Jeffrey Dahmer

"Dahmer" redirects here. For other uses, see Dahmer (disambiguation).

Jeffrey Dahmer
File:Jeffrey-dahmer.jpg Dahmer's mug shot, taken in 1982 by the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department
Born	Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer (1960-05-21)May 21, 1960 West Allis, Wisconsin, U.S.
Died	November 28, 1994(1994-11-28) (aged 34) Portage, Wisconsin, U.S.
Cause of death	Severe head trauma
Other names	The Milwaukee Cannibal, The Milwaukee Monster
Conviction(s)	Child molestation Disorderly conduct Indecent exposure Murder Public intoxication
Criminal penalty	Life imprisonment (15 life terms)
Details
Victims	17
Span of crimes	June 18, 1978 – July 19, 1991
Country	United States
State(s)	Ohio, Wisconsin
Date apprehended	July 22, 1991

Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer (May 21, 1960 – November 28, 1994), also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal, was an American serial killer and sex offender, who committed the rape, murder and dismemberment of 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991, with many of his later murders also involving necrophilia and cannibalism. Court psychologists and prison psychiatrists diagnosed him with borderline personality disorder. Dahmer was convicted of 15 of these murders on February 15, 1992 and sentenced to 15 terms of life imprisonment.

On November 28, 1994, Dahmer was beaten to death by a fellow inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institution, where he had been incarcerated.

Early life

Jeffrey Dahmer was born in West Allis, Wisconsin, the first son of Joyce Annette (née Flint) and Lionel Herbert Dahmer. Dahmer's mother worked as a teletype machine instructor, whereas his father was a student at Marquette University, working towards a degree in chemistry.

Although Dahmer was doted upon as an infant and toddler by both parents, his mother was known to be tense, greedy for attention and argumentative with both her husband and her neighbors. As her son entered first grade, Joyce Dahmer began to spend an increasing amount of her time in bed recovering from weakness. Lionel's university studies kept him away from home much of the time; when he was home, Joyce demanded constant attention. She reportedly would work herself into a state of anxiety over trivial matters simply to achieve appeasement from her husband. On one occasion, Joyce Dahmer attempted suicide from an overdose of the Equanil pills to which she had become addicted. As a result, neither parent had much time to care for Jeffrey.

Dahmer himself recalled his early years of family life as being of "extreme tension" which he noted between his parents, whom he observed to be consistently arguing with each other. At school, he was observed to be both quiet and timid; one first grade teacher noted upon Dahmer's first grade report card that she observed him to be a reserved child whom she sensed to feel neglected. Nonetheless, he was regarded as a "quiet kid" by many of his peers. Although largely reserved and uncommunicative in grade school, Dahmer did have a small number of friends.

From an early age, Dahmer manifested an interest in animals. Friends later recalled Dahmer initially collected large insects, dragonflies and butterflies which he placed inside jars. Later, Dahmer—occasionally accompanied by one or more of his few friends—would collect animal carcasses from the roadside; these animals Dahmer would dismember either at home or in an expanse of woodland behind the family home. According to one friend, Dahmer would dismember these animals and store the parts in jars in the family's wooden toolshed, always explaining that he was curious as to how each animal "fitted together." In one instance, he is known to have impaled a dog's head upon a stake behind his house.

Dahmer's fascination with dead animals might have begun when, at the age of four, he noted his father removing animal bones from beneath the family home. According to Lionel Dahmer, his son was "oddly thrilled" by the sound the bones made.

The Dahmer family relocated to Doylestown, Ohio, in October of 1966. At the time, Joyce Dahmer was pregnant with her second child. When she gave birth to a baby boy on December 18, 1966, Jeffrey was allowed to choose the name of the baby. He chose the name David for his younger brother. The same year, Lionel Dahmer achieved his degree and subsequently obtained employment as an analytical chemist in the city of Akron.

In 1968, the family relocated to Bath, Ohio. Two years later, over a family meal of chicken, Dahmer asked his father what would happen if the bones of the chicken were to be placed in bleach. Lionel Dahmer was by this stage concerned as to his elder son's placid and lethargic attitude and his solitary existence; he was delighted at the initiative displayed by his son towards what he believed to be scientific curiosity; therefore he willingly demonstrated how to bleach and, later, preserve animal bones. The knowledge regarding cleansing and preserving of these bones Dahmer would later utilize upon many of the animal remains with he continued to avidly collect and of which his father, being a chemist, taught his son safe usage.

Adolescence and high school

From his freshman year at Revere High School, Dahmer was seen by his peers as an outcast with few friends. Many of Dahmer's classmates later recollected being disturbed by the fact that he was known to drink both beer and spirits, which he smuggled into school inside his jacket. This alcohol abuse was known to occur both before, during and after school and was first noted when Dahmer was 14. On one occasion, a classmate observed Dahmer consuming a cup of gin and asked him why he was drinking liquor in class, to which Dahmer casually replied, "It's my medicine."

Nonetheless, in his freshman year at Revere High School, Dahmer, although largely uncommunicative, was observed by staff to be a polite student who was known to be highly intelligent. He initially achieved only average grades, which staff attributed to his apathy. He was also known to have been a keen tennis player and to have briefly played in the high school band.

Dahmer at age 17, photographed for the 1977 Revere High School yearbook.

When he reached puberty, Dahmer discovered he was a homosexual. He did not divulge his sexuality to his parents, although in his early teens, he did engage in a brief relationship with another youth although the pair never had intercourse. By his own later admission, as he began to fantasize sexually, issues of dominance and control over a completely subservient partner were prevalent in his thoughts. These thoughts gradually became intertwined with dissection. On one occasion when he was approximately 16 years old, Dahmer conceived a fantasy of rendering a particular male jogger he found attractive unconscious and then making sexual use of his unconscious body. To render the man unconscious, Dahmer concealed himself in bushes on the route he had noted the jogger took, baseball bat in hand, and lay in wait for the jogger. On this particular day, the jogger did not pass him and although Dahmer never attempted to implement this plan again, he later stated this was his first attempt to attack another individual.

Despite being regarded as a loner and an oddball amongst his peers at Revere High School, Dahmer nonetheless became something of a cult figure among some students due to the pranks he was known to regularly stage: some of which were done to amuse his classmates; others apparently to simply attract attention. These pranks became known as "Doing a Dahmer" and included bleating, faking epileptic seizures, mocking invalids, and knocking over items both at school and at local stores.

By 1977, Dahmer's academic performance had decreased, due to his alcohol abuse and his general apathy toward academic and social interactions. His grades plummeted. His parents hired a private tutor for their son, but the tutor only had limited success. The same year, Dahmer's parents attended counselling sessions to try and resolve personal differences and thus save their marriage. The counselling was ultimately unsuccessful, and Dahmer's parents decided to divorce. Although initially on amicable grounds, both of Dahmer's parents began to frequently quarrel in the presence of their sons and, in early 1978, Lionel Dahmer moved out of the house.

In May 1978, Dahmer graduated from high school. A few weeks before his graduation, one of his teachers observed Dahmer sitting close to the school parking lot, drinking several cans of beer. When the teacher threatened to report the matter, Dahmer informed him he was experiencing "a lot of problems" at home and that the school's guidance counselor was aware of them. Shortly after this incident, Joyce was awarded custody of her younger son and vacated the family residence, moving in with family members of hers; Dahmer, having just turned 18, was legally an adult and therefore not subject to court custodial considerations.

First murder and army service

Dahmer committed his first murder in the summer of 1978, at the age of 18, just three weeks after his graduation. At the time, he was living alone in the family home: due to his parents' recent divorce, Dahmer's father temporarily lived in a nearby motel and his mother had relocated to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin with his younger brother. On June 18, Dahmer picked up an 18-year-old hitchhiker named Stephen Mark Hicks. Dahmer lured the youth to his house on the pretext of the pair drinking alcohol together. Hicks, who had been hitchhiking to a rock concert in Lockwood Corners, agreed to accompany Dahmer to his house. According to Dahmer, after several hours' drinking and listening to music, Hicks informed Dahmer he "wanted to leave and [I] didn't want him to." In response, Dahmer bludgeoned the youth with a 10 lb. dumbbell. Dahmer later stated he struck the youth twice from behind with the dumbbell as he (Hicks) sat upon a chair. When Hicks fell unconscious, Dahmer strangled the youth to death with the bar of the dumbbell, then stripped the clothes from Hicks's body before masturbating as he stood above the corpse.

