Between 1978 and 1991, American serial murderer Jeffrey Dahmer murdered seventeen men and boys. Dahmer found his victims—mostly Black men—at gay bars, shopping centres, and bus stops over the period of more than 13 years. He then offered them narcotic-laced alcohol, lured them home with promises of money or sex, and strangled them to death.
Then, after dismembering and discarding the bodies, he would have sex acts with the corpses, frequently keeping body pieces as collectables. To remember each deed later and relive the sensation, he often snapped pictures of his victims at different points during the murder process. After being apprehended in 1991, Dahmer was given sixteen-lifetime prison terms. Christopher Scarver, a fellow prisoner, killed him in 1994.
Early age
Lionel and Joyce Dahmer welcomed Jeffrey Dahmer into the world on May 21, 1960, in Milwaukee. Up until the age of four, he was regarded as an active and content youngster. However, a terrible and painful recovery after surgery to repair a double hernia seems to have changed the boy. He was notably reserved and withdrew after the birth of his younger brother. The family had relocated to Ohio by the time Dahmer reached school age.
Dahmer became fascinated with animal bones at an early age and researched the best ways to clean and preserve them. According to Brian Masters’ book The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer, as a child, he collected large insects and miniature animal skulls kept in glass jars.
By his early teens, he had become detached, tense, and generally friendless. Dahmer maintains that his compulsions toward necrophilia and murder began around the age of 14. Still, it appears that the breakdown of his parents’ marriage and their ugly divorce a few years later may have served as a spur for putting these impulses into action. According to Masters, Dahmer’s frequent disagreements with his parents, as well as the continual stress in the house, made him question the stability of his family and existence.
Dahmer’s Alcoholism
Dahmer began drinking at the age of 14, and by the time he committed his first murder at the age of 18, he had become addicted to alcohol. After just one-quarter of a semester, he left Ohio State University because his freshly remarried father had urged him into serving in the Army. Dahmer entered the Army in late December 1978 and was quickly sent to Germany.
Due to his ongoing drinking, the Army let him go in early 1981. It is thought that Dahmer did not take any victims while serving in the Armed Forces, even though German police would subsequently look into potential connections between Dahmer and murders that occurred in the area during that period.
Dahmer went back to his Ohio home after being released from prison. After being jailed for disorderly conduct later in the year, Dahmer’s father sent him to live with his grandmother, Catherine Dahmer, in Wisconsin. However, Dahmer’s alcoholism persisted, and he was again arrested for sexual misconduct that summer. In 1986, two boys reported him masturbating in front of them, which led to his detention once more. He received a one-year probationary period.
History of Murder
Between 1978 and 1991, Dahmer killed seventeen men. In order to lessen the attention of their disappearances and lower the chance of his being apprehended, he was cautious in his choice of victims; many of them were outcasts or criminals on the verge of becoming lawbreakers. He used promises of money or sex to get them to his house when he strangled them to death. He performed sexual activities on them using their bodies, keeping pictures and body pieces as souvenirs. His most well-known names, Milwaukee Monster, and Milwaukee Cannibal, are an appropriate tribute to his horrific deeds.
Dahmer picked up 18-year-old Steven Hicks, a hitchhiker, and brought him home to his parents’ house in June 1978, just after receiving his high school diploma. This was Dahmer’s first murder. After getting the young guy drunk, Dahmer remarked, “I didn’t want him to leave,” to Hicks when he attempted to go home. He was strangled with a barbell by Dahmer after being struck in the head.
Hicks’ body was cut up by Dahmer, who then buried the pieces behind his parents’ house after packing them in plastic bags. Later, he dug up the remains, used a tool called a sledgehammer to smash the bones, and threw them into a ravine that was covered in woods.
How does Dahmer Get Fame?
The internet is going crazy as fans attempt to piece together the real-life narratives of Jeffrey Dahmer’s family members and his victims in light of Netflix’s dramatized version of his horrific killings, DAHMER – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. The notorious serial murderer preyed on Black, Asian, and Latino males in public places between 1978 and 1991, then killed and dismembered them at his Milwaukee apartment. “Rape, dismemberment, necrophilia, and cannibalism” were among the horrifying elements of Dahmer’s killings, according to the Crime Museum.
Even though his horrifying killing spree was unreported for almost ten years, Polaroid photos served as the crucial piece of evidence that ultimately resulted in his arrest.
Was Jeffrey Dahmer storing his victims’ Polaroids in his apartment?
Dahmer would entice victims back to his apartment, give them drugged beverages, and then sexually attack them after they died. He would also dissect their bodies and save “souvenirs” such as body pieces, skulls, and genitals. He routinely photographed his victims at various phases of the murder process so that he could remember and relive each crime again.
How did Jeffrey Dahmer Polaroids contribute to his arrest?
Tracy Edwards, Dahmer’s final victim, left his apartment on July 22, 1991, and survived. Tracy, according to ABC News, led Milwaukee police to 84 Polaroid photos in a bedside drawer. This marked the conclusion of Dahmer’s cannibalistic murdering spree.
Dahmer had been convicted on 15 murder counts and sentenced to 957 years in prison. He died after an inmate assaulted him in 1994.
