Episode 132 · The GaS Digital / Ray Kump Era
The Smiley Face Killers
Jan 26, 2019 · 1:28:34 · 23 segments, 155 moments indexed
- 1 min
Opening music, applause, and the show title announcement before Tim begins talking.
1moment
- 0:00Tim Dillon Is Going To Hell opening theme begins
- 3 min
Walking Back the Covington Kids Tweet
#Tim explains why he deleted a joke tweet about the Covington Catholic/Lincoln Memorial controversy after the full video exonerated the kids, and rants about the media's rush to judgment and the left's demonization of MAGA-hat teens.
7moments
- 0:23Tim took down a tweet joking about the Covington kids situation at the Lincoln Memorial.
- 0:46The media's misrepresentation of the event was willful and almost nobody did their due diligence.
- 1:06Tim tweeted a joke saying the video was a reminder that some of the children need to be shot, acknowledging it's hard material to land.
- 1:30The full video exonerated the kids—they didn't start anything and were actually being harassed by Black Israelites and the Native American man.
- 1:59The kids' only crime in the left's eyes was being white, wearing MAGA hats, and attending a pro-life march.
- 2:44Even with new evidence, Twitter users are digging deeper, imagining the kids as racist, misogynist, homophobic Nazis based purely on their appearance.
- 3:18Tim wouldn't want his own kids walking around in any political hat or ideology shirt—he'd tell them to be unique people, not advertisements.
Covington situationTwittermediaBlack IsraelitesLincoln MemorialAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez
- 2 min
Relapsing Into Conspiracy Theories
#Tim recalls declaring he was done with conspiracy theories to avoid being 'that guy' at parties, then reflects on early life choices, including doing coke as a kid and failing to get into Regis, a Manhattan Catholic prep school.
5moments
- 3:44Tim deleted the tweet and Instagram post in question, noting nobody really cares.
- 4:05A few weeks ago he announced he was done with conspiracy theories and didn't want to be that guy anymore.
- 4:36People kept approaching him after shows to unload their own conspiracy theories on him.
- 5:01Early life choices follow you forever—he made multiple ones, starting with cocaine at age 12 or 13.
- 5:19Taking a test for Regis, a high-end prep school in New York, would have given him an entirely different life had he gotten in.
- 2 min
Can't Quit the Dark Stuff
#He muses on his lifelong pull toward conspiracy theories and the news cycle's absurdity, admitting he'll probably never get real answers but can't stop chasing them.
4moments
- 5:33Tim attended public school on Long Island and surrounded himself with people he calls the "Legion of Zeroes" — people who could do nothing for him and he for them.
- 5:48Wonders if attending a Catholic school instead would have given him access to a different social class and made him a different person.
- 6:12References 72 hours of people threatening to kill teenagers while others debated whether that was justified.
- 6:39Acknowledges there might be real substance to conspiracy theories, but accepts he'll never figure it out or find the truth he's looking for.
- 3 min
Wisconsin Cheese Shop and Discovering the Smiley Face Killers Article
#Stuck in freezing Madison, Wisconsin, Tim gets guilted into buying $80 of cheese, then reads a Daily Beast article about the 'Smiley Face Killers' theory of a serial-killer gang murdering young men across the Midwest.
4moments
- 7:16Tim was in Wisconsin when a friend texted him a Daily Beast link about the smiley face killers.
- 8:24He got beat on eighty dollars worth of cheese at a Wisconsin cheese shop after an elderly woman kept feeding him samples.
- 9:10Tim was supposed to quit dairy and conspiracy theories but ended up reading about serial killers while eating black pepper bellavetano in his hotel room.
- 9:37The article's premise: a shadowy gang targeting athletic, successful young men like him and Raymond, who are both community college graduates.
smiley face killersThe Daily BeastMadison, WisconsinRay KumpNative American at Lincoln Memorial
- 3 min
Breaking Down the Smiley Face Killer Pattern
#Tim details the pattern of drownings — athletic college men vanishing after nights out, found later in rivers with inconsistent time-of-death evidence — and compares it to his own drug-fueled but drowning-free youth on Long Island.
