Jeffrey
Dahmer
The
Childhood of a killer
The
marriage of Lionel Herbert Dahmer and Annette Joyce Flint was not a happy
one from the day of the wedding on August 22, 1959. The two fought and
bickered from almost day one. Joyce would often walk out and Lionel would go
and find her and try and patch things up. On New Year's eve in the dead of
winter, Joyce walked out and down to a local park to sit and cry, she had no
shoes on nor warm enough clothes. She was quite emotional and pregnancy and
Lionel had to go and coax her back to the warmth of the house.
Lionel
was the quieter and more reserved of the couple and always tried his best
for the family. He studied hard for his Chemistry degree at Marquette
University and would strive for better things. He was logical and often
thought hard before giving an answer, where as Joyce - or Rocky as her
friends called her would jump to conclusions and argue a point to the very
end even if she was wrong. She was defiant and troublesome.
Joyce
always made sure that Lionel was aware of her needs and wants. Joyce also
fell pregnant within days of their marriage.
The
pregnancy had been a stressful one for Joyce. She had suffered from bouts of
unexplained partial paralysis during the pregnancy. Doctors were at
ends trying to find the cause of the problem but were unable to find the
reasons. For the entire month of February and March of 1960, Joyce was
bed-ridden with nausea and pain. The illness was so bad she was forced to
give up work. To help her with the pains of her pregnancy Joyce was
given "injections of barbiturates and morphine, which would finally
relax her." Later she was given phenobarbital as well. Any noise from
the surrounding apartments would send Joyce into a frenzy of anger so Lionel
decided they should move to a house for the health of Joyce. So at seven
months gestation the couple moved into Cathernine Dahmer's house in West
Allis.
Finally
on May 21, 1960 at 4.34pm Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was born at Evangelical
Deaconess Hospital in Milwaukee. He weighed 6lbs 15oz and was 18 1/2
inches long with light red hair and bright blue eyes. For a brief moment the
couple were extremely happy with the birth of such a beautiful child.
They
named the baby Jeffrey Lionel and loved him dearly, Joyce recorded every
movement of the baby in a scrap book including thoughts and emotions. The
baby was almost perfect, the doctors noticed a problem with his legs though
and he had casts on both his legs for the first four months of his life,
then when he would begin to walk he would need just slight lifts until the
age of six. At first the problems scared Jeffrey's parents but the problems
seemed only mild.
At
six and half months he stood alone and was crawling two months later. He had
his first haircut two weeks later.
He
had a pet turtle and goldfish at eighteen months and had an intense interest
for animals even at such a young age. He was so gentle with the turtle
according to his mother.
When
Dahmer was two the family moved to Ames, Iowa so Lionel could work on is
Ph.D in Chemistry.
At
the age of 4 Jeffrey began to complain about severe pain in his groin and
was diagnosed with a double hernia in his scrotum. He was admitted to
hospital and had surgery to correct the fault. Looking back, Jeffrey's
father Lionel says that it was after the operation that Jeffrey began to be
more introverted and quiet. Jeffrey was also embarrassed about the procedure
he had had. Nearly thirty years later he said he still remembered the
pain and when he woke from the operation he though they had cut his penis
off.
November,
1966, two years later the family moved again, this time they travelled to
Doylestown, Ohio. But the family did not settle long, and moved again and
again looking for the right place to bring up a family. On December 18,
Jeffrey's younger brother David was born. With Joyce having another
difficult pregnancy and birth Jeffrey felt even more neglected and
introverted. At school teachers said he was extremely shy and kept very much
to himself. His mother was heart-broken sending him to school knowing
he would just spend the time alone.
His
family at age six and grew up in Bath, Ohio, which is near Akron. His
parents were termed as "middle class." As a boy he was
intelligent, but did not live up to his potential. Instead, he would disrupt
class in a clownish way rather than pay attention to his school work.
Throughout
much of his life, there were a few warning signs that something was terribly
wrong with Jeffrey Dahmer.
In
1968, he was sexually molested by a neighbour boy in rural Bath Township.
Unreported at the time, the childhood incident may have played a pivotol
role in understanding Dahmer's subsequent crimes. At 10, Dahmer was
"experimenting" with dead animals, decapitating rodents, bleaching
chicken bones with acid, nailing a dog's carcass to a tree and mounting its
severed head on a stake.
At
18, Jeffrey witnessed the bitter divorce of his parents and lived with his
mother in Bath Township, Ohio. But one day his mother disappeared with
Jeff's younger brother, leaving Jeffrey with nothing. Often Dahmer attempted
to sedate himself with alcohol to hide the pain and hurt. "He was a
gentle person, but when he got drunk it would take four policemen to hold
him down," said Shari Dahmer. Just a small insight into the intense
rage Dahmer could erupt into.
