Jeffrey Dahmer

Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer, also known as Jeffrey Dahmer was an American serial killer and sex offender. He was given the names, Milwaukee Cannibal or the Milwaukee Monster. From 1978 to 1991, he committed the murder and dismemberment of 17 men and boys involving necrophilia, cannibalism, and the permanent preservation of body parts. He was diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, and psychotic disorder. However, he was found to be legally sane at his trial and was convicted of 15 of the 16 murders he had committed. He was sentenced to 15 terms of life imprisonment in February 1992. Dahmer died in prison on 28 November 1994 after he was beaten to death by a fellow inmate.

What is Jeffrey Dahmer Famous For?

• American serial killer who murdered 17 people.

Where is Jeffrey Dahmer From?

Jeffrey Dahmer was born on 21 May 1960. His birth name is Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer. His birth place is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the United States. He held an American nationality. He was born to a father, Lionel Herbert Dahmer, and a mother, Joyce Annette. He had German and Welsh ancestry on his father’s side, whereas he had Norwegian and Irish ancestry on his mother’s side. He had one younger brother.

His father spent much of the time away from home due to his university studies and his mother suffered from depression. Thus, his parents devoted less time to him. He underwent double hernia surgery shortly before his fourth birthday.

Dahmer was interested in dead animals from an early age. He used to collect insects and animal carcasses, dismembered it, and store the parts in jars.

The family moved to Doylestown, Ohio in October 1966, where his father obtained his degree and started working as an analytical chemist. The family moved to Bath Township, Ohio in 1968.

He attended Revere High School. He was drinking beer and hard alcohol at 14. He discovered he was gay when he reached puberty. At 16, he conceived a fantasy of rendering unconscious a particular male jogger he found attractive and then making sexual use of his body. He hid in the bushes with a baseball bat and waited for the man. He failed to attack the man as he did not pass by on that particular day.

His grades declined by 1977 and his parents hired a private tutor. Their parents eventually decided to divorce in 1977. His father moved out of the house in early 1978. Jeffrey graduated from high school in May 1978. His mother and brother moved to live with relatives. Jeffrey lived alone in the family home. His parents’ divorce was finalized in 1978.