8moments
- 10:20Young men fitting a pattern: out drinking, separated from friends, found weeks later in nearby rivers.
- 10:31Tim's initial thought: drunk people fall in rivers, but the specifics get strange.
- 10:46The victims leave bars with friends, walk two miles in wrong direction, end up in water—coroners say they'd only been dead days despite missing weeks.
- 11:13Tim grew up on Long Island surrounded by water where nobody drowned, despite heavy drug and alcohol use among his peers.
- 11:50The victims share a type: attractive, athletic college kids who disappeared after nights out.
- 12:14Tim starts emailing detectives, book authors, and dark web contacts trying to solve it himself.
- 12:25He contrasts his obsessive investigation style with normal people who have wives, kids, and jobs that prevent going crazy.
- 12:42Tim applies DaVinci Code energy to the theory, considering MKUltra and government abductions of the victims.
missing person cases in riversLong IslandMK UltraBostonNew YorkWisconsin
- 2 min
Going Down the Rabbit Hole: Emailing Detectives and Dark Web Theories
#He describes spiraling into obsessive research, emailing detectives and dark-web contacts, and explains how untraceable messages (even inside video games) could let a killer network communicate.
6moments
- 12:51Tim argues the cops and FBI dismiss deaths as accidental when they may not be, citing FBI denial of the Franklin scandal.
- 13:19Oxygen aired a limited series about these deaths dubbed the Smiley Face Killers based on graffiti found near some recovery sites.
- 13:44The graffiti connection is weak—sometimes found so far from bodies it seems negligible to the investigation.
- 14:02Tim questions why young athletes would walk miles from bars in winter when they have Uber and Lyft available.
- 14:29The pattern of deaths is strange because these victims weren't poor and had resources to get home safely.
- 14:45Detective Kevin Gannon followed the case for years and held a press conference in 2008 about the coordinated killings.
smiley face killersFBIOxygenKevin GannonFranklin scandalMartin Luther King
- 3 min
Detective Kevin Gannon's Smiley Face Killer Theory
#Tim lays out detective Kevin Gannon's 2008 press conference theory of coordinated 'cells' drugging victims with GHB and dumping bodies in rivers, and mentions author Steph Young's book on the cases.
7moments
- 14:56Detective Gannon emerges in 2008 with a theory: organized crews in different cities are killing men and dumping them in rivers.
- 15:25None of the bodies show signs of trauma or struggle, suggesting the victims were drugged before being killed.
- 15:45Many bodies tested positive for GHB, a date rape drug, according to medical examiners and reporting in the Daily Beast.
- 16:10The suspected operation: crews stake out bars, drug targets, lure them away, kill them either on-site or elsewhere, and dump bodies in rivers.
- 16:42Tim notes a timing problem—rivers are searched immediately after disappearances, yet bodies sometimes show up a month later in the same spot.
- 17:07This creates two possibilities: either searchers missed the body initially, or the victim was killed elsewhere and deposited later.
- 17:18Tim has been emailing detectives for information but getting no response, so he's reading a book on the subject by Steph Young, who published under the pen name Stephen Young.
smiley face killersSteph YoungThe Daily BeastUniversity of St. Cloud, MinnesotaGannon
- 3 min
Who's Behind It: Amish Inbreeding, Occult Cults, and Government Cover-ups
#He runs through competing theories for who's responsible — an inbred Amish group harvesting semen, a Manson-style occult cult, MKUltra-style government involvement — and riffs on America's under-examined occult history including Bohemian Grove.
8moments
- 17:41A paranormal researcher's book documents the improbable pattern of athletic, good-looking men drowning in rivers after being separated from friends at bars.
- 18:18Detective Gannon investigated 10 to 14 eerily similar cases and developed the smiley face killer theory.
- 18:39According to Daily Beast articles, a group communicating on the dark web is suspected in these cases.
