Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story had the best opening week for a new show on the streaming platform ever, with over 1 billion hours of views in the first 60 days. I didn’t watch the Netflix series on Dahmer as I never found him particularly interesting, but I will share a couple insights into his behavior, based on his own words. Jeffrey Dahmer raped and murdered and dismembered at least 17 men and boys in Milwaukee, Wisconsin between 1978 and 1991. His crimes included cannibalism and necrophilia. I won’t get into the details of his crimes, but I would like to share some of the motivation of his crimes, based on his own words about them. Jeffrey Dahmer was raised by parents who had volatile verbal arguments daily. Jeffrey shared that he lived in a fantasy world to escape the tension in his home. His fantasies weren’t initially violent, but he recalled having intense anger over his parents arguing. His parents finally separated when Jeff was 18 years old. Jeff had a younger brother David who was 11 at the time. Their parents, Lionel and Joyce Dahmer split in 1978, and charged each other with “extreme cruelty and gross neglect of duty.” David left state with his mother and Jeff remained with his father. Dahmer was gay and knew his parents would both greatly disapprove of this. He began abusing alcohol. Jeffrey Dahmer stated that his fascination with body parts began when he dissected a fetal pig in 9th grade biology class. Dahmer was an odd character who didn’t get respect from others. His ability to get some attention from peers for working with a dissected animal without concern gave him a new status. The Netflix show apparently had Dahmer asking the teacher if he could take a fetal pig home and practice. In real life, he stole the fetal pig from school. Dahmer began working on roadkill after this. Dahmer had no religious beliefs at the time and felt no connection to the fact that he was working on a once living animal. Dahmer was isolative and had odd fantasies. He reported receiving some arousal from cutting into an animal. Jeffrey Dahmer didn’t fantasize about relationships. Instead, he fantasized about completely dominating someone who would never leave him. No arguing, just compliance. He imagined picking up a hitchhiker and making the man do what he desired. He wanted to completely dominate his victim. The fantasies began at age 15 and he maintained them until the opportunity finally occurred at age 18, in 1978. He picked up a hitchhiker and knew his parents and brother were gone for the evening. Dahmer lured Steven Hicks back to his home. When Stephen wanted to leave, Dahmer bludgeoned him with a 10-pound dumbbell before strangling him to death and then stripped him. The next day, Dahmer dissected Hicks’ body in the crawlspace of the house before burying the remains in a shallow grave in the backyard. After a couple of weeks, Dahmer dug up Hicks’ remains and cut the remaining flesh from the bones. Dahmer then dissolved the flesh in acid and crushed the bones with a sledgehammer. Jeffrey Dahmer went 9 years before his second murder. During this time, he stole a mannequin from a store and attempted a relationship with it. He enrolled in Ohio State University but dropped out after one quarter due to his alcohol abuse. He enlisted in the army, but was discharged early, without explanation. Dahmer continued to heavily abuse alcohol. He returned to living with his father and received charges for Indecent Exposure and Disorderly Conduct. In November of 1987, Jeffrey Dahmer killed Steven Toumi. Steven was a 24-year-old artist and a short order cook. Dahmer recalled meeting Steven in a bar and slipping sleeping pills into Steven’s drink. Dahmer admitted killing Toumi, but reported it occurred during a blackout and he didn’t recall the details of the murder. After this murder, Dahmer stated there was no going back. Dahmer now actively sought out opportunities to seduce and kill. By 1991, he had killed seventeen men and boys. He claimed he sought out attractive men, and that the attacks weren’t racially oriented. The reality is that his attraction template was racially oriented, as you can see by the pictures of his victims. In July 1991, Tracy Edwards was drinking with his friends at Grand Avenue Mall in Milwaukee when he was approached by Jeffrey Dahmer. After getting to know each other, Dahmer suddenly propositioned Edwards, inviting him back to his apartment to watch The Exorcist, have a few beers, and perhaps pose for some nude photos in exchange for money. Enticed by the offer, Edwards followed Dahmer home. Once at Dahmer’s home, his demeanor changed. Dahmer handcuffed Edwards and held a knife to his chest telling Edwards he intended to eat his heart. Edwards was eventually able to escape by punching Dahmer and fleeing. Tracy was able to flag down two Milwaukee police officers and led them back to Dahmer's apartment. When they arrived, the offers noticed an open drawer that contained Polaroid pictures of human bodies in various stages of dismemberment. Once Dahmer saw the Polaroid pictures, he tried to flee, but they overpowered him and cuffed him. Following his arrest on July 22, Dahmer gave a detailed confession to police, confessing to 17 murders. Jeffrey Dahmer would later state that he didn’t have a fascination with killing people. He wanted to completely dominate his victims and killing became a necessity. Dahmer experimented with lobotomizing some of his victims. He thought if he could just make them do whatever he wanted, he would keep them alive. Between 1936 and the late 1950’s approximately 50,000 lobotomies were performed in the U.S. The intended effect of a lobotomy is reduced tension or agitation. However, many also showed other effects, such as apathy, passivity, lack of initiative, poor ability to concentrate, and a generally decreased depth and intensity of their emotional response to life. They became people who lost their personality. (A lobotomy is what occurred at the end of the movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.) Dahmer’s attempts to lobotomize his victims weren’t successful. Dahmer was Machiavellian. Nicholas Machiavelli believed that unscrupulous behavior was acceptable to achieve power. In 1512, he started a militia in an attempt to overthrow Florence and ultimately was banned for the city for one year. People want to be loved. For some, if they can’t be loved they want to be admired. And if they can’t be admired, they want to be feared. Jeffrey Dahmer took pleasure in being the personification of evil. He felt little connection to others but wanted to keep his victims with him forever. So, he ate them and kept their body parts. He kept a 50-gallon drum of acid in his home to destroy body parts. At the time of his arrest, he had drawn out plans to make an alter out of skulls to worship himself.
Dahmer’s narcissism and morbid fantasy with body parts ultimately got him killed. The prisoner who killed him said he got tired of Dahmer’s jokes about cannibalism with the guards and Dahmer’s shaping food into body parts at times as a joke during meals. Dahmer could have stayed in protective custody in prison but requested to be placed in general population. I think he still wanted the attention from others for his cruelty. Dahmer acknowledged he was trying to change, but the urges remained with him up to his death. His parents argued if Jeffrey’s brain should be given to science for study or destroyed. Ultimately, his brain was destroyed. I like mystery. All Dahmer had to offer was self-centered gore. Time to move on to a good mystery. Thanks for listening, Frank
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AuthorFrank F. Weber is a forensic psychologist specializing in homicide and sexual and physical assault cases. He uses his unique understanding of how predator’s think, knowledge of victim trauma, actual court cases, and passion for writing true crime thrillers. His Award Winning books include "Murder Book" (2017) "The I-94 Murders" (2018) "Last Call" (2019) and "Lying Close" (September 2020). Archives
April 2024
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