Smiley Face Killer(s)

[Don Wassall]

I just read about this today for the first time, and the link below is from a site (Cosmo, run by the usual suspects) that calls it "insane" and deliberately omits the most important fact. Since 1997, "hundreds of college-aged men have been found dead in bodies of water across 25 cities in 11 different states. Although nearly all of the cases have been classified as accidental or undetermined, there's a theory that at least 45 of the hundreds of victims have been killed by a network now referred to as the Smiley Face Killers, named for the chilling smiley face graffiti found near many of the crime scenes."

Also, "most of the victims are college-aged men who were notably successful in athletics, academics, or both."

The key fact left out is that every single one of these hundreds of dead college men are White! The article I read earlier today ran in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which has always been liberal, but at least had the integrity to mention that all the victims are White.

The Oxygen Network is beginning a series about it tomorrow, called "Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice."

The most recent victim was a college kid here in Pittsburgh, Dakota James, who disappeared after a night of drinking and whose corpse was found in the river 10 miles away some six weeks later, which is why the upcoming show and the theory behind it got some publicity here today. His death was ruled an accidental drowning but his parents (who must have some clout because his disappearance was heavily covered here) don't buy it nor do others who have examined the autopsy reports like the iconoclastic coroner Cyril Wecht.

Here's the Cosmo article, which gives some more background sans the screamingly obvious racial angle: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/tv/a25938260/smiley-face-killers-tv-series-true-story/

 

[Extra Point]

This brings to mind the Zebra murders in which white people were hunted and murdered in the 1970s. The mainstream media refused to report the racial aspect of the murders.

 

[sport historian]

This brings to mind the Zebra murders in which white people were hunted and murdered in the 1970s. The mainstream media refused to report the racial aspect of the murders.

The media DID acknowledge the Zebra killings were racial murders at the time, but the story went down Orwell's memory hole.

 

[Bucky]

Very eerie. I remember hearing about these cases a few years back when my mom warned me to watch myself come bar close.. Several believed Smiley Face killings in Milwaukee near the river and out west in La Crosse and Minneapolis. The fact that there have been killings throughout 11 states in Upper Midwest is disturbing. Even more disturbing is lack of leads on suspects.

Also reminds me of this YouTube video I saw a few months back. Chris Jenkins was a 4.0 student and captain of Minnesota La Crosse team. Another believed victim of Smiley Face Killer(s).

 

[Don Wassall]

I just accidentally stumbled onto the Oxygen Network series I mentioned in the first post of the thread while browsing tonight's TV schedule. It's a 90 minute show and focuses on Dakota James and provides compelling evidence that he was murdered as another victim of the Smiley Face killer or killers, although the county medical examiner remains the barrier to having his death reopened as an active murder investigation instead of a closed accidental death. Two retired NYC cops have been investigating the Smiley Face murders since 2008 and the show focuses on their efforts, along with that of Dakota's parents.

The parents live in Frederick, Maryland and look to be middle class to upper middle class at most. Turns out Dakota was homosexual, which may explain why his disappearance was so highly publicized in Pittsburgh, along with his parents' unswerving determination to get to the truth of what happened to him. Race is never mentioned as something the hundreds of victims share in common, as it obviously should be, but neither is homosexuality as in Dakota's case he was the captain of his high school swim team and thus deviated in that way from the usual pattern of the victims being accomplished athletes.

Interesting viewing, it repeats several times over the next several days.

 

[sport historian]

I saw the program. Dakota James was seen on security camera after he left the bar. He was walking by himself down an alley which lead to a street with three bridges nearby. James was walking home alone close to midnight, something that can be dangerous.

The Pittsburgh police deduced he walked down the steps beside the Roberto Clemente Bridge and fell into the river to drown. This isn't very plausible. It certainly looks like he was abducted. The autopsy photo has evidence of a strangling.

This kind of kidnap-murder is almost impossible to solve if it was done by strangers, and with no DNA/forensic evidence. James' friends and family won't know the names of the killer(s). This is why a serial killer could kill dozens of people without being identified, especially pre-DNA. But these killings don't appear to be "sexual." My impression is some of the victims were homosexual but most weren't. And all were white.

The next new episode is this coming Saturday.

