Jeffrey Dahmer As One of The Most Known Serial Killers in History

“My consuming lust was to experience their bodies. I viewed them as objects, as strangers. It is hard for me to believe a human being could have done what i’ve done” (Jeffrey Dahmer, “These Bone Chilling Quotes From History’s Worst Serial Killers Will Keep You Awake At Night.”). Jeffrey Dahmer is one of the most well-known serial killers of all time. He is most known for the different “techniques” he used for his murders, and how he discarded the bodies. These different techniques are what set him aside from other serial killers. Jeffrey Dahmer was arguably the most notorious serial killer in history.

Jeffrey Dahmer was an American serial killer who took the lives of seventeen males. His murdering spree was between the years of 1978 and 1991. When he was arrested in 1991, he was the topic of news headlines for months. Dahmer is still considered one of the most notorious serial killers in history to this day (“Jeffrey Dahmer”). There has been many documentaries and movies based on the killings of Jeffrey Dahmer, the most recent being My Friend Dahmer. These documentaries go in great detail about how he would kill his victims, and what he would do with their bodies afterwards. Dahmer mainly sought out African Americans, and he kidnapped the majority of his victims at bars. He would convince his victims to go home with him with promises of money or sexual relations (Jenkins). He would then beat them to death, poison them, or strangle them. Dahmer would then dismember their bodies and take photos of them. He would store heads in his freezer, and would even engage in cannibalism (“Jeffrey Dahmer Biography”). Reporters claim that Dahmer’s cannibalistic and murderer characteristics were a result of his poor childhood.

Jeffrey Dahmer had a very poor childhood, and it affected the person he became. Jeffrey Dahmer was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on May 21, 1960. His parents are Lionel and Joyce Dahmer. He was described as an energetic and happy child until the age of 4, when he had surgery to correct a double hernia. He had felt very uncomfortable with strangers looking at his body, and the surgery seemed to cause a change in the boy. He became very distant from classmates and family. He also became increasingly withdrawn following the birth of his younger brother and the family’s frequent moves (“Jeffrey Dahmer Biography”). Jeffrey seemed to constantly annoy his mother, and it started to cause a crack in his parent’s relationship. As an attempt to fix his relationship, Lionel Dahmer moved his family to his mother’s house in West Allis. The move did not help, and Jeffrey’s parents would fight often. These fights affected Jeffrey deeply, as he took each fight to heart. Jeffrey’s parent even tried counseling to fix their relationship.

Sadly, this did not work and Lionel and Joyce got a divorce. Around the same time, Jeffrey began to have feelings of necrophilia. When Jeffrey was six years old, his mother gave birth to a baby boy, David. Jeffrey stayed distant from his brother, and never had a close relationship with him. After David was born, Jeffrey and his family moved to Ohio. In 1968, Jeffrey was sexually molested by his neighbor. This incident went unreported, but it played a pivotal role in the person he became (“Jeffrey Dahmer’s Childhood’).

After high school, many young adults think about pursuing a career and making better of their life; Jeffrey Dahmer was not a typical young adult. Once Jeffrey started high school, he became more disengaged than ever. He would often examine animal carcasses for entertainment. Also, Jeffrey began his heavy drinking during high school. Jeffrey would drink almost every night, simply because he had nothing else to do. His drinking problem lasted all throughout high school, but this did not stop him from graduating in 1978. Jeffrey had been planning to attend college later that year. He had been living alone in his family’s home, due to his parent’s divorce earlier that year. Living alone only made things worse for Jeffrey. It left him alone with his thoughts, and caused them to only get darker (“Jeffrey Dahmer”).

Only three weeks after Jeffrey graduated high school, he killed his first victim. His first murder took place in Bath Township, Ohio, which was also the place where he was sexually molested (Jenkins). Jeffrey picked up a hitchhiker, Steven Hicks, and took him back to Lionel Dahmer’s house to have some drinks. Dahmer hit Hicks in the head with a ten pound dumbell, killing him, when he decided to leave. Dahmer then dissected, pulverized, and dissolved Hicks’ body. To get rid of the remains, Dahmer scattered pieces of the body throughout his backyard. When Dahmer got arrested, he admitted to killing Hicks. He claimed that he only wanted Hicks to stay. Dahmer later dropped out of college, due to his alcoholism. He then enlisted into the Army, and served as a combat medic for three years. Jeffrey was discharged from the Army in 1981, and he moved back home to Ohio (“Jeffrey Dahmer”). Jeffrey did not commit a murder for another nine years, but after he started again, he did not stop.

As an adult, Jeffrey Dahmer became far more vicious and ruthless. After nine years of solitude, Jeffrey killed his second victim in September of 1987. Jeffrey had taken Steven Tuomi back to a hotel room, and the next morning Jeffrey woke up to his dead body. He claims that he does not remember killing Steven, and it must have been out of impulse (“Jeffrey Dahmer”). After Jeffrey killed Steven, his murdering spree began. Jeffrey killed seven more people within the next three years. During this period, he was also fired from his job at Ambrosia Chocolate Factory (Jenkins). While working one day, Jeffrey drugged and sexually fondled a thirteen year old boy. This resulted in Dahmer getting a five year probation sentence, one year at a work release camp, and required him to become a registered sex offender. He left the camp two months earlier, and moved into his own apartment in Milwaukee. This freedom allowed Jeffrey to murder four more people just that year, and eight more in the next year. Jeffrey’s most notorious killing spree started in May of 1991, when he began to kill people every week. He became obsessive with his victim’s bodies. Jeffrey would inject the bodies with poison, drill holes in the bodies, and decapitate heads and store them in his freezer. He also had many complaints from neighbors of strange smells and noises, but he was never investigated. This allowed him to keep his murdering spree alive, until July of 1991 (“Jeffrey Dahmer”). Jeffrey’s crimes ended on July 22, 1991, when Tracy Edwards escaped the wrath of Dahmer. Tracy Edwards was a thirty-two year old African American male who was drugged and restrained by Dahmer. When he escaped, two policemen picked him up and he explained what had happened to him. While the police searched Jeffrey’s home, they found body parts, polaroids, four heads in the freezer, and many jars of genitalia. Dahmer was then sent to prison for sixteen life sentences. In an interview, Jeffrey admitted to all seventeen of his murders. He claims to just wanting to be “close” with his victims, and that he eventually desensitized himself to it. While Jeffrey was in prison, he was extremely hated. He was hated so much that in 1994, cellmate Christopher Scarver bashed his head into the wall, killing Dahmer (“Jeffrey Dahmer Biography”). This was the end of Jeffrey Dahmer’s’ ruthless and vicious life.

Jeffrey Dahmer had always expressed characteristics of a murderer. Even in his childhood he had serial killer tendencies, such as necrophilia. Jeffrey was a very unique serial killer in the way that he handled his victims. He would kill and dispose of the bodies in a way that nobody else had even thought of. This uniqueness made him one of the most well known serial killers of all time. Besides being very well known, Jeffrey is also known as one of the most notorious serial killers in history.

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