Born on May 21, 1960 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Jeffery Dahmer was known “as an energetic and happy child”. But following a double hernia surgery at the age of 4, this happy boy became increasingly isolated. When he was fourteen years old Dahmer’s parents got divorced, this upheaval was believed to be a major cause in his rising interests in murder and necrophilia.
Dahmer was a full blown alcoholic at an early age which led to his dropping out of Ohio State University after only one quarter of a term. His father convinced him to join the military, so he joined the Army in 1978 and was shipped off to Germany. He was discharged soon after because of his drinking problem increased and began spinning out of control, and it was not until later that German authorities discovered th bodies he left behind.
Before his severe actions of murder were discovered, Dahmer was arrested several times before. He was arrested for indecent exposure in 1986 for masturbating in front of two boys, and this was after his father sent him to live with him grandmother in Wisconsin after getting arrested in Ohio for disorderly conduct. Then in September of 1989 he was charged with the sexual exploitation and second-degree assault of a thirteen year-old boy. During his 1989 trial, 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.” It was argued that he needed treatment rather than to be locked up, the judge agreed and gave Dahmer “day release” (he was allowed to go to work during the day and had to return to prison at night).
Jeffery Dahmer committed his first murder about a month after graduating high school in 1978. He picked up hitchhiker, Steven Hicks, and drove the two of them to his parent’s house. When they got there Dahmer got Hicks drunk and struck him in the head and strangled him with a barbell when he tried to get up and leave. He then dismembered Hicks’ body and packed them into plastic bags, burying them in the backyard.
His second victim was killed September of 1987. Dahmer and a man by the name of Steven Tuomi checked into a hotel room and they both got drunk. The following morning Dahmer woke up to see Tuomi dead but had no memory of the night. He brought Tuomi’s body back to his grandmother’s house, and before getting rid of the remains Dahmer dismembered and masturbated on the body.
He killed two more men in his grandmother’s
After an early release from his one year prison sentence, his number of victims jumped from four to seventeen. As he killed more men, he started experimenting with chemicals when disposing of the bodies and even eating the carcuses of his victims. Even performing lobotomies on his living victims and injecting them with muriatic acid.
He was almost caught in May of 1991 when a neighbor of his called the police because there was a naked boy running in the street, he had just escaped Dahmer. But when the police showed up they believed Dahmer when he claimed the boy to be his nineteen year-old lover, and they believed him because the boy who was actually only fourteen years-old was Asian and was the brother of the young boy Dahmer was charged with sexually abusing three years prior. After the police escorted them back to Dahmer’s home and left, he killed the young boy, he was Dahmer’s twelfth victim.
Dahmer was finally arrested July 22, 1991. Police found body parts and poloroid photos of victims when they searched his home after finding Tracy Edwards walking down the street with handcuffs in his wrists.
His trial held racial tensions because a majority of his victims were African American, resulting in strict security precautions. He was found guilty and sentenced to sixteen consecutive life terms. But was murdered by a fellow innmate on November 28, 1994.
Sources:
https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/jeffrey-dahmer
https://www.britannica.com/list/7-of-historys-most-notorious-serial-killers
