Jeffrey Dahmer, frequently saving his victims' skulls or genitals

Jeffrey Dahmer: Who Was He?

Between 1978 and 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer was an American serial murderer who murdered 17 men. Dahmer stalked men, usually African Americans, at gay clubs, malls, and bus stops for more than 13 years, luring them home with promises of money or sex and then strangling them to death with booze mixed with narcotics. He would then perform sex activities on the bodies before dismembering and disposing of them, frequently saving their skulls or genitals as keepsakes. He regularly photographed his victims at various phases of the murder procedure so that he could recall and relive the event later.

In 1991, Dahmer was apprehended and convicted to 16 life sentences. In 1994, he was assassinated by fellow prisoner Christopher Scarver.

Family and Childhood

Dahmer was born on May 21, 1960, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, parents Lionel and Joyce Dahmer. He was characterized as an active and cheerful youngster until he was four years old, when surgery to treat a double hernia caused him to alter. Following the birth of his younger brother and the family's many migrations, he became noticeably depressed and increasingly reclusive. He was disconnected, uptight, and essentially friendless by his early teens.

Dahmer says that his compulsions for necrophilia and murder began when he was 14, but the breakdown of his parents' marriage and their bitter divorce a few years later appears to have been the impetus for putting these ideas into acts.

Dahmer's alcohol intake had spiraled out of hand by the time of his first murder. His freshly remarried father suggested that he join the Army when he dropped out of Ohio State University after a quarter term. Dahmer joined in the Army in late December 1978 and was sent to Germany soon after.

His drinking problem remained, and he was dismissed from the Army in early 1981. Although German police would subsequently explore probable links between Dahmer and local killings at the time, it is unlikely that he murdered any more people while serving in the Armed Forces.

Dahmer returned to Ohio after being released from prison. Dahmer was sent to live with his grandmother in Wisconsin after an arrest for disorderly conduct later that year, but his alcoholism persisted, and he was arrested for indecent exposure the following summer. In 1986, two boys accused him of masturbating in front of them, and he was jailed again. He was sentenced to a year of probation.

Victims of Jeffrey Dahmer

Between 1978 and 1991, Dahmer murdered 17 men. He chose victims who were on the periphery of society, typically nomadic or borderline criminals, to make their disappearances less apparent and reduce the chances of him being apprehended. He enticed them to his house by promising them money or sex, then strangled them to death. He performed sex acts on them and kept body parts and photographs as keepsakes.

Four Initial Victims

In June 1978, shortly after graduating from high school, Dahmer picked up a hitchhiker named Steven Hicks and drove him home to his parents' house. Dahmer then proceeded to make the young guy inebriated, and when Hicks attempted to flee, Dahmer murdered him by hitting him in the head with a barbell and strangled him.

Dahmer dissected his first victim's body and buried the body pieces in plastic bags behind his parents' house. He unearthed the bones, broke them with a sledgehammer, and spread them across a forested ravine afterwards.

Steven Tuomi, Dahmer's second victim, was not killed until September 1987. They booked into a hotel room and drank, and when Dahmer awakened, Tuomi was dead, with no recollection of the previous night's events. He acquired a big suitcase to take Tuomi's body to his grandmother's basement, where he dissected and masturbated on the body before throwing it away.

Only after Dahmer killed two more people in his grandmother's house did she become tired of his late nights and alcoholism — despite the fact that she had no clue of his other activities — and she forced him to leave in 1988.

Charges of Sexual Assault

Dahmer had a very lucky escape in September 1989, when he was charged with sexual exploitation and second-degree sexual assault after an interaction with a 13-year-old Laotian kid. He admitted responsibility, stating that the child seemed to be much older than he was.

In March 1989, while awaiting sentence in his sexual assault case, Dahmer lured, drugged, strangled, sodomized, photographed, mutilated, and disposed of Anthony Sears, an aspiring model, in his grandmother's basement.

Dahmer was a model of remorse throughout his child molestation trial in May 1989, testifying eloquently in his own defense about how he had recognized the mistake of his ways and that his arrest marked a turning point in his life. His lawyer claimed that he required therapy rather than jail, and the court agreed, giving Dahmer a one-year prison term with "day release" — enabling him to work during the day and return to prison at night — as well as a five-year probationary sentence.

Lionel Dahmer subsequently said in an interview with CNN that he submitted a letter to the court that sentenced his son, asking psychiatric treatment before his son's release. The court, however, allowed Dahmer to be released early after just completing 10 months of his sentence. Following his release, he temporarily stayed with his grandmother, during which time he does not appear to have contributed to his body count, before returning to his own apartment.

The 13 Most Recent Victims

Dahmer's victim count increased dramatically during the next two years, rising from four to seventeen. As he proceeded, he devised rituals, experimenting with chemical disposal methods and frequently devouring the flesh of his victims. Dahmer also tried rudimentary lobotomies on his victims, drilling into their skulls while they were still alive and pouring muriatic acid into them.

Sandra Smith, Dahmer's next-door neighbor, reported an Asian child running nude down the street on May 27, 1991. The youngster was disoriented when the cops came, so they took Dahmer's word for it that the boy was his 19-year-old boyfriend. Dahmer is a white man in a predominantly African-American town. The child, in reality, was 14 years old and a brother of the Laotian adolescent Dahmer had assaulted three years before.

Dahmer and the kid were taken home by the police. They took barely a quick glance around before departing, clearly not wanting to get involved in a gay domestic disturbance.

After the cops had departed, Dahmer killed the youngster and went about his normal business. Police officials would have discovered the corpse of Dahmer's 12th victim, Tony Hughes, if they had done even a rudimentary search.