1960-1994

Who Was Jeffrey Dahmer?

Jeffrey Dahmer was an American serial killer who took the lives of 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991. Over the course of more than than 13 years, Dahmer sought out his victims, mostly Black men, at gay bars, malls, and bus stops, lured them domicile with promises of money or sex, and gave them alcohol laced with drugs before strangling them to death. He would then engage in sexual practice acts with the corpses before dismembering them and disposing of them, often keeping their skulls or genitals as souvenirs. He oft took photos of his victims at various stages of the murder process, then he could remember each act afterward and relive the experience. Dahmer was captured in 1991 and sentenced to xvi life terms. He was killed by fellow prison inmate Christopher Scarver in 1994.

Quick Facts

Total Name: Jeffrey Dahmer
Built-in: May 21, 1960
DIED: November 28, 1994
BIRTHPLACE: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Gemini

Babyhood and Family unit

jeffrey dahmer poses for a black and white high school yearbook photo, he is looking off camera with a neutral expression on his face, he is wearing aviator glasses, a dark blazer, and a patterned shirt with a tall collar

English: Revere Senior High School, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons // Wikimedia Commons

Jeffrey Dahmer was born in Milwaukee, on May 21, 1960, to Lionel and Joyce Dahmer. He was described as an energetic and happy child until the age of iv, when a traumatic and painful recovery following surgery to correct a double hernia seemed to consequence a change in the boy. Noticeably subdued, he became increasingly withdrawn following the birth of his younger brother and the family'south frequent moves. By the time, Dahmer was of school age, the family had moved to Ohio.

From a immature age, Dahmer developed a fascination with animal bones and studied how to exist make clean and preserve them. As a child, he collected large insects and the skulls of pocket-sized animals, preserved in jars of formaldehyde, according to the Brian Masters book The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer.

By his early teens, he was disengaged, tense, and largely friendless. Dahmer claims that his compulsions toward necrophilia and murder began around the age of 14, but it appears that the breakdown of his parents' marriage and their acrimonious divorce a few years subsequently might have been the catalyst for turning these thoughts into deportment. His parents' numerous arguments and the abiding tension in the firm fabricated Dahmer question the solidity of his family unit and life, according to Masters.

jeffrey dahmer's father and stepmother stand outside in front of a prison, they are hugging each other and holding hands while looking at the camera

A 1994 photo of Jeffrey Dahmer'southward begetter, Lionel Dahmer, and stepmother, Shari, standing outside of Columbia Correctional Institute where Jeffrey was imprisoned.

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Dahmer also started drinking at historic period xiv, and by the fourth dimension of his first killing at age 18, his alcohol consumption had spun out of control. He dropped out of Ohio State University after one quarter term, and his recently remarried father insisted that he join the Army. Dahmer enlisted in late December 1978 and was posted to Deutschland presently thereafter.

His drinking trouble persisted, and in early 1981, the Army discharged him. Although German regime would later investigate possible connections betwixt Dahmer and murders that took place in the surface area during that time, it is not believed that he took any victims while serving in the Military.

Following his discharge, Dahmer returned home to Ohio. An arrest later that yr for disorderly conduct prompted his father to send Dahmer to alive with his grandmother Catherine Dahmer in Wisconsin, just his alcohol problem continued, and he was arrested the following summertime for indecent exposure. He was arrested once again in 1986 when two boys defendant him of masturbating in front of them. He received a one-year probationary sentence.

Start 4 Victims

jeffrey dahmer, wearing a black suit jacket and white shirt, unsmiling, in a courtroom

Jeffrey Dahmer during his trial on Feb 5, 1992

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Dahmer murdered 17 men between 1978 and 1991. He was careful to select victims on the fringes of order, who were oft itinerant or borderline criminal, making their disappearances less noticeable and reducing the likelihood of his capture. He lured them to his domicile with promises of money or sex, then strangled them to expiry. He engaged in sexual practice acts with their bodies and kept body parts and photos as souvenirs. His most popular nicknames—the Milwaukee Cannibal and the Milwaukee Monster—reflect his heinous crimes.

Dahmer's first murder occurred merely subsequently graduating from Revere High School, in June 1978, when he picked up an 18-year-one-time hitchhiker named Steven Hicks and took him home to his parents' firm. Dahmer proceeded to get the young man drunk, and when Hicks tried to go, Dahmer said "I didn't want him to leave." Dahmer killed him by hit him in the head and strangling him with a barbell. Dahmer dismembered Hicks' corpse, packed the body parts in plastic bags, and buried them behind his parents' home. He later exhumed the remains, crushed the bones with a sledgehammer, and scattered them beyond a wooded ravine.