Had
it not been for Tracey Edwards, a young black man who successfully escaped
Dahmer's clutches, who knows how many more men could have become victims of
Dahmer's.
When
Edwards saw the police he was relieved, yet incoherant. The naked man, with
a handcuff dangling from his wrist, tried to explain to the officers that a
man was trying to kill him. So ended the reign of terror of Jeffrey Dahmer.
Though story was only beginning to unfold.
When
captured, the Milwaukee police found three dissolving bodies in blue
55-gallon acid vats in his bedroom filled with rotting torsos. In the
freezer he had a heart stashed "to eat later." Skulls stripped of
hair and skin, stashed on the shelves and in the fridge. A pail full of
hacked off hands. A torso in the kitchen sink ripped open from theneck to
groin. A jar containing a pickled penis, a severed penis lying on the sink.
Another severed penis in a lobster pot in the fridge. when officers found in
Dahmer's apartment a butcher knife and some Polaroid's of men in homosexual
activity. Some of the pictures were also of dead men. In many of the
pictures, the corpses had been dismembered and mutilated in other ways. As
Officer Mueller looked around the room, he realized the pictures had taken
place in that very room.
All
in all, Dahmer had killed 17 men. His first killing happened in 1978.
Stephen Hicks had planned to meet friends after a rock concert but was never
seen alive again. After Dahmer's capture police were led back to his
grandmother's house where tests proved that blood and teeth found under the
house had belonged to the young man.
For
nine years Dahmer was able to control his urges to kill. However once they
were again unleashed he would go on to kill sixteen more young men. During
Dahmer's killing hiatus he was charged with many offences including assault
of a young boy, indecent exposure, disorderly conduct and drunken behaviour.
Alcohol was the reason he was discharged from the army.
Soon
he began working at a chocolate factory in Milwaukee. Dahmer's homosexuality
was difficult for him to understand but he soon found some gay bars around
the area, but he kept pretty much to himself. On the rare occasions he would
spark up a conversation with fellow drinkers, he would often spike their
drinks with drugs, merely for experimental purposes.
Dahmer
was unable to control his homicidal nature and began his killings.
On
September 15, 1987, Dahmer met Stephen Tuomi at gay bay Club 219. After some
chit-chat the two retired to an adjoining hotel for sex. Dahmer recalls
little of the events of the evening though he woke the next morning, Tuomi
was dead, he had been strangled, and blood was coming from his mouth.
Dahmer
panicked, he knew he had to get rid of the body, he went out and bought a
large suitcase and shoved Tuomi's dead body into it. Dahmer took it home to
his flat in his grandmother's basement, where he dismembered the corpse and
put it out for the garbage collectors in plastic bags.
The
mystery of Stephen Tuomi's disappearance remained unsolved until Dahmer
confessed to his murder in 1991.
In
January 1988, Dahmer picked up James E.Doxtator in West Allis. Doxtator is
enticed by Jeffrey's offer. Little did he know that same afternoon he would
become the third victim of Jeffrey Dahmer.
Only
two months later in March 1988, Jeffrey Dahmer thinks his pray's have been
answered when he meets Richard Guerrero. Richard is taken back to Jeffrey's
grandmothers house and murdered, raped, photographed and dismembered.
By
September 1988, Jeffrey's odd hours and the stench of his
"experiments" had become too much for his grandmother, and Dahmer
was asked to move out. On September 25, he found an apartment on Milwaukee's
North 25th Street.
On
September 26, 1988 Dahmer met 13 year old boy by the name Sinthasomphone,
Dahmer lured him to his new apartment and drugged him. The boy escaped and
Dahmer was charged with indecent assault and enticing a child for immoral
purposes.
In
1989 Jeffrey visit's a gay bar called "La Cage." At closing time
outside the bar he is approached by a man called Anthony Sears. Anthony's
friend Jeffrey Connor offers to drive the men to Jeffrey's grandmothers
house. They are dropped of at the corner of 56th street, in Lincoln, in West
Allis. Anthony Sears is never seen again, but his skull, scalp and penis are
found in Jeffrey Dahmer's apartment when he is arrested over two years
later.
In
June 1990, Dahmer is on the prowl once again. Victim number six comes in the
form of Raymond Smith. He drugged the man and strangles him. He later
raped the corpse and dismembered the body A painted skull discovered two
years later is that of Smith.
Edward
Smith meets Dahmer in June 1990, at a bar called "The Phoenix
Bar." They get to talking and find they have alot in common Jeffrey
makes a suggestion that they go back to his place for sex. The offer is
accepted and they travel back to his apartment via a taxi. Once inside they
engage in sexual activity and it's then that Edward is killed. No traces of
Edwards body have ever been found.