The following day, Dahmer dissected Hicks's body in his crawl space; he later buried the remains in a shallow grave in his backyard before, several weeks later, unearthing the remains and paring the flesh from the bones. The flesh he dissolved in acid before flushing the solution down the toilet; the bones he crushed with a sledgehammer.

Six weeks after the murder of Hicks, Dahmer's father and his fiancée returned to his home where they discovered Jeffrey living alone at the house. That August, Dahmer enrolled at Ohio State University, but left after one term, largely because of persistent alcohol abuse throughout the majority of the term.

In January 1979, upon his father's urging, Dahmer enlisted in the U.S. Army, where he trained as a medical specialist at Fort Sam Houston before, on July 13, 1979, being deployed to Baumholder in West Germany where he served as a combat medic. According to published reports, in Dahmer's first year of service, he was an "average or slightly above average" soldier. However, due to his alcohol abuse, his performance deteriorated and in March 1981 he was deemed unsuitable for military service and later formally discharged from the Army, albeit honorably.

On March 24, 1981, Dahmer was sent to Fort Jackson for debriefing and provided with a plane ticket to travel anywhere in the country. Dahmer later told police he felt he could not return home to face his father, so he opted to travel to Miami Beach, Florida, both because he was "tired of the cold" and in an attempt to live by his own means. In Florida, Dahmer found employment at a sandwich shop and rented a room in a nearby motel. Almost all of Dahmer's earnings were spent on alcohol and after several months, he was evicted from the motel and initially spent his evenings on the beach as he continued to work at the sandwich shop before, in September 1981, phoning his father and asking to return to Ohio.

Return to Ohio and relocation to West Allis

Upon his return to Ohio, Dahmer initially resided with his father and stepmother and insisted on being delegated numerous chores to occupy his time as he looked for work. However, he continued to drink heavily and just two weeks after his return, Dahmer was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct, for which he was fined sixty dollars and given a suspended ten-day jail sentence.

Dahmer's father tried unsuccessfully to wean his son off alcohol. In December 1981, Dahmer's father and stepmother sent Jeffrey to live with his grandmother in West Allis. Dahmer's grandmother was the only family member to whom he displayed any affection; they hoped that her influence, plus the change of scenery, might inspire Dahmer to refrain from alcohol, find a job and live responsibly.

Initially, Dahmer's living arrangements with his grandmother were harmonious: he accompanied her to church; willingly undertook chores; actively sought work; and abided by most of her house rules (although he did continue to drink). This new influence in his life initially brought results and in early 1982, Dahmer found employment as a phlebotomist at the Milwaukee Blood Plasma Center. He held this job for a total of ten months before being made redundant. He was to remain unemployed for over two years, during which he lived upon whatever money his grandmother gave him.

Shortly before being made redundant, Dahmer was arrested for indecent exposure. On August 7, 1982, at Wisconsin State Fair Park, Dahmer was observed to expose himself to a crowd of 25 women and children. For this incident, he was convicted and fined fifty dollars plus court costs.

In January 1985, Dahmer was hired as a mixer at the Milwaukee Ambrosia Chocolate Factory, where he worked from 11 p.m.–7 a.m. six nights a week, with Saturday evenings off. Shortly after Dahmer found this employment, an incident occurred in which he was propositioned by another male while sitting reading in the West Allis Public Library. The stranger threw Dahmer a note offering to perform fellatio upon him. Although Dahmer did not respond to this proposition, the incident stirred in his mind the fantasies of control and dominance he had developed as a teenager and he began to familiarize himself with Milwaukee's gay bars, bookstores and bathhouses. He is also known to have stolen a male mannequin from a store, which he briefly used for sexual stimulation before his grandmother, having discovered the device stowed in a closet, demanded that he discard it.

By late 1985, he had begun to regularly frequent the bathhouses, which he later described as being "relaxing places", but during his sexual encounters, he became frustrated at his partners' moving during the sexual act. Following his arrest, he stated: "I trained myself to view people as objects of pleasure instead of people." For this reason, from June 1986, he began to administer sleeping pills to his partners, to whom he would give liquor laced with the sedatives, then make sexual use of their unconscious bodies. Following approximately 12 such instances, Dahmer's membership of the bathhouses was revoked and he began to use hotel rooms to continue this practice.

In August 1986, Dahmer was again arrested for masturbating in front of two 12-year-old boys as he stood close to the Kinnickinnic River. Dahmer initially admitted the offense and was again charged with indecent exposure, but quickly changed his story and claimed he had merely been urinating, unaware that there were witnesses. The charge was changed to disorderly conduct and on March 10, 1987, Dahmer was sentenced to one year's probation, with additional instructions he was to undergo counseling.

Subsequent murders

Ambassador Hotel

Nine years passed before Dahmer killed again; in November 1987, Dahmer—at the time residing with his grandmother in West Allis—encountered a 25-year-old Ontonagon native named Steven Tuomi at a bar and persuaded him to return to the Ambassador Hotel room Dahmer had rented for the evening. According to Dahmer, he had no intention of murdering this particular victim, but simply intended to drug him and have intercourse with him as he lay unconscious. The following morning, however, he awoke to find Tuomi lying beneath him on the bed, his chest "crushed in" and blood seeping from his mouth, with bruises on Dahmer's own fists and one forearm. Dahmer stated he had absolutely no memory of having killed Tuomi and later informed investigators that he simply "could not believe this had happened." To dispose of Tuomi's body, he purchased a large suitcase in which he transported the body to his grandmother's residence. There, the following morning, he severed the head, arms and legs from the body, then filleted the bones from the body, cut the flesh into pieces small enough to handle, which he then placed inside garbage bags. The bones he wrapped inside a sheet and pounded into splinters with a sledgehammer. The entire dismemberment process took Dahmer approximately two hours to complete and all of Tuomi's remains—excluding the severed head—were disposed of in the trash.

For a total of two weeks following Tuomi's murder, Dahmer retained the victim's head wrapped in a blanket. After two weeks, Dahmer boiled the head in a mixture of Soilex and bleach in an effort to retain the skull, which he then used as stimulus for masturbation. Eventually, the skull was rendered too brittle by this bleaching process and was also pulverized and disposed of.

Intermediate incidents

Following the murder of Tuomi, Dahmer began to actively seek victims, most of whom he encountered in or close to gay bars and whom he would typically lure to his grandmother's home, where they would be drugged before or shortly after engaging in sexual activity with him. Once unconscious from the sleeping pills, the victim would be killed by strangulation.

Two months after the murder of Steven Tuomi, Dahmer encountered a 14-year-old Native American male prostitute named James Doxtator; the youth was lured to Dahmer's home with an offer of $50 to pose for nude pictures. At Dahmer's West Allis residence, the pair engaged in sexual activity before Doxtator was drugged and strangled on the floor of the cellar. Dahmer left the body in the cellar for one week before dismembering the body in much the same manner as he had with Tuomi. All of Doxtator's remains (except the skull) were placed in trash; the skull was boiled and initially retained before being pulverized. On March 24, 1988, Dahmer met a 22-year-old bisexual named Richard Guerrero outside a gay bar called The Phoenix. Guerrero was also lured to Dahmer's grandmother's residence, although the incentive on this occasion was $50 to simply spend the night with him; he was drugged with sleeping pills and strangled with a leather strap, with Dahmer then performing oral sex upon the corpse. Guerrero's body was dismembered within 24 hours of his murder, with the remains again disposed of in the trash and the skull again retained before being pulverized several months later.

On April 23, Dahmer lured another young man to his house; however, after giving the victim a drugged coffee, both he and the victim heard Dahmer's grandmother call, "Is that you, Jeff?" Although Dahmer replied in a manner that led his grandmother to believe he was alone, his grandmother did observe the fact Dahmer was not alone. Because of this, Dahmer opted not to kill this particular victim, whom he waited until had become unconscious before taking to the County General Hospital.

