It's May Monster Madness! And I'm a day late. :/ I was going to post this yesterday but I ended up going to bed early since I've been up since 5 am. For MMM I decided to use my "Killer Saturday" posts for the blog hop. If you're not familiar with my Killer Saturday posts, I'll fill you in. I write up articles of a certain serial killer and talk about their life and the killings they committed while giving my personal opinion on the subject. Today's post I'm featuring Jeffrey Dahmer.
Disclaimer: "I am in no way trying to condone or justify the crimes these people have committed. My heart goes out to the families that lost loved ones to these killers. I am not trying to embodied them as a hero or a villain. I am trying to embodied them as a human. These posts are simply here to get a better understanding as to why they could do such awful crimes. Maybe one day we can put an end to this horrific lifestyle." .jpg)
Out of all the serial killers out there, I've always loved learning about Jeffrey Dahmer. I connected with him the most. My heart breaks for this man, I actually feel sympathy for him. Jeffrey Dahmer was born on May 21st, 1960 in Milwaukee Wisconsin. Jeff was born into a loving home of Lionel and Joyce Dahmer, that shows every one that you don't have to be born into a dysfunctional family to be a killer. Jeffrey was a happy kid until the age of 6 when he had to have minor surgery which followed the birth of his brother. The events seemed to have a huge impact on Jeff, he became extremely closed off and lacked self-confidence.
About the same time, a career opportunity came along for his father which ended with the family moving to Ohio. Jeffrey's insecurities worsened, by his early teens he was disengaged, tense and had no friends. During his teens, his parents went through a bitter divorce which was Jeff's reasons for his behavior. He admitted that he first had thoughts of murder and necrophilia when he was 14 but it was seeing his parents marriage breakdown right before his eyes was the cause for turning this fantasy into a reality.
Jeffrey graduated from high school, in June of 1978. While his family was out of town, he picked up a hitchhiker by the name of Steven Hicks. He went home with Dahmer where they drank beer and had sex. When Hicks tried to leave, Dahmer got upset and killed him by hitting him over the head with a barbell. Dahmer's reason for killing Hicks was, he didn't want him to leave. That right there made me almost cry. Jeffrey is so desperate for friends and approval and that he didn't want to be alone so he killed him. He felt the only way he would stay was if he killed him, that way he was still "with" him and he wasn't alone.
To hide the evidence, Jeffrey dismembered the corpse of Hicks, packed it in plastic bags and buried them in the woods behind his house. Jeffrey just happened to have a pet cemetery located out by his house where he buried Hicks. At the same time of the murder of Hicks, Dahmer's alcohol intake became out of control. He ended up dropping out of Ohio State University after only one term, due to his drunkenness. His father, who is now recently remarried forced Jeffrey to join the Army and he was posted to Germany.
His drinking problems got worse which resulted in his discharge from the Army two years later. Dahmer got arrested in October of 1981 for disorderly conduct which made his father send him to live with his Grandmother in Wisconsin. His problems with Alochol didn't seem to get better and his next arrest happened during September of 1986, for masturbating in front of two young boys, resulting in Dahmer receiving a one-year probationary sentence. He would spend his time in gay bars, "hunting" as some people call it for young boys. Usually African-American or Asian. While he was there, he came upon his second victim, Steven Toumi. Nine years apart from his very first killing. They checked into an hotel room where they drank heavily. The next morning, Dahmer claims to have found Steven dead besides him.
Dahmer brought a large suitcase to transport the corpse to his grandmother's basement, where he had sex, and masturbated on it, before dismembering it and disposing the remains in the trash. Over his thirteen year crime spree, Jeffrey developed a pattern of murder that persisted throughout the years. He would always find his victims at Gay Bars and lure them home with him with promises of money or sex. Once he achieved that, he would pursue them with alcohol spiked with drugs. He would strangle his victims, have sex with the corpse, masturbate on it, then dismember the corpses and dispose of them. He would usually keep their genitals or skulls as souvenirs. He also liked to take pictures of his victims from different stages of the murder, that way he could recollect each act afterwards and relive the experience.
He found gratification by assembling the skulls and masturbating in front of them. His grandmother grew tired of the late nights and drunkenness, not knowing his other activities, forced him to move out in September of 1988. That wasn't till after he had killed another two victims on the premises. Jeffrey had his lucky escape when he was charged for the sexual assault of a thirteen year old Latino boy. Dahmer claimed that he thought the boy was much older and the arrest made him see the errors of his way and it marked a turning point in his life. His defense counsel argued that he needed treatment, not jail time and surprisingly the judge agreed.
