Jeffrey Dahmer: Difference between revisions

Jeffrey Dahmer
File:Dahmermug.jpg

File:Dahmermug.jpg

Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer (May 21, 1960 – November 28, 1994) was an American serial killer. He murdered at least 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 acts of necrophilia, dismemberment, cannibalism and torture.

Early life

Dahmer was born May 21, 1960, 4:34 pm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Joyce (b. February 7, 1936 d. November 27. 2000) and Lionel Dahmer in a religious fundamentalist family. At age 4, he had surgery to correct a double hernia. His family soon moved to Bath, Ohio where he attended Revere High School. He reportedly dissected already dead animals as a child. He struggled with alcoholism and suffered from extremely low self-esteem. After years of constant fighting, his parents underwent a divorce when Jeffrey was 18. Dahmer committed his first murder at the age of 18, killing Steven Hicks. After picking up the 19 year old hitchhiker, Dahmer invited Hicks to his house. After drinks, Dahmer killed him because he "didn't want him to leave."

Dahmer attended Ohio State University, but he dropped out after one term. Dahmer's father then forced him to enlist in the United States Army, where he was to serve for a six year enlistment, but 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 because he was tired of the cold,"[1]

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

There were many signs of Dahmer's increasingly unhinged frame of mind. In August 1982, he was arrested for exposing himself at a state fair. Four years later, 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.

In 1988 he was arrested for sexually fondling a 13-year-old girl named Cassandra Baker of Lincoln, Nebraska, for which he served ten months of a one year sentence in a work release camp and was required to register as a sex offender. He convinced the judge that he needed only psychological help, and he was released with a 5 year probation on good behavior. Shortly thereafter, he continued the string of murders that would end with his arrest in 1991.

Later murders

One of Dahmer's victims escaped, only to be returned to him by police. When it was later publicized, there was widespread condemnation of the officers. In the early morning hours of May 27, 1991, 14-year old Milwaukee Laotian Konerak Sinthasomphone was discovered on the street, wandering nude. Reports of the boy's injuries varied. Dahmer told police that they had 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 had no suspicions, but reported smelling a strange scent. That scent 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. Sinthasomphone was the younger brother of the boy Dahmer had been convicted of molesting.

John Balcerzak and Joseph Gabrish, the two police officers who returned Sinthasomphone to Dahmer, were terminated from the Milwaukee Police Department after their actions were widely publicized, including an audiotape of the officers making anti-gay 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 for fighting to regain their jobs. 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. Matt Turner was killed on June 30, Jeremiah Weinberger on July 5, Oliver Lacy on July 12, and finally Joseph Brandehoft on July 19, just three days before Dahmer was finally arrested.

On July 22, 1991, Dahmer lured another man, Tracy 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 the officers suspected something was wrong. As one officer subdued Dahmer, the other searched the house and was horrified to uncover multiple photographs of murdered victims and human remains including three severed heads. A further search of the house revealed more grisly 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 perverse form of trepanation in order to create so called "zombies". Dahmer admitted to eating the biceps of his eighth victim, Ernest Miller, whose skeleton he also kept, noting that human flesh "tasted like beef" to him.

Trial, imprisonment and death

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 chose not to plead guilty but insanity, arguing that his necrophiliac urges were so strong that he could not control them.

The court found Dahmer guilty and sane on 15 counts of murder and sentenced him to 15 life terms, totaling 937 years in prison. At his sentencing hearing, and in a stance unusual for serial killers, Dahmer expressed remorse for his actions, also saying that he wished for his own death.

Dahmer served his time at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin, where it is claimed he became more and more religious over time and ultimately declared himself a born-again Christian. 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. According to popular reports of the incident, Dahmer was sodomized with a broom handle. However this did not occur, and Dahmer later died from severe head trauma. He did not die immediately, but rather in the ambulance en route to the hospital.

Much controversy surrounded both the decision to allow Dahmer such a privilege as work detail, as well as the pairing of Dahmer with Scarver, a man with a history of brutality who was incarcerated for murder. The fact that Scarver was black (and that most of Dahmer's victims were black) did not escape note by critics. Before his murder, Dahmer escaped a previous attempt on his life. After attending a church service in the prison chapel, an inmate took a razor blade and tried to slash Dahmer's throat. Dahmer escaped the incident with superficial wounds.

