Dahmer initially pleaded not guilty to all charges, despite having confessed to the killings during police interrogation. He eventually changed his plea to guilty by virtue of insanity. His defense then offered the gruesome details of his behavior, as proof that only someone insane could commit such terrible acts. a b "Distress Signals from a Disturbed Life: Abundant Clues, but No Simple Answers". The Galveston Daily News. August 12, 1991. Archived from the original on October 31, 2021 . Retrieved January 23, 2023. On June 30, Dahmer traveled to Chicago, where he encountered a 20-year-old named Matt Turner at a bus station. [203] Turner accepted Dahmer's offer to travel to Milwaukee for a professional photo shoot. At the apartment, Dahmer drugged, strangled and dismembered Turner and placed his head and internal organs in separate plastic bags in the freezer. [204] Turner 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. He drugged Weinberger and twice injected boiling water through his skull, sending him into a coma from which he died two days later. [204] [n 16]

The original self-published comic book was adapted and staged as a one-act play by the NYU Theater Department. Dahmer was then sentenced to life imprisonment plus ten years upon the first two counts. [287] The remaining thirteen counts carried a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment plus seventy years. The death penalty was not an option for Judge Gram to consider at the penalty phase, as Wisconsin had abolished capital punishment in 1853. [288] The] world already has enough misery in it without my adding more to it. [from Albany Times Union; published on August 7, 1991] The Secret Life: Jeffrey Dahmer was released in 1993. Directed by David Bowen, this biographical crime drama stars Carl Crew as Dahmer. [353]He Killed Them So They Wouldn't Leave' ". Quad City Times. August 11, 1991. Archived from the original on November 5, 2021 . Retrieved November 5, 2021.

It’s hard for me to believe a human being could do what I have done, but I know I did it. [from Albany Times Union; published on February 1, 1992] Jeffrey Dahmer: Mind of a Monster was commissioned by the Investigation Discovery channel. This documentary was first broadcast in May 2020 and includes interviews with Dahmer's father, former neighbors and eyewitnesses in addition to investigators and forensic psychiatrists. [372] It was my way of remembering their appearance, their physical beauty. I also wanted to keep ... if I couldn't keep them there with me whole, I at least could keep their skeletons. Barnett, David (2017-11-12). "In New Film, 'My Friend Dahmer' Author Portrays Serial Killer As Sympathetic Outcast". NPR . Retrieved 2022-08-05. Ignatz Awards". Small Press Expo. 2012-10-08. Archived from the original on 2012-10-08 . Retrieved 2022-08-05.Imrie, Robert (July 27, 1991). "Family's Two Encounters With Dahmer End in Grief". Associated Press. Archived from the original on February 4, 2021 . Retrieved January 22, 2021. Dahmer Incident Report Reveals Contradictions". Journal Times. August 31, 1991. Archived from the original on October 15, 2020 . Retrieved April 4, 2020. Dahmer started developing rituals as he progressed with his killings, experimenting with chemical means of disposal and often consuming the flesh of his victims. Dahmer also attempted crude lobotomies: He drilled into the skull of his 11th victim, Errol Lindsey, while he was still alive and injected him with muriatic acid. Dahmer hoped this would place Lindsey into a permanent submissive state, but Lindsey awoke during the procedure and said, “I have a headache; what time is it?” so Dahmer strangled him. Maybe I was born too late. Maybe I was an Aztec. [from Albany Times Union; published on February 5, 1992] The subtleties of social life were beyond my grasp. When children liked me, I did not know why. Nor could I formulate a plan for winning their affection. I simply didn’t know how things worked with other people. ... And try as I might, I couldn’t make other people seem less strange and unknowable. [from The New School Psychology Bulletin; Volume 5, No. 1, 2007]

a b "Jeffrey Dahmer Biography: The Cannibal Killer". biographics.org. July 13, 2018. Archived from the original on March 4, 2021 . Retrieved January 22, 2021. Two months after his conviction and two months prior to his sentencing, Dahmer murdered his fifth victim, a 24-year-old mixed-race aspiring model, Anthony Sears, whom he met at a gay bar on March 25, 1989. According to Dahmer, on this particular occasion he was not looking to commit a crime; however, shortly before closing time that evening, Sears "just started talking to me". Dahmer lured Sears to his grandmother's home, where the pair engaged in oral sex before Dahmer drugged and strangled Sears. [5] September 2: Ernest Marquez 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, liver, biceps, and portions of his thighs in the freezer for later consumption. [345]The Investigation Discovery channel has also broadcast a documentary focusing upon Dahmer within its documentary series, Most Evil. This documentary features excerpts of Dahmer's 1994 Dateline NBC interview with Stone Phillips and was first broadcast in August 2006. [368]