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Jeffrey Dahmer

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Jeffrey Dahmer

Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer (May 21, 1960November 28, 1994) was an American serial killer who murdered 17 men between 1978 and 1991 (with the majority of the murders occurring between 1989 and 1991).

Early life

Dahmer was born in Milwaukee. At age eight, his family moved to Bath, Ohio, near Akron. From his earliest youth he was extremely shy and, according to his father, was molested by a neighbor. He collected dead animals and showed signs of necrophilia, but this was revealed only at his trial. He was also a closeted alcoholic and homosexual and suffered from extremely low self-esteem. His parents divorced when he was a teenager. Dahmer committed his first murder at the age of 18, with the killing of Steven Hicks. Dahmer had invited Hicks over to his house, and Dahmer killed him because he "didn't want him to leave".

File:MaisonGdMere.jpg
Dahmer's grandmother's house in West Allis, Wisconsin. It was in this house that Dahmer committed three of his murders

He later attended a university but performed poorly. During his college career it is alleged he removed a door from its hinges and used it as a bar during a rowdy party in his dormitory. Witnesses were reported to be amazed at his ingenuity. His father convinced him to join the military, and he appeared to recover some vitality as he became an army medic. In 1988, however, he was arrested for sexually fondling a 13-year-old boy, for which he served one year in a work release camp and was required to register as a sex offender. Shortly afterward, he began the string of murders that ended with his arrest in 1991.

Murders

Most of his victims were African American and Asian gay men whom he sexually assaulted. His main goal was for a completely compliant sexual partner, essentially making necrophilia his motivation for killing. He achieved notoriety after his arrest following the discovery of several decaying bodies in acid vats in his apartment. Severed heads were found in his refrigerator and an altar of candles and human skulls were found in his closet. Accusations soon surfaced that Dahmer had practiced necrophilia and cannibalism. Dahmer admitted to eating the biceps of his eighth victim, Ernest Miller, whose skeleton he also kept, noting that human flesh "tasted like meat" to him.

File:Appt.jpg
Apartment 213 where Dahmer committed the majority of his murders

Dahmer reportedly had a history of abandonment and feared loss and rejection. After a bitter divorce, his mother left with his brother, David, leaving Dahmer behind on the assumption that his father would care for him. However, his father had previously left as well, refusing to speak with his wife, with each not knowing the other's whereabouts. Dahmer, at 17 having just graduated high school and without money, was left alone in a home with no food and a broken refrigerator. It is thought that these feelings of abandonment, filtered through his mental illness, created the internal logic that allowed him to justify his actions to himself. Parallels with the British serial killer Dennis Nilsen are often drawn.

File:OxfordAppt.jpg
The Oxford Apartments located at 924 North 25th Street in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was here where Dahmer committed many of his murders

Many people were outraged to learn that Milwaukee police returned one of Dahmer's naked, dazed, bleeding but yet still alive victims, Laotian teenager Konerak Sinthasomphone, to Dahmer after Konerak had managed to escape from his captor in 1991. Sinthasomphone did not speak English, and Dahmer convinced officers that the 14-year-old boy was his adult 19-year-old homosexual lover. Later that night, Dahmer dismembered Sinthasomphone and kept his skull as a souvenir. Konerak Sinthasomphone was the younger brother of the boy Dahmer molested in 1988.

John Balcerzak (Elected president of the Milwaukee Police Association union in May 2005) and Joseph Gabrish, the two police officers who returned Sinthasomphone to Dahmer were terminated from the Milwaukee Police Department after their actions were widely publicized. The officers had never checked the boy's ID, had joked on the way back to the station about the "homosexual lovers" and about "getting deloused," and had not noticed the smell of the decaying body Dahmer had hidden in his apartment nor the drill holes already in Sinthasomphone's head. The two officers appealed this termination and were reinstated with back pay. The two officers were named officers of the year by the police union for fighting a "righteous" battle to regain their jobs.

Capture and death

On July 22, 1991, with handcuffs still attached to one wrist, another man, Tracy Edwards, successfully escaped from Dahmer's apartment and flagged down a police squad car. Police were led back to Dahmer's apartment where the remains of eleven victims were found. Dahmer reportedly scuffled with police trying to arrest him as the remains were being discovered. After being charged with fifteen counts of murder, he entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. On February 17, 1992, a court rejected his plea of insanity and sentenced Dahmer to fifteen consecutive life sentences, which required a minimum of 936 years' imprisonment. Wisconsin does not have capital punishment.

