Cannibalism and Sex Zombies: The Case of Jeffrey Dahmer
The case of Jeffrey Dahmer is one of the most notorious in True Crime history. While other serial killers have totaled more victims, Dahmer's actions before, during, and after his victims' deaths make him one of the most talked about killers in American history. As we will see, most of his victims should still be alive. Their deaths are an indictment on a too-lenient justice system towards sexual predators. In addition, the failure of police to investigate Dahmer earlier points to a prejudice towards minority and homosexual victims. Most of all, however, their deaths are proof that humans beings are capable of more evil than we can possibly fathom.
Jeffrey Dahmer's Childhood
Dahmer's Teenage Years and First Murder
After his conviction, Dahmer was the subject of several interviews and studies as police and doctors tried to understand what motivated his evil actions. Due to these interviews, we have an insightful glance into his Dahmer's mind, from the killer himself.
According to Dahmer, he began to have desires to kill and commit necrophilia at the age of 14. Not yet willing to commit these acts on humans, he was known to kill and dissect animals. His father remembers that Dahmer seemed oddly delighted by the sound of animal bones clanking together. On one occasion, Dahmer was recorded to have put a dog's head on a stick in the woods near his family home. He also started to drink heavily as a teenager, which led to more mental instability. Despite his heavy drinking, he graduated high school in 1978.
Right around the time of his high school graduation, Dahmer's parents decided to get a divorce. His mother moved out and took his brother with her. Three weeks after his graduation, Dahmer committed his first murder.
Dahmer's father was out of town on business, leaving Dahmer alone in the family home in Bath, Ohio.
At this point in his life, Dahmer had realized that he was a homosexual, and he longed to act on the violent desires that had been building in his mind since he was 14. Dahmer lured a hitchhiker named Stephen Hicks to his family home on the premise that he would give him beer to drink. It was Dahmer's hope that he would have sex with Hicks. However, when Hicks told Dahmer that he wished to leave, Dahmer bashed him in the head with a 10-pound dumbbell.
Dahmer committed sex acts with Hicks' corpse, then took it down to the house's crawl space. Once there, Dahmer dissected the body, crushed bones into powder, and dissolved some of the flesh with acid. He buried what remained of Hicks' body in the backyard.
Dahmer's Reign of Terror in the Army
Shortly after murdering Stephen Hicks, Jeffrey Dahmer enrolled at Ohio State University. However, Dahmer was drunk most of the time and dropped out after just one quarter of a semester. In an effort to get his son to get his life together, Dahmer's father forced him to join the military. He enlisted and became a combat medic stationed in West Germany.
For years, investigators believed that this was a dormant time in Dahmer's crime activities. That, however, was not the case. According to reports in 2010 by two soldiers, Jeffrey Dahmer tortured and raped them during his short stint in the army. One of the men, Preston Davis, said that Dahmer drugged and raped him in an armored vehicle. Davis was fortunately able to transfer away from Dahmer's base and was replaced by Billy Joe Capshaw. According to Capshaw, Dahmer's torture, abuse, and assault began almost immediately after he was assigned to be Dahmer's bunkmate.
For Capshaw, the rape was so brutal that he went to a dispensary for a rape kit. Nothing ever came of it. For 17 months, he was the subject of Dahmer's evil fantasies. Capshaw recounted that Dahmer would tie him to his bunk and either beat him before raping him, or rape him before beating him. That rape kit? 10 years later, Capshaw found out that both the kit and its results had been discarded by the Army. The Army knew what Dahmer was doing, but did nothing. The Army's tendency to sweep sexual assault in its ranks under the rug has been something that has come under fire in recent years. Both Preston Davis and Billy Joe Capshaw, now good friends, are victim advocates calling for change in the way the Army handles these cases. If Dahmer had been caught and disciplined for his actions in the Army, who knows how many lives might have been saved?
Murders in Milwaukee
Jeffrey Dahmer continued to be a heavy drinker during his time in the Army. As a result, he was found unfit for military service and HONORABLY discharged in 1981. As a civilian, Dahmer continued his sexually motivated crimes. He was arrested later in 1981 for disorderly conduct in Ohio, but was released. His father sent him back to Wisconsin to live with his grandparents, hoping that a change in scenery would help. It did not.
In 1982, Dahmer was arrested for indecent exposure. For this crime, he received probation. In 1986, he was arrested for masturbating in front of two young boys. Again, he received probation for this crime. The gap in arrests did not mean there was a gap in Dahmer's sexual violence. Between the years of 1982-1986, Dahmer was known to frequent homosexual bathhouses where he would drug and rape men. While these assaults were known to authorities, Dahmer was never charged for them.
Jeffrey Dahmer killed his second victim in September of 1987. One night, he met Steven Tuomi at a bar. The two went back to Dahmer's hotel room to drink. When Dahmer awoke the next morning, Tuomi was dead; Dahmer later claimed that he had no recollection of how he had killed Tuomi. Dahmer got a large suitcase and transported Tuomi's body to his grandmother's house. In the basement of the house, Dahmer committed sexual acts with the corpse, dismembered him, and disposed of the evidence.