Information technology wasn't until September 1987 that Dahmer took his second victim, Steven Tuomi. They checked into a hotel room and drank, and Dahmer eventually awoke to notice Tuomi dead, with no memory of the previous dark's activities. He later told law he intended to drug Tuomi but not impale him, and he "could not believe this had happened." Dahmer bought a large suitcase to transport Tuomi'south trunk to his grandmother'due south basement, where he dismembered and masturbated on the corpse before disposing of the remains. He kept Tuomi's head, which was wrapped in a blanket, for weeks after the murder.

Dahmer later said that after Tuomi'due south killing, his "obsession [with killing] went into total swing" and he "didn't even endeavour to cease information technology after that." He killed two more victims at his grandmother's house before she forced him to move out in 1988. She had no knowledge of his crimes just was tired of his drinking, his tendency to bring young men to her firm, and the foul smells occasionally coming from her basement, according to Masters.

Sexual Set on Charges and Sentence

In September 1989, about a year after moving into his new apartment, Dahmer lured a xiii-year-onetime Laotian boy to his firm, claiming he wanted to take nude photos of him. This resulted in charges of sexual exploitation and 2d-degree sexual set on for Dahmer. He pleaded guilty, claiming that the male child had appeared much older.

While awaiting sentencing for his sexual assault case, Dahmer again put his grandmother's basement to gruesome use. In March 1989, he lured, drugged, strangled, sodomized, photographed, dismembered, and tending of Anthony Sears, an aspiring model. Dahmer found Sears particularly attractive and later said he did not desire to "lose him," and and then Sears became the commencement victim from whom Dahmer kept preserved trunk parts for a long menses of time, mummifying his caput and genitals, according to Masters.

At his trial for child molestation in May 1989, Dahmer was the model of contrition, arguing eloquently, in his own defence, well-nigh how he had seen the fault of his ways and that his abort marked a turning point in his life. His defence counsel argued that he needed treatment, not incarceration, and the judge agreed, handing downward a one-twelvemonth prison judgement on "day release"—allowing Dahmer to work at his chore during the day and return to the prison at night—as well equally a five-year probationary sentence.

Years later, in an interview with CNN, Lionel Dahmer stated that he wrote a letter to the court that issued the judgement, requesting psychological help before his son's parole. Notwithstanding, Dahmer was granted an early release by the judge, subsequently serving just 10 months of his sentence. He briefly lived with his grandmother following his release, during which fourth dimension he does not appear to have added to his body count, before moving dorsum into his own apartment.

Last 13 Victims

jeffrey dahmer, wearing a tan suit jacket and white shirt, is escorted by three uniformed police officers into a courtroom

Police force escort Jeffrey Dahmer into the courtroom during his 1992 trial.

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Over the next ii years, Dahmer would impale 12 more people, bringing his total victim count to 17. His first victim during this time was a prostitute named Raymond Smith, whom Dahmer lured to his flat for sex, gave a drink laced with sleeping tablets, and and then strangled. Dahmer took photos of his torso in suggestive positions before dismembering him. With his adjacent victim Edward Smith, Dahmer accidentally destroyed his skull while trying to dry out it in the oven, making it explode. He subsequently told constabulary he felt "rotten" about Smith's murder because was unable to keep annihilation from his body, making it feel like a truthful waste, co-ordinate to Masters.

Dahmer started developing rituals as he progressed with his killings, experimenting with chemical ways of disposal and often consuming the flesh of his victims. Dahmer also attempted crude lobotomies: He drilled into the skull of his 11th victim, Errol Lindsey, while he was even so alive and injected him with muriatic acrid. Dahmer hoped this would place Lindsey into a permanent submissive state, but Lindsey awoke during the procedure and said, "I accept a headache; what fourth dimension is it?" so Dahmer strangled him.

On May 27, 1991, Dahmer'southward neighbour Sandra Smith called the police to report that an Asian male child was running naked in the street. When the police arrived, the boy was incoherent, and they accepted the word of Dahmer—a white man in a largely poor Black community—that the boy was his xix-year-old lover. In fact, the boy was xiv years erstwhile and was, unbeknownst to Dahmer, the younger brother of the Laotian teen Dahmer had molested three years earlier.

