentence, 30 years minimum. No way, McIntyre thought. They were convicted and sentenced to prison. In February 1987 shed called county probation to report he was drinking. Mike Schrunk told reporters his office was reviewing recent evidence. Hed been lead prosecutor on that case; hed put two people in prison for killing that young woman. Im sorry for the whole situation., When it was Sosnovskes turn, he addressed not her but the judge. The website is updated daily, frequently with exonerations that occurred in the past. Why Did Laverne Pavlinac Come Forward? More to the point, he accepted the lawyers proposals for how to free them. Nor were any of his own lofty, passionate proclamations to Pavlinacs jury. On the other hand, John wanted to escape the death penalty and hence pleaded no contest to the charges, which saw him also being sentenced to life in prison. I don't," Sosnovke is heard saying on the tape. Although the judge vacated Johns sentence, the show mentions that he refused to overturn Lavernes conviction claiming that she had abused the system and obstructed justice which allowed the real killer to roam free. After that, Pavlinac explained, the story just snowballed. . At this news, eyes opened wide all over the Multnomah County district attorneys office. He convinced Taunja to go home with him, and that was where he committed horrific acts before dumping Bennett's body after killing her. McIntyre felt like ripping his hair out. As she started to fall asleep that night, Jesperson told her that while she was gone, hed met a girl at the B&I; Tavern, brought her home, then killed her. Asked by the judge if she wished to speak, Pavlinac, handcuffed and shackled, rose and turned to Sosnovske, sitting just on the other side of her defense attorney. Both proclaimed their innocence. Shes not in custody. When the killer came forward, Sosnovske was released from prison; his conviction overturned. Birkland was haggling over the years but clearly thought this arrangement worth considering. Not a fiber or hair strand in his car, not a flaw in his account of that night. On the line, Ingram sounded baffled. Sometimes Jesperson got details right, often he did not. The National Registry of Exonerations is a project of the Newkirk Center for Science & Society at University of California Irvine, the University of Michigan Law School and Michigan State University College of Law. . She was standing in the parking lot, joking around with Sosnovske. Laverne Arlyce Pavlinac ( ne Johnson; December 19, 1932 - March 4, 2003) [1] was an American woman who falsely confessed to assisting in the 1990 murder of 23-year-old Taunja Bennett of Portland, Oregon; she also implicated her boyfriend, John Sosnovske, in Bennett's murder. When Jesperson finished, McIntyre considered. . Nine of the jurors actually wanted the more serious charge of aggravated murder. No news account had ever provided a hint. As she walked, she spoke over her shoulder. In late 1990, Birkland started negotiating the precise terms of a plea bargain. Laverne Pavlinac, who, along with John Sosnovske, was convicted for the killing of Taunja Bennett, waits at the Oregon Women's Correctional Center in Salem, Ore., Oct. 27, 1995, for word on her release. Jesperson was linked to murdering six other women, some of which remain unknown to this day: an unidentified woman who Jesperson said was named "Claudia" in August 1992 near Blythe, California; Cynthia Lynn Rose in September 1992 in Turlock, California; Lori Ann Pentland in November 1992 in Salem, Oregon; an unidentified woman who Jesperson said was named "Carla" in June 1993 in Santa Nella, California; an unidentified woman who Jesperson said was named "Suzanne" in September 1994 in Crestview, Florida; and Angela Subrize in January 1995 in Laramie County, Wyoming. In exchange, shed get everything else. What was going on here? Days later, on February 5, the police received a call from Laverne wherein she claimed to have overheard John boast about killing Taunja. Id give them accolades. Pavlinac's conviction remained, although she was also released. The anonymous writer now claimed Taunja Bennetts was the first of five murders hed committed while working as a long-haul trucker. Still, McIntyre wondered. Pavlinac was tried first. He offered unlimited access to Jesperson--in exchange for no death penalty. Goddamn, he fumed. Before serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson, known by his nickname "Happy Face Killer," turned himself in, authorities believed they had solved the murder of his first victim Taunja Bennett. He kept saying hang on, hang on. Then he turned on the tape recorder. Hed heard good things, but hed also been told McIntyre was hardheaded. Not only did they have an airtight eyewitness, not only was Sosnovske already in jail--he was in another countys jail. Pavlinac told investigators during her last recorded statement on Feb. 26, 1990. Pavlinac told police she had helped her boyfriend, John Sosnovske, kill Bennett and move her body. Youre on Jesperson full time. McIntyre grew animated. It was in those statements--expanded upon at trial and amplified by her defense attorney Wendell Birkland--that Pavlinacs last story gradually emerged. Hes seen police reports, he wants 60 Minutes, he wants Gerry Spence. Phelan wouldnt do anything against his clients best interests. This case hasnt made him gunshy about his job. That made it their case again. