02/16/2023
THE SMILEY FACE KILLER
On February 16, 1997, a young man named Patrick McNeill was last seen drinking with friends in a Manhattan bar before going missing. Two months later, his body was found 12 miles away, near the entrance to New York Harbor. It seemed to be another tragic death in a city that had seen far too many already that year, but something about this was different. Although there had been so sign of foul play, detectives were not convinced his death wasn’t murder.
If it was, then it was the first in a series of at least 45 murders that have been attributed to the Smiley Face Killer, who may be one of the most prolific serial killers in American history – IF he exists at all.
Over the years, conspiracy theorists have managed to link nearly four dozen drowning murders of college-aged men. The FBI insists there is no connection between these men and no killer leaving painted smiley faces at the place where he dumps their bodies. It seems that no matter how hard the authorities try to end these rumors and stop the theories from spreading, the Smiley Face Killer stories refuse to go away.
And worse, the bodies keep turning up.
The theory of this killer originated with two New York City police detectives, Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte. They concluded that the deaths of at least 45 young men by drowning have too many similarities to be unrelated. Although the theory began in connection with bodies found in New York City, it spread to include murder cases across the Midwest. In at least a dozen cases, a painted smiley face was found near a body of water where a victim's co**se was dumped.
Nearly all the victims of the mysterious Smiley Face Killer were white, good-looking, athletic, and successful college men, leading many to believe that the motive behind the murders might be pathological jealousy. One man, though, or many? The detectives later altered their theory to say that the Smiley Face Killer might be one than one man – an organized group of murderers. They were so convinced they were on the right track that they even used their own money to continue the investigation after official funds were cut off.
The Smiley Face Murders began with the death of 21-year-old Patrick McNeill. Last seen drinking with friends, he vanished that same night. Volunteers plastered the city with thousands of “Missing” fliers, but Patrick’s body wasn’t found until two months later. The police found no evidence of foul play, but Detectives Gannon and Duarte weren’t sure and kept working the case. As more bodies were found, their theory was developed.
In almost every case attributed to the Smiley Face Killer, the deaths were ruled accidental drownings involving alcohol. The FBI and several police organizations have researched the deaths and concluded there is no link, even publishing an exhaustive report with 18 reasons why the theory doesn’t hold up. Namely, they say that smiley faces are a common form of graffiti and that it's just a coincidence that the painted faces have turned up at the death scenes.
But not everyone – including Detectives Gannon and Duarte – were convinced. Some investigators agree with the detectives, stating there are just too many similarities in the deaths to put it down to pure coincidence. And there have been frequent requests to the FBI to pick up the investigation, including one in 2008 from a Wisconsin congressman.
Gannon and Duarte continued their investigations of drowning deaths of other college-aged men for years. Among them was the Halloween night 2002 disappearance of Chris Jenkins, a 21-year-old University of Minnesota student whose body was found floating in the Mississippi River four months later, still wearing his Halloween costume. Though police initially said his death was an accident or su***de, it was later reclassified as a homicide following statements from a jail-house informant.
It was while investigating this death that Gannon and Duarte first noticed a smiley face leering at them where Jenkins was allegedly thrown into the river. There would be many more of these faces found, with some bearing devil horns or grim messages written next to them. The detectives believed it meant that the killer was laughing at the police.
Gannon and Duarte ultimately claimed the drowning deaths of more than 40 young men were possibly interconnected murders. The deaths occurred in 25 cities and 11 different states, including New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
Gannon and Duarte believed the victims were drugged while out drinking with friends, then abducted, in some instances tortured, and ultimately murdered. The bodies were then put into the frigid waters, where they would float away from the crime scene and theoretically rinse the victim’s body clean of incriminating evidence, such as fingerprints or DNA.
The most recent murder believed linked to the Smiley Face Killer was in 2016 when a 24-year-old man named Matthew Genovese disappeared after drinking in a local pub in Hoboken, New Jersey. He was found a short time later, apparently drowned. Like so many of the other supposedly connected murders, Genovese’s body showed no signs of foul play.
Gannon and Duarte are both retired now, after spending years – and plenty of their own money – on the Smiley Face Killer theory. But there are plenty of others who keep asking questions. The theory continues to hold the popular imagination, especially online, where blogs and social media posts continue to examine and obsess over the details of each case, the alleged crimes, and the potential victims. There is constant speculation whether more recent drownings might be tied to the Smiley Face Killer.
Though the Smiley Face Killer murder theory hasn’t led to any arrests or definitive answers over the spate of drowning deaths of young men, the victims’ families and dozens of armchair detectives still hold out hope that the Smiley Face Killer theory will prove to be true. It would lend some sense of meaning to the deaths of the many victims whose unexplained drownings still haunt their loved ones.