In September of 1988, Dahmer's grandmother asked him to move out of her house both because of his habit of bringing young men to her house late at night and because of the foul smells she had noted emanating from both the basement and the garage. Dahmer found a one-bedroom apartment on North Twenty-fifth Street and moved into his new residence on September 25. The following day, Dahmer was arrested for drugging and sexually fondling a 13-year-old boy whom he had lured to his home on the pretext of posing nude for photographs. In January 1989, Dahmer was convicted of second-degree sexual assault and of enticing a child for immoral purposes. Sentencing for the assault was suspended until May, 1989.

Two months after his conviction and two months prior to his sentencing for the sexual assault, Dahmer killed for the fifth time. The victim was a mixed-race 24-year-old aspiring model named Anthony Sears, whom Dahmer met at a gay bar on March 25, 1989. According to Dahmer, on this particular occasion, he was not planning on looking for a victim; however, shortly before closing time that evening, Sears "just started talking to me." Dahmer lured Sears to his grandmother's home (where Dahmer was temporarily living) where the pair engaged in oral sex before Dahmer drugged and strangled Sears. The following morning, Dahmer placed the corpse in his grandmother's bathtub, where he decapitated the body before attempting to flay the corpse. He then stripped the flesh from the body and pulverized the bones, which were again disposed of in the trash. According to Dahmer, he found Sears "exceptionally attractive" and Sears was the first victim from whom he permanently retained any body parts: he preserved the skull and genitalia of Sears in acetone and stored them in his work locker. When he moved to a new address the following year, he took the remains there.

On May 23, 1989, Dahmer was sentenced to five years' probation and one year in the House of Correction, with work release permitted in order that he be able to keep his job; he was also required to register as a sex offender.

Two months before his scheduled release from the work camp, Dahmer was paroled from this regime. (His five years' probation imposed in 1989 began at this point.) Upon his release, Dahmer initially moved back with his grandmother in West Allis before, in May 1990, moving into the Oxford Apartments, located on North 25th Street in Milwaukee. Although located in a high crime area, the apartment was close to his workplace, was furnished and, at $300 a month inclusive of all bills excluding electricity, was economical.

924 North 25th Street

On May 14 1990, Dahmer moved out of his grandmother's house and into Apartment 213, 924 North 25th Street, taking the skull, scalp and painted genitals of Anthony Sears with him. Within one week of his moving into his new apartment, Dahmer had killed his sixth victim, Raymond Smith. Smith was a heterosexual who worked as a male prostitute whom Dahmer lured to Apartment 219 with the promise of $50 for sex. At Dahmer's apartment, Smith was given a drink laced with seven sleeping pills and manually strangled. The following day, Dahmer purchased a Polaroid camera with which he took several pictures of Smith's body in suggestive positions before dismembering him in the bathroom. The legs, arms and pelvis he boiled in a steel kettle with Soilex, which enabled him to then rinse the bones in his sink; the remainder of Smith's skeleton—excluding the skull—he dissolved in a container he filled with acid. Smith's skull was spray-painted and placed alongside the skull of Anthony Sears.

Approximately one week after the murder of Raymond Smith, on or about May 27, Dahmer lured another young man to his apartment. On this occasion, however, Dahmer himself accidentally consumed the drink laden with sedatives intended for consumption by his guest. When he awoke, he discovered he had been robbed of $300 and a watch. Not unnaturally, Dahmer never reported this incident to the police, although he did divulge to his probation officer on May 29 that he had been robbed.

In June, 1990, Dahmer lured a 27-year-old acquaintance of his named Edward Smith to his apartment. Smith was drugged and strangled. On this occasion, rather than immediately acidifying the skeleton or repeating previous processes of bleaching (which had rendered previous victims' skulls brittle), Dahmer placed the skeleton of Smith in his freezer for several months in the hope it would not retain moisture. Freezing the skeleton did not remove moisture, and the skeleton would be acidified several months later. The skull was destroyed unintentionally when placed in the oven to dry—a process which caused the skull to explode. (Dahmer himself was to later inform police he had felt "rotten" about Smith's murder as he had not been able to retain any parts of his body.)

Less than three months after the murder of Smith, Dahmer encountered a 22-year-old Chicago native named Ernest Miller on the corner of North 27th Street. Miller agreed to accompany Dahmer to his apartment for $50 and further agreed to allow him to listen to his heart and stomach. When Dahmer attempted to perform oral sex upon Miller, he was informed: "That'll cost you extra," whereupon Dahmer gave his intended victim a drink laced with two sleeping pills.

On this occasion, however, he had had only two sleeping pills to give his victim; therefore, he killed Miller by slashing his carotid artery with the same knife he used to dissect his victims. He then posed the nude body for various suggestive Polaroid photographs before placing the body in his bathtub for dismemberment. The severed head Dahmer repeatedly kissed and talked to as he dismembered the remainder of the body. Miller's heart, biceps and portions of flesh from the legs were wrapped in plastic bags and placed in the fridge for later consumption. The remaining flesh and organs Dahmer boiled into a "jelly-like substance" using Soilex, which again enabled him to rinse the flesh off the skeleton, which he intended to retain. To preserve the skeleton, he placed the bones in a "light bleach solution" for 24 hours before allowing them to dry upon a cloth for one week; the severed head was initially placed in the fridge before also being stripped of flesh and preserved.

Three weeks after the murder of Ernest Miller, on September 24, Dahmer encountered a 22-year-old father-of-one named David Thomas at the Grand Avenue Mall and persuaded him to return to his apartment for a few drinks, with additional money on offer if he would pose for photographs. In his statement to police after his arrest, Dahmer stated that after giving Thomas a drink laden with sedatives, he did not feel attracted to him, but was afraid to allow him to awake in case he would be angry over having been drugged. Therefore, he strangled him and dismembered the body—intentionally retaining no body parts whatsoever. Nonetheless, he did photograph the dismemberment process and retain these photographs, which would aid in Thomas's subsequent identification.

Following the murder of David Thomas, Dahmer did not kill for almost five months, although on a minimum of five occasions between October, 1990 and February, 1991, he did unsuccessfully attempt to lure men to his apartment. He is also known to have regularly complained of feelings of both anxiety and depression to his probation officer throughout 1990; with frequent references to his sexuality, his solitary lifestyle and financial difficulties. On several occasions, he is also known to have referred to harboring suicidal thoughts.

In February, 1991, Dahmer observed a 17-year-old named Curtis Straughter standing at a bus stop near Marquette University. According to Dahmer, Straughter was lured to his apartment with an offer of money for posing for nude photos, with the added incentive of sexual intercourse. At Dahmer's apartment, the youth was drugged and strangled with a leather strap, then dismembered, with Dahmer retaining his skull, hands and genitals and photographing each stage of the dismemberment process. Less than two months later, on April 7, Dahmer encountered a 19-year-old named Errol Lindsey walking to get a key cut. Lindsey was a heterosexual; he was lured to Dahmer's apartment, where he was drugged and endured muriatic acid being poured into his skull through a cavity which Dahmer had drilled. According to Dahmer, Lindsey awoke after this experiment (which Dahmer had conceived in the hope of inducing a permanent, unresistant, submissive state), saying: "I have a headache. What time is it?" In response to this, Dahmer again drugged Lindsey, then strangled him. Lindsey's body was decapitated and the skull retained; his body was flayed and the skin placed in a solution of cold water and salt for several weeks in the hope of being permanently retained. Reluctantly, Dahmer disposed of Lindsey's skin when he noted it had become too frayed and brittle.

By 1991, fellow residents of the Oxford Apartments had complained of the smells emanating from Apartment 213, in addition to the sounds of falling objects and the occasional sound of a chainsaw. The manager of the Oxford Apartments, Sopa Princewill, did contact Dahmer in response to these complaints on several occasions, to which Dahmer initially excused the odors from his apartment as being caused by his freezer breaking, causing the contents to become "spoiled." On another occasion, the manager was informed the reason for resurgence of the odor was that several of Dahmer's tropical fish had recently died.

