Jeffrey Dahmer was born into a normal family and grew up without any problems. Yet during his adolescence he started to behave more and more strangely; he was 18 when he committed his first murder. He would become one of the most vicious serial killers.
- His younger years
- The first murder
- At grandmother’s house
- Apartment 213
- Arrest
- Conviction and death
His younger years
Jeffrey Dahmer was born in Wisconsin on May 21, 1960. At the time he was an only child; seven years later he had a little brother, David. A year later the family moved to Ohio. There is nothing to indicate that Jeffrey had a bad childhood, but despite that he started behaving strangely. From the age of 10, he became increasingly withdrawn and sought less contact with others. He also lost all interest in hobbies or friendships. He started dissecting dead animals he found nearby, and once put a dog’s head on a pole. He also started drinking at a young age and would later become addicted to this.
The first murder
His parents divorced in 1977. That same year, Dahmer went to college, but after one semester he dropped out. He lived with his father at that time. Things went wrong in the summer of ’78. Jeffrey stopped in front of a hitchhiking man, Steven Hicks. He suggested having a beer at his father’s house, who was not present at the time. When Hicks wanted to leave later that evening, Dahmer grabbed a dumbbell and bashed the man’s head in with it. He buried the body in the backyard. It is not entirely clear what made Jeffrey take that step. He was probably driven by a combination of homosexual and sadistic desires.
He was constantly drunk, and his father forced him to sign up for the army. He must have hoped that discipline would set his son on the right path. Unfortunately, this was to no avail: after two years, Dahm was fired due to his alcohol addiction. He decided not to return to his father for fear of disapproval, and settled in Florida. Here too, his alcoholism continued to be a problem, and when he returned home in 1981 he was soon arrested for public intoxication.
At grandmother’s house
In 1982, Dahmer moved to his grandmother. Here his behavior slowly but surely became more and more abnormal. He hid a gun under his bed, and he stole a male mannequin from a store. He was arrested twice for lewd conduct and served 10 months in prison. In 1987 things went wrong for the second time. While still on probation, Dahmer murdered Steven Tuomi, 26. In 1988 and ’89 he killed again; he had sex with all the victims before killing them. He preserved the skull of the 1989 victim, Anthony Sears.
Apartment 213
Dahmer decided to leave his grandmother. It was becoming increasingly difficult for him to hide his behavior and his grandmother wanted him out of the house. Moreover, he was working in a factory at the time, so he had the money to move. He chose apartment 213, in Milwaukee. This apartment would become infamous. The frequency of the murders increased: in 1990 he claimed four victims. He claimed three more victims in early 1991, but was almost discovered with his fourth victim that year.
14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone was seen by two women on the street early in the morning of May 27. He was naked, under the influence of drugs, and bleeding from his anus. The women immediately called 911. Jeffrey Dahmer came after the boy, but the women did not trust it and stayed with Konerak. However, when police arrived they believed Dahmer’s story that Konerak was his 19-year-old boyfriend and that they had had an argument. Against the women’s advice, they brought the boy back to Dahmer’s apartment. The officers did not check Konerak’s age and did not know that Dahmer had been convicted of sexual abuse. They smelled something strange in his apartment, but they didn’t do anything about it either. Konerak was murdered and dismembered later that evening. Dahmer kept his skull.
Hi with that, this 14 year old boy is without a doubt the most tragic victim of this serial killer.
Arrest
The frequency of Jeffrey’s murders continued to increase. In July he claimed one victim per week. But one of those victims managed to survive. On July 22, Dahmer brought a man, Tracy Edwards, to his home. He tried to handcuff him but failed. Using a butcher knife, Dahmer forced the man into the bedroom. However, Edwards saw pictures of dead bodies on the wall, as well as a large barrel with a huge stench coming from it. He managed to overpower Dahmer and escaped.
He stopped an officer on the street who accompanied him to the apartment. Shortly afterwards he called for reinforcements and Dahmer was arrested. When his apartment was searched, the officers got the fright of their lives. They found a head in the refrigerator, a human heart in the freezer. In other places in the house there were three more heads and other severed body parts. This along with numerous photos of the bodies and severed body parts of the victims. The barrel turned out to be filled with acid containing a corpse. Suspicions soon arose that Dahmer was a cannibal and necrophiliac.
Conviction and death
In January 1992, the trial against Jeffrey Dahmer began. He claimed insanity, but the court did not agree. After just two weeks he was sentenced to 15 life terms, once for each victim. This amounted to 957 years in prison. While in prison, Dahmer was attacked twice by fellow inmates. The first time he survived, the second time he did not. He died on the way to the hospital from serious head injuries caused by blows with a broomstick. Jeffrey Dahmer died on November 28, 1994.