- 18:54Tim's friend explained that messages can be hidden in video game walls with no trace or record.
- 19:20The suspected network operates in cells throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the heartland, with significant occult activity in the region.
- 19:47One theory: Amish people are kidnapping these men because their closed bloodline has caused birth defects from inbreeding, so they need genetic material from outside sources.
- 20:15Another theory posits an occult group similar to the Manson Family that went underground and possibly has CIA or government involvement.
- 20:25Cops and the FBI appear reluctant to investigate these clearly suspect events, suggesting possible reasons for their lack of effort.
smiley face killersAmishdark webManson murdersCIAThe Daily BeastGannonparanormal researcher
- 4 min
Numerology, Envy, and the Wall of Not Knowing
#Tim weighs numerology and symbolic significance in victim selection, dismisses the theory that poor jealous people are behind it, and admits the investigation hits a wall of unknowables.
9moments
- 20:56Over 300 people ending up in rivers with identical stories suggests something organized is happening to them.
- 21:20The victims are last seen with other college kids or a couple buying them drinks at bars, then disappear for a month before surfacing in rivers.
- 21:45Tim theorizes the perpetrators communicate on the dark web and operate like terrorist cells.
- 22:05He questions whether graffiti associated with the deaths has cult significance.
- 22:24American history hasn't properly examined occult and Masonic influences on how powerful groups in the country formed and behave.
- 23:10Occult doesn't mean Hot Topic goths; it means people with a shared belief system that drives their actions.
- 23:39Bohemian Grove members wear hoods in Monterey, California and perform mock sacrifices to Moloch the owl as fraternity camaraderie.
- 24:03The victims killed share a similar profile, suggesting a deliberate targeting.
- 24:21Numerology—the number of letters in a name and the significance of dates when people disappear—may play a role in the killings.
- 3 min
Dave McGowan's 'Programmed to Kill' Detour
#He connects the case to Dave McGowan's book about serial killers being programmed/covered-up members of larger groups, citing Son of Sam, and admits going further down that particular rabbit hole than he had time for.
4moments
- 25:00Poor people kill each other largely, not out of envy at rich college kids.
- 25:30Tim jokes that if he murdered people out of envy, he'd murder everyone constantly, including envying a husky's better life.
- 26:09Possible explanations include government involvement, MK, or initiation rites into secret orders, but nothing is certain.
- 26:27A comedian named Rory in Madison's green room connected Tim with someone who claims to have experience with these disappearances in Wisconsin.
- 2 min
Setting Up the Anonymous Caller
#Tim explains how a Madison comedy club fan connected him with an anonymous friend who supposedly survived a smiley face killer encounter, and jokes about not wanting to alienate fans by discussing this on stage.
6moments
- 27:11Tim discusses Dave McGowan's book Program to Kill, which argues serial killers often operate in organized groups rather than as lone wolves.
- 27:36McGowan uses Son of Sam as an example of killers who were part of coordinated groups, possibly programmed through mind control or government experiments.
- 28:19Going down the rabbit hole on these theories leaves you in the wilderness with only other conspiracy-minded people taking you seriously.
- 28:39Tim wanted to discuss the smiley face killers on stage but worried it might offend someone whose friend disappeared.
- 28:55His friend responds that the smiley face killers are probably in Tim's audience and already enjoy his work.
- 29:05Tim takes a call from an anonymous listener who requested anonymity, promising the audience something worthwhile.
Dave McGowanProgram to Killsmiley face killersSon of Sam
- 8 min
The anonymous Wisconsin caller describes a night out where he was ditched by a girl, blacked out after only a few beers, and woke up disoriented on a dangerous dam, having to cross barbed wire and thin ice to escape.
10moments
- 29:58Tim connects extreme Wisconsin cold to serial killer prevalence in the region.
- 30:59Caller identifies himself as a survivor of what he believes was a Smiley Face Killer incident.
- 32:11At a bar downtown, the caller's acquaintance ditches him after meeting five other guys.
- 33:07Caller's last clear memory: the girl goes back into the bar and never returns.