On the afternoon of May 26, 1991, Dahmer encountered a 14-year-old named Konerak Sinthasomphone on Wisconsin Avenue; he approached the youth with an offer of money to accompany him to his apartment to pose for Polaroid pictures. According to Dahmer, Sinthasomphone—the younger brother of the boy whom he had molested in 1988—was initially reluctant to the proposal, before changing his mind and accompanying Dahmer to his apartment, where the youth posed for two pictures in his underwear before being drugged into unconsciousness and fellated. On this occasion, Dahmer drilled a single hole into Sinthasomphone's skull, through which he injected muriatic acid into the frontal lobe.

Prior to his falling unconscious, Sinthasomphone was led into Dahmer's bedroom, where the nude body of 31-year-old Tony Hughes, whom Dahmer had killed three days earlier, lay naked on the floor. According to Dahmer, he "believed he [Sinthasomphone] saw this body," yet did not react to seeing the bloated corpse—likely because of the effects of the sleeping pills he had ingested and the muriatic acid Dahmer had injected into his skull. Sinthasomphone soon became unconscious, whereupon Dahmer drank several beers while lying alongside Sinthasomphone before leaving his apartment to drink at a bar, then purchase more alcohol.

In the early morning hours of May 27, Dahmer returned towards his apartment to discover Sinthasomphone sitting naked on the corner of 25th and State, talking in Laotian, with three hysterical young women standing near him. Dahmer approached the trio and explained to the women that Sinthasomphone (whom he referred to by an alias) was his lover and attempted to lead him to his apartment by the arm. The two women dissuaded Dahmer, explaining they had phoned 911. Upon the arrival of two officers named John Balcerzak and Joseph Gabrish, Dahmer's demeanor relaxed: he informed the officers that Sinthasomphone was his 19-year-old boyfriend; that he had drunk too much following a quarrel and that he frequently behaved in this manner when intoxicated. The three women were exasperated and when one of the trio attempted to indicate to one of the officers that Sinthasomphone was bleeding from his buttocks and that he had seemingly struggled against Dahmer's attempts to walk him to his apartment, the officer harshly informed her to "butt out," "shut the hell up" and to not interfere, adding the incident was "domestic."

Against the protests of the three women, the officers simply covered Sinthasomphone with a towel and walked him to Dahmer's apartment where, in an effort to verify his claim that he and Sinthasomphone were lovers, Dahmer showed the officers the two semi-nude Polaroid pictures he had taken of the youth the previous evening. The officers later reported having noted a strange scent reminiscent of excrement inside the apartment (this odor emanated from the decomposing body of Hughes). Dahmer stated that to investigate this, one officer simply "peeked his head around the bedroom but really didn't take a good look." The officers then left, with a departing remark that Dahmer "take good care" of Sinthasomphone.

Had a background check upon Dahmer been conducted, it would have revealed that he was a convicted child molester under probation.

Upon their departure, Dahmer again injected muriatic acid into Sinthasomphone's brain; on this second occasion, the injection proved fatal. The following day, May 28, Dahmer took a day's leave from work to devote himself to the dismemberment of the bodies of Sinthasomphone and Hughes, whom Dahmer had killed three days prior to Sinthasomphone and whose body had been lying in his bedroom as police brought Sinthasomphone back to his apartment. Both victims' skulls were retained.

By the summer of 1991, Dahmer was murdering approximately one person each week: On June 30, Dahmer traveled to Chicago, where he encountered a 20-year-old named Matt Turner at a bus station. Turner accepted Dahmer's offer to travel to Milwaukee for a professional photo shoot. At Dahmer's apartment, Turner was drugged, strangled and dismembered, with his head and internal organs placed in separate plastic bags in the freezer. He was not reported missing. Five days later, on July 5, Dahmer lured 23-year-old Jeremiah Weinberger from a Chicago bar to his apartment on the promise of spending the weekend with him. Weinberger was drugged and twice had boiling water injected into his skull, sending Weinberger into a coma from which he died two days later.

On July 15, Dahmer encountered 23-year-old Oliver Lacy at the corner of 27th and Kilbourn. Lacy agreed to Dahmer's ruse of posing nude for photographs and accompanied him to his apartment, where the pair engaged in tentative sexual activity before Lacy was drugged. On this occasion, Dahmer intended to prolong the time he spent with Lacy while alive: after unsuccessfully attempting to render Lacy unconscious with chloroform, he phoned his workplace to request a day's absence; this was granted, although the next day, he was suspended. After strangling Lacy, Dahmer had sex with the corpse before dismembering him. His head and heart were placed in the refrigerator; his skeleton in the freezer.

Four days after the murder of Lacy, on July 19, Dahmer received word he was fired. Upon receipt of this news, Dahmer lured 25-year-old Joseph Bradehoft to his apartment. Bradehoft was strangled and left lying on Dahmer's bed, covered with a sheet, for two days. On July 21, Dahmer removed these sheets to find the head covered in maggots, whereupon he decapitated the body, cleaned the head and placed it in the refrigerator. Bradehoft's torso was later acidified, along with those of two other victims killed within the previous month.

Arrest

On July 22, 1991, Dahmer approached three men with an offer of $100 to accompany him to his apartment, drink beer and simply keep him company. One of the trio, 32-year-old Tracy Edwards, agreed to accompany him to his apartment. Upon entering Dahmer's apartment, Edwards noted a foul odor and several boxes of muriatic acid on the floor, which Dahmer claimed to use for cleaning bricks. After some minor conversation, Edwards responded to Dahmer's request to turn his head and view his tropical fish, whereupon Dahmer placed a handcuff upon his wrist. When Edwards asked, "What's happening?" Dahmer unsuccessfully attempted to cuff his wrists together, then informed Edwards to accompany him to the bedroom to pose for nude pictures.

Inside the bedroom, Edwards noted nude male posters on the wall and that a videotape of Exorcist II was playing; he also noted a blue 57-gallon drum in the corner, from which a strong odor emanated.

Dahmer then brandished a knife and informed Edwards he intended to take nude pictures of him. In an attempt to appease Dahmer, Edwards unbuttoned his shirt, saying he would allow him to do so if he would remove the handcuffs and put the knife away. In response to this promise, Dahmer simply turned his attentions towards the TV; Edwards observed Dahmer rocking back and forth and chanting before turning his attentions back to him: he placed his head on Edwards' chest, listened to his heartbeat and, with the knife pressed against his intended victim, informed Edwards he intended to eat his heart.

In continuous attempts to prevent Dahmer from attacking him, Edwards repeated assertions he was Dahmer's friend and that he was not going to run away. (Edwards had decided he was going to either jump from a window or run through the unlocked front door upon the next available opportunity.) When Edwards next stated he needed to use the bathroom, he asked if they could sit with a beer in the living room, where there was air conditioning, to which Dahmer consented and the pair walked to the living room when Edwards exited the bathroom. Inside the living room, Edwards waited until he observed Dahmer to momentarily lapse from concentration before again requesting to use the bathroom. When Edwards rose from the couch, he noted Dahmer was not holding the handcuffs, whereupon Edwards punched him in the face, knocking Dahmer off balance, and ran through the front door.

At 11:30 p.m. on July 22, two Milwaukee police officers were flagged down by Tracy Edwards at the corner of North 25th Street. The officers noted Edwards had a handcuff attached to his wrist, whereupon Edwards explained to the officers that a "freak" had placed the handcuffs upon him and asked if the police could remove them. When the officers' own handcuff keys failed to fit the brand of handcuffs, Edwards agreed to accompany the officers to the apartment where, Edwards stated, he had spent the previous five hours before escaping.

When the officers and Edwards arrived at Apartment 213, Dahmer invited the trio inside and acknowledged he had indeed placed the handcuffs upon Edwards, although he offered no explanation as to why he had done so. At this point, Edwards divulged to the officers that Dahmer had also brandished a large knife upon him and that this had happened in the bedroom. Dahmer made no comment to this revelation; indicating to one of the officers, Rolf Mueller, that the key to the handcuffs was in his bedside dresser in the bedroom. As Mueller entered the bedroom, Dahmer attempted to pass Mueller to himself retrieve the key, whereupon the second officer present, Robert Rauth, informed him to "back off."