The police escorted Dahmer and the boy home. Clearly not wishing to become embroiled in a homosexual domestic disturbance, they took only a cursory await effectually earlier leaving. According to Dahmer, an officer "peeked his head around in the bedroom but didn't really take a good look," so left after telling Dahmer to "take care" of the boy, according to Masters. In one case they left the scene, Dahmer injected hydrochloric acid into the boy'south brain, killing him. Had the police conducted even a basic search, they would have found the trunk of Dahmer's 12thursday victim, Tony Hughes.

Dahmer killed four more men before he was finally arrested. One of his last victims was Oliver Lacy, 24, whose body Dahmer had sex activity with before dismembering the corpse. He kept Lacy's caput and center in his refrigerator, and his skeleton in a freezer.

Dahmer's Arrest

Jeffrey Dahmer Mug Shot

Jeffrey Dahmer'due south mugshot photos.

Photograph: Curt Borgwardt/Sygma via Getty Images

Dahmer's killing spree concluded when he was arrested on July 22, 1991. The body parts found in Dahmer's refrigerator and Polaroid photographs of his victims became inextricably associated with his notorious killing spree.

Two Milwaukee police force officers were led to Dahmer when they picked up Tracy Edwards, a 32-year-old Black human who was wandering the streets with handcuffs dangling from his wrist. They decided to investigate the man's claims that a "weird dude" had drugged and restrained him. They arrived at Dahmer'due south apartment, where he calmly offered to get the keys for the handcuffs.

Edwards claimed that the knife Dahmer had threatened him with was in the bedroom. When the officer went in to corroborate the story, he noticed Polaroid photographs of dismembered bodies lying around. Dahmer was subdued past the officers, after which he muttered the words, "For what I did, I should exist dead," according to Masters.

Subsequent searches revealed a head in the refrigerator, three more in the freezer, and a catalog of other horrors, including preserved skulls, jars containing genitalia, and an extensive gallery of macabre Polaroid photographs of his victims. Dahmer later said he had planned to built a private chantry from his victims' skulls, adorned with incense sticks and world lights. He hoped the altar would be "A identify where I could experience at home," according to Masters.

Trial and Imprisonment

jeffrey dahmer, wearing a orange prison jumpsuit, is escorted by a police officer into a courtroom

Jeffrey Dahmer being escorted into a courtroom.

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Dahmer'southward trial began in January 1992. Given that the majority of Dahmer's victims were Black, in that location were considerable racial tensions, and then strict security precautions were taken, including an eight-foot barrier of bulletproof glass that separated him from the gallery. The inclusion of but 1 Black person on the jury provoked further unrest but was ultimately independent and short-lived. Lionel Dahmer and his 2nd wife attended the trial throughout.

Dahmer initially pleaded not guilty to all charges, despite having confessed to the killings during police force interrogation. He eventually changed his plea to guilty by virtue of insanity. His defense and then offered the gruesome details of his beliefs, as proof that only someone insane could commit such terrible acts.

The jury chose to believe the prosecution'south assertion that Dahmer was fully aware that his acts were evil and chose to commit them anyway. On February 15, 1992, they returned later approximately 10 hours' deliberation to detect him guilty, just sane, on all counts. He was sentenced to 15 sequent life terms in prison, with a 16th term tacked on in May.

Dahmer reportedly adjusted well to prison life at the Columbia Correctional Institution in south-central Wisconsin, though he was initially kept autonomously from the full general population. He eventually convinced regime to allow him to integrate more fully with other inmates. He found religion in the form of books and photos sent to him by his male parent, and he was granted permission by the Columbia Correctional Institution to exist baptized by a local pastor.

Death

Dahmer was killed on Nov 28, 1994, by his boyfriend prison inmate Christopher Scarver.

In accord with his inclusion in regular work details, Dahmer was assigned to work with two other convicted murderers, Scarver and Jesse Anderson. After they had been left lone to complete their tasks, guards returned to find that Scarver had brutally browbeaten both men with a metal bar from the prison weight room. Dahmer was pronounced dead later approximately one hour. Anderson died from his injuries days later.

A prison house guard claimed that shortly after the murders, Scarver, who was believed to be schizophrenic, said "God told me to do it." In 2015, Scarver spoke to the New York Post about his reasons for killing Dahmer. Scarver declared that he was disturbed not just past Dahmer's crimes merely past a habit Dahmer had developed of fashioning severed limbs from prison nutrient to antagonize other inmates.