- 33:46Despite only three beers and regular drinking, caller experiences complete blackout and sporadic memory gaps.
- 34:06Caller remembers only bright fluorescent lights and humming during the lost time, like a truck stop bathroom.
- 34:33Caller wakes up freezing on a dam next to the Wisconsin River with no idea how he got there.
- 35:21The dam is narrow—sidewalk width, 50 to 100 yards long, with 15-foot drop to rocks on left and rushing water on right.
- 36:34Caller discovers both ends of the dam are fenced and chained shut, forcing him to traverse thin ice and barbed wire.
- 36:58Ice breaks while caller holds barbed wire; his legs submerge in water but he clings to the wire and pulls himself out.
- 9 min
The caller recounts suppressing the memory until it resurfaced watching TV, learning about the Smiley Face Killer theory from a classmate, investigating a covered-up student death near the same dam, and photographing smiley face graffiti with devil horns nearby.
11moments
- 37:43Caller describes waking up on a narrow sidewalk between a lake with water rushing under a dam and a 15-foot drop into a river.
- 38:09He had no idea what town he was in, which made the situation terrifying.
- 38:38After starting to walk, his soaking wet pants began freezing in the cold, and his phone was already shattered and dead when he found it in his pocket.
- 39:30A cop drove past while he was waving him down, though the caller isn't certain if the officer actually saw him.
- 40:22He found a main road, walked across a bridge about 500 yards from the dam, and was eventually able to orient himself and find his way home.
- 40:58Tim asks if the caller understands he was blacking out every 15 minutes, which explains why he forgot about the dam entirely once he left it.
- 42:04The next day while at his girlfriend's apartment, the sound of rushing water suddenly triggered memories of being on the dam.
- 43:12A girl in one of his classes mentions the Smiley Face Killer theory after he casually tells her he woke up at the dam, sparking his research into the phenomenon.
- 44:28The caller discovers reports of the Smiley Face Killer occurring at UW schools and areas in Minnesota, including an article about a student who died on his birthday in the same area near the bridge and dam.
- 45:45He drives back to the dam with a friend and discovers a smiley face painted in red with devil horns on a nearby railroad bridge, visible from the dam through his telephoto camera lens.
- 46:21The evidence is starting to line up with what the girl told him about the Smiley Face Killer, though he remains skeptical about the whole thing.
- 7 min
Tim presses the caller on the suspicious girl who lured him out and vanished, why he never went to police or got a toxicology test, and how he eventually connected with Gannon's detective team via a Facebook group.
10moments
- 46:33Caller met a 22-year-old girl at a bar who introduced him to five large guys around age 27.
- 47:40He had one beer that he left unattended while playing pool, and the girl later invited him to another bar despite ignoring him while her friends were around.
- 49:03Tim asks if the caller went to police or got a toxicology test to check for GHB, a date rape drug.
- 49:22Caller convinced himself he got drunk enough to do it on his own and didn't report it because he was underage and feared underage drinking charges.
- 50:03He worried that asking for surveillance footage from the dam would expose him trespassing and getting busted for underage drinking.
- 50:48Tim notes that if the caller had died, police would have reviewed the tape, but it had been three to four weeks and tapes are typically erased within two weeks.
- 51:14Detectives told the caller he was extremely lucky to be alive, given how narrowly he escaped falling into water that could have killed him.
- 52:11Caller spoke with detectives in charge of an investigation who said finding the girl would be a lost cause.
- 52:33Those detectives have a new show on the Oxygen Network about unexplained disappearances and developed the theory about the so-called smiley face killers.
- 53:05Tim asks how the caller found the detectives and what came from their conversation.
- 7 min
The caller describes the detectives' three-way call confirming his case matched the Smiley Face Killer pattern exactly, their theory it was GHB-related, and their limited ability to pursue leads like surveillance footage.
8moments
- 53:33Caller found a Facebook group called the Smiley Face Killers True Group dedicated to proving the killings were real.