In the bedroom, Mueller noted there was indeed a large knife beneath the bed; he also saw an open drawer which, upon closer inspection, contained scores of Polaroid pictures—many of which were of human bodies in various stages of dismemberment. Mueller noted the decor indicated they had been taken in the very apartment in which they were standing. He walked into the living room to show them to his partner, uttering the words, "These are for real."

When Dahmer saw that Mueller was holding several of his Polaroids, he fought with the officers in an effort to resist arrest. The officers quickly overpowered him, cuffed his hands behind his back and called a second squad car for backup. At this point, Mueller opened the refrigerator to reveal the freshly severed head of a black male placed upon the bottom shelf.

As Dahmer lay pinned on the floor beneath Rauth, he turned his head towards the officers and muttered the words: "For what I did I should be dead."

A more detailed search of the apartment, conducted by the Criminal Investigation Bureau, revealed a total of four severed heads in Dahmer's kitchen. A total of seven skulls—some painted; some bleached—would be found in Dahmer's bedroom and inside a closet. In addition, investigators discovered collected blood drippings upon a tray at the bottom of Dahmer's refrigerator, plus two human hearts and a portion of arm muscle each wrapped inside plastic bags upon the shelves. In Dahmer's freezer, investigators discovered an entire torso, plus a bag of human organs and flesh stuck to the ice at the bottom. Elsewhere in Apartment 213, investigators discovered two entire skeletons, a pair of severed hands, two severed and preserved penises, a mummified scalp and, in the 57-gallon drum, three further dismembered torsos dissolving in the acid solution. A total of 74 Polaroid pictures detailing the dismemberment of Dahmer's victims would also be found.

Confession

Beginning in the early hours of July 23, 1991, Dahmer was questioned by Detective Patrick Kennedy as to the murders he had committed and the evidence found at his apartment. Over the following two weeks, Detective Kennedy and, later, Detective Patrick Murphy would conduct numerous interviews with Dahmer which, when combined, would total over sixty hours.

Dahmer waived his right to have a lawyer present throughout his interrogations, adding he wished to confess all as he had "created this horror and it only makes sense I do everything to put an end to it." He readily admitted to having murdered sixteen young men in Wisconsin since 1987, with one further victim—Stephen Hicks—killed in Ohio back in 1978.

Most of the victims had been rendered unconscious prior to their murder, although some had died as a result of having acid or boiling water injected into their brain. (As he had no memory of the murder of Tuomi, he was unsure whether he was unconscious when beaten to death.) He readily admitted to performing necrophilia with several of his victims' bodies, this included performing sexual acts with their viscera as he dismembered their bodies in his bathtub. The bones he wished to dispose of would be pulverized or acidified, with Soilex and bleach solutions used to aid in the preservation of the skeletons and skulls he wished to keep. In addition, he confessed to having consumed the hearts, livers, biceps and portions of thighs of several victims killed within the previous year.

Describing the increase in his rate of killing in the two months prior to his arrest, he stated he had been "completely swept along" with his compulsion to kill, adding: "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."

When asked as to why he had preserved a total of 7 skulls and the entire skeletons of two victims, Dahmer stated he had been in the process of constructing a private altar of victims' skulls which he had intended to adorn upon the black table located in his living room and upon which he had photographed the bodies of many of his victims. This display of skulls was to be adorned at each side with the complete skeletons of Ernest Miller and Oliver Lacy. The four severed heads found in his kitchen were to be removed of all flesh and used in this altar, as was the skull of at least one future victim. Incense sticks were to be placed at each end of the black table, above which Dahmer intended to place a large blue lamp with extending blue globe lights. The entire construction was to be placed before a window covered with a black, opaque shower curtain, in front of which Dahmer intended to sit in a black leather chair.

When asked in a November 18, 1991 interview who the altar was dedicated to, Dahmer replied, "Myself ... It was a place where I could feel at home." He further described his intended altar as a "place for meditation," from where he believed he could draw a sense of power.

Indictment

On July 25, 1991, Dahmer was charged with four counts of murder. By August 22, he would be charged with a further eleven murders committed in the state of Wisconsin and on September 17, would be charged by authorities in Ohio with the murder of Stephen Hicks.

Dahmer was not charged with the attempted murder of Tracy Edwards, nor was he charged with the murder of Steven Tuomi. In relation to no charges being brought regarding the death of Tuomi, Dahmer was not charged with this murder due to the fact the Milwaukee County District Attorney only brought charges where murder could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt and Dahmer had no memory of actually committing this particular murder, for which no physical evidence of the crime existed.

At a scheduled preliminary hearing on January 13, 1992, Dahmer pleaded guilty but insane to 15 counts of murder.

Trial

The trial of Jeffrey Dahmer began on 30 January, 1992. He was tried in Milwaukee for the 15 counts of murder before Judge Laurence Gram.

By pleading guilty on January 13 to the charges brought against him and thereby waiving his rights to an initial trial to establish guilt (as defined in Wisconsin law), the issue debated by opposing counsels at Dahmer's trial was to determine whether he suffered from either a mental or a personality disorder: the prosecution claiming that any disorders did not deprive Dahmer of the ability to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to deprive him of the ability to resist his impulses; the defense arguing that Dahmer suffered from a mental disease and was driven by obsessions and impulses he was unable to control.

The trial lasted two weeks. On February 14, both counsels delivered their closing arguments to the jury: the prosecution describing Dahmer as a sane man, in full control of his actions; the defense portraying Dahmer as a desperately lonely and profoundly sick individual unable to conform his conduct to the requirements of law.

On February 15, court reconvened to hear the verdict: Dahmer was ruled to be sane and not suffering from a mental disorder at the time of each of the 15 murders for which he was tried, although in each count, two of the 12 jurors signified their dissent. On the first two counts, Dahmer was sentenced to life imprisonment plus ten years, with the remaining 13 counts carrying a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment plus 70 years. The death penalty was not an option for Judge Gram to consider at the penalty phase as the State of Wisconsin had abolished capital punishment in 1853.

Upon hearing his son's sentencing, Dahmer's father, Lionel, and stepmother, Shari, requested to be allowed a ten minute private meeting with their son before he was transferred to the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage to begin his sentence. This request was granted and the trio exchanged hugs and well-wishes before Dahmer was escorted away to begin his sentence.

Three months after his conviction for 15 murders in Milwaukee, Dahmer was extradited to Ohio to be tried for the murder of his first victim, Stephen Hicks. Dahmer again pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to a 16th term of life imprisonment on May 1, 1992.

Pathology

Prior to his trial, Dahmer underwent multiple numerous psychiatric examinations and although the experts' conclusions weren't always in agreement - one thing was clear: Dahmer was afflicted with complicated, comorbid psychopathologies. Dahmer displayed a tendency to experience recurrent depressive affect, worthlessness, low self-esteem, suicidal ideation and a strong fear of abandonment. Three psychologists who evaluated Dahmer after his arrest for molestation described him as uncooperative, angry, resistant to change, evasive, manipulative, emotionally unstable, and lacking insight. Despite the experts' disagreements upon whether Dahmer was sane or insane, they all essentially agreed that Dahmer suffered from major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, substance use disorder, sexual paraphilias, and borderline personality disorder.

Defense experts argued that Dahmer was insane due to his necrophilic drive; his compulsion to have sexual encounters with corpses. This was rejected by the prosecution. Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Phillip J. Resnick, who also evaluated Dahmer for the prosecution, remains of the opinion that Dahmer did not suffer from primary necrophilia because he preferred live sexual partners as evidenced by his attempts to create living 'sex zombies'. Dr. Resnick diagnosed Dahmer with borderline personality disorder. Defense expert Dr. Fred Berlin testified that Jeffrey Dahmer was unable to conform his conduct at the time that he committed the crimes because he was suffering from paraphilia or, more specifically, necrophilia, a mental disease. Another defense expert, Dr. Judith Becker, also diagnosed Dahmer with necrophilia. The final defense expert to testify, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Carl Wahlstrom, diagnosed Dahmer with borderline personality disorder.

