True crime has fascinated people, but every so often, a case shocks people to their core. The subject of this article is Jeffrey Dahmer. Although he didn’t kill as many people as John Wayne Gacy or Ted Bundy, he is now as infamous as these prolific murderers due to his strange modus operandi. This is his story.
Dahmer was born on the 21st of May 1960 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US, to Joyce and Lionel. While pregnant with Dahmer, Joyce began taking medication for a health issue. After he was born, he had problems with his legs and was immobilised until he was four months old; he was also treated for several infections as a young child. There are varying accounts of his childhood, with some saying he was doted on and others saying he was pretty much ignored by his parents. Some I read said that his mother, Joyce, was an attention-seeking hypochondriac, but it appears that she was suffering from nearly quite severe depression; she would spend a lot of time in bed and argue constantly with Lionel. There are also reports of her being a germaphobe and refusing to hold her baby son. Dahmer would later say he was ‘unsure of the solidarity of the family’ during these years. Once an ‘energetic and happy child,’ he became introverted around the age of four. Around the same time, he had an operation to repair a double hernia of the scrotum. DR. Judith Becker, who later testified at Dahmer’s trial, shared one of her conversations with him. She recalled that Dahmer said he was in much pain after the operation and believed his genitals had been entirely removed. One of his elementary teachers later remembered that they thought Dahmer was being neglected by his parents, but nothing was done.
In 1966, the family moved to Doylestown, Ohio, and Joyce gave birth to another son in December. Dahmer was allowed to choose the child’s name and called him David. Lionel achieved the degree he had been working towards and started working as an analytical chemist.
Dahmer started showing interest in dead animals, possibly due to watching Lionel remove animal bones from the crawl space underneath the house. Lionel later said that Dahmer was ‘oddly thrilled’ by the noise the bones made and would call them his ‘fiddlesticks.’ Dahmer would often look around the area of the house to uncover more ‘fiddlesticks’ to play with. When talking about his son later, Lionel mentioned Dahmer's obsession with roadkill: ‘Jeffrey cut them open to examine the insides of the animals. He did what most all of us young males do when the hormones kick in tremendously, and he was doing something sexually with them. And I think the neuronal connections, you know, made contact and sort of hardwired Jeff’.
In 1968, the family moved again to Bath Township, Ohio. The new house was in the middle of an acre and a half of forest; there was also a shed on the grounds. Dahmer loved this new area; the forest was home to a lot of wildlife, and he took to collecting the bones of various woodland creatures, such as squirrels and started using the shed to preserve some of the bodies in formaldehyde. Interestingly, at one point, Lionel claimed that another boy molested Dahmer at this time, although he later denied this (Dahmer denied it, too). In 1970, the family sat down to dinner, which was chicken. Observing the bones, Dahmer enquired about the best way to preserve the bones. Lionel, believing his son was interested in science, showed him how to use a bleach bath. This was the technique Dahmer started using, and eventually, he started collecting larger deceased animals. In 1975, his hobby became more of a dark obsession; he found the body of a dead dog and, instead of preserving it, took it into the forest. There, he removed the head and impaled it on a stick. The body was nailed to a tree. Dahmer invited a friend to view his work, claiming he had stumbled upon it and knew nothing about it.
Dahmer was attending Revere High School and tended to be shunned by his peers. He was already drinking hard liquor, such as whisky, first thing in the morning, taking it to school and referring to it as ‘my medicine.’ Around this age, Dahmer realised he was gay but kept it quiet, not even telling his parents. When discussing this time as an adult, he admitted that he fantasised about having an utterly submissive partner he could dominate. He would masturbate to thoughts of men’s torsos, and, sadly, these fantasies started to merge with those of dissection.
At 16 years old, Dahmer noticed a male jogger he was very much attracted to. He would fantasise about knocking the jogger unconscious and sexually assaulting his unresisting body. He even went as far as to hide in some bushes along the jogger’s usual route, taking a baseball bat with him. By some miraculous chance, the jogger didn’t pass by that day. Unknowingly, that day, he escaped being Jeffrey Dahmer’s first victim.
By this time, Dahmer had become known as the ‘class clown.’ Whilst in school or local shops, he would simulate seizures or pretend to be someone with cerebral palsy. These ‘pranks’ became known as ‘doing a Dahmer.’