Jeffrey Dahmer Murder

• Jeffrey Dahmer committed his first murder in 1978. He committed his first murder just three weeks after his graduation. He convinced a hitchhiker, Steven Mark Hicks, to his house to drink alcohol together. They drank together and when Hicks asked to leave, Dahmer bludgeoned Hicks with a dumbbell. He then strangled Hicks to death, stripped the clothes from Hick’s body, and masturbated above the corpse. Dahmer dissected Hicks’ body on the next day and later buried the remains in a shallow grave in his backyard. He later unearthed the remains and pared the flesh from the bones, dissolved the flesh in acid, and flushed the solution down the toilet. He crushed the bone with a sledgehammer and scattered them in the woodland behind the family home.
• Six weeks after the murder of Hicks, Dahmer’s father and his fiance returned to his home. Dahmer then enrolled at Ohio State University, where he studied business. However, Dahmer dropped out of OSU after just three months. His father urged Dahmer to enlist in the US Army in January 1979. He trained as a medical specialist at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. He was stationed in Baumholder, West Germany, and served as a combat medic in 2nd Battalion, 68th Armored Regiment, 8th Infantry Division. Two soldiers attest to have been raped by Dahmer while in the Army. Following his alcohol abuse and deterioration in performance, he was discharged from the Army in 1981. He did not return home to face his father but went to Miami Beach, Florida. He lived at a motel and started working at a delicatessen. However, he was evicted from the motel after he failed to pay the rent. He eventually called his father to return home.
• Dahmer lived with his father for a while. He was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct, two weeks after his return to Ohio, and fined $60 and given a suspended 10-day jail sentence. His father then sent him to live with his grandmother in West Allis, Wisconsin. Dahmer’s life at his grandmother’s house was initially harmonious. He helped his grandmother to house chores. He eventually found a job as a phlebotomist at the Milwaukee Blood Plasma Center in 1982. He worked there for 10 months. He was arrested fined $50 plus court costs, for indecent exposure to a crowd of 25 women and children at Wisconsin State Fair Park on 7 August 1982. He then went jobless for two years. He lived with money his grandmother gave.
• He started working as a mixer at the Milwaukee Ambrosia Chocolate Factory in January 1985. While working there, on one night, a stranger threw Dahmer a note offering to perform fellatio upon him. This triggered his fantasies of control and dominance he had developed as a teenager. He started visiting gay bars, gay bathhouses, and bookstores, He also stole a male mannequin from a store for sexual stimulation. He had been started involving in sexual encounters with gay partners. But he was frustated at his partner’s moving during the sexual act. And he started administering sleeping pills to his sexual partners and raping their unconscious bodies. The bathhouse administration revoked Dahmer’s membership after approximately 12 such encounters. He then continued to use hotel rooms to continue this practice.
• He then attempted to dig up the fresh corpse of an 18-year-old male for his practice. However, he failed after he found the soil too hard.
• He was arrested for masturbating in front of two 12-year-old boys in August 1986.
• In November 1987, he persuaded a 25-year-old man from Ontonagon, Michigan, Steven Tuomi to his rented room in Ambassador Hotel in Milwaukee. He had no intention to kill him but to drug him and rape him. However, the following morning, he found Tuomi lying dead on the bed. He had no memory of killing Tuomi. He purchased a large suitcase, transported the body to his grandmother’s house. He severed the head, arms, and legs from the torso and disposed of the remains, excluding the severed head into the trash. He later boiled the head in a mixture of Soilex and bleach in an effort to retain the skull and used it as a stimulus for masturbation. He later disposed of the skull as it was rendered too brittle by the bleaching process.
• After killing Tuomi, he began to actively seek victims.
• Dahmer next killed a 14-year old Native American male prostitute, James Doxtator in January 1988. He drugged Doxtator, strangled him to death, and raped him. He dismembered it in much the same manner as he had with Tuomi, disposed the remains, excluding the skull in the trash, and boiled the skull.
• His next victim was a 22-year old bisexual man, Richard Guerrero on 24 March 1988. He lured Guerrero to his grandmother’s house, drugged him, strangled him to death, performed sexual activities upon the corpse. He disposed of the remains of the body in the trash, excluding the head. Several months later, he pulverized the skull.
• In April 1988, he lured a young man to his grandmother’s house and drugged him. However, he did not kill him after his grandmother saw Dahmer and the young man. He took the man to the County General Hospital. His grandmother asked Dahmer to move out in September 1988 because of his habit of bringing young men to her house late at night and bad smells from the basement and the garage. He moved to a one-bedroom apartment on North Street and moved into his new residence.
• He was arrested for drugging and sexually fondling a 13-year-old boy whom he had lured to his home. He was convicted of a second-degree sexual assault and of enticing a child for immoral purposes. His sentencing was suspended until May 1989. He moved back to his grandmother’s house in March 1989.
• He murdered his fifth victim, a model named Anthony Sears, two months prior to his sentencing. He lured Sears to his grandmother’s house, performed oral sex, drugged him, and eventually strangled him to death. He found the gut exceptionally attractive, thus retained Sears’ head and genitalia in acetone and stored them in his work locker.
• He was sentenced to five years’ probation and one year in the House of Correction on 23 May 1989. He was registered as a sex offender. He was paroled from the work camp two months before his scheduled release. He moved back to his grandmother’s house after being released.
• He then moved to the Oxford Apartments, on North 25th Street in Milwaukee in May 1990.
• He killed his sixth victim, a 32-year-old male prostitute, Raymond Smith, within one week of his moving into his new apartment. He eventually strangled him to death. He bought a camera and took pictures of Smith’s body in suggestive positions. He later dismembered his body, boiled the legs, arms, and pelvis. He dissolved the Smith’s remains, excluding the skull. Smith’s skull was placed alongside Sears’ skull.
• One week after Smith’s murder, he lured another young man to his apartment. However, he accidentally consumed the sedatives intended for the man. He woke up the following day to learn several of his belongings being stolen including clothes, $300, and a watch.
• He murdered Edward Smith in June 1990, Ernest Miller, and David Thomas in September 1990 before he stopped killing for five months. He did not kill for five months because he failed to lure men to his apartment for a minimum of five occasions.
• He started killing in February 1991 when he lured a teenager, Curtis Straughter, and killed him at his apartment.
• He killed Errol Lindsey in April 1991, Tony Hughes, and Konerak Sinthasomphone in May 1991. Dahmer was almost caught in the Sinthasomphone case. He had lured Sinthasomphone to his apartment, drugged him, and performed oral sex on him. He had drilled a single hole into Sinthasomphone’s skull and injected hydrochloric acid into the frontal lobe. Dahmer then left his apartment to drink at a bar and purchase more alcohol. When he returned to his apartment in the early morning hours, he discovered Sinthasomphone sitting outside naked on the corner of 25th and State. Three young women were near him. Dahmer approached them and explained that Sinthasomphone was his friend and tried to take him to his apartment. Those women had called 9-1-1. Two police officers arrived at the scene, Dahmer explained that Sinthasomphone was his boyfriend and he frequently behaved in that manner while intoxicated. The officers walked Sinthasomphone to Dahmer’s apartment but did not enter. Dahmer showed the officers semi-nude polaroid pictures. The officers were convinced by Dahmer and they left. Dahmer eventually killed Sinthasomphone.
• He killed Matt Turner in June 1991, Oliver Lacy and Joseph Bradehoft in July 1991.