Handing down a five year probationary sentence, with one year prison sentence on "day release", under which he continued to work at his job, but returned to the prison at night. He was released after ten months, despite Dahmer's father having written to the judge urging that Dahmer be held until he had received appropriate treatment. He spent three months with his grandmother on his release, where he does not appear to have added to his body count, before moving into his own apartment in May 1990.
During the fifteen months that followed, up to the time of his capture, Dahmer's victim count accelerated; twelve more lives were taken using his modus operandi. Necrophilia is generally associated with issues of exercising control over victims. He developed these rituals as he progressed, experimenting with chemical means of disposal, and he also consumed the flesh of his victims. He attempted crude lobotomies, drilling into victim's skulls while they were still alive, injecting them with Muriatic acid to see whether he could extend his control to the living. Most of these victims died instantly, but he claimed that one victim had survived for a number of days in a zombie-like state, with limited motor function.
On May 26, 1991. A woman noticed a young Asian boy running around the street naked. The boy was incoherent and he was bleeding from his rectum. Dahmer explained to the police that he was his 19 year old lover and they had gotten into a fight while they were drinking and he wandered off. Not noticing that the boy had a hole in his head and ignoring the woman and her daughters pleas, the police believed Jeffrey's story and drove the boys home. Once home, the police left the boy in Dahmer's care not noticing the strange smell coming from his apartment. If they would of taken a look around they would of found the body of his twelfth victim decomposing in the bedroom and enough photographic evidence to arrest him on the spot. Because of this incident, the police involved with this call have been relieved of duty.
Dahmer's luck finally ran out on July 22, 1991, when two Milwaukee police officers picked up Tracy Edwards, a young African-American, who was wandering the streets with a handcuff dangling from his wrist. They decided to follow up on his claims that a "weird dude" had drugged and restrained him, and arrived at Dahmer's apartment, where he calmly offered to get the keys for the handcuffs.
Edwards claimed that the knife Dahmer had threatened him with was in the bedroom and, when the officer went in to corroborate the story, he noticed photographs of dismembered bodies lying around, which included one of a head in the fridge. He shouted to his colleague to restrain Dahmer, who fought back fiercely, but was nevertheless subdued. A subsequent search revealed the head in the fridge, as well as three more in the freezer, and a catalogue of other horrors, including preserved skulls, jars containing genitalia, and an extensive gallery of macabre photographs.
Despite having confessed to the killings during police interrogation, Dahmer initially pleaded not guilty to all charges. However, against the advice of his legal counsel, he changed his plea to guilty by virtue of insanity. His defense then offered every gruesome detail of his behavior, as proof that only someone insane could commit such terrible acts, but the jury chose to believe the prosecutor's assertion that Dahmer was fully aware that his acts were evil, but that he chose to commit them anyway, returning after only five hours deliberation to find him guilty, but sane, on all counts, on February 17, 1992. Dahmer was sentenced to fifteen consecutive life terms, a total of 957 years in prison.
On November 28th, 1994 after only serving two years of his sentence. Jeffrey along with another inmate were beaten to death by inmate Christoper Scarver. Jeffrey was 34 years old.
Say what you want but I feel bad for the guy. He had a hard life, he didn't have any friends and he didn't feel accepted by everyone else or loved. I sympathize with him because I myself didn't have a great childhood. I have a great family and supportive parents so I didn't lack the love from them. I didn't have any or a lot of friends growing up. I wasn't popular in school and I was teased cause I was an out cast. I was timid and kept to myself. I would spend all my time in my room cut off from the outside world just for the fact that I didn't feel accepted by anyone else. I didn't feel love or have love from anyone besides my family. I felt awkward and alone and singled out. That's how Jeffrey was, he was sad and alone. He wanted friends and wanted to be accepted by his fellow peers.
He struggled with trying to deal with his feelings and short comings and trying to find his place in life. He never really found his place. He felt more at "peace" when he was with his victims, he felt that he was finally accepted and that's sad. It's sad that the only way to feel loved or accepted by someone else is when you're with their corpse. It breaks my heart knowing that people go through this and ultimately results to them becoming a killer. I wish Jeffrey had more friends in his life, I wish he had more love and I wish he didn't have to feel the pain that he felt. No body knows how he felt and what he was thinking in his mind. No one knows why he felt that he had to kill people. He admitted the reason for his killings but I don't think anyone can fully comprehend the true reason for doing it but him.
People will look at him and see a monster. I look at him and see a sad, lonely man looking for love and acceptance and willing to get it anyway he can.
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