- 54:00Tim asks the investigative questions: did detectives get bar surveillance, check the phone for texts, or verify any actual evidence?
- 56:17Detectives in charge of the investigation contacted the caller through the Facebook group and set up a three-way phone call.
- 56:57Detectives told the caller he was almost certainly drugged with GHB, a date rape drug, and that he was extremely lucky to be alive.
- 57:33Caller says detectives told him as fact that this was definitely a Smiley Face Killer case, which shifted his certainty from possible to likely.
- 58:48By the time detectives contacted him, four or five weeks had passed since the incident at the bar.
- 59:04Detectives later emailed that they went to the town, found the smiley face at the dam, but couldn't pursue anything without a death.
- 59:51Police concluded there wasn't much they could do and classified it mainly as documentation in case similar incidents happened elsewhere in the area.
- 4 min
They discuss theories on who's behind the killings — resentful non-college men versus a more clinical, organized operation — and Tim argues the precision suggests something more sophisticated than jealousy-driven attacks.
4moments
- 1:00:26Caller explains detectives theorized the killers make murders look like drunken accidents rather than committing obvious murders.
- 1:01:11Tim argues the profile of jealous non-college guys doesn't fit because these crimes show too much organization and nobody ever talks.
- 1:02:55Caller describes the killing pattern as clinical and well-oiled, suggesting either thrill killing or an occult angle.
- 1:03:34Coroners found bodies dead only 72 hours despite being missing 30 days, suggesting victims died before being placed in the river.
- 3 min
The caller reveals his brother once discovered a dead body while floating the river at another Wisconsin campus, his mother's reaction to hearing both stories, and jokes about now being too out of shape to be a target.
7moments
- 1:04:17Caller kept the story of nearly being killed by smiley face killers from his mom to avoid worrying her.
- 1:04:48Caller's mom brought up the time his brother found a dead body while floating down a Wisconsin river.
- 1:05:14Brother and friends discovered a corpse hung up on a log while floating and had to flag down a touring mother and daughter to borrow their phone and call 911.
- 1:05:50The prospective student who lent them her phone chose not to attend that school after the body discovery.
- 1:06:13Caller's mom mentioned the body may have been another smiley face killer victim, which she'd already heard about before learning caller's own near-death experience.
- 1:06:41Tim asks if the family has considered leaving Wisconsin given the drugging and body-finding incidents.
- 1:07:11Caller threw away the coat he wore during the incident because he feared being recognized and targeted again.
- 5 min
The caller explains detectives' advice to drink only bottled beer, his own new wariness around dams and rivers, and his theory that Wisconsin's campus rivers, drinking culture, and icy winters make it a hotspot.
8moments
- 1:07:41Detectives advised ordering bottled beer and keeping it in sight at all times to avoid being drugged.
- 1:08:16The caller explains he's from Wisconsin and has become careful around water after his near-death experience.
- 1:08:47His stomach dropped when he zoomed in and saw the smiley face with devil horns graffiti.
- 1:09:31He hasn't heard recent missing person reports but occasionally sees stories of dead college kids.
- 1:10:38The caller theorizes why Wisconsin has a high concentration of smiley face incidents.
- 1:10:51Wisconsin rivers run through nearly every UW campus, providing locations for the incidents.
- 1:11:16Wisconsin's drinking culture creates easy targets—tons of people out at bars.
- 1:11:29Most cases happen in winter when there's thin ice and cold water, making survival unlikely even sober.
- 7 min
Tim and the caller pore over Google Maps images of the dam's barbed-wire fencing, debating how someone could have physically placed him there without a struggle, and closing with the caller's 'most likely to survive the Hunger Games' joke.
9moments
- 1:12:10Tim says he retired from conspiracy theories two episodes ago, but callers keep showing him symbols they claim represent child sex trafficking in logos like donut brands.
- 1:12:51The caller explains how he couldn't have climbed into the dam location himself—there's barbed wire everywhere and a locked chain-link fence door that would require a key.
