'Happy Face'

I don't know anything about this story, but I'd be interested in seeing Dennis Quaid in a role like this. He seems to sorta specialize in wholesome characters, so it would be interesting to see him go against type.

Just briefly looked up his Wikipedia page. I see he was convicted of 8 murders and confessed to as many as 185. He sure seems like a real nice fella.

Also, it seems like his daughter has talked about her experience of having this monster for a father, and has written a book. An obvious approach would be to adapt her book or at least tell the story of the movie from her perspective.

I watched that episode of Evil Lives Here based on your mention of it here, and it does seem like it could make for a compelling movie. As cheesey as the reenactments are in that show, it did sorta convey the idea of the perspective of a child who goes from the sort of typical feeling of having an embarrassing parent, to a strained relationship with that parent, to a real worrisome feeling about that parent, to the realization that this parent is truly monstrous.

The one thing I wonder about it Dennis Quaid. He's clearly too old for this character unless it all takes place while he's already in prison... and even then. This guy was a relatively young, or at least young looking, man when he was finally caught.

In any event, it could be a compelling film if handled properly. The idea of following a family member coming to this realization reminds me of two different fairly refent films; A Good Marriage, the Stephen King adaptation based on the idea of the BTK killer, and The Clovehitch Killer, the fictional film about a young kid realizing that his father is a serial killer. Summer of '84 has some similar ideas too.

None of these really nails this type of story though. Each of these movies is just ok, but it's such a compelling basis for a story that I do think a great film could be made from that idea. Maybe the based-on-a-true-story nature of this could put it over the top.