rant · moment 24 of 27

The Smiley Face Killers Follow-Up

from #171 - Brownie Boat | The Tim Dillon Show · #171

5 min

Tim recaps his prior Smiley Face Killers episode, criticizes a bad Oxygen network reality show on the topic, and describes the researchers behind the theory as unreliable self-promoters.

In this bit10 moments
  • Tim recaps the smiley face killers episode and its theory of a serial killer gang drowning college-educated men in rivers across the country.
  • The Oxygen Network show on the subject was poorly made and damaged the credibility of Tim's own investigation.
  • Tim found a credible potential victim in Wisconsin and had him on the show, which became one of their most successful episodes.
  • Tim emailed the three men who've been pushing this theory for 20 years—one accused of sexual assault, another who lied to a college, and Kevin Gannon, who allegedly exposed himself during the investigation.
  • One of the three is Leigh Gilbertson, a St. Cloud professor; Tim suspects these three losers might be killing kids to get an Oxygen show.
  • Tim believes something is genuinely wrong with the smiley face killer deaths—kids found two miles from bars in February don't walk by icy rivers randomly.
  • Tim mocks the Oxygen reality show format by imagining it paired with overweight housewives discussing Weight Watchers points while covering young boys being killed.
  • Tim emailed Leigh Gilbertson after noticing he wasn't on the next season of Oxygen, following up on their previous correspondence about waiting for the network.
  • These three men have been dragging parents along for 20 years with no convictions, arrests, or meaningful progress beyond reclassifying one or two cases as homicides.
  • Despite two decades of work by these investigators, only one case has been reclassified, which Tim considers minimal achievement.
Mentioned here

smiley face killersOxygenLeigh GilbertsonKevin GannonWisconsinSt. Cloud

All 27 moments in this episode →