1. Jeffrey Dahmer was convicted of fifteen of the sixteen homicides he had committed in Wisconsin and was sentenced to fifteen terms of life imprisonment on February 17,1992.
171 Facts About Jeffrey Dahmer
1. 2.
Jeffrey Dahmer was later sentenced to a sixteenth term of life imprisonment for an additional homicide committed in Ohio in 1978.
3.
On November 28,1994, Jeffrey Dahmer was beaten to death by Christopher Scarver, a fellow inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin.
4.
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was born on May 21,1960, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the first of two sons to Lionel Herbert Dahmer, a Marquette University chemistry student and later a research chemist, and Joyce Annette Dahmer, a teletype machine instructor.
5.
Some sources report Jeffrey Dahmer was deprived of attention as an infant.
6.
Jeffrey Dahmer had been an "energetic and happy child" but became notably subdued after undergoing double hernia surgery shortly before his fourth birthday.
7.
At elementary school, Jeffrey Dahmer was regarded as quiet and timid.
8.
In elementary school, Jeffrey Dahmer had a small number of friends.
9.
From an early age, Jeffrey Dahmer manifested an interest in dead animals.
10.
Jeffrey Dahmer occasionally searched beneath and around the family home for additional bones, and explored the bodies of live animals to discover where their bones were located.
11.
The home stood in one and a half acres of woodland, with a small hut a short walk from the house where Jeffrey Dahmer began collecting large insects and the skeletons of small animals, such as chipmunks and squirrels.
12.
Two years later, during a chicken dinner, Jeffrey Dahmer asked Lionel what would happen if the chicken bones were placed in bleach.
13.
In one instance in 1975, Jeffrey Dahmer decapitated the carcass of a dog before nailing the body to a tree and impaling the skull upon a stick in the woodland behind his house.
14.
From his freshman year at Revere High School, Jeffrey Dahmer was seen as an outcast.
15.
Jeffrey Dahmer was a competitive tennis player and played briefly in the high school band.
16.
When he reached puberty, Jeffrey Dahmer discovered he was gay; he did not tell his parents.
17.
On one occasion, Jeffrey Dahmer concealed himself in bushes with a baseball bat to lie in wait for this man.
18.
Jeffrey Dahmer later admitted this was his first attempt to attack and render an individual submissive to him.
19.
Jeffrey Dahmer was known to his high school peers as a class clown who often staged pranks, which became known as "Doing a Jeffrey Dahmer"; these included bleating and simulating epileptic seizures or cerebral palsy at school and local stores.
20.
Occasionally, Jeffrey Dahmer would perform these antics for money to purchase alcohol.
21.
Jeffrey Dahmer's parents hired a private tutor, with limited success.
22.
Jeffrey Dahmer had just turned 18 and remained in the family home.
23.
Jeffrey Dahmer committed his first murder in 1978, three weeks after his graduation.
24.
Jeffrey Dahmer lured Hicks to his house on the pretext of drinking.
25.
Jeffrey Dahmer later stated he struck Hicks twice from behind with the dumbbell as Hicks sat upon a chair.
26.
When Hicks fell unconscious, Jeffrey Dahmer strangled him to death with the bar of the dumbbell, then stripped the clothes from Hicks' body before exploring his chest with his hands, then masturbating as he stood above the corpse.
27.
Jeffrey Dahmer later buried the remains in a shallow grave in his back yard.
28.
Jeffrey Dahmer dissolved the flesh in acid before flushing the solution down the toilet; he crushed the bones with a sledgehammer and scattered them in the woodland behind the family home.
29.
Jeffrey Dahmer threw Hicks' necklace and the knife used to dismember him from the West Bath Road bridge into the Cuyahoga River.
30.
Jeffrey Dahmer received failing grades in Introduction to Anthropology, Classical Civilizations, and Administrative Science.
31.
In January 1979, on his father's urging, Jeffrey Dahmer enlisted in the United States Army.
32.
Jeffrey Dahmer underwent basic training at Fort McClellan in Anniston, Alabama, before training as a medical specialist at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas.