By 1977, Dahmer’s grades had gone downhill despite being considered a bright pupil. His parents were attending mediation to save their marriage, although they would later divorce after Joyce had a brief affair. Lionel moved out of the family home in 1978; in May of the same year, Dahmer graduated. Joyce had been granted custody of Dahmer and David but moved out with David, leaving 18-year-old Dahmer alone. Just three weeks after graduating, Dahmer committed his first murder.
Steven Mark Hicks was an 18-year-old hitchhiker on his way to a concert. Steven was topless when Dahmer saw him, which stirred something in him. He offered Steven a lift and persuaded him to return to his house for a few drinks. After arriving at Dahmer’s home, they drank beer, listened to music, and talked. Later, Dahmer would say that after a few hours, Steven ‘wanted to leave and [I] didn’t want him to’. While Steven was sitting down, Dahmer picked up a 10-pound dumbbell and hit Steven on the head twice from behind. Dahmer strangled him to death and, once he was unconscious, stripped him and masturbated over the corpse. The next day, Dahmer took Steven’s body into the basement, dissected it, and then placed the remains in a shallow grave in the backyard. A few weeks later, he dug the remains up and stripped the decomposing flesh from the bones. Dahmer dissolved the flesh in acid and flushed it down the toilet. He then took a sledgehammer and crushed the bones before scattering them in the same woodland he had displayed the decapitated dog.
Six weeks after Dahmer’s first murder, Lionel and his new partner, Shari, visited the family home to discover Dahmer living alone. Dahmer enrolled at Ohio State University in August but only attended one term. He consistently abused alcohol throughout the term and only managed to pass Riflery. Lionel visited his son at university as a surprise, only to find empty alcohol bottles covering his room. Dahmer soon dropped out despite his father paying for a second term.
In January 1979, Dahmer enlisted in the US Army after pressure from Lionel and trained as a medical specialist there. He served as a medic in the army, as Private First Class. During his time in the military, two soldiers claimed that Dahmer had drugged and raped them, but nothing came of these allegations. Preston Davis, who was in the army at the same time, later said: ‘Jeffrey had killed his first victim a year before joining the military, and he would get drunk in the barracks and say, ‘I killed the guy in Ohio’, and we’d say, ‘you didn’t kill nobody!’. He became a monster once he started drinking. Alcohol is what turned him into a monster.’ Unfortunately, he only lasted a couple of years and was honourably discharged in March 1981; his alcohol abuse had continued, and he wasn’t considered able to continue.
On 24th March 1981, Dahmer was provided with a plane ticket to travel anywhere he wanted in the country. He didn’t feel like returning to live with his father, so he travelled to Miami Beach, Florida. It was here Dahmer found work at a delicatessen and took up lodgings in a motel. Unfortunately, his alcohol addiction had followed him, and most of his wages went towards feeding it. Dahmer was eventually evicted from the motel after falling behind with his rent and took to sleeping rough on the beach. Finally, it became too much for Dahmer; he rang Lionel and asked if he could return to the family home.
Once he returned to Ohio, Dahmer stayed with Lionel and Shari, doing various household chores whilst looking for work. He had only been home for two weeks when he was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct; this resulted in a $60 fine and a 10-day suspended sentence. After unsuccessfully trying to help Dahmer give up alcohol and remain sober, Lionel decided to send him to live with his grandmother, Catherine Hughes, and he moved to West Allis, Wisconsin, in December 1981.
At first, this arrangement worked well. Dahmer had a lot of affection for his grandmother. He would often do chores for her, accompany her to church, and look for work. In 1982, he found a job as a phlebotomist at the Milwaukee Blood Plasma Centre and worked there for ten months. After one shift, he stole blood to take home with him. He tasted it and, finding it disgusting, vowed never to drink blood again. On the 7th of August 1982, Dahmer was arrested for indecent exposure at Wisconsin State Fair Park; he received a $50 fine plus court costs. He was eventually made redundant from his job and remained unemployed for two years.
In January 1985, he eventually found work as a mixer at the Milwaukee Ambrosia Chocolate factory. Around the same time, he was sitting in the West Allis Public Library when a stranger passed him a note, offering fellatio. Although Dahmer didn’t take the unknown man up on his offer, it awakened the dark feelings he had so desperately been trying to suppress. After this catalyst, Dahmer started frequenting the local gay scene, attending various bars and clubs. He couldn’t rid himself of the thought of having an utterly submissive man in his care, to the extent that he stole a male mannequin in the hope that it may quench some of these feelings. This worked temporarily until his grandmother discovered the mannequin and made Dahmer dispose of it.
