The Murder of Jeffrey Dahmer

Jeffrey Dahmer wasn’t well-liked by inmates at Columbia Correctional Facility, but he understood. After the heinous crimes he committed, Jeffrey said he would not be surprised -or upset-if someone killed him, too. Besides, growing up he was unpopular, a pretty weird kid who dissolved animal parts in acid and scared his classmates with his awkwardness.

And so when fellow inmate Christopher Scarver attacked and killed Dahmer two years into his stay at the Wisconsin prison, the serial killer likely expected it sooner or later.

Crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer

Jeffrey Dahmer killed 17 men, but he did not just kill people. After drilling holes into the heads of his drugged, unconscious victims, Dahmer mutilated, cannibalized, and dismembered their bodies. Acts of necrophilia were not uncommon. He posed his victims in various compromising positions and took Polaroid photographs of them in the positions.

Many suspect Dahmer of being racist. His victims were all men of African American, Asian, or Latino descent, leading many to believe that race played a part in his selection process.

In interviews after his arrest, Dahmer adamantly denied that he was racist. He instead claimed he chose his victims based on an attraction to them. Dahmer happened to like dark-skinned men.

Inmates Left Alone in Gymnasium

On November 28, 1994. Scarver, a convicted murderer himself, was assigned along with Dahmer and a third inmate, Jesse Anderson, to clean the bathrooms in the gymnasiums. Guards led the inmates to the gymnasium, uncuffed and unshackled them, and left the inmates alone to clean.

The inmates were alone for more than 20 minutes.

Quite an unusual move, as guards never left Jeffrey’s side, afraid inmates would attack him. Any time Jeff came out of his cell, a guard escorted him around the jail. So when the guards left the men alone, it surprised even Dahmer and Anderson. Scarver believes that leaving him alone with the two men was an intentional act by the guards. Remember, no one at the prison really liked Jeffrey Dahmer.

As the men began their cleaning chores, Scarver maintained his distance. He never interacted with Dahmer before this day but knew of his crimes. Not only did Dahmer joke about murder, but he also found a newspaper article detailing the crimes.

Scarver claimed Dahmer taunted other inmates by “fashioning severed limbs out of prison food,” using ketchup as makeshift blood. “He would put them in places where people would be,” Scarver told Seventeen magazine. “He crossed the line with some people -prisoners, prison staff. Some people who are in prison are repentant -but he was not one of them.”

The jokes and taunting bothered Scarver, but so did the fact that Dahmer’s victims were primarily African Americans. The African American community held a grudge against Dahmer. Time to settle the score.

Anderson and Dahmer laughed and smirked, then suddenly, something hit Scarver in the back. He turned around and looked at the men who paid him little attention. Dahmer walked across the gymnasium.

Scarver had had enough of Dahmer, the nasty man who seemed proud to be a killer of Black men. He grabbed a metal bar from the weight machine and confronted Dahmer holding the newspaper clipping detailing his crimes.

Scarver asked Dahmer if the newspaper information was true. Dahmer shyly said, “Yes.” Dahmer knew what was up and attempted to run. That’s when Scarver began beating him in the head with the five-pound metal bar.

As Dahmer lay profusely bleeding on the gym floor, Scarver walked across the gymnasium to Anderson. He looked around, hoping guards were near. They were not. He attempted to run but Scarver caught him and gave him the same punishment he dished to Dahmer.

Dahmer was transported to a local hospital where he died from blunt force trauma to the head a short time later. Anderson died immediately.

Dahmer Murdered his First Victim with Dumbbell

On June 18, 1976, Jeffrey Dahmer murdered his first victim, Steven Mark Hicks, a 19-year-old hitchhiker, in Bath, Ohio. Sexually attracted to Hicks, Dahmer claimed he murdered him after he began talking about girls.

Dahmer bludgeoned Hicks to death with a 10-pound dumbbell, striking him twice from behind as he sat in a chair. He then strangled him to death with the bar of the dumbbell, stripped him naked, then masturbated on top of the corpse. He buried Hicks’s remains in his backyard, then dug them up weeks later, dissolving the bones in an acid solution and flushing them down the toilet.

Scarver Sentencing

Authorities charged Scarver with two counts of murder in the deaths. He received two additional life sentences to serve on top of the life sentence he was serving at the time. He was also placed in solitary confinement for a period of 16 years preceding the murders. He filed an appeal in the case and eventually was moved to Centennial Correctional Facility in Colorado.