After existence taunted by Dahmer and Anderson during their work particular, Scarver said that he confronted Dahmer about his crimes before beating the ii men to death. He as well claimed that prison guards immune the murders to happen by leaving them alone. Catherine Lacy, the mother of Dahmer's victim Oliver Lacy, said his expiry brought her no closure: "The hurt is worse at present, because he'south not suffering like we are."

Jeffrey Dahmer's House

In 1996, following Dahmer'south death, a group of Milwaukee businessmen raised more than $400,000 to purchase the items he used for crimes, including blades, saws, handcuffs, and a refrigerator to store torso parts. They promptly destroyed them in an effort to distance the city from the horrors of Dahmer'due south deportment and the ensuing media circus surrounding his trial.

In August 2012, nearly ii decades later his death, it was reported that Dahmer's childhood home in Bathroom, Ohio—where he committed his first murder in 1978 and buried his victim's remains—was on the market place. Its owner, musician Chris Butler, stated that the property would make a great home, as long as the buyer could "go past the horror factor." The firm was removed from the market is believed to still be owned by Butler, as of 2022.

Pop Culture Depictions

evan peters portrays jeffrey dahmer walking through a jail while wearing a dark teal inmate uniform and aviator glasses, behind him is another actor, and a third actor is shown behind bars on the right

Actor Evan Peters played Jeffrey Dahmer in the Netflix series D ahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (2022).

Netflix

Several well-known books accept been written nigh Dahmer including, The Jeffrey Dahmer Story: An American Nightmare (1991) past Donald A. Davis and The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer (1993) by Brian Masters. Dahmer was portrayed by Jeremy Renner in the picture Dahmer (2002), which featured Bruce Davison as Dahmer'southward male parent, Lionel. The moving picture My Friend Dahmer (2017), starring Ross Lynch in the title role, was based upon a graphic novel past cartoonist John "Derf" Backderf, who had been friends with Dahmer in high school.

The documentary picture show The Jeffery Dahmer Files (2012) included fictionalized reenactments of Dahmer'south life (with Andrew Swant portraying him) along with existent-life interviews with people involved with his cases. Several other documentaries have been produced most Dahmer too. In September 2022, Netflix released a ten-function anthology serial called Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Co-created past American Horror Story creator Ryan Irish potato, the series starred Evan Peters every bit Dahmer and highlighted incidents in which Dahmer was nigh apprehended before his arrest, with a particular focus on how police incompetence allowed him to extend his killing spree.

Quotes

  • I know society will never be able to forgive me. I know the families of the victims volition never be able to forgive me for what I take done. I promise I will pray each solar day to enquire for their forgiveness when the injure goes away, if ever. I have seen their tears, and if I could give my life right now to bring their loved ones back, I would exercise information technology.
  • I should have stayed with God. I tried, and I failed and created a holocaust.
  • This has never been a instance of trying to go free. I didn't ever want liberty. Bluntly, I wanted death for myself.
  • I experience so bad for what I did to those poor families, and I empathise their rightful hate.
  • I accept all the blame for what I did.
  • I wanted to find out just what it was that caused me to be so bad and evil.
  • The subtleties of social life were across my grasp. When children liked me, I did not know why. Nor could I formulate a plan for winning their amore. I only didn't know how things worked with other people. ... And try every bit I might, I couldn't make other people seem less foreign and unknowable. [from The New School Psychology Bulletin; Book 5, No. one, 2007]
  • What I've done has cut both ways. It's injure the victim, and information technology'south injure me. ... I don't know what I was thinking when I did it. [from The New School Psychology Message; Volume five, No. 1, 2007]
  • Mayhap I was born likewise tardily. Mayhap I was an Aztec. [from Albany Times Union; published on February 5, 1992]
  • [The] world already has enough misery in it without my adding more than to it. [from Albany Times Spousal relationship; published on Baronial 7, 1991]
  • Information technology was not a example of antisocial them. Information technology was just the merely way I knew of to go on them there and keep them with me. [from The Scotsman; published on August xv, 2000]
  • It gave me a sense of total control and increased the sexual thrill, I approximate, knowing I had total control of them and that I could do with them as I wished. [from The Scotsman; published on August 15, 2000]
  • It'due south hard for me to believe a human could do what I have done, only I know I did it. [from Albany Times Spousal relationship; published on February 1, 1992]
  • I practise not blame the police, the courts, or the probation system. I failed the system, it did non neglect me. [from Sunday Times; published on July 28, 1991]
  • I guess I've really done information technology this time, I'one thousand pitiful. [from Sunday Times; published on Apr 17, 1994]
  • God told me to do it. [from Albany Times Union; published on December xvi, 1994]
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