Dahmer was quite popular in gay bars and bathhouses and would often find someone to hook up with but would become increasingly annoyed at his partners when they interacted during sex; he wanted someone who would stay quiet and still. In June 1986, Dahmer started to spike drinks with sedatives. He would wait until they fell asleep before acting out his sexual fantasies. The former manager of one bathhouse, Club Bath, said that Dahmer was kicked out in 1986 after several customers complained that he was drugging other customers. One man he drugged had to stay in hospital for a week. The police were called, but sadly, they didn’t think it was serious enough (or didn’t care enough) and did nothing.
Dahmer’s mind began to descend when he saw a newspaper article about the death of an 18-year-old man. The article stirred him, and he imagined stealing and keeping the corpse. Later, Dahmer would say he tried to dig up the body after it had been interred, but the soil was too hard to penetrate, and he gave up.
On 8th September 1986, Dahmer was arrested again for lewd and lascivious behaviour. He had been caught masturbating in public by two 12-year-old boys, although he claimed he was just urinating. The charge was changed to disorderly conduct, and he was sentenced to a year’s probation and instructed to get some counselling.
On 20th November 1987, Dahmer rented a room at The Ambassador Hotel in Milwaukee. He went for a drink in the local bars. Dahmer persuaded Steven to come back to his hotel room, and they left the bar together. Dahmer later insisted that he had only meant to drug Steven; he just wanted to lie next to his unconscious body. However, the following day, Dahmer awoke and discovered Steven next to him with his chest crushed. The corpse was covered in bruises and had a trickle of blood staining the side of the mouth. Dahmer claimed he could not remember murdering 25-year-old Steven, saying he ‘could not believe this had happened’. Dahmer removed the body from the hotel room using a large suitcase and returned it to his grandmother’s house. A week later, Dahmer attended to the body. He removed the limbs and cut the flesh into small pieces; these were placed into bin bags. As he had done with Steven Hicks, he crushed the bones into fine pieces using a sledgehammer. Everything was dumped into the bin except the head. Dahmer had kept Steven’s head wrapped in a blanket, and he tried to bleach the skull in an attempt to preserve the skull. Disturbingly, he wanted it to masturbate on. Too much bleach can cause bones to become brittle; the skull lost its strength and, to Dahmer’s disappointment, had to be disposed of.
After this murder, Dahmer seemed to really lose control of his dark urges. He began actively looking for victims, usually in or near gay bars. His victims would accompany him to his grandmother’s house where he would drug them with sleeping tablets. Once they passed out, he would strangle them to death.
Dahmer met James Doxtater by chance and offered him $50 to pose naked. They ended up having sex before Dahmer drugged and strangled James. James was just 14 years old. His corpse was left unceremoniously in the cellar for a week before Dahmer dismembered it. The body parts were placed in the bin, and the skull was boiled and bleached, which, yet again, left it too brittle, and Dahmer smashed it into bits 2 weeks later.
On 24th March 1988, Dahmer met Richard Guerrero outside a gay bar called The Phoenix. Richard was 22 years old and bisexual. As he had done before, Dahmer offered Richard $50 to spend the night with him. As had by now become Dahmer’s modus operandi, he drugged Richard and strangled him to death. He followed this by performing fellatio on the corpse. Within 24 hours, the body had been disposed of, although this time, he managed to keep the skull for a few months.
On the 23rd of April, Dahmer took another potential victim home to his grandmother’s house. Here, he gave him a coffee spiked with sleeping tablets. However, his grandmother heard Dahmer arriving home and called, ‘Isof that you Jeff?’ This unnerved him enough not to carry out the murder. While the young man was unconscious from the tablets, Dahmer drove him to the County General Hospital and left him there before returning to his grandmother.
By September 1988, Dahmer’s grandmother had had enough of him living at her house. She wasn’t happy with him bringing men back all the time, and there were increasingly unpleasant smells coming from the basement where Dahmer spent much of his time. On the 25th of September, he moved into a one-bedroom apartment at 808 North 24th Street. Just two days later, Dahmer was arrested after drugging and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy. His father, Lionel, hired Gerald Boyle, an attorney who requested that Dahmer undergo a psychological evaluation. These psychological sessions showed his deep feelings of alienation, impulsiveness, and disappointment in his lack of achievement in life.
