Smiley Face Killers – CNN

submitted by Kal

May 21 2008 — 2:00am

The story is making it to national news tonight at 10/9c.

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17 Reader Comments

cdiggity May 22 2008
8:37 am

The smiley face thing is just about the weakest thing in the entire conspiracy theory.

The fact that we’ve never seen pictures of all these “smiley faces” leads me to believe they’re probably not even similar in style, making it most likely just a coincidence.

But then again, it’s high drama, American sheeples love this sort of thing.

jones May 22 2008
8:44 am

They don’t have to be similar in style since it’s a ‘network of serial killers’, not one person. There are pictures of some of them.

wayno May 22 2008
8:45 am

do they collaborate via IRC?

give me a fucking break. this is so asinine.

Mpls Simpleton May 22 2008
8:48 am

I would think if you are going to organize a band of serial killers you would at least take the time to put together a style guide. How in the hell are you going to maintain a consistent brand statement if everyone is free to interpret the smiley face?

jones May 22 2008
8:49 am

They vary so that each one can be more haunting than the next!

The detectives believe that the smiley faces were left by the killer or killers. They varied in size, with each face more haunting than the next.

The most sinister was found in Iowa. It was drawn in red with a devil’s horns. Next to the smiley face was a note that read, “Evil Happy Smiley Face Man.”

Asked whether he believed there was a hidden message in the smiley faces, Duarte told CNN, “The message is, they’re taunting the police.”

Duarte and Gannon said they found 12 other matching symbols similar to gang graffiti. But, to protect their investigation, they wouldn’t describe them in detail. The detectives say the string of deaths could be the work of more than one killer because some of them took place on the same day in different states.

“It’s so widespread. We have so many different victims in so many different areas,” Duarte said. “It would, in my view, be impossible to be one person.”

kurtis May 22 2008
8:54 am

If you picked 20 locations at random you might find a relatively common sign or symbol at all of them, especially if you give yourself a lot of flexibility in terms of proximity and the specific style of the symbol.

Mpls Simpleton May 22 2008
8:55 am

Would some of these days where more than one incident occurred happen to be St Patrick’s Day, Halloween, New Years Eve, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving? Or collectively know as the Amateur College Drinking Holidays?

Kal May 22 2008
9:01 am

there is a video in the CNN article up top. in case you missed it.

Elizabeth May 22 2008
9:04 am

In the first week of May, there was an article on this subject in that bastion of journalism, People Magazine.

JACC May 22 2008
10:22 am

The fact that we’ve never seen pictures of all these “smiley faces” leads me to believe they’re probably not even similar in style
I saw this on CNN yesterday when I was at the gym and thought ‘Yeah, right.’

Though, I do know of a few stores that use Smiley Face plastic bags. Hmmmm.

acalhoun May 22 2008
11:27 am

I remember when I was at UW-Eau Claire and like 3 or 4 guys went missing… and then we started hearing about people at the UM and in Collegeville, etc.

I doubt it’s serial killers. I think it’s just that reporters have increased their coverage of drunken college kids falling in water out of misguided attempts at correlation.

wayno May 22 2008
1:03 pm

I mean, really, people paint stupid shit like smiley faces down by rivers?

no way! It has to mean something! I bet there’s something with all that ‘tagging’ too! It’s a network of street gangs offing people!

kingkurtis Jun 4 2008
2:46 pm

there are dead innocent people you stupid shits! to discount the cops ability, is like saying whatever skill you have in any field can be mocked. i build ships, and if you think that is “dumb” work, you dont have a clue. however it would be easy to dismiss my knowledge, and say i am a simple boat builder…duh, water on the outside, and you stay floating right? whats there to know? very shallow thinking. if there are smiley faces at 20 plus body locations, then duh, its a clue. to say, its not is discounting the obvious. yes americans love the dramatic. and jeffery dalhmer ate people. baretta killed his wife, and so did oj. these criminals were off the radar before they were busted, to the masses. weird motherfuckers exist, and do weird shit. generations that have mansons, and btk killers in the rearview, are surely going to be freakier than their predessors. thats human social “progress”. in a few years this smiley face thing will seem like nothing to the evil that will surface. bart simpson said “eat my shorts” and the world flipped…18 years ago…human development, and tolerance, now has hanna montanna posing half naked. the world moves twords evil, and this is no different.

mb Jun 4 2008
2:50 pm

I will agree with kingkurtis on Hannah Montana being evil.

kurtis Jun 4 2008
3:43 pm

FTR, I am not kingkurtis.

indyr May 1 2009
4:02 pm

The STrib is reporting that a body has been found in the Mississippi River near the Ford plant.

If it’s the young man who disappeared a few weeks ago, I wonder if Smiley Face Killer hysteria will be whipped up again…

Cathy Nunez May 6 2009
2:42 pm

I doubt it. A new book has debunked the Smiley Face Killer crap.

http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2009/05/06/news/z00book0506.txt