- 1:14:04Tim agrees it's far more likely somebody placed the caller there than he got in on his own, and asks if someone working at the dam or with access to keys might have been involved.
- 1:14:48The caller describes a 15-foot fence with jail-style curled barbed wire—if he'd crawled through it drunk, his clothes would have been torn apart, but he was mostly unscathed except for cuts on his hand from exiting.
- 1:16:00Tim looks at Google Maps and Google Images of the dam, confirming he can see the riverside view and how narrow and long the structure is with rushing water on both sides.
- 1:17:19Tim pivots to his own drinking story: he once got so drunk he bought a house and woke up confused, then spent seven years trying to find the exit before extricating himself.
- 1:18:00Tim reflects on how incredible it is that the caller survived and now has a good life, noting that many people in his position would have simply rolled off the dam.
- 1:18:25The caller reveals he was voted most likely to survive the Hunger Games in high school, which he says is actually true and visible in the yearbook.
- 1:18:46Tim thanks the caller for taking the time to talk and wraps up the interview.
smiley face killersGoogle Maps
- 2 min
Reacting to the Caller: 'Mind Blowing' Story
#Tim thanks the caller, expresses shock at how compelling and credible the story was, and contrasts it favorably against the usual low-quality guests listeners suggest.
4moments
- 1:19:02Tim prefers interviewing people with firsthand accounts over writers who then lose credibility by pivoting to Bigfoot.
- 1:19:22The caller's story fits the smiley face killer profile exactly, except those victims die—ruling out coincidence or a three-beer blackout.
- 1:20:03Caller tried everything to prove the theory wrong but couldn't convince himself he could get that drunk, climb barbed wire, and survive alone in an unfamiliar town.
- 1:20:38Tim notes that successful young men disappear in rivers, but his useless drunk friends on Long Island never drowned despite living near water everywhere.
- 5 min
Questioning the Detectives' Motives
#Tim examines controversy around detectives Gannon and his partner, including families' frustration over money requests, an alleged sexual assault accusation, and the tension between genuine belief in the theory and possible self-interested opportunism.
10moments
- 1:21:17Tim praises the guest's story as mind-blowing and clear, admitting he expected something mundane.
- 1:21:31The caliber of guest suggestions Tim usually receives is his uncle who knows about vague topics.
- 1:22:27Tim's answer to the mystery: be a fat, unsuccessful pig when you're out at a bar.
- 1:22:52The two New York detectives investigating the theory have frustrated families by over-promising and under-delivering on suspects.
- 1:23:21Detectives constantly asked families for money and one sold interview rights to NBC, acting as a broker.
- 1:23:55One detective refinanced his house in a 20-year search for the group, and journalist Christy Peel distanced herself from them over opportunism concerns.
- 1:24:41Tim suspects the detectives genuinely believe the theory is real while also pursuing questionable methods and recognition.
- 1:25:31Detectives have frustrated many families and one was accused of sexual assault by a college student.
- 1:25:57When evaluating these claims, you need to examine the sources of information and why they might be providing it.
- 1:26:24Some relatives of the deceased appreciate the detectives and appear on TV with them, while others are frustrated with their work.
NBCThe Daily BeastChristy PeelOxygenGannonDartmouth
- 2 min
Tim runs through upcoming tour dates, plugs rating and subscribing, thanks listeners, and jokingly offers to lure out smiley face killers himself before saying goodbye.
5moments
- 1:26:40Tim is touring: Governor's Comedy in Long Island, then LA for an extended stay, with spring dates at Boston, Mohegan Sun, Dead Crow in North Carolina, and Woo-ha-ha in Massachusetts.
- 1:27:01He pitches listeners to rate and subscribe, highlighting recent episodes with R.I. Shefure and a head-to-head with New York Times comedy critic Jason Zinneman.
- 1:27:17Contact info: TimDillonComedy.com for tickets, TimJDillon on Instagram and Twitter.
- 1:27:53If someone involved in the smiley face killers wants his help, he's willing—he can lure victims out of bars because college-age straight guys love him.
- 1:28:21Sign-off.