On 30th January 1989, Dahmer pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault, and sentencing was suspended until May. On the 20th of March, he took ten days off work and moved back in with his grandmother. On the 25th of March, he met Anthony Sears, a 24-year-old aspiring model. Apparently, Dahmer wasn’t deliberately looking for a victim, but Anthony ‘just started talking to me’. He took Anthony back to his home, and they performed oral sex on each other before Dahmer murdered him. The next morning, he decapitated the corpse in the bathtubfollowing day. He would later say that he found Anthony ‘exceptionally attractive,’ and this was the first time he permanently kept any body parts. Dahmer preserved Anthony’s head and genitalia in acetone and kept them in a wooden box.
On 23rd May 1989, Dahmer received a sentence of five years probation and one year in the House of Correction. Dahmer could leave the House of Correction to work as long as he could keep his job. He also had to register as a sex offender. After ten months, Dahmer was paroled from the House of Correction and started his five-year probation. He briefly moved back with his grandmother before moving to apartment 213 in the Oxford Apartments, Milwaukee, on the 14th of May 1990. Along with his belongings, he also took Anthony’s remains with him.
Dahmer had only been living in his apartment for a week when he took home his 6th victim, Raymond Smith. Raymond was a sex worker, and Dahmer offered him $50 to return to his apartment and have sex. Once again, he took his victim home, drugged him, and strangled him to death. The next day, Dahmer left the apartment to buy a Polaroid camera. Once home, hen arranged Raymond’s body into pornographic positions and took various photos before dismembering it. Using Soilex (a heavy-duty detergent used to emulsify grease and oil rapidly), he boiled the legs, arms, and pelvis until he could quickly rinse the flesh from the bones. He dissolved the rest of the body with acid but kept the skull. The skull was eventually painted and kept in a metal filing cabinet next to the remains of Anthony Sears.
His compulsion to kill had consumed Dahmer; a week later, he attempted to murder someone else.
Dahmer took a young man back to his apartment, but Dahmer somehow managed to drink the drug-laced drink himself. He awoke the following day to find his potential victim missing, along with clothing, a watch and $300. Unsurprisingly, Dahmer didn’t report this incident to the police.
In June 1990, Dahmer took 27-year-old Edward Smith back to his apartment and repeated his process of drugging and strangling his poor victim. However, this time, instead of bleaching the skeleton or dissolving it in acid, Dahmer chose to freeze it. He hoped this meant the skeleton would not retain moisture, but it did, and Dahmer destroyed it with acid a few months later. Dahmer wanted to keep the skull and attempted to dry it out in the oven, but the temperature was too high, and it exploded. He would later tell police that he felt ‘rotten’ for not being able to retain any of Edward’s body parts for his macabre collection.
A few short weeks later, Dahmer met 22-year-old Ernest Miller; Dahmer offered Ernest $50 to accompany him back to his apartment, and he agreed. At the apartment, Ernest allowed Dahmer to listen to his heart. Dahmer attempted to perform fellatio, but Ernest informed him this would cost extra. Instead of performing the sex act, Dahmer offered Ernest a drink spiked with two sleeping tablets, as that was all Dahmer had left. Just two tablets weren’t enough to render Ernest unconscious, and, breaking away from his usual MO, Dahmer decided to slash Ernest’s carotid artery and let him bleed to death, something that only took minutes. Dahmer reached for his Polaroid camera and took photos of the corpse before dismembering it in the bathtub. As if the entire situation wasn’t creepy enough, this time, Dahmer spoke to, caressed and kissed Ernest’s severed head while he sliced up the rest of the body. He removed the heart, biceps, and various pieces of flesh from the legs, wrapped them in plastic bags and placed them in the fridge; he intended to eat them later. The Soilex was used again to reduce the flesh to a ‘jelly-like substance’, allowing it to be easily removed from the skeleton. The skeleton was then placed in a bleach solution before being dried out. Ernest’s head was placed in the fridge; eventually, the flesh was removed, and the skull was painted and covered with enamel.
On 24th September, Dahmer met 22-year-old David Thomas. Dahmer talked David into coming back to his apartment for drinks and offered him money to pose for photos. Later on, after his arrest, Dahmer would tell police that he felt no attraction to David after he drugged him. Afraid of the repercussions if David awoke, Dahmer strangled him and dismembered the corpse. He took photos of the process but didn’t keep any body parts as souvenirs.
