Jeffrey Dahmer

Jeffrey Dahmer
File:Jeffrey-dahmer.jpg Dahmer's mugshot taken by the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department
Born	Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer
Cause of death	beaten to death by fellow Columbia Correctional Institution inmate Christopher Scarver
Criminal penalty	Life
Details
Victims	17
Span of crimes	June, 1978 – July 22, 1991
Country	U.S.
State(s)	Ohio, Wisconsin
Date apprehended	July 22, 1991

Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer (May 21, 1960 – November 28, 1994) was an American serial killer.

Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991, with the majority of the murders occurring between 1989 and 1991. His murders were particularly gruesome, involving rape, necrophilia and cannibalism.

Early life

Dahmer was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Lionel and Joyce Dahmer. His family soon moved to Bath, Ohio, where he attended Revere High School. He dissected dead animals as a child, the first a pig fetus. By his teenage years, Dahmer was an alcoholic loner. Dahmer's parents divorced when he was 18, after years of constant fighting.

Dahmer committed his first murder when he was 18, killing Steven Hicks, a 19-year-old hitchhiker. Dahmer invited Hicks to his house, and killed him because he "didn't want him to leave."

Dahmer attended Ohio State University, but dropped out after two terms. Dahmer's father then forced him to enlist in the United States Army, where he was to serve for a six-year enlistment; he was discharged after two, due to his excessive drinking. When the Army discharged Dahmer in 1981, they provided him with a plane ticket to anywhere in the country. Dahmer told police he couldn't go home to face his father, so he headed to Miami Beach, Florida, because he was "tired of the cold."

In 1982, Dahmer moved in with his grandmother in West Allis, Wisconsin, where he lived for six years.

In August 1982, he was arrested for exposing himself at a state fair. In September 1986, he was charged again with public exposure after two boys accused him of masturbating in public. This time he was sentenced to a year in prison, of which he served 10 months. On September 25 1988, he was arrested for sexually fondling a 13-year-old Laotian boy in Milwaukee, for which he served 10 months of a one year sentence in a work release camp. However, in 1988 there was not yet a law requiring offenders to register when convicted of a sex crime against a minor. He convinced the judge that he needed therapy, and he was released with a five-year probation on good behavior. Shortly thereafter, he began a string of murders that would end with his arrest in 1991.

Later murders

In the early morning hours of May 27, 1991, 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone (the younger brother of the boy Dahmer had molested) was discovered on the street, wandering nude. Reports of the boy's injuries varied. Dahmer told police that they had an argument while drinking, and that Sinthasomphone was his 19-year-old lover. Against the teenager's protests, police turned him over to Dahmer. They later reported smelling a strange scent, which was later found to be bodies in the back of his room. Later that night, Dahmer killed and dismembered Sinthasomphone, keeping his skull as a souvenir.

John Balcerzak and Joseph Gabrish, the two police officers who returned Sinthasomphone to Dahmer, were fired from the Milwaukee Police Department after their actions were widely publicized, including an audiotape of the officers making homophobic statements to their dispatcher and laughing about having reunited the "lovers." The two officers appealed their termination and were reinstated with back pay. They were named officers of the year by the police union. Balcerzak would go on to be elected president of the Milwaukee Police Association in May 2005.

By the summer of 1991, Dahmer was murdering approximately one person each week. He killed Matt Turner on June 30, Jeremiah Weinberger on July 5, Oliver Lacy on July 12, and finally Joseph Brandehoft on July 19.

Arrest

On July 22, 1991, Dahmer lured another man, Tracy (Traci) Edwards, into his home. According to the would-be victim, Dahmer struggled with Edwards in order to handcuff him. Edwards escaped and alerted a police car, with the handcuffs still hanging from one hand. Edwards led police back to Dahmer's apartment, where Dahmer at first acted friendly to the officers, only to turn on them when he realized that they suspected something was wrong. As one officer subdued Dahmer, the other searched the house and uncovered multiple photographs of murdered victims and human remains, including three severed heads. A further search of the house revealed more evidence, including photographs of victims and human remains in his refrigerator.

The story of Dahmer's arrest and the gruesome inventory in his apartment quickly gained notoriety: several corpses were stored in acid-filled vats, severed heads were found in his refrigerator, and implements for the construction of an altar of candles and human skulls were found in his closet. Accusations soon surfaced that Dahmer had practiced necrophilia, cannibalism, and possibly a form of trepanation in order to create so-called "zombies."

