Jeffrey Dahmer

The Dahmer's sitting on the couch as a family, looking pretty
normal.

Also known as The Milwaukee Canibal, Jeffrey Dahmer is considered one of the most horrific monsters known to man. He was born on May 21, 1960, to a pretty standard American family, even though his parents split when he was in his teens. According to Biography.com, Mr. Dahmer was always on the go, being very engaged in everything he did and always had a smile on his face. Once he hit the age of four, he had to undergo a surgery which may have changed him forever. After the operation happened, nothing seemed to go right for Mr. Dahmer, and by his high school years, you could definitely consider him a loner. 

According to Vronsky, MO or modus operandi is precisely what the killer must do to commit the killing (333). Crime Museum explains that Dahmer had specific operations that he would use to commit his heinous acts. These include not only rape and necrophilia but dismemberment of the body and the eating of the human flesh. Another familiar term that comes up in Vronsky's book is a signature which is something that the killer will usually leave behind as evidence that this was his/her crime. Mr. Dahmer often left behind signs that he was in control of the victim at all times. This control helps us to later go back and investigate what might have gone wrong in Dahmer's life which lead him to commit such violent crimes.  

These are Victims of Jeffrey Dahmer's
killing spree. 

Crime Museum explores a little bit about Mr. Dahmer's first crime and finds that he committed his first murder at the age of 18, just a couple weeks after graduating from high school. The man he murdered was named Steven Hicks (1). An article in the Chicago Tribune titled "A gruesome pattern unfolds Money was the lure, spiked drink sprang the trap" gives a brief overview of Dahmer and his past and speculates that his murders could date back the entire way to 1978. What is even more chilling about this speculation is the fact that a New York Times article titled, "17 Killed, and a Life Is Searched for Clues" states that "On May 27th, nearly two months before his arrest, neighbors called the police about a naked, bleeding, teen-ager they had seen wandering on the street outside Mr. Dahmer's apartment. The officers who investigated believed Mr. Dahmer's explanation that he and the boy were living together and they were just having a quarrel." What the New York Times later states in the same article is that the boy who was wandering in the streets was then killed that night by Dahmer. 

The apartment door of Mr. Dahmer. What happens inside
is repulsive and unbelievable. 

Mr. Dahmer had killed 17 men, the majority of them being black, and it would have been 18 if it was not for Tracy Edwards and his escape from Dahmer's apartment, which lead to the arrest of Mr. Dahmer. According to Crime Museum, Edwards was bribed to come to Mr. Dahmer's apartment in a prostitution form because of the promise of money for his company and sexual favors. After his escape, he was able to get the attention of some police officers who then went to check out the house where they found something alarming. A New York Times article entitled "Parts of Many Bodies Found In a Milwaukee Apartment" describes the findings of photographs of dead bodies, severed heads, and cut off genitalia stored in different cans. 

As we reflect on what we know about Jeffrey Dahmer now, we can better understand what type of serial killer he is. In Vronsky's book, Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters, he breaks down different genres that serial killers can fit into. The MO and signature that Jeffrey Dahmer shows us within his killing lead us to believe that he is a Hedonist Killer. Specifically Hedonist Lust Killer. According to Vronsky, in correlation to hedonist lust killers, he explains that "Not all of them want to necessarily hurt or kill you- they simply want to wear your skin or eat your liver or have sex with your severed head"(164).  This is something the Mr. Dahmer often did. He loved to decapitate his victims and take photographs of them and even store their genitalia as just a few of his souvenirs. He would also participate in sexual acts with his corpses.

When we look back, it is almost obvious that Mr. Dahmer showed signs of being a serial killer. He was a loner, always disengaged from his peers. Dead animals would show up in the vicinity of where he was living and would play which is an early sign that something might not be going right in the child's mind, and he had multiple run-ins with the law before he was caught in 1991. Serial killers are very scary and Jeffrey Dahmer was no exception. Our fears have been put to rest for a while now due to his death by a fellow inmate in 1994 according to an article in Crime Museum. 

Works Cited:

Barron, J. (1991, August 4). 17 Killed, a life is searched for clues. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/04/us/17-killed-and-a-life-is-searched-for-clues.html

Birgography.com Editors. (2017, August 1). Jeffrey Dahmer. Retrieved from https://www.biograpy.com/people/jeffrey-dahmer-9264755

McMahon, C., Worthington, R. (1991, July 26). A gruesome pattern unfolds money was the lure, spiked drink sprang the trap. Chicago 

Tribune. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/usnews/printviewfile?accountid=26459

Retrieved from https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/serial-killers/jeffrey-dahmer/

Vronsky, P. (2004). Serial killers: The method and madness of monsters. New York, NY: The Berkley Publishing Group

Wilkerson, I. (1991, July 24). Parts of many bodies found in a Milwaukee apartment. The New York Times, pp. A14.