Prosecution expert and forensic psychiatrist Dr. Park Dietz testified that he did not believe Dahmer to be suffering from any mental disease or defect at the time that he committed the crimes, stating: "Dahmer went to great lengths to be alone with his victim and to have no witnesses." He explained that there was ample evidence that Dahmer was well prepared for each murder, therefore his crimes were not impulsive. He also felt that Dahmer's habit of becoming intoxicated prior to committing each of the murders was significant, stating: "If he had a compulsion to kill, he would not have to drink alcohol. He had to drink alcohol to overcome his inhibition, to do the crime which he would rather not do." Dr. Dietz diagnosed Dahmer with substance use disorder, paraphilia, and personality disorder not otherwise specified, with borderline and schizotypal features. The other prosecution expert to testify, Dr. Fosdel, testified to his belief that Dahmer was without mental disease or defect at the time he committed the murders. He described Jeff as a cruel, calculating, and cunning killer who prayed on weak and lonely men at the time that they were most vulnerable and in need of anonymous sexual release. Dr. Fosdel diagnosed Dahmer with borderline personality disorder.

Two court appointed mental health professionals—testifying independently of either prosecution or defense—were forensic psychiatrist Dr. George Palermo and clinical psychologist Dr. Samuel Friedman. Dr. Palermo stated that the murders were the result of a "pent up aggression within himself (Dahmer). 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." Dr. Palermo diagnosed Dahmer with borderline personality disorder. Dr. Friedman, who also diagnosed Dahmer with borderline personality disorder, testified that it was a longing for companionship that caused Dahmer to kill. He stated, "Mr. Dahmer is not psychotic." He spoke kindly of Jeff, describing him as "Amiable, pleasant to be with, courteous, with a sense of humor, conventionally handsome and charming in manner. He was, and still is, a bright young man."

Martens and Palermo (2005) have have theorized that loneliness plays a significant role in the development and continuation of violent, antisocial attitudes and behavior.

Substance use disorder and Paraphilias

Substance use disorder

Dahmer had a long history of substance abuse and dependence. He began to drink heavily during the time his parents were preparing to separate. The separation was difficult on Dahmer as he witnessed fierce arguments between his parents over his little brother David, but never once bothered to mention Dahmer's living arrangements. Dahmer drank heavily all the time; a high school classmate recalled Dahmer drinking from a cup of scotch on his desk. Dahmer's heavy drinking continued while he was attending college, he drank during classes, often passing out on his way back to the dorm. Dahmer dropped out after one term and enlisted in the army, carrying with him a portable bar that included a martini kit. While being stationed in Germany, his drug and alcohol abuse continued. He was written up repeatedly for disobeying orders and reporting to work late, intoxicated or in improper uniform. In February of 1981 the army placed him in a drug rehabilitation program but within a short period a counselor recommended he be declared a "failure". On March 26, 1981 was honorably discharged due to chronic alcoholism and drug abuse. In addition to alcohol, Dahmer was also a heavy user of marijuana and amphetamines. He was also an occasional user of cocaine and a class of minor tranquilizers called benzodiazepines. Dahmer not only used benzodiazepines to sedate his victims, but they were occasionally used recreationally. Dahmer had a preference for either triazolam (Halcion) or temazepam (Restoril).

Paraphilias

Dahmer engaged in a number of paraphilic behaviors, including necrophilia, exhibitionism, hebephilia, fetishism, pygmalionism, and erotophonophilia, and he relied on several partialisms, including anthropophagy (also known as cannibalism). Dahmer also derived sexual pleasure from the viscera of his victims. Dahmer would often masturbate and ejaculate into the body cavity and at other times, literally used the internal organs as a masturbatory aid. Contrary to popular belief, Dahmer was not a sexual sadist according to several of the experts who testified, one of which was Dr. Park Dietz who stated "He [Dahmer] did not torture and took steps to prevent suffering."

Borderline Personality Disorder

Dahmer was repeatedly diagnosed with this condition, which is defined by the DSM-IV-TR as a pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity that begins by early adulthood and is present in a variety of contexts. Dahmer completed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) after his arrest and the results indicated that he was sane, was conscious of the difference between right and wrong, capable of dissimulation, and generally maladjusted. The MMPI revealed Dahmer as alienated from both others and from himself, as strongly depressive and hopelessly oriented toward the world and other humans, and filled with specific paranoid fears of others' hostility. Dahmer's MMPI scores suggest that these characteristics conclusively demonstrate that Dahmer was a deeply troubled man who was unable to control his impulses. Nichols (2006) states that neither of Dahmer's parents appear to have been closely involved with him or to have been warm and nurturing parents. The birth of a brother increased Dahmer's sense of neglect and he had difficulty making friends. Dahmer was a loner and it was only as an adult that his sexual activity became increasingly compulsive over time. Dahmer displayed a tendency to experience recurrent depressive affect, worthlessness, low self-esteem, suicidal ideation and a strong fear of abandonment. Three psychologists who evaluated Dahmer after his arrest for molestation described him as uncooperative, angry, resistant to change, evasive, manipulative, emotionally unstable, and lacking insight. These are traits which are common with BPD. Pleading for clemency, Dahmer said, "What I've done has cut both ways. It's hurt the victim, and it's hurt me.... I don't know what I was thinking when I did it. I know I was under the influence...." Perceiving oneself as the victim of one's own crimes and externalizing blame onto others or onto substance abuse are typical borderline defenses. Dahmer told his probation officer his life lacked purpose a possible sign of the chronic emptiness experienced by someone with BPD. Moreover, Dahmer had a strong reason to hate and fear abandonment. During his parents' bitter divorce, they fought over custody of Dahmer's younger brother. At 18, the emotionally immature Dahmer did not require legal custody. His mother took his brother and left Dahmer alone in the house with no food or money. After this experience, Dahmer committed his first murder. He picked up a hitchhiker, took him back home and got drunk with him. But when the victim wanted to leave, Dahmer crushed his skull with a barbell. In his confession, Dahmer stated that he killed his victims to prevent them from leaving him. Dahmer's violent behavior which he had to drink himself almost into a stupor to commit was not instrumental aggression, as an antisocial type would employ to intimidate or control others, but a desperate attempt to prevent abandonment. Dahmer left dead, naked victims lying around his apartment so he could sodomize them at will, using condoms to protect himself. He kept dead bodies in the bathtub when he had no time to dismember them, and often took showers with them. In an attempt to turn some victims into helpless obedient zombies that would never leave, Dahmer drilled holes in their skulls and injected muriatic acid into their brains. Most died immediately, although one allegedly walked around for almost two days after this treatment. Dahmer's social skills did not enable him to develop and maintain friendships, so he resorted to relying on corpses for companionship. He initially considered stealing an 18-year-old male corpse from a funeral parlor or robbing graves.

Dahmer's identity disturbance, which was an aspect of his BPD, included denial of and inability to accept his homosexuality. Sex with silent corpses (or with viscera rather than masculine genitals and orifices) was possibly another way Dahmer denied he was having sex with men. And just as Dahmer externalized blame onto his underage victims, he projected hatred onto his adult victims instead of hating himself, a typical borderline defense. According to James Fox, Dahmer chose victims who were more flamboyantly homosexual than he was. Jentzen, Palermo, Johnson, Ho, Stormo, and Teggatz (1994), the forensic team that examined Dahmer's apartment and possessions and autopsied his victims, concluded that the murders, rooted in unconscious hate of his victims, were the result of his "ambivalent homosexuality". All agreed that he suffered from a borderline personality disorder.

Side	Expert	Diagnosis	Sane?
Defense	Dr. Berlin	Necrophilia	No
Defense	Dr. Becker	Necrophilia	No
Defense	Dr. Wahlstrom	Borderline personality disorder	No
Prosecution	Dr. Dietz	Substance abuse/Paraphilia/PDNOS	Yes
Prosecution	Dr. Fosdel	Borderline personality disorder	Yes
Court	Dr. Palermo	Borderline personality disorder	Yes
Court	Dr. Friedman	Borderline personality disorder	Yes

Imprisonment and death

Upon sentencing, Dahmer was transferred to the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin.