September
3, 1990 after not killing for three months Dahmer picked up Ernest Miller, a
young black man, from outside of a bookstore. Back at Dahmer's apartment the
men had sex and sat and had a drink, Miller's was laced with the sedative as
usual. Dahmer's urged to kill boiled over into a frenzied attack. Instead of
the usual strangulation, Dahmer's slit the man's throat. He wanted to keep
the man's skeleton, so Jeffrey cut most of the flesh from the bones, and
dissolved the rest in the acid vats before bleaching the skeleton in acid.
He had also kept the biceps in the freezer.
In
1991 police responded to a neighbours call who discovered a 14-year-old
Asian boy, Konerak Sinthasomphone, bleeding and naked who had escaped from
Dahmer. This incident was ignored by police who called it "a homosexual
lovers spat". Dahmer met Konerak Sinthasomphone on the twenty seventh
of may 1991, he accepted Dahmer's offer of money. He posed for photo's in
his underwear and was killed soon after. Parts of his body were keep and
used by Dahmer at a later date.
Three
weeks later, Jeffrey meets David Thomas he is enticed by Jeffrey's offer and
goes back to his apartment. Once there Dahmer kills him and photographs the
body in different states of dismemberment. He is identified by his sister by
the photographs that were taken.
A
month later on June 30 Jeffrey goes to a gay pride parade in Chicago and
meets Matt Turner. He invites him to come back with him to Milwaukee. Once
there they engage in sex and Turner is strangled after being drugged. His
head and internal organs were found in Jeffrey's freezer his headless torso
was also in the apartment.
One
week later Dahmer meets Jeremiah Weinberger on July 7. They met in a gay bar
called "Carol's Gay Bar" from there both men travel back to
Milwaukee and start to live together as a couple, until Jeffrey decides to
kill him on the fourth day. His head was in Jeffrey's freezer at the time of
his arrest and his body was found next to Turners.
At
4p.m. in February 1991, Another victim meets Jeffrey Dahmer iss Curtis
Straughter. He is murdered with Jeffrey's leather belt. Dahmer keeps the
skull, hands and genitals from this victim. He is later identified by dental
records.
On
April the 7th 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer meets Errol Lindsey outside the same
bookstore that he previously met Ernest Miller. He decides to go with
Jeffrey to his apartment. Once there he is drugged, raped and dismembered.
Jeffrey decides to keep Errol's skin this is found after his arrest. He is
identified from dental records.
Tony
Huges was the next victim of Jeffrey Dahmer they met at a gay club called
the "219 Club". Tony was born deaf and dumb, but communicated with
Dahmer by writing with him and also lip reading. Back at his apartment he
was drugged, strangled and died sometime shortly after. His corpse lay on
the ground for three days. Before Jeffrey went to work on him. He was to be
identified by dental records.
The
smell in the apartment was becoming unbearable, tenants in the other units
began to complain.
On
July 15, 1991 Oliver Lacy was picked up by Jeffrey Dahmer, the 24 year old
was drugged and strangled. Dahmer had anal sex with the man's corpse.
The
19th of July, 1991 saw Dahmer pick up out-of-work Joseph Bradeholt. He
willingly posed for photographs for money and joined Dahmer in oral sex in
the apartment. But the game had only begun, Dahmer again drugged his victim,
before strangling him. Bradeholt was then dismembered, his head joined the
other three now occupying the freezer and the rest added to the putrefying
vats of acid.
Dahmer's
luck now ran out. The final intended victim was Tracy Edwards, through the
haze of drugs fed to him in the drink from Dahmer, he was able to escape and
alerted the police to the atrocities in Dahmer's apartment
Dahmer's
time was up.
A
plea of guilty by insanity was rejected by the court and on January 27, 1992
Dahmer was sentenced to fifteen life sentences.
Jeffrey
Dahmer was killed in Columbia Correctional Institution, Portage, Wisconsin
on November 28, 1994. He had been beaten to death by Christopher Scarver, a
convicted killer on antipsychotic medication, Scarver -- who claimed to be
Christ because he was a carpenter and his mother's name was Mary -- killed
the cannibal along with another inmate, convicted wife killer Jesse
Anderson, with a bar from a piece of exercise equipment. It had only been
the second time during Dahmer's sentence that he had been able to associate
with other inmates. The previous excursion also resulted in Dahmer being
seriously injured. He knew he would be killed in jail.
Bibliography:
A&E Biography Video: Jeffrey Dahmer
Dahmer, Lionel, A Father's Story. William Morrow and
Company, 1994.
Davis, Don, Milwaukee Murders, Nightmare in Apartment 213: The True
Story. St Martin's Paperbacks, 1995.
By
Korey Sifuentes
Copyright
© 2002 by [The Crime Web].
Except
as provided by the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by
any means without the prior permission of the author.
Original Written: April
19, 1995
Updated:
January 30, 2002