A 1994 photo of Jeffrey Dahmer’s father, Lionel Dahmer, and stepmother, Shari, standing outside of Columbia Correctional Institute where Jeffrey was imprisoned. Getty Images What I’ve done has cut both ways. It’s hurt the victim, and it’s hurt me. ... I don’t know what I was thinking when I did it. [from The New School Psychology Bulletin; Volume 5, No. 1, 2007] Dahmer also started drinking at age 14, and by the time of his first killing at age 18, his alcohol consumption had spun out of control. He dropped out of Ohio State University after one quarter term, and his recently remarried father insisted that he join the Army. Dahmer enlisted in late December 1978 and was posted to Germany shortly thereafter. Jeffrey Dahmer was born in Milwaukee, on May 21, 1960, to Lionel and Joyce Dahmer. He was described as an energetic and happy child until the age of 4, when a traumatic and painful recovery following surgery to correct a double hernia seemed to effect a change in the boy . Noticeably subdued, he became increasingly withdrawn following the birth of his younger brother and the family’s frequent moves. By the time, Dahmer was of school age, the family had moved to Ohio.

While awaiting sentencing for his sexual assault case, Dahmer again put his grandmother’s basement to gruesome use. In March 1989, he lured, drugged, strangled, sodomized, photographed, dismembered, and disposed of Anthony Sears, an aspiring model. Dahmer found Sears particularly attractive and later said he did not want to “lose him,” and so Sears became the first victim from whom Dahmer kept preserved body parts for a long period of time, mummifying his head and genitals, according to Masters.

Dahmer reportedly adjusted well to prison life at the Columbia Correctional Institution in south-central Wisconsin, though he was initially kept apart from the general population. He eventually convinced authorities to allow him to integrate more fully with other inmates. He found religion in the form of books and photos sent to him by his father, and he was granted permission by the Columbia Correctional Institution to be baptized by a local pastor. Death In accordance with his inclusion in regular work details, Dahmer was assigned to work with two other convicted murderers, Scarver and Jesse Anderson. After they had been left alone to complete their tasks, guards returned to find that Scarver had brutally beaten both men with a metal bar from the prison weight room. Dahmer was pronounced dead after approximately one hour. Anderson died from his injuries days later. In September 1989, about a year after moving into his new apartment, Dahmer lured a 13-year-old Laotian boy to his house, claiming he wanted to take nude photos of him. This resulted in charges of sexual exploitation and second-degree sexual assault for Dahmer. He pleaded guilty, claiming that the boy had appeared much older. Over the next two years, Dahmer would kill 12 more people, bringing his total victim count to 17. His first victim during this time was a prostitute named Raymond Smith, whom Dahmer lured to his apartment for sex, gave a drink laced with sleeping tablets, and then strangled. Dahmer took photos of his body in suggestive positions before dismembering him. With his next victim Edward Smith, Dahmer accidentally destroyed his skull while trying to dry it in the oven, making it explode. He later told police he felt “rotten” about Smith’s murder because was unable to keep anything from his body, making it feel like a true waste, according to Masters.

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. Maybe I was born too late. Maybe I was an Aztec. [from Albany Times Union; published on February 5, 1992] The Englishman Masters is an intellectual with opinions on everything. I really wish I could say that I’ve read at least one biography that didn’t suffer from the author’s bias/opinionated commentary, but that’s simply not the case. No one would want to read just the cold, hard facts. Plus, the mere exercise would be paradoxical – the arrangement of words in a sentence can change the meaning entirely, and depending on where and how much information you give, the reader’s impressions will be entirely different.The 2012 documentary The Jeffery Dahmer Files included fictionalized reenactments of Dahmer’s life (with Andrew Swant portraying him) along with real-life interviews with people involved with his cases. Several other documentaries have been produced about Dahmer as well. In September 2022, Netflix released a ten-part anthology series called Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Co-created by American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy, the series starred Evan Peters as Dahmer and highlighted incidents in which Dahmer was nearly apprehended before his arrest, with a particular focus on how police incompetence allowed him to extend his killing spree. Then there’s the focus on the “shrine”. All that talk about Dionysus and wendigos was meant to give context to the bizarre, ritualistic, quasi-religious nature of Dahmer’s modus operandi. By now everyone familiar with the case knows about the “shrine” he was building, complete with griffin statues standing guard and flashing lights (?). The average onlooker would assume the altar was nothing more than a byproduct of mental illness, yet another sign of the insanity. But Masters bulks it up, ascribing the attributes of our primitive pagan ancestors to a primal killer’s instincts. And that’s fine – it makes sense, I suppose. Dahmer doesn’t know why he did it or where the idea came from, so Masters is putting his own spin on it, drawing his own conclusions. Everyone is going to see this case through their own filters anyway. 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. A four-part docuseries called My Son Jeffrey: The Dahmer Family Tapes begins streaming on September 18, 2023, on Fox Nation. It includes never-before-released audio recordings of Dahmer, including phone conversations he had with his father, Lionel, while in prison. According to Court TV, Dahmer said in one recording that he fully intended to keep killing if he hadn’t been captured: “I was so wrapped up in what I was doing. I felt I was gonna continue doing that for the rest of my life.” In other recordings, Lionel asked if he has tried praying to God, and Dahmer replied he hadn’t because it made him “feel uncomfortable.” Quotes

At his trial for child molestation in May 1989, Dahmer was the model of contrition, arguing eloquently, in his own defense, about how he had seen the error of his ways and that his arrest marked a turning point in his life. His defense counsel argued that he needed treatment, not incarceration, and the judge agreed, handing down a one-year prison sentence on “day release”—allowing Dahmer to work at his job during the day and return to the prison at night—as well as a five-year probationary sentence. His drinking problem persisted, and in early 1981, the Army discharged him. Although German authorities would later investigate possible connections between Dahmer and murders that took place in the area during that time, it is not believed that he took any victims while serving in the Armed Forces. verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{

After My Friend Dahmer, this is the second book on Dahmer I have read. And considering how I felt about that one, I can’t say that this was worse. However, it wasn’t my ideal, so to speak. It’s very dry in places and meanders quite a bit, plus Masters isn’t emotionally connected to any of this at all, except that he was present during the trial. Actor Evan Peters played Jeffrey Dahmer in the Netflix series D ahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (2022). Netflix Edwards claimed that the knife Dahmer had threatened him with was in the bedroom. When the officer went in to corroborate the story, he noticed Polaroid photographs of dismembered bodies lying around. Dahmer was subdued by the officers, after which he muttered the words, “For what I did, I should be dead,” according to Masters. I do not blame the police, the courts, or the probation system. I failed the system, it did not fail me. [from Sunday Times; published on July 28, 1991]