For the first year of his incarceration, Dahmer was placed in solitary confinement due to concerns for his physical safety should he come into contact with fellow inmates. With Dahmer's consent, after one year in solitary confinement, he was transferred to a less secure unit within the Columbia Correctional Institution, where he was assigned a two-hour daily work detail cleaning the toilet block.

Shortly after completing his lengthy confessions in 1991, Dahmer had requested to Detective Patrick Murphy that he be given a copy of the Bible. This request was granted and Dahmer gradually devoted himself to religion and became a born-again Christian. In May, 1994, Dahmer was baptized by Reverend Roy Ratcliff in the prison whirlpool. Following his baptism, the Rev. Ratcliff visited Dahmer on a weekly basis up until November, 1994. Dahmer and Rev. Ratcliff did regularly discuss the prospect of death and Dahmer did question whether he was sinning against God by continuing to live.

In July, 1994, a fellow inmate, Osvoldo Durruthy, attempted to slash Dahmer's throat with a razor embedded in a toothbrush as Dahmer returned to his cell from Rev. Roy Ratcliff's weekly church service conducted in the prison chapel. Although Dahmer received superficial wounds, he was not seriously hurt in this incident.

File:JeffreyDahmer-StonePhillips.jpg

Jeffrey Dahmer in February, 1994. He is seen here in an interview granted to Stone Phillips of Dateline NBC.

According to Dahmer's family, he had long been ready to die, and accepted any punishment which he may endure in prison. In addition to his father and stepmother retaining regular contact, Dahmer's mother, Joyce, retained regular contact with her son (although prior to his arrest, the two had not seen one-another since Christmas, 1983). Joyce Dahmer related that in her weekly phone calls, whenever she expressed concerns for her son's physical well-being, Dahmer would respond with comments to the effect of: "It doesn't matter, Mom. I don't care if something happens to me."

On the morning of November 28, 1994, Dahmer left his cell to conduct his assigned work detail. Accompanying him were two fellow inmates: Jesse Anderson and Christopher Scarver. The trio were left unsupervised in the showers of the prison gym for approximately 20 minutes. At approximately 8:10a.m. Dahmer was discovered still alive on the floor of the bathrooms of the gym suffering from extreme head wounds; he had been severely bludgeoned about the head with a 20-inch (51 cm) metal bar and his head had evidently been repeatedly struck against the wall in the assault. Dahmer was rushed to a nearby hospital, but pronounced dead one hour later. Jesse Anderson had also been savagely attacked with the same instrument and himself died two days later from his wounds.

Aftermath

Upon learning of his death, Dahmer's mother, Joyce Flint, responded angrily to the media, "Now is everybody happy? Now that he's bludgeoned to death, is that good enough for everyone?" The response of the families of Dahmer's victims was mixed, although it appears most were pleased with his death. The district attorney who prosecuted Dahmer cautioned against turning Scarver into a folk hero, noting that Dahmer's death was still murder.

The Oxford Apartments at 924 North 25th Street were demolished in 1992; the site is now a vacant lot. Plans to convert the site into a memorial garden failed to materialize.

In 1994, Lionel Dahmer published a book, A Father's Story, and donated a portion of the proceeds from his book to the victims' families. Most of the families showed support for Lionel Dahmer and his wife, Shari. He has retired from his career as an analytical chemist and resides with his wife in Medina County, Ohio. Lionel Dahmer is an advocate for creationism, and his wife was a member of the board of the Medina County Ohio Horseman's Council. Both continue to carry the name Dahmer and say they love Jeffrey despite his crimes. Joyce Flint, Jeffrey's mother and Lionel Dahmer's first wife, died of cancer in 2000. Jeffrey's younger brother, David, changed his last name and lives in anonymity.

Dahmer's estate was awarded to the families of 11 of his victims who had sued for damages. In 1996, Thomas Jacobson, a lawyer representing eight of the families, announced a planned auction of Dahmer's estate to raise up to $1 million, sparking controversy. A civic group, Milwaukee Civic Pride, was quickly established in an effort to raise the funds to purchase and destroy Dahmer's possessions. The group pledged $407,225, including a $100,000 gift by Milwaukee real estate developer Joseph Zilber, for purchase of Dahmer's estate; five of the eight families represented by Jacobson agreed to the terms, and Dahmer's possessions were destroyed and buried in an undisclosed Illinois landfill.

In January 2007, evidence surfaced potentially linking Dahmer to Adam Walsh's 1981 abduction and murder in Florida. However, Adam's father, John Walsh, believed that another serial killer, Ottis Toole, committed the crime. When interviewed about Adam Walsh in the early 1990s, Dahmer repeatedly denied involvement in the crime, even stating; "I've told you everything – how I killed them, how I cooked them, who I ate. Why wouldn't I tell you if I did someone else?" In 2008, Florida police declared the Walsh case closed, naming Toole, who died in prison in 1996, as the killer.

Known murder victims

Jeffrey Dahmer is known to have killed 17 young men between 1978 and 1991. Of these victims, 12 were killed in his North 25th Street apartment. Three further victims were murdered and dismembered at his grandmother's West Allis residence, with his first and second victims being murdered at his parents' home in Bath, Ohio and at the Ambassador Hotel in Wisconsin respectively. A total of 14 of Dahmer's victims were from various ethnic minority backgrounds, with nine victims being black, although Dahmer was adamant the race of his victims was incidental to him and that it was the body form of a potential victim which attracted his attention.

Most of Dahmer's victims were killed by strangulation after being drugged with sedatives, although his first victim was killed by a combination of bludgeoning and strangulation and his second victim was battered to death, with one further victim killed in 1990, Ernest Miller, dying of a combination of shock and blood loss due to his carotid artery being cut. Many of Dahmer's victims killed in 1991 had holes bored into their skulls through which Dahmer injected muriatic acid or, later, boiling water, directly into the brain in an attempt to render a permanent, submissive, unresistant state. On at least three occasions, this proved fatal although on none of these occasions was this Dahmer's intention.

1978

• June 18: Stephen Hicks, 18. Last seen hitchhiking to a rock concert in Chippewa Lake Park. He was bludgeoned and strangled to death with a dumbbell before being dismembered. Remains pulverized and scattered in woodland behind Dahmer's childhood home.

1987

• November 20: Steven Tuomi, 25. Killed in a rented room at the Ambassador Hotel. Dahmer claimed to have no memory of murdering Tuomi, yet stated he must have battered him to death in a drunken stupor. His body was dismembered in the basement of Dahmer's grandmother's house and the remains discarded in the trash. No remains were ever found.

1988

• January 16: James Doxtator, 14. Met Dahmer outside a gay bar in Wisconsin. Doxtator was lured to West Allis on the pretext of earning $50 for posing for nude pictures. Dahmer strangled Doxtator and kept his body in the basement for a week before dismembering him and discarding the remains in the trash. No remains were ever found.
• March 24: Richard Guerrero, 22. Drugged and strangled in Dahmer's bedroom at West Allis. Dahmer dismembered Guerrero's corpse in the basement, dissolved the flesh in acid and disposed of the bones in the trash. He bleached and retained the skull for several months before disposing of it. No remains were ever found.

1989

• March 25: Anthony Sears, 26. Sears was the last victim to be drugged and strangled at Dahmer's grandmother's residence; he was also the first victim from whom Dahmer permanently retained any body parts. His preserved skull and genitals would be found in a filing cabinet at 924 North 25th Street following Dahmer's arrest in 1991.