Jeffrey Dahmer Arrest, Investigation, Confession, Conviction, Trial, Prison

• Dahmer was finally arrested when he lured Tracy Edwards to his apartment on 22 July 1991. Inside Dahmer’s apartment, Edwards noticed a foul odor, several boxes of hydrochloric acid, nude male posers, a 57-gallon drum. Edwards made his mind to flee the apartment. With several excuses, Edwards managed to flee the apartment after five hours. Edward flagged down to police officers at the corner of North 25th Street. The officers accompanied by Edwards arrived at Dahmer’s apartment, where they eventually discovered a severed head inside the refrigerator. He was arrested.
• A detailed search conducted by the Milwaukee police’s Criminal Investigation Bureau found severed heads, skulls, dismembered torsos, skeletons, human hearts, and arms among other human parts.
• Dahmer confessed to 16 murders in Wisconsin since 1987 and one in Ohio. He was indicted with four counts of first-degree murder on 25 July 1991. He was charged with a further 11 murders by 22 August 1991. He was charged with one murder in Ohio. He was not charged with the attempted murder of Edwards nor with the murder of Tuomi. He pleaded guilty but insane to 15 counts of murder at a scheduled preliminary hearing on 13 January 1992. His trial began on 30 January 1992. His lawyer defended that Dahmer had been diagnosed with necrophilia, borderline personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, alcohol dependence, and a psychotic disorder. However, Dahmer was ruled sane. he was sentenced to life imprisonment plus ten years on the first two counts, with the remaining counts carrying a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment plus 70 years. Wisconsin had abolished capital punishment in 1853 thus he was not given a death penalty. He was later extradited to Ohio to be tried for the murder of his first victim, Steven Hicks. He pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to a 16th term of life imprisonment on 1 May 1992.
• He was kept in solitary confinement for the first year of his sentencing. He was transferred to a less secure unit after a year. His request for a Bible was granted and he devoted himself to Christianity. He was baptized in May 1994.

Jeffrey Dahmer Death

A fellow inmate, Osvaldo Durruthy attempted to slash Dahmer’s throat with a razor embedded in a toothbrush in July 1994. He survived. On 28 November 1994, Dahmer was beaten to death by a fellow inmate, Christopher Scarver. He was discovered on the floor of the bathrooms of the gym suffering from extreme head and facial wounds. He was rushed to the nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead an hour later. Another fellow inmate, Jesse Anderson, who was also beaten by Scarver, also died of injury, two days later. Scarver was later sentenced to two additional terms of life imprisonment for the murder of Dahmer and Anderson.

According to Dahmer’s will, Dahmer’s body was cremated and his ashes were divided between his parents.