So who is Lionel Dahmer? What was his relationship like with Jeffrey? And how did he react to the revelation that his son was a serial killer? Who Is Lionel Dahmer?

But for most parents the world over, these and similar worries are the only ones they will have to face. For Lionel Dahmer, a whole new set of worry was opened up for him in relation to his child, a son he called Jeff. Did my boy commit these horrific murders? Why didn't I see the signs? How did my own boy spiral down to a place I couldn't reach, and couldn't fix? I did not like the book because I did not like Lionel. There were flashes of attempted sincerity, but overall I felt he wanted me to think him a hero and was manipulating the book even to the point of confessing his own arson and his high-school bombing that had not been discovered so that I would approve of him. I do not. There were signs he should have seen but he denies them. I thought he wanted to blame the mother Joyce, who no doubt was mentally unbalanced also. Lionel seems to me to be a psychopath. The father of convicted serial murderer Jeffrey Dahmer writes eloquently of himself and his son. He chronicles Jeffrey's life, his crimes, and his apprehension and trial; but more importantly, he shares his own ruminations about Jeffrey's psychology and his own. No scholarly paraphernalia. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)An anguished memoir written by the father of a serial killer, trying to imagine what went so horribly wrong inside his family. At first he seems to attribute some blame to Jeffery Dahmer's mother and her mental health issues, but later suggests the problem was due to medications prescribed during the pregnancy. David Dahmer knew about the animal graveyard and thought his brother was ‘doing a good service’ by burying dead creatures,” Masters wrote. Lionel's last interview was in 2020 Personality- Extreme shyness and inability to gauge human emotions. Preferring to be in his own company.

The answers to these questions are interesting, but not as interesting as the process. In that sense, I'm not sure Lionel's insights into Jeff are particularly worthwhile in terms of what they reveal about Jeff, but they are certainly worthwhile in terms of what the reveal about him and about human nature in general. Throughout the book Lionel needs to find a narrative about his son that he can live with, one that he can accept, one that resonates. Why wait until he was in prison, after producing countless victims of horrific crimes, to give him Prozac? He enabled the transformation of his son into a despicable monster and this book is a too little too late attempt to tell himself that it could have been a gazillion different things that caused it, but when it comes to him taking responsibility for his failure, it’s all very hazy. I wanted to read this book because all 8 billion people live the same life Jeff did. then why was he the way he was. WHY!? Any health issues- Initial flues when he was 2 and 3 . Severe and EXTREME alcoholism after turning 18 which continued till the last victim was murdered. No reason known as for why he turned towards bottle. No break-ups or anything that might have made him seek comfort in drinking. I'D STRICTLY ADVICE YOU TO NOT READ THIS BOOK AS A 3RD PERSON, READ IT AS IF YOU ARE LIONEL. IT WILL MAKE YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT ASPECTS OF THE BOOK YOU AGREE WITH AND WHAT ASPECTS YOU DONT AGREE WITH.By the fall of 1988, there were far , far more things that I did not know about my son than I did know about him. I didn’t know that he had already killed four human beings, two of them in the basement of my mother’s house.”