After David’s murder, it was almost five months before Dahmer killed again, although it wasn’t for want of trying. He had unsuccessfully attempted to lure men back to his apartment during this period. At this point, he was still seeing his probation officer and talked to them about how he felt depressed, anxious, and lonely; he even told them that he had thoughts of suicide.
In February 1991, Dahmer approached 17-year-old Curtis Straughter, who was standing at a bus stop. He lured Curtis back to his apartment by promising him money in exchange for nude photographs. Once they arrived at the apartment, Dahmer drugged him, cuffed his hands behind his back and strangled him. He dismembered the corpse, again taking photos of the process, and this time, he kept the hands, genitals and, of course, the skull.
On 7th April, he met Errol Lindsey. This time, after taking him back to the apartment, Dahmer did something he hadn’t done before. After drugging Errol, he drilled a hole in Errol’s skull and poured hydrochloric acid into it. Dahmer later recounted that Errol woke up and said, ‘I have a headache. What time is it?’ Dahmer had been hoping to turn Errol into a permanently submissive zombie for want of a better term. Realising this experiment hadn’t worked, Dahmer drugged his victim again and strangled him. After removing the head, he removed the skin from the body. The skin was left in cold saltwater for a few weeks in the hope of preserving it. This process left the skin brittle, and reluctantly, Dahmer had to dispose of it.
In 1991, the residents living in Dahmer's apartment building began complaining to the building manager, Sopa Princewill. Their chief complaints were the rancid smells from Dahmer’s apartment and strange noises, including that of a chainsaw. Princewill confronted Dahmer and was told that the freezer had broken down, spoiling all the contents and causing the awful smell. Dahmer also claimed that his tropical fish tank had broken down, resulting in the fish dying, and he hadn’t gotten around to cleaning any of it yet. Princewill left with Dahmer’s promise that he would sort out the stench.
On the 26th of May 1991, Dahmer met 14-year-old Konerack Sinthasomphone. He offered Konerack money if he would pose for photos, and although he was initially reluctant, he eventually went with Dahmer. Konerack posed for two pictures before Dahmer drugged him and performed oral sex on him. Then, attempting to create his perfect zombie, he drilled a hole into Konerack’s skull through the frontal lobe and injected hydrochloric acid into the injury. Before the child became utterly unconscious, Dahmer took him through to the bedroom where the body of a previous victim, Tony Hughes, lay on the floor, bloated and decomposing. Konerack eventually passed out, and Dahmer placed him on the bed, lying next to him and casually drinking beers. When Dahmer drank all his beers, he left the apartment to buy more alcohol.
In the early hours of 27th May, Dahmer walked back towards his apartment after purchasing his beer and was alarmed to see Konerack sitting naked on the corner of 25th and State, accompanied by three young black women. The three women were Sandra Smith, Tina Spivey and Nicole Childress. Dahmer approached them and explained that ‘John’ (Konerack) was his friend and he would look after him. This rang alarm bells with the women, and they called 9-1-1. Officers Joseph Garish and John Balcerzak soon arrived at the scene.
Dahmer charmed and flattered the police, telling them they were doing a good job keeping crime down in the area. He explained that ‘John’ was his 19-year-old boyfriend who had drunk far too much Jack Daniels. The women were getting increasingly annoyed with the police, who seemed to be oblivious to the fact that Konerack was a naked child with bloodied testicles who had been trying to run away. When they tried to point this out, they were told to ‘shut the hell up’ and ‘butt out.’ Not long after the officers arrived, three members of the Milwaukee Fire Department also arrived. They examined Konerack, with at least one believing he needed medical treatment, but shockingly, the officers dismissed this and told them to leave. Not long after, Officer Richard Porubcan arrived, and he, along with Gabrish and Balcerzak, took Konerack and Dahmer back to Dahmer’s apartment. Once inside, Dahmer showed the officers the Polaroids of Konerack as ‘proof’ that they were in a relationship. Gabrish would later state that there was an unpleasant smell in the apartment; however, he decided not to bother trying to find out what was causing it. The officers told Dahmer to ‘take good care’ of Konerack (oh, the irony!) and left, filing it as a homosexual domestic dispute. Later, an audiotape of the officers making homophobic statements to the dispatcher emerged, with witnesses claiming the officers were also racist (the reason they didn’t take the three women seriously). Disgustingly, they were initially fired but later appealed and reinstated, with a judge issuing them back pay. Urgh.