1990

• May 20: Raymond Smith, 32. The first victim to be killed at Dahmer's North Street apartment. Smith was a male prostitute whom Dahmer encountered at a tavern. Dahmer gave Smith a drink laced with sleeping pills, then strangled him on his kitchen floor. His skull was spray-painted and retained.
• June 14: Edward Smith, 27. A known acquaintance of Dahmer who was last seen in his company at a party. Dahmer acidified Smith's skeleton; his skull was destroyed unintentionally when placed in the oven in an effort to remove moisture. No remains were ever found.
• September 2: Ernest Miller, 22. Miller was a dance student whom Dahmer encountered outside a bookstore. According to Dahmer, he was especially attracted to Miller's physique. He was killed by having his carotid artery severed before being dismembered in the bathtub, with Dahmer storing his entire skeleton in the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet and his heart, biceps and portions of his legs in the freezer for later consumption.
• September 24: David Thomas, 22. Encountered Dahmer near the Grand Avenue Mall; he was lured to Dahmer's apartment on the promise of money for posing nude. Once unconscious from consuming a laced drink, Dahmer decided Thomas "wasn't my type." Nonetheless, Dahmer strangled Thomas, taking Polaroid photos of the dismemberment process. No remains were ever found.

1991

• February 18: Curtis Straughter, 17. Approached by Dahmer as he waited at a bus stop near Marquette University. Dahmer lured Straughter to his apartment, where the youth was drugged, then handcuffed and strangled before being dismembered in the bathtub. His skull, hands and genitals were retained.
• April 7: Errol Lindsey, 19. The first victim upon whom Dahmer drilled holes into the skull, through which he injected Muriatic acid into the brain. (Dahmer referred to this practice as his "drilling technique."). According to Dahmer, Lindsey awoke after this practice, after which he was again rendered unconscious with a drink laced with sedatives, then strangled to death. Dahmer flayed Lindsey's body and retained the skin for several weeks. His skull was found following Dahmer's arrest.
• May 24: Tony Hughes, 31. Hughes was a deaf-mute whom Dahmer lured to his apartment upon the promise of posing nude for photographs. As Hughes was deaf, he and Dahmer communicated using handwritten notes. He was strangled and his body left on Dahmer's bedroom floor for three days before being dismembered, with Dahmer photographing the dismemberment process. His skull was retained and identified from dental records.
• May 27: Konerak Sinthasomphone, 14. The younger brother of the boy Dahmer had assaulted in 1988. Sinthasomphone was drugged and had Muriatic acid injected into his brain before Dahmer left the youth unattended as he left the apartment to purchase beer. When he returned, he discovered Sinthasomphone naked and disoriented in the street, with three hysterical young women attempting to assist him. When police arrived, Dahmer persuaded them he and Sinthasomphone were lovers and that the youth was simply intoxicated. When police left Sinthasomphone with Dahmer in his apartment, Dahmer again injected Muriatic acid into Sinthasomphone's brain, and this proved fatal. His head was retained in the freezer and his body dismembered.
• June 30: Matt Turner, 20. On June 30, Dahmer attended the Chicago Pride Parade. At a bus stop, he encountered a 20-year-old named Matt Turner and persuaded him to accompany him to Chicago to pose for a photo shoot. Turner was drugged, strangled, then dismembered in the bathtub. His head and internal organs were placed in the freezer and his torso subsequently placed in the 57-gallon drum Dahmer purchased on July 12.
• July 5: Jeremiah Weinberger, 23. Met Dahmer at a gay bar in Chicago and agreed to accompany him to Milwaukee for the weekend. Dahmer drilled through Weinberger's skull and injected boiling water into the cavity. He later recalled Weinberger's death to be exceptional as he was the only victim who died with his eyes open. Weinberger's decapitated body was kept in the bathtub for a week before being dismembered; his torso was placed in the 57-gallon drum.
• July 15: Oliver Lacy, 23. A bodybuilding enthusiast whom Dahmer enticed to his apartment on the promise of money for posing for photographs. Lacy was drugged and strangled with a leather strap before being decapitated, with his head and heart being placed in the refrigerator. His skeleton was retained to adorn one side the private shrine of skulls and skeletons Dahmer was in the process of creating when arrested one week later.
• July 19: Joseph Bradehoft, 25. Dahmer's last victim. Bradehoft was a father of 3 children from Minnesota who was looking for work in Milwaukee at the time of his murder. He was left on Dahmer's bed for two days following his murder before, on July 21, being decapitated. His head was placed in the refrigerator and his torso in the 57-gallon drum.

Media portrayals

• In 1992, Hart Fisher published a comic book titled Jeffery [sic] Dahmer: An Unauthorized Biography Of A Serial Killer. Collector's Item Issue, which the Milwaukee Sentinel described as "lurid and error-ridden." The publication sparked protests both in Milwaukee and in Fisher's home town of Champaign, Illinois. Dahmer's victims' relatives filed a lawsuit against Fisher (sometimes called "Fischer" in press reports) and his Boneyard Press for exploiting their loved ones' names and likenesses for profit without compensation, but a court eventually ruled that since the victims were dead at the time of publication, "name or likeness" laws were not applicable. In the wake of the lawsuit, Fisher eventually published sequels The Further Adventures of Young Jeffy Dahmer, Dahmer's Zombie Squad and Jeffrey Dahmer vs. Jesus Christ. Hart later discussed the controversy and confronted several family members of Dahmer's victims during two lively appearances on both The Jerry Springer Show and Sally Jesse Raphael.
• The film Jeffrey Dahmer: The Secret Life was released in 1993, starring Carl Crew as Dahmer.
• Joyce Carol Oates' novel Zombie (1995) was based on Dahmer's life.
• In 2000, Chicago-based death metal band Macabre released the album Dahmer, which comprises a biography of the life of Dahmer.
• In 2002, the biographical film Dahmer, starring Jeremy Renner in the title role and Bruce Davison as his father, premiered in Dahmer's hometown. The film quickly went to video.
• In 2002, cartoonist John Backderf (known as Derf), who attended middle school and high school with Dahmer, produced a comic book entitled My Friend Dahmer which presents his recollections about the killer's adolescence.
• In 2003, Raw Dog Screaming Press released Harold Jaffe's 15 Serial Killers: Docufiction, which included a section on Dahmer; racism is implied as a factor in Konerak Sinthasomphone's death.
• In 2006, another film, Raising Jeffrey Dahmer, was released; the film stars Rusty Sneary as Dahmer and Scott Cordes as Lionel; the film revolves around the reactions of Dahmer's parents after his arrest in 1991.
• In 2006, Dahmer was featured in the 150th episode of the television series South Park, Hell on Earth 2006. As part of Satan's birthday party, Dahmer is tasked, along with two other serial killers Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy, to organise the birthday cake.
• Dahmer was featured in the 6th episode of Discovery Channel's documentary series Most Evil.
• In 2012, a documentary called Jeff premiered, which featured interviews with Dahmer's next door neighbor, Dahmer's interrogator, and the city medical examiner, as well as fictionalized scenarios of Dahmer living in Milwaukee.
• In 2012, the NBC fantasy crime series Grimm presented Dahmer as a wendigo, a cannibalistic creature.
• In 2013, Dahmer was portrayed as one of the hell dwellers alongside such historical figures as Adolf Hitler and Genghis Khan in The Book of Mormon musical in London's West End.

References

• Dahmer, Lionel (1994). A Father's Story. William Morrow and Co. ISBN 978-0-688-12156-3. Retrieved July 26, 2010. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Davis, Donald (1991). The Jeffrey Dahmer Story: An American Nightmare (previously published as: The Milwaukee Murders, Nightmare in Apartment 213: The True Story). Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-92840-7. Retrieved July 26, 2010. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Further reading

• Mann, Robert & Williamson, Miryam. Forensic Detective — How I Cracked The World's Toughest Cases. Ballantine Books (March 28, 2006). ISBN 978-0345479426
• Masters, Brian. The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer. Hodder and Stoughton Limited, London 1993 (Paperback Coronet 1993). ISBN 978-0340591949
• Pincus, Jonathan H. Base Instincts — What Makes Killers kill?. W.W. Norton & Company, New York 2001 (Paperback 2002). ISBN 978-0393323238
• Ratcliff, Roy with Lindy Adams. Dark Journey, Deep Grace: The Story Behind a Serial Killer's Journey to Faith. Abilene, Texas: Leafwood Publishers, 2006. ISBN 978-0-97677-902-5.

External links

• Crime Library article on Dahmer
• Jeffrey Dahmer at IMDb