Serial Killer Week: Jeffrey Dahmer


Jeffrey Dahmer went down in recent history for being a serial killer of the creepiest kind, but for doing the unthinkable; necrophilia and cannibalism. He sexually abused, killed dismembered, and in some cases ate 17 men and boys in the Milwaukee area from the late 70s to early 90s.

Said to be doted over as a young child, he was argumentative, greedy for attention and tensely wound. His mother was taking to bed with sickness, the father was gone much of the time and attending to his wife. In school, he was considered to be quiet.

He had an interest in animals from a young age, collecting bugs and kept them in jars. Later, he would find dead animals along the roadways and put their parts in jars and dismember them. Later, his father sensed his sullenness and tried to engage his son into scientific curiosity about how to bleach the bones of the chicken they had for supper.

In high school, he was an outcast who took to drinking. He realized he was homosexual and began to experiment a bit. He had fantasies of dominance. He had fantasies of finding a handsome jogger, drugging him and then taking advantage of his unconscious body.

When he was 18, he performed his first murder. It was during the time his parents divorced and he picked up a hitchhiker. He invited him home, gave him drinks, and then bludgeoned him with a 10 pound dumbbell.  He then strangled him. He later dissected the body in the crawlspace and buried him in the backyard. Weeks later, he unearthed the body, removed the flesh from the bone, and flushed the flesh down the toilet and crushed the bones with a sledgehammer. 

He joined the Army, but his drinking got him removed from duty. He tried to make it on his own in Florida, but his drinking was severe. He ended up back in Ohio with his father. They couldn't get him to stop drinking, so they sent him to his grandmother's. He worked in a chocolate factory and started to have fantasies of gay sex. He stole a male mannequin. He started going to gay bars and bath houses.

He was arrested a few times for indecent exposure and masturbating in front of others. His drinking was intense. It was nine years after the first murder, that he began murdering again. He claimed he had no memory of killing the man, woke up and found the blood. He cut the body up, put it in a suitcase and took it to his grandmother's. He broke the body down like the first one and put the bits into the trash.

Then, he started actively looking for men. The grandmother told him to please leave because she noticed him bringing young men home a lot.

He got arrested for fondling a 13-year-old boy and taking photos. He got five years probation and one year in a work camp. Two weeks after his sentencing, he killed again. He got his own apartment where he could do this work and he kept the skull of one man.

In the horror of all horrors, one young man tried to get free from Dahmer who chased him with a knife and he found a pot filled with acid to eat away flesh. The man ran with handcuffs on through the neighborhood. The police found the photos of mangled bodies in the bedroom and arrested him. They found a human head in the freezer and more. He had altar candles, skulls for display. It was a nightmare to inventory.

Dahmer was imprisoned with no chance to get out. He was killed in prison by someone who bludgeoned him to death. 

What makes a serial killer? In Dahmer's case, the alcohol might have enhanced an already antisocial personality. Still, lots of people are antisocial and alcoholics and they aren't trying to cook people's bones or keep their skulls for trophies. We may never understand the chemistry, events, genetics, and influences that led this disgusting human being on his path of destruction, but we can be reassured he doesn't breathe our air any longer.











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