As soon as they left, Dahmer once again injected acid into Konerack’s brain, and sadly, this time, it killed the child. In an awful twist of fate, Konerack was the younger brother of a man whom Dahmer had previously sexually assaulted. On the 28th of May, Dahmer stayed home from work to dismember the corpses of Konerack and Tony. He kept their skulls in what had now become an uncontrollable compulsion.
On 30th June 1991, Dahmer was in Chicago and by chance, he met Matt Turner at a bus station. Dahmer offered to take Matt to a professional photo shoot in Milwaukee, and Matt agreed to go back to Milwaukee with Dahmer. Once Matt had entered Dahmer’s apartment, he stood no chance against the serial killer; he was drugged, strangled, and dismembered. His head and organs were separated and placed into plastic bags, then kept in Dahmer’s freezer. Dahmer travelled back to Chicago only five days later and met Jerimiah Weinberger in a bar. After persuading Jeremiah to return home with him, Dahmer drugged him. Instead of injecting his victim with hydrochloric acid, he attempted to use boiling water this time, hoping it would produce different results. Unfortunately, this sent Jeremiah into a coma, dying two days later.
On the 15th of July 1991, Dahmer met Oliver Lacy and offered him money in exchange for naked photos. Dahmer took Oliver back to his apartment, and they engaged in sexual activity before Dahmer drugged him. He desperately tried to keep Oliver alive; he craved the companionship of the unconscious body. Eventually, Dahmer strangled Oliver and killed him. He then had sex with the corpse before taking the body apart. Oliver’s head and heart were placed in the fridge, and the skeleton took up residence in the freezer.
On the 19th of July, Dahmer was fired from his job at the chocolate factory for taking too many personal days off work. Dahmer decided to go out, and he met a man called Joseph Bradehoft. They went back to Dahmer’s apartment, where Joseph was strangled. Joseph’s body was left on the bed, covered in a sheet. Two days later, Dahmer moved the sheet to find the body covered in maggots due to the summer heat. Dahmer realised he needed to dispose of the body; he dismembered, cleaned the head, and placed it in the fridge. The rest of the body was later placed in a vat of acid.
On 22nd July 1991, Dahmer spoke to 3 men and offered them $100 to come to his home and keep him company; he also requested that they pose naked for photos. One of the men, Tracy Edwards, took Dahmer's offer and went home with him. As soon as he entered Dahmer’s apartment, Tracy couldn’t help but notice the disgusting stench filling the air; he also noticed the many boxes of hydrochloric acid. When Tracy questioned Dahmer, he claimed the acid was for cleaning bricks. Dahmer then showed off his tropical fish tank, welcoming Tracy to admire it. When he obliged, Dahmer handcuffed one of Tracy’s wrists. Tracy, not unsurprisingly, was confused and asked Dahmer ‘what’s happening?’. Dahmer then tried to cuff his other hand, but when he failed, he asked Tracy to come into the bedroom instead. Tracy followed him into the bedroom, noticing the posters of nude men on the wall and a copy of The Exorcist III playing in the background. One of the most disturbing aspects of the scene in front of Tracy was the blue 57. Gallon drum in the room; it seemed to be the cause of the awful smell. They lay on the bed, and at this point, Dahmer pulled out a knife and told Tracy he was going to start taking photos of him. Tracy was panicking at this point and knew he needed to try and keep Dahmer calm. He started undoing his shirt, promising to get naked if Dahmer would remove the cuffs and put the knife down. Dahmer ignored the request and started watching the film that was playing, rocking back and forth and chanting to himself. He then placed his head on Tracy’s chest, pressed the knife to him and told him that he intended to eat his heart.
Tracy knew he had to do something, or he would never leave this apartment alive. He started comforting Dahmer, telling him he was his friend and would not be leaving him. Tracy then asked if he could use the bathroom, and Dahmer consented. When Tracy stood up, he noticed Dahmer wasn’t holding the handcuffs. Realising this was his chance, Tracy hit Dahmer in the face and ran for his life out of the front door.
On the 22nd of July, at 11.30 pm, police officers Robert Routh and Rolf Mueller were flagged down by a hysterical Tracy. He asked them to undo the handcuff a ‘freak’ had placed on him. None of the keys the officers had fitted the cuff, and they offered to accompany Tracy back to the apartment he had spent the last 5 hours trying to escape.