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. Sosnovske pleaded no contest to the killing of Taunja Bennett, believing it would steer him clear of the death sentence. By then, theyd identified the victim as Taunja Bennett, 23, a mildly retarded and emotionally disturbed regular on the local tavern scene. Then his GI bill ran out at the end of his second year. For days on end in May 1994, Corson and Ingram scrambled across eastern Oregon, tracking the Bend man whose wife thought he might be the Happy Face Killer. As she drove, she heard him cutting Taunjas jeans. . After contacting police, Ms. Pavlinac and Mr. Sosnovske were charged with the murder, the latter eventually pleading guilty to avoid the death penalty. A jury had convicted a Portland woman named Laverne Pavlinac based on her detailed confession to police that she helped her boyfriend John Sosnovske rape and kill the 23-year-old. Both were serving life. The pair were convicted in 1991 for the murder of Taujna Bennett, 23, of Portland.. Bennett was dead. He has to sell the goddamn car. Or 'I will cause trouble for your family. No one really paid attention to this, even though he'd signed the confession with a hand-drawn happy face. Nothing had convinced him theyd made a mistake. Yes, Im sick, but I enjoy myself too. Shes been convicted legally, Libscomb declared. That night, he scrawled, he saw Taunja Bennett at JBs. Laverne Pavlinac and John Sosnovske are seen here in this 1985 family photo. . All during the negotiations, hed been telling Meisenheimer they were giving away too much. What a hassle, what an irritation. Same old bull, McIntyre thought. Schrunks office differs from most, it was said. . McIntyre called his boss. Holding a trident, she stood bent over, with one hand cupped. Per Murderpedia, the first message Jesperson wrote to make his crimes public was found on a restroom wall at a truck stop in Oregon. They were forcing him to relinquish his sense of certainty. Oregonian, The (Portland, OR) - March 7, 2003 Deceased Name: Laverne Brown Pavlinac A graveside service will be at 11 a.m. Friday, March 7, 2003, in Apiary Cemetery in Rainer, Wash., for Laverne Brown Pavlinac, who died March 4 at age 70. I dont know what those letters are about, he told his boss. . She told investigators she drove them to a scenic overlook at the Columbia Gorge, where Sosnovske told her to pull over. It was Det. Pavlinac could be heard sobbing throughout the courtroom. "I'm told to place her into a holding cell I say, 'OK, Laverne, now you need to go into that room right there,' She turned around and she looked at me and she gave me a hug. More than 25 years have passed since the ordeal, and in that time, both Sosnovske and Pavlinac have died. At this remote spot the embankment was steep and thick with blackberry bushes; not even God has passed by, McIntyre told himself. I knew it had to be around there someplace. Had the detectives, trying to corroborate those stories, asked questions that led and fed Pavlinac? Laverne Cox Reveals She's Not Lying About Her Age Anymore He already had the kids much of the time. His battles with the church arent over, How Palm Springs ran out Black and Latino families to build a fantasy for rich, white people, U.N. envoy says Sudans warring sides agree to negotiate, Yellen says U.S. could hit debt ceiling as soon as June 1, U.S. says 20,000 Russians killed in Ukraine war since December, Speaker Kevin McCarthy addresses Knesset amid fraught U.S.-Israel ties, First Republic: Cheap, interest-only jumbo mortgages to Silicon Valleys elite fueled the banks failure. Yet thats what he felt obliged to do. Knowing this, Sosnovske and his attorney had little appetite for a trial. They interviewed bartenders, they distributed photos, they built timelines. Convicted murderer Keith Jesperson, right, shown here at a Nov. 2, 1995, court appearance in Portland, Ore., with attorney Thomas Phelan, has recanted all his previous murder admissions. I used a 1/2 inch soft nylon rope, burnt on one end, fraid cut on the other and tied it around her neck . Daily News reports 57-year-old Laverne Pavlinac confessed she and her boyfriend, 39-year-old John Sosnovske, kidnapped, attacked, and killed Pavlinac before dumping her body along the highway. Punched her, slapped her. Only occasionally does someone--as Wendell Birkland did recently--suggest that this isnt an isolated case, Laverne is not the only innocent person convicted by people of goodwill.. ABCs 20/20: Happy Face Killer chronicles Taunjas gruesome death and portrays how the entire country was left shocked once Lavernes confession turned out to be false. us about an exoneration that we may have missed, Correct an error or add information about an exoneration Pavlinac