File:BassineEmportee.jpg
Police in chemical suits removing containers with human remains

Dahmer served his time at the Columbia Correctional Institute in Portage, Wisconsin. In 1994, fellow inmate Christopher Scarver, a double murderer, beat Dahmer and another inmate, Jesse Anderson, to death with a bench-press bar from the prison's weight room while all three were on work detail cleaning a bathroom (because of this incident, no American maximum security prison has a weight room anymore). Scarver stated that he was the "son of God" and was acting out his "Father's" commands to kill Dahmer and the other inmate during cleaning duties. Some believe, however, that race played a role in Scarver's motivation, as most of Dahmer's victims were black, and Anderson had killed his wife and blamed it on a black man. Shortly before his death, Dahmer had been rebaptized into Christianity.

His father refused to grant permission for his son's brain to be examined for scientific research. Though willing to help the case study of his son in other ways, he declined this particular request on religious grounds. Dahmer's father wrote a book, A Father's Story, in 1994 about what he saw as his failure to reach his son, as well as the effect Dahmer's crimes had on his family. After Jeffrey Dahmer's death and subsequent legal proceedings regarding the study of his brain were over, his remains were cremated and divided in half, between his birth mother Joyce and his father Lionel, who had remarried a woman named Shari.

Aftermath

Lionel Dahmer and his wife Shari at Jeffrey's trial

After the murders, the Oxford Apartments were razed and the site is now a vacant lot. At the time the apartments were demolished there were plans to turn the site into a memorial garden, but no garden exists on the site today. The site is mostly overgrown with grass and a tall chain link fence surrounding the perimeter of the property and is generally considered to be in a poor neighborhood of Milwaukee.

The families are continuing to struggle with their grief, but after Lionel Dahmer published his book "A Father's Story" the majority of the family members reached out to Lionel and his wife Shari and shared their grief together as they were all victims. Lionel donated a portion of the proceeds from his book to the victims and their families, but used the rest to pay legal fees by the minority who sued him for being an irresponsible father. Lionel has retired from his career as an analytical chemist and resides with his wife Shari today in Medina, Ohio. He consults on the evolution versus creationism topic occasionally, and his wife is a member of the board of the Medina County Ohio Horseman's Council. Both of them continue to carry the name Dahmer with pride and still love Jeffrey despite his crimes. Lionel's first wife, Joyce Dahmer, died of cancer some years after the trial.

The movie Jeffrey Dahmer: The Secret Life was released in 1993, starring Carl Crew as Dahmer. In 2002, the biopic Dahmer, starring Jeremy Renner in the title role, premiered in Dahmer's hometown. The film, which portrayed Dahmer in a human, if not sympathetic, light, met with protest from the victims' families, and quickly went to video. In a 2004 article in 3DShroom Magazine, Dahmer was described as the "most pitied serial killer in American history." The article described Dahmer's life as pathetic in comparison to less repentant killers like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy.

Jeffery Dahmer was one of the serial killers emulated by the killer in the movie Copycat. The killer emulated Dahmer by suffocating and then decapitating Dr. Hutson's assistant with a surgical saw.

American heavy metal band Macabre have written a concept album about Jeffrey Dahmer titled Dahmer. The songs "Arc Arsenal" by At the Drive-In and "213" by Slayer are also believed to be about Jeffrey Dahmer.

Victims

Name Photo Age Date of Death
Stephen Hicks File:StevenHicks.jpg 19 June, 1978
Steven Toumi File:Stevenwtuomi.jpg 24 September, 1987
James "Jamie" Doxtator File:Jamesdoxtator.jpg 14 October, 1987
Richard Guerrero File:Richardguerrero1.jpg 23 March, 1988
Anthony Sears File:AnthonySears.jpg 26 February, 1989
Raymond Smith
(aka Ricky Beeks)
File:Raymondlamontsmith.jpg 33 May, 1990
Eddie Smith File:Edwardsmith.jpg 27 June, 1990
Ernest Miller File:Ernestmiller.jpg 22 September, 1990
David Thomas File:Davidthomas.jpg 23 September, 1990
Curtis Straughter File:Curtisstraughter.jpg 19 February, 1991
Errol Lindsey File:Erollindsey.jpg 19 April, 1991
Tony Hughes File:Anthonyhughes.jpg 31 May, 1991
Konerak Sinthasomphone File:Konerak.jpg 14 May, 1991
Matt Turner File:Mattturner.jpg 20 June, 1991
Jeremiah Weinberger 23 June, 1991
Oliver Lacy File:Oliverlacey.jpg 23 July, 1991
Joseph Bradeholt File:Jospehbradehoft.jpg 25 July, 1991

Attempted victims

Name Photo Age Date of Abduction
Keison Sinthasomphone 13 September, 1988
Tracy Edwards File:Tracyedwards.jpg 32 July, 1991

References

  • A Father's Story, ISBN 068812156X - Confessional book by Jeffrey Dahmer's Father