The three men arrived at Dahmer’s apartment, and Dahmer willingly allowed them inside and admitted to handcuffing Tracy (although never giving a reason why). Feeling safer with the officers there, Tracy told them about the knife that he had been threatened within the bedroom. Dahmer never commented on this accusation but did tell Officer Mueller that the key to the handcuffs was in the bedroom. Mueller went to walk towards the bedroom, but Dahmer tried to block him, only moving when Officer Rauth warned him to ‘back off.’
In the bedroom, Mueller saw the knife under the bed. He also noticed an open drawer and looked inside. There was Dahmer’s extensive collection of Polaroid photos, a hoard of pictures of naked men and the dismemberment of his many victims. It was also evident that the photos had been taken in the apartment he was standing in. Mueller took them to Rauth and murmured, ‘These are for real.’ Dahmer realised they had his photos and lashed out, desperately trying to fight the officers; however, he was quickly overpowered and cuffed before additional police were called to the scene. Mueller started to look around the apartment and discovered a severed head. Dahmer, lying on the floor with his hands cuffed behind his back, turned to the officers and calmly said, ‘For what I did, I should be dead.’
Dahmer would explain the Polaroids, saying, ‘It was my way of remembering their appearance, their physical beauty. If I couldn’t keep them there with me whole, I at least could keep their skeletons’.
Later, an in-depth search conducted in the apartment found four severed heads in the kitchen. In the fridge were two human hearts and arm muscles wrapped carefully in plastic bags. They discovered seven skulls in the bedroom and closet, some painted and some bleached. The freezer contained a torso and a bag of human organs; even human flesh was stuck to the bottom. Within the rest of the apartment, they found two complete skeletons, a pair of hands, two preserved penises and a scalp. In the blue drum that Tracy had noticed in the bedroom was the dissolving remains of three torsos. The chief medical examiner later said, ‘It was more like dismantling someone’s museum than an actual crime scene.’
On the 23rd of July 1991, Detective Patrick Kennedy began questioning Dahmer. Over two weeks, Kennedy and Detective Dennis Murph interviewed Dahmer for 60 hours. Dahmer refused the right to a lawyer, stating he had ‘created this horror, and it only makes sense I do everything to put an end to it.’ He admitted to murdering 16 males in Wisconsin and to the murder of Steven Hicks in Ohio.
Dahmer openly spoke about his acts of necrophilia with several of his victims’ bodies and even performing sexual acts with their internal organs. Just as disturbingly, he admitted to eating hearts, livers, biceps, and the thighs of some of his victims, tenderising the body parts first and flavouring them with various condiments.
Dahmer stated that he had been ‘completely swept along’ by his unnatural urges, that it was an ‘incessant and never-ending desire to be with someone – at whatever cost. Someone good-looking, really nice-looking. it just filled my thoughts all day long.’ He also drew a picture of an altar he intended to build; he wanted it to display his ‘collection’ of skulls alongside Miller and Lacy’s complete skeletons.
On the 25th of July 1991, Dahmer was charged with four counts of first-degree murder. By the 22nd of August, he had been charged with another 11 murders. On the 14th of September, investigators formally identified the remains of Steven Hicks in Ohio, and Dahmer was charged with this murder on the 17th of September. He wasn’t charged with the attempted murder of Tracy. No charge was ever brought for Tuomi’s murder, as the murder couldn’t be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, and there was no physical evidence. On the 13th of January 1992, Dahmer had his preliminary hearing, and he pleaded guilty, by reasons of insanity, to all counts of murder.
The trial began in Milwaukee on 30th January 1992 before Judge Laurence Gram. Due to Dahmer pleading guilty, the trial was to determine whether or not he was legally sane. Defence expert DR. Fred Berlin testified that Dahmer couldn’t have been ‘aware’ and in his right mind when he committed the crimes due to his paraphilia, specifically necrophilia. He said ‘they were not brutal, sadistic acts. He said he killed them in the most painless way he knew. It all boils down to the question of control.’ Professor of psychiatry and psychology DR. Judith Becker was also an expert witness for the defence. She also diagnosed Dahmer as a necrophiliac, although, interestingly, she informed the court that Dahmer told her he preferred his sexual partners to be unconscious rather than dead 75% of the time. The last defence witness was DR. Cark Wahlstrom, a forensic psychiatrist. He diagnosed Dahmer with necrophilia, borderline personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, a psychotic disorder and alcohol dependence.