Trial

Jeffrey Dahmer was officially indicted on 17 murder charges, which were reduced to 15. The murder cases were already so notorious that the authorities never bothered to charge him in the attempted murder of Edwards. His trial began in July 1992. With evidence overwhelmingly against him, Dahmer pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.The court however found Dahmer sane and guilty on 15 counts of murder and sentenced him to 15 life terms, totaling 937 years in prison. At his sentencing hearing, Dahmer expressed remorse for his actions, also saying that he wished for his own death.

Imprisonment and death

Dahmer served his time at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin, where he ultimately declared himself a born-again Christian. This conversion occurred after viewing evangelistic creation material sent to him by his father. A local preacher, Roy Ratcliff, met with Dahmer and agreed to baptise him.

On November 28, 1994, Dahmer and another inmate named Jesse Anderson were beaten to death by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver while on work detail in the prison gym. Dahmer died from severe head trauma in the ambulance en route to the hospital. Before his death, Dahmer survived a previous attempt on his life. After attending a church service in the prison chapel, an inmate tried to slash Dahmer's throat with a razor blade. Dahmer escaped the incident with superficial wounds. An autopsy showed that Dahmer was infected with the disease called kuru. This disease is often present in cannibals due to their ingesting human flesh.

Aftermath

After the murders, the Oxford Apartments at 924 North 25th Street were demolished; the site is now a vacant lot. There were plans to turn the site into a memorial garden, but the plans did not materialize.

Lionel Dahmer published a book, A Father's Story, and donated a portion of the proceeds from his book to the victims and their 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. He consults on the evolution versus creationism topic occasionally, 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 their son despite his crimes. Lionel Dahmer's first wife, Joyce (Flint), died of cancer in 2000 at the age of 64. She was later buried in Atlanta, Georgia. Dahmer's younger brother David changed his last name and lives in anonymity.

In January 2007, evidence surfaced potentially linking Dahmer to Adam Walsh's 1981 abduction and murder in Florida. True crime writer Arthur Jay Harris, who investigated the case for years, found evidence that Dahmer was in the same mall where Adam was killed and may have had access to a blue van. New Times columnist Bob Norman checked out Harris' investigation and also came to believe that Dahmer was the chief suspect. Most recently, ABC's Primetime featured the theory in a half-hour segment, airing Harris' findings to a national audience. However, Adam's father, John Walsh, believes that another serial killer, Ottis Toole, committed the crime.

Known victims

Name	Age	Date of Death
Stephen Hicks	19	June 1978
Steven Tuomi	26	September 1987
Jamie Doxtator	14	October 1987
Richard Guerrero	25	March 1988
Anthony Sears	24	February 1989
Eddie Smith	36	June 1990
Ricky Beeks	27	July 1990
Ernest Miller	22	September 1990
David Thomas	23	September 1990
Curtis Straughter	16	February 1991
Errol Lindsey	19	April 1991
Tony Hughes	31	May 24 1991
Konerak Sinthasomphone	14	May 27 1991
Matt Turner	20	June 30 1991
Jeremiah Weinberger	23	July 5 1991
Oliver Lacy	23	July 12 1991
Joseph Bradeholt	25	July 19 1991

In popular culture

References in fiction

• The movie Jeffrey Dahmer: The Secret Life was released in 1993, starring Carl Crew as Dahmer.
• In 2002, the biopic Dahmer, starring Jeremy Renner in the title role, premiered in Dahmer's hometown. The film, which portrayed Dahmer in a somewhat sympathetic light, met with protest from the victims' families, and quickly went to video.
• Joyce Carol Oates' novel Zombie was based on Dahmer's life.
• American death metal band Macabre, have made many songs about Dahmer and released a concept album based on his life, called Dahmer

Further reading

• Pincus, Jonathan H. Base Instincts - What Makes Killers kill?. W.W. Norton & Company, New York 2001 (Paperback 2002)
• Dahmer, Lionel. A Father's Story. William Morrow & Company, New York 1994 (Paperback 1994)
• Mann, Robert & Williamson, Miryam. Forensic Detective - How I Cracked The World's Toughest Cases. Ballantine Books (March 28 2006)
• Masters, Brian. The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer. Hodder and Stroughton Limited, London 1993 (Paperback Coronet 1993)
• Ratcliff, Roy with Lindy Adams. Dark Journey, Deep Grace: The Story Behind a Serial Killer's Journey to Faith. Leafwood Publishers, (2006).

External links

• Crime Library article on Dahmer
• Jeffrey Dahmer at IMDb
• http://www.drdino.com/readNews.php?id=36 Video of Dahmer and his father speaking about Jeff's conversion to Christianity