After Dahmer's death and subsequent legal proceedings, Dahmer's remains were cremated and divided in half between his birth mother Joyce, and his father and stepmother. Popular myth states his brain was donated to scientific study, but it was not, having been too badly damaged in the assault to be of any scientific value.

Aftermath

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

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 and his wife, Shari. He has retired from his career as an analytical chemist and resides with his wife today in Medina, Ohio. He consults on the evolution versus creationism topic occasionally, and his wife is a member of the board of the Medina County Ohio Horseman's Council. Both continue to carry the name Dahmer and say they love their son despite his crimes. Lionel Dahmer's first wife, Joyce, died of cancer some years after the trial. 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 , although John Walsh himself doesn't believe Dahmer was behind the killing, instead believing Ottis Toole committed the crime.

Known Victims

Name	Age	Date of Death
Stephen Hicks	20	June, 1978
Steven Tuomi	26	September, 1987
Richard Guerrero	14	October, 1987
Anthony Sears	25	March, 1988
Edward Smith	24	February, 1989
Raymond Smith	36	May, 1990
Ernest Miller	27	June, 1990
David Thomas	22	September, 1990
Curtis Straughter	23	September, 1990
Theo Smith	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

Attempted victim

Name	Age	Date of Abduction
Tracey Edwards	32	July 22, 1991

Pop culture references

References in film

• Johnny Knoxville, plays a mentally disabled character named "Jeffy Dahmor" in The Ringer.
• 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.
• Dahmer was one of the serial killers emulated by the villain in the movie Copycat (1995). Like Dahmer, the villain went to gay bars and drugged his victims' drinks; he also cuts off one victim's head with a surgical saw.
• In the movie Demolition Man (1993), the criminal Simon Phoenix (played by Wesley Snipes) discovers Dahmer's name in a list of cryogenically frozen people and decides to release him, declaring, "Jeffrey Dahmer? I love that guy!" This scene is frequently deleted in modern broadcasts of the film.
• In the TV series Dexter the main character Dexter Morgan (who is a serial killer himself) refers to Jeffrey Dahmer when finding the second victim of the Ice Truck Killer, another Miami serial killer, who cuts up his victims bodies and displays them for the police to find without any traces of blood. Dexter thinks: "There’s something strange and disarming about looking at a homicide scene in the daylight of Miami. It makes the most grotesque killings look staged, like you’re in a new and daring section of Disney World: Dahmerland!".

References in literature

• Horror writer Poppy Z. Brite has written several works with protagonists inspired by Dahmer, including the short story "Self-Made Man" and the novel Exquisite Corpse, in which a pair of homosexual necrophiliac-cannibalistic lovers plot the murder of a young Vietnamese man.
• Joyce Carol Oates's novel Zombie was based on Dahmer's life.
• In Chuck Palahniuk's novel Lullaby, a paramedic named John Nash references Dahmer. “You remember Jeffrey Dahmer... He didn’t set out to kill so many people. He just thought you could drill a hole in somebody’s skull, pour in some drain cleaner, and make them your sex zombie. Dahmer just wanted to be getting more.”

References in music

• The American father of Death Rock, Rozz Williams wrote the song Still Born, Still Life in Dahmer's honor.
• The Canadian grindcore band Dahmer is named after Jeffrey Dahmer.
• The Cleveland, Ohio Power violence band Apartment 213 is a reference Jeffrey Dahmer's apartment number.
• The American death metal band Macabre has written a concept album about Jeffrey Dahmer titled Dahmer, along with several songs about him on various of their albums.
• The song "Dahmer is Dead" by the Violent Femmes clearly references the killer.
• There is a track on Venetian Snares' album Meathole titled Sinthasomphone, a reference to Dahmer's thirteenth victim.
• The song "Way Cool" by Freestyle Fellowship is about Jeffrey Dahmer.
• Punk singer Tesco Vee sold aprons with a photoshopped image of Dahmer as Chef Boyardee with the tagline "Chef Jeff".
• The song "E=MC5" by LA rapper Key Kool featuring Ras Kass contains the line, "Grillin Niggas like Jeffrey Dahmer's Labor Day picnic."
• The song "Room 213" by GGFH is about Jeffrey Dahmer.
• The song "Jeffrey Dahmer's Cookbook" by death/grind band Fuck...I'm Dead is a reference to Jeffrey Dahmer.
• The song "213" by the thrash metal band Slayer is about Jeffrey Dahmer.
• The song "Trigger Inside" by Therapy? contains the lyric "I know how Jeffrey Dahmer feels, lonely, lonely".
• The song "Fearless" by Insane Clown Posse contains the lyric "I'll meet Jeffrey Dahmer at some kind of bar, then let him take me home and eat me"
• Swedish metal band Terror 2000's song "Satan's Barbeque" is about a barbeque at Satan's house with Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, and George Foreman
• The band The Calm Before have a song called "Jeffrey Dahmer Eat Your Heart Out"
• Eminem's "Fubba U Cubba Cubba" contains the lyrics "Jeffrey Dahmer left me with his legacy to carry on".
• The song "Jeffery Dahmer Went to Heaven" by Room full of Walters referenced statements from one of Dahmer's last interviews, in which he stated he had become a Christian.
• The band Desecration wrote a song "No More Room In The Freezer" which in the beginning features a news report about the