On the 8th of February, DR. Fred Fosdel testified for the prosecution. He told the court that, in his professional opinion, Dahmer suffered from no mental defects when the murders were committed. DR. Fosdel described Dahmer as ‘calculating and cunning; a man capable of knowing right from wrong who let his lustful urges overpower him.’ The second and final witness for the prosecution was Park Dietz, another forensic psychiatrist. Dietz also testified that Dahmer had no mental disease or defect at the time of the crimes, saying, ‘Dahmer went to great lengths to be alone with his victim and to have no witnesses.’ He spoke about the preparation Dahmer went through before his murders, meaning they couldn’t be impulsive. Dietz told the court, ‘If he has an impulse to kill, or a compulsion to kill, he wouldn’t have to drink alcohol to overcome it. He only had to drink alcohol to overcome it because he is inhibited against killing.’ He diagnosed Dahmer with schizotypal personality disorder, paraphilia, and substance abuse disorder.
Two court-appointed mental health professionals were appointed to assess Dahmer independently: forensic psychiatrist George Palermo and clinical psychologist Samuel Friedman. Palermo believed that Dahmer's killing resulted from ‘pent-up aggression within himself. He killed those men because he wanted to kill the source of his homosexual attraction to them. In killing them, he killed what he hated in himself.’ Palermo told the court he thought Dahmer had a severe mixed personality disorder, with antisocial, obsessive-compulsive, sadistic, fetishist, borderline and necrophiliac features. However, he also stated that he believed Dahmer was legally sane.
Friedman told the court that Dahmer’s killing came from his desperate want for companionship, saying ‘Mr. Dahmer is not psychotic.’ He described him as ‘amiable, pleasant to be with, courteous, with a sense of humour, conventionally handsome and charming in manner. He was, and still is, a bright young man.’ He diagnosed him with a personality disorder featuring borderline, obsessive-compulsive, and sadistic traits.
The trial only lasted two weeks. The jury found Dahmer to be guilty and rejected the plea of insanity. He was sentenced to 15 life sentences, a total of 957 years. In May, he received another life sentence after pleading guilty to the murder of Stephen Hicks.
Dahmer served his sentence at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin. He was placed in solitary confinement for his first year but was transferred to a different unit. While here, he was given the job of cleaning the toilet block daily. During his time there, he turned to Christianity, getting baptised in May 1994 and expressing remorse for his crimes. Speaking of his beliefs, he said, ‘If a person doesn’t think that there is a God to be accountable to, then what’s the point of trying to modify your behaviour to keep it within acceptable ranges?’
On the 3rd of July 1994, inmate Osvaldo Durruthy tried to cut Dahmer’s throat while they were in the prison chapel. Dahmer wasn’t severely injured and survived the attack. He later told Joyce, ‘It doesn’t matter, Mom. I don’t care if something happens to me’.
On the 28th of November 1994, Dahmer left his cell to clean the toilet block. He was with inmates Jesse Anderson and Christopher Scarver. While cleaning the showers, the three prisoners were left unsupervised for 20 minutes. When the correctional officers returned around 8:10 a.m., Dahmer was lying on the floor, severely injured and barely alive. Scarver had bludgeoned Dahmer in the head, as well as repeatedly smashing him against a wall. Dahmer was taken to hospital but died an hour later. He was 34 years old.
When the media asked Joyce about her son’s death, she answered angrily, ‘Now is everybody happy? Now that he’s bludgeoned to death is that good enough for everyone?’ Dahmer had written in his will that he wanted to be cremated without service. In September 1995, his wishes were granted, and his ashes were split between his parents.
And that is the story of Jeffery Dahmer. There are many theories about why Dahmer committed these murders: insanity, a (very) misguided attempt to be close to someone, and even racism, as most of his victims weren’t Caucasian. Many of his victims were drifters – was he deliberately choosing those who would not be easily missed? Was he born evil? Or did his mind become twisted due to what was happening around him? As always, thank you for reading, please let me know what you think in the comments, take care, and I will see you next time.
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RIP
Steven Hicks
Steven Tuomi
James Doxtator
Richard Guerrero
Anthony Sears
Raymond Smith
Edward Smith
Ernest Miller
David Thomas
Curtis Straughter
Errol Lindsey
Tony Hughes
Konerack Sinthasomphone
Matt Turner
Jeremiah Weinberger
Oliver Lacy
Joseph Bradehoft
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