In 1988, Jeffrey Dahmer killed two more individuals: Jamie Doxtator (age 14) and Richard Guerrero (age 25). After these murders, Dahmer's grandmother grew tired of his late nights and drunkenness (and the bad smell coming from the basement) and forced him to move out. In 1989, he killed Anthony Sears (age 26). In all of these instances, Dahmer drugged and raped his victims before killing them. He continued his practice of committing sexual acts with their dead bodies before dismembering and disposing of them.
Milwaukee Police Had Dahmer in Custody
During this time, Jeffrey Dahmer worked at the Ambrosia Chocolate Factory. In 1989, he was arrested for drugging and molesting a 13-year old boy while working there. Dahmer pled guilty to this charge, but stated that he had seen the error of his ways and needed counseling and other help in order to change his behavior. He was sentenced to five years probation and one year in a work-release camp. He was free to work during the day, but returned to the camp at night. He was released two months early for good behavior. He continued to meet regularly with his probation officer, but continued his murderous ways.
This was Dahmer's fourth arrest for a sexually motivated crime, and at least his second involving minors. Had he been given the jail sentence he deserved, 12 of his victims may still be alive.
Jeffrey Dahmer's Killing Spree
In May of 1990, Jeffrey Dahmer moved into an apartment in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That year saw Dahmer murder four more people. During this time, he became obsessed with the idea of passive sex. After drugging, raping, and then killing his victims, Dahmer would dismember and dissect his victims, pouring an assortment of chemicals into their skulls. Later, he said that he was trying to create a group of zombies with which he could have passive whenever he desired. He also started to keep certain body parts for display and some to eat.
1991 was the final year of Dahmer's killing spree, but it was also his deadliest. He killed eight individuals that year before being caught. As it was learned later, more than half of these men could have been saved.
One night, 14-year old Konerak Sinthasomphone was seen running naked and bleeding down the street on which Dahmer lived. Some women called the police who came to the scene at the same time Dahmer arrived. Dahmer told the officers that Sinthasomphone was his 19-year old lover. They had had a fight and Sinthasomphone was drunk, which is why he was running around naked and wildly. The police BELIEVED Dahmer and ESCORTED the 14-year old back to Dahmer's apartment. The officers noted that the apartment had a foul odor, but otherwise looked fine. They later joked with the dispatcher that they had successfully reunited a couple of lovers. Dahmer killed the young boy and mutilated his dead body. The officers were later fired.
Jeffrey Dahmer was finally arrested in July of 1991 when Tracy Edwards was able to escape Dahmer's attack. Edwards was stopped by police because he had handcuffs around his wrist, and they thought he had escaped some kind of police custody. Edwards told them about what Dahmer had tried to do to him and led them to Dahmer's apartment.
The Aftermath
Once inside Dahmer's apartment, police found various skulls and body parts stored in refrigerators. They also found chemicals, needles, and tools that Dahmer had used to drug and torture his victims. His mattress was noted to be stained with blood and other fluids, and he had various photographs and videos (some pornographic) throughout the apartment.
Jeffrey Dahmer was charged with 17 counts of murder, but that was eventually reduced to 15. He pled not guilty by reasons of insanity, but was convicted on all counts and sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences (937 years). In prison, he was at first kept away from the general prisoner population due to concerns for his safety. Eventually, though, he was allowed to have contact with other prisoners.
On November 28, 1994, Dahmer and two other prisoners, Jesse Anderson and Christopher Scarver, were left unattended by prison staff while they cleaned the prison gym. When the guards returned to the gym 20 minutes later, Dahmer and Anderson were on the ground bleeding with massive head wounds. Anderson was dead and Dahmer died on the way to the hospital.
For More Information
- https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/soldiers-sexual-abuse-and-serial-killer-us-military-s-secret-sexual-assaults-8679271.html
- https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/jeffrey-dahmer
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jeffrey-Dahmer
- https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cannibal-and-serial-killer-jeffrey-dahmer-is-caught
- https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/serial-killers/jeffrey-dahmer/
- https://murderpedia.org/male.D/d/dahmer-jeffrey.htm
- https://serialkillers-shootings-murders.tumblr.com/post/102627143932/lovelyloathsome-jeffrey-dahmer-was-not-a
- https://theseymourowl.com/6156/features/jeffrey-dahmer/
- https://the-line-up.com/jeffrey-dahmer-childhood
- https://scalar.usc.edu/works/serial-killers-in-film/jeffrey-dahmer
- https://www.thecrimemag.com/did-jeffrey-dahmer-rape-two-fellow-army-soldiers/
- https://allthatsinteresting.com/jeffrey-dahmer
- https://www.thoughtco.com/profile-of-serial-killer-jeffrey-dahmer-973116
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