strategically phoned the local force with details of a concerning 'conversation'. Jim was 14. There were forensic tests to arrange, cross-county assignments to figure out, evidence to corroborate. She went on to say that all three were in Johns car when he suddenly punched Taunja unconscious. Three times before making the anonymous calls about Bennetts murder, shed tried to pin other things on Sosnovske. Hi Brad, the handprinted letter began. It was clear: He had information only Taunja Bennetts killer could know. After both got into Pavlinacs car, they started arguing. Before long, her claims began to implicate herself in the murder as well. He sat down on his bed and picked up a phone. . From where he sat, he could see the radiant bronze statue of a woman, perched gracefully on a terrace by the Portland City Hall. He also sketched a smiling face atop his first page. They drove east from Vista House, then stopped. . Who Killed Her? Late that night--and then almost every night--Pavlinac paged Ingram and Corson with new information: reports on Sosnovske, expressions of fear, memories of past events. OK, Det. Why did she confess? Duo Finally Freed in Murder That They Didn'T Commit She told investigators she had gone to the bar to meet Sosnovke, but Bennett was alive when she picked them up and both got in the car with her. Sosnovske called her from JBs Lounge late that night, Pavlinac began. I didnt plan to kill her, Pavlinac sobbed. Phelan was already there, waiting in a back conference room. Weve received some reports, his boss, the Multnomah County district attorney, was murmuring on his voice mail. Once more, a person was claiming to have killed Taunja Bennett. Still, people were asking questions. Thered been lots of press attention, all sorts of bizarre elements. Nor could Schrunk or Meisenheimer. Laverne Pavlinac, right, touches the tear-stained face of her grandaughter, Nicole Sullivan, after being released from prison in Salem, Ore., Nov. 27, 1995. He looked huge to McIntyre. Good Piece printed in pencil. But it was earlier, about 10:30 p.m., and Taunja was alive still. "I had been worried about this for a long time", he said. McIntyre thought they had a done deal. When do you ever see two different people confessing to the same crime, both with facts only the killer could know? In mid-February, the cases two lead investigators, Al Corson and John Ingram, came to brief them. Like the Happy Face Killer, he claimed to have started killing five years before. Who in their right mind is going to put himself in a car with a homicide victim if he didnt even know her? In November 1995, Jesperson pleaded no contest to murdering Bennett. No, no, Sosnovske cried. News of Taunja's brutal death made local news, and 57-year-old Laverne Pavlinac read about its details. It was, nevertheless, so very powerful, so very meaningful. With the statement remaining as shed previously told it? The Registry provides detailed information about every known exoneration in the United States since 1989cases in which a person was wrongly convicted of a crime and later cleared of all the charges based on new evidence of innocence. "Now, I'm thinking, 'She's confessed she's pointed out the dump site, she's confessed to us on tape. On the last day of the trial, McIntyre watched Wendell Birkland beseech the jury for seven hours--Its not logical to assume that this 58-year-old grandmother strangled a girl to death--before finally sitting down. Hell, he thought. "John That's the worst thing you've ever gotten yourself into," she told him. In mid-March, theyd found the nude body of Julie Ann Winningham, dumped down a scenic bank off a Columbia Gorge highway. The murders all started when I wondered what it would be like to kill someone. McIntyre sat in his office, studying the first anonymous letter. Laverne was a victim herself. I'll hurt your family.'". McIntyre saw nowhere else to look for an anonymous author who liked to sketch happy faces. Hed worked as a welder and equipment operator. How could she possibly not be telling the truth?. We welcome new information from any source about exonerations already on our list and about cases not in the Registry that might be exonerations. Before the return of a jurys verdict, a district attorney has almost complete discretion over how and whether to prosecute a criminal case. With his children, McIntyre sat by his ailing father hour after hour. In 1995, Keith Jesperson, who was known as the Happy Face Killer, confessed to killing Bennett and gave information only the killer and the police knewthe location of Bennetts purse. Well, she said, maybe she only glanced at it. Sosnovske would later plead no contest to the murder charge. Bring something plastic that wont leak. I feel badly that I couldnt see through this, he said. I wanted him caught.. Nor had Pavlinac. But shes still credible. She hadnt bailed them out, she hadnt convinced them. She also seen tire tracks and broken branches. She wanted to see him behind bars - and when details of an unsolved murder case were made public knowledge, she found her chance.