 

[whiteathlete33]

I just accidentally stumbled onto the Oxygen Network series I mentioned in the first post of the thread while browsing tonight's TV schedule. It's a 90 minute show and focuses on Dakota James and provides compelling evidence that he was murdered as another victim of the Smiley Face killer or killers, although the county medical examiner remains the barrier to having his death reopened as an active murder investigation instead of a closed accidental death. Two retired NYC cops have been investigating the Smiley Face murders since 2008 and the show focuses on their efforts, along with that of Dakota's parents.

The parents live in Frederick, Maryland and look to be middle class to upper middle class at most. Turns out Dakota was homosexual, which may explain why his disappearance was so highly publicized in Pittsburgh, along with his parents' unswerving determination to get to the truth of what happened to him. Race is never mentioned as something the hundreds of victims share in common, as it obviously should be, but neither is homosexuality as in Dakota's case he was the captain of his high school swim team and thus deviated in that way from the usual pattern of the victims being accomplished athletes.

Interesting viewing, it repeats several times over the next several days.

Don, did these murders all happen in bad areas and do you think they are racially motivated?

 

[Don Wassall]

Don, did these murders all happen in bad areas and do you think they are racially motivated?

When hundreds of young White men, sharing in common a good academic and athletic background, all supposedly stumble into rivers and lakes and drown, there's an overwhelming racial (and gender) pattern there. Almost like there's a deliberate culling of the potentially best and brightest taking place, much as what happened as the result of the two world wars last century but on a much smaller scale.

What strikes me about the Dakota James case and apparently all the others is the lack of surveillance footage of them being attacked or abducted. If he was murdered, Dakota likely was grabbed somewhere in that alley he walked down right after the last known surveillance photo was taken of him, because once the alley ended he was back in a high-traffic, high-security area of downtown Pittsburgh, including near hotels, the baseball and football stadiums, etc., where cameras are plentiful.

We've gone from being the Land of the Free to now being the Land of the Surveillance Camera, so if this is an organized group of racially motivated serial killers, there's a high intelligence behind it as a key factor to pull off successfully every time is to know where all the surveillance cameras are in a given area and how to evade them. So either it's a just a pattern of eerie coincidences, or it's something quite sinister that is well thought out and executed.

 

[sport historian]

When hundreds of young White men, sharing in common a good academic and athletic background, all supposedly stumble into rivers and lakes and drown, there's an overwhelming racial (and gender) pattern there. Almost like there's a deliberate culling of the potentially best and brightest taking place, much as what happened as the result of the two world wars last century but on a much smaller scale.

What strikes me about the Dakota James case and apparently all the others is the lack of surveillance footage of them being attacked or abducted. If he was murdered, Dakota likely was grabbed somewhere in that alley he walked down right after the last known surveillance photo was taken of him, because once the alley ended he was back in a high-traffic, high-security area of downtown Pittsburgh, including near hotels, the baseball and football stadium, etc., where cameras are plentiful.

We've gone from being the Land of the Free to now being the Land of the Surveillance Camera, so if this is an organized group of racially motivated serial killers, there's a high intelligence behind it as a key factor to pull off successfully every time is to know where all the surveillance cameras are in a given area and how to evade them. So either it's a just a pattern of eerie coincidences, or it's something quite sinister that is well thought out and executed.

I'am a trial junkie going back some 40 years. You can't say anything is definite until you have all the details. The first reports of a crime are often wrong. I repeat, the Dakota James case looks like an abduction.

You have to have a name to have a suspect. Sometimes a tip will come out of nowhere and break a case. Or a reward, if offered. As of now there are apparently no witnesses, surveillance video, or named suspects. There are presumably no survivors of attacks who have come forward.

With the Zebra Killings, black males were SEEN by many people killing a white person. Several San Francisco victims survived and told what happened.

Note Jayme Closs, the 13-year old girl who this month escaped her captor. When her parents were found dead and her missing, some said "She killed her parents and ran off," or "The girl was in on it with the killer." Both of these theories turned out 100% wrong.

 

[Charles Martel]

 

[sport historian]

As for dead bodies pulled out of rivers, people underestimate the danger rivers can have and die in them, especially when drunk.