33.
Jeffrey Dahmer was occasionally reprimanded for intoxication while stationed at Fort Sam Houston.
34.
On July 13,1979, Jeffrey Dahmer was deployed to Baumholder, West Germany, where he served as a combat medic in the 2nd Battalion, 68th Armored Regiment, 8th Infantry Division.
35.
Jeffrey Dahmer received an honorable discharge, as his superiors did not believe that any problems Dahmer had in the Army would be applicable to civilian life.
36.
On March 24,1981, Jeffrey Dahmer was sent to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, for debriefing and provided with a plane ticket to travel anywhere in the country.
37.
Jeffrey Dahmer later told police he felt he could not return home to face his father, so he opted to travel to Miami Beach, Florida, both because he was "tired of the cold" and in an attempt to live by his own means.
38.
In Florida, Jeffrey Dahmer found a job at a delicatessen and rented a room in a nearby motel.
39.
Jeffrey Dahmer spent most of his salary on alcohol and was evicted from the motel for non-payment.
40.
Jeffrey Dahmer continued to drink heavily, and two weeks after his return, was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct.
41.
Jeffrey Dahmer was fined $60 and given a suspended 10-day jail sentence.
42.
Jeffrey Dahmer's father tried unsuccessfully to wean his son off alcohol.
43.
Jeffrey Dahmer held this job for a total of ten months before being laid off.
44.
Jeffrey Dahmer remained unemployed for over two years, during which he lived upon whatever money his grandmother gave him.
45.
Shortly before losing his job, Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested for indecent exposure.
46.
Shortly after he started this job, an incident occurred in which Jeffrey Dahmer was propositioned by another man while reading in the West Allis Public Library.
47.
The stranger threw Jeffrey Dahmer a note offering to perform fellatio upon him.
48.
Shortly after his bathhouse memberships were revoked, Jeffrey Dahmer read a report in a newspaper regarding the upcoming funeral of an 18-year-old male.
49.
Jeffrey Dahmer conceived the idea of stealing the freshly interred corpse and taking it home.
50.
On September 8,1986, Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested upon a charge of lewd and lascivious behavior for masturbating in the presence of two 12-year-old boys as he stood close to the Kinnickinnic River.
51.
Jeffrey Dahmer initially claimed he had merely been urinating, unaware that there were witnesses, but soon admitted the offense.
52.
The charge was changed to disorderly conduct and, on March 10,1987, Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to one year of probation, with additional instructions to undergo counseling.
53.
Jeffrey Dahmer later said he had no memory of having killed Tuomi, and that he "could not believe this had happened".
54.
Jeffrey Dahmer purchased a large suitcase, in which he transported Tuomi's body to his grandmother's residence.
55.
Jeffrey Dahmer wrapped the bones inside a sheet and pounded them into splinters with a sledgehammer.
56.
Jeffrey Dahmer disposed of all of Tuomi's remains, excluding the head, in the trash.
57.
For two weeks following Tuomi's killing, Jeffrey Dahmer retained Tuomi's head wrapped in a blanket.
58.
Jeffrey Dahmer began to actively seek victims, most of whom he encountered in or around gay bars and would typically lure them to his grandmother's home.
59.
Two months after the Tuomi killing, Jeffrey Dahmer encountered a 14-year-old Native American prostitute, James Doxtator.
60.
Jeffrey Dahmer lured him to his grandmother's residence with an offer of $50 to pose for nude pictures.
61.
Jeffrey Dahmer left the body in the cellar for one week before dismembering it in much the same manner as he had with Tuomi.
62.
Jeffrey Dahmer placed all of Doxtator's remains in the trash.
63.
The skull was boiled and cleansed in bleach before Jeffrey Dahmer found that it, too, had been rendered brittle by the process.
64.
On March 24,1988, Jeffrey Dahmer met a 22-year-old bisexual man, Richard Guerrero, outside a gay bar called the Phoenix.
65.
Jeffrey Dahