He was smart and he was friendly, the kind of guy that you would trust to walk you home.

And one night, he would leave a bar, alone, and he would disappear into the dark.

And six weeks later, his body would be found in a river.

No sign of a struggle, no suspects, just a smiley face painted on a wall nearby.

And then, it happened again, and again and again, 40 times across 11 states.

So are these all just tragic coincidences?

A collective hallucination maybe?

Or are we staring straight into the face of America's most ignored serial killer? Crime, conspiracy, cults, serial killers, and murder.

All things that I love to consume, and I know you do too.

You sick, twisted, intellectual, beautiful...

I screwed it up. I'm not redoing it.

And anyway, today we are talking about an infamous, infamous case, very highly recommended in the comments.

So here we are today. We're going to be talking about the smiley face murders.

So without further ado, let's unbuckle our seat bts go Mach 5 down the highway, slam on the brakes,

and bust through this windshield into this ignored case together.

Thank you. Patrick McNeill was 21 years old, and he was a junior at Fordham University, and he was majoring in accounting.

And he was known for his very clean-cut appearance, his social ease, and his ambition. After all, he wanted to join the FBI after graduation.

Not an easy feat.

And his friends would describe him as confident and very well liked, just an all-around great guy.

And his roommates would even call him a real ladies man.

But on the night of February 16th,

1997, Patrick would go out with his friends to a bar on Manhattan's Upper East Side, something he did

...