discoveries in his home.

• The song "Pass That Dutch" by Missy Elliott contains the lyrics "I can write a song sicker than Jeffrey Dahm'".
• The Faster Pussycat song "The Body Thief" contains several references to Dahmer.
• The song "Natural Born Killaz" by Dr. Dre and Ice Cube references Jeffrey Dahmer in the line "So I'ma pull a fuckin' Jeffrey Dahmer".
• The song "Straight Boys" by [Jeffree Star] contains the lyrics "To eat me out like Jeffrey Dahlmer."

References in television

• In the South Park episode "Hell on Earth 2006", Dahmer, Ted Bundy, and John Wayne Gacy work together to pick up a Ferrari cake for Satan. The trio parody the Three Stooges. Dahmer represents Larry. He was also mentioned in the musical episode "Mr Hankey's Christmas Classics", during the song "Christmas Time in Hell": Satan sings: "There goes Jeffrey Dahmer, with a festive Christmas ham. After he has sex with it he'll eat up all he can."
• On a Comedy Inc. fake commercial for spin-offs of the sitcom Dharma and Greg, one of the proposed spin-offs was "Jeffrey Dahmer and Greg" with a shot of Jenna Elfman's severed head in a freezer.
• On an episode of the NBC crime drama, Law & Order: Criminal Intent entitled "Want", Neil Patrick Harris guest stars as a cannibal serial killer who, like Dahmer, killed in order to have a completely submissive sexual partner (in this case, women rather than men).
• In one of his fake-news bits, soon after Dahmer's death, acerbic comic Dennis Miller showed a picture of that year's Thanksgiving parade in Milwaukee, and said that the grandmaster was the guy who killed Dahmer.
• On an episode of The Kids in the Hall airing shortly after Dahmer's arrest, Scott Thompson does a short bit titled "People I Look Like" wherein he showcases pictures of various famous people to whom he bears a resemblance, finishing out the list with Dahmer.

References in video games

• In the video game Shadow Man, In one of the early cutscenes, Jaunty asks Shadow Man to say howya to Jeffrey Dahmer if he goes into the Asylum

• In internet game emogame alkaline trio vs hell Jeffrey Dahmer is seen in hell and is a playable character

References in games

• The slang name for the poker hand J8 is Jeffrey Dahmer ("Ate Jack").[2]
• Due to the chronological proximity of the two otherwise-unrelated events, there was a joke circulating that fancied Dahmer and Lorena Bobbitt sharing dinner, with Dahmer asking, "You gonna eat that?"

References in Poetry

• Amiri Baraka makes a reference to Dahmer in his poem Somebody Blew up America

• Thom Gunn's poetry collection Boss Cupid includes a brief series of poems in Dahmer's persona.

• "J.D" is directly in reference to Dahmer and is included in Liquored Words & Afterthoughts by Susan Voth.

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)

External links

• BBC's Infamous Criminals
• Crime Library article on Dahmer
• Jeffrey Dahmer at IMDb
• Find A Grave Entry
• Oxford Apartments in Milwaukee Wisconsin - This is an aerial view of the now demolished Oxford Apartments in Milwaukee Wisconsin. They are located on the corner of North 25th Street and Kilbourn.
• Young Jeffrey Dahmer - comic book by Derf about his school acquaintanceship with Dahmer
• Profile of Dahmer at Carpe Noctem (Seize The Night)
• The One That Got Away - Would-be victim Tracy Edwards tells journalist Denny Johnson about his ordeal with Dahmer.