Jeffrey Dahmer

Profiling Psychopathology Dr. Kline FSU-PC

Jeffrey Dahmer-early years

Jeffrey Dahmer had a fairly normal childhood living with his parents in the Mid-West. Dahmer, an attractive, shy kid, did okay in school, and kept to himself. None of the folks that knew him would have thought him capable of the horrors he committed against young males.

Dahmer-teens & young adulthood

During Dahmers adolescence, his parents went through an acrimonious divorce. It was during this time that Dahmer killed his first victim, a hitch-hiker named Stephen Hicks. He didnt kill another person until 9 years later.

After graduating from high school, Dahmer went to college briefly before dropping out. Feeling a lack of direction, Dahmer joined the Army, but was thrown out for being a drunk.
Jeff, in need of money & direction, got a job in a chocolate factory in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Dahmer is arrested & convicted for child molestation

Dahmer was convicted of child molestation in 1989. He received probation & went on with his life. When this occurred, Lionel Dahmer, Jeffs father, wrote, I could not imagine how he had become such a ruined soul. For the first time, I no longer believed that my efforts and resources alone would be enough to save my son. There was something missing in Jeff. We call it a conscience. That had either died or had never been alive in the first place.

Dahmers Modus Operandi

Dahmer frequented gay bars to pick up his victims, young gay or bisexual males who were predominantly African American, Asian, or Hispanic. Dahmer offered his victims money to pose for pictures or he just invited them to come back to his apartment to watch videos or to drink. He drugged his victims by lacing their drinks & once they were asleep, he would either strangle them or stab them to death. Following this, Dahmer usually dismembered them with a hacksaw.

Dahmers MO (contd.)

A. Victims bodies Dahmer kept the victims heads and genitalia as trophies. He froze these body parts.

Dahmer also froze the victims biceps and other muscles which he would later eat. The rest of the body was boiled down using chemicals & acids, which were disposed of via the drain.

Dahmers MO (contd.)
B. Dahmers experiments Sometimes Dahmer wouldnt kill the victims outright. Instead, he would perform experiments on his drugged alive victims.

He lobotomized a number of his victims. Most died immediately. However, he claimed that 1 victim lived, following an experiment, where Dahmer drilled a whole into the victims skull & poured muriatic acid into it. Dahmer argued the man was turned into a zombie & lived for several days.

Dahmers MO (contd.)

C. Rituals Dahmer believed in the occult & planned to create a shrine to an evil force he thought influenced him.
Dahmer used his skulls, other human trophies, & a statue of a griffin that he owned. He thought the shrine would give him special powers & energies to help him socially & financially.

Dahmers Victims

Over 17 young men were killed by Jeffrey Dahmer.

Dahmer killed from 1978 to 1991 when he was finally caught.

The Victims
Stephen Hicks Jun 1978 Matt Turner- 6/91 Steven Toumi- Sep. 1987 Jeremiah Weinberger-7/91 Jamie Doxtator Oct. 1987 Oliver Lacy- 7/91 Richard Guerrero- March 1988 Joseph Bradeholt- 7/91 Anthony Sears Feb. 1989 Eddie Smith- June 1990 Ricky Beeks- July 1990 Ernest Miller- Sep. 1990 David Thomas Sep. 1990 Curtis Straughter, Feb. 1991 Errol Lindsey- April 1991 Tony Hughes- May 1991 Konerak Sinthasomphone- May 1991

A Fatal Mistake made by the police

The morning of May 27th, 1991, a 14 year-old Asian male, Konerak Sinthasomphone, was found running naked & speaking incoherently (as he was drugged) in the streets of a suburb of Milwaukee. Two African American women found Konerak & called the police for help. The women were approached by a tall Caucasian male who told them that Konerak was his 19 year-old lover. The man argued that he & Konerak had simply had a fight & that he wanted the young male to go back with him to his apartment.

Dahmer escapes
When the police arrived they believed the Caucasian male over the African American women. The police agreed to escort the teenager back to the mans apartment and left them. Shortly after the police left Dahmer, he strangled Konerak, sexually abused his lifeless body, & dismembered him.

As the police didnt do a routine check on Dahmer, they missed the fact that he was a known child molester on probation.

The police finally catch Dahmer

In July 1991, police spotted a young African American male stumbling along the street with a single handcuff on his wrist. The man, Tracy Edwards (32 years-old), told police he was invited back to the home of a strange man to watch videos. He became sleepy after a couple of drinks & was handcuffed & threatened by the man with a knife.

Edwards, managed to punch the man, and escaped his apartment. The officers asked the man to escort him back to the apartment.

The Chamber of horrors!

Dahmer opened the door when police arrived. He said he had lost his job at the chocolate factory & his temper after getting drunk. He offered to get the key to unlock the handcuff from Edwards. While the police followed Dahmer into his bedroom, they saw many polaroid photos of dismembered bodies & skulls in the refrigerator.

The refrigerator

The police officer walked into the kitchen & opened Dahmers frig. He saw a human head on the refrigerator shelf staring blankly at him. The officer screamed to his partner, Theres a goddam head in here. Dahmer then tried to escape, but was wrestled to the ground as the police handcuffed him. Terry Edwards, was overcome by terror as he realized Dahmers threats to cut out his heart & to consume it werent just a sick joke.

Dahmers Apartment

Contents of human remains & torture: Four heads (3 in freezer) Several pairs of hands Male genitalia in formaldehyde Human steaks in the freezer Two boiled & fleshless skulls in the bedroom closet. Hundreds of photos of victims (before & after death, many showed dismemberment).

Dahmers plea

July 13th, 1992- Dahmer pled guilty by reason of insanity. After a short trial, the jury found Dahmer guilty, but sane. He was sentenced to serve 15 life terms-957 years in prison. Dahmer was murdered (bludgeoed) two years later by another inmate, Christopher Scarver, a 25 year-old African American man who suffered from schizophrenia and messianic delusions.

Milwaukee tries to atone for Dahmers murders

The city of Milwaukee raised over $400,000 to buy Dahmers possessions (photos of his victims, murder weapons, & the refrigerator) in 1996.
Many in the city feared that these items could be acquired by others to create a Dahmer museum.

To provide some closure for the families of the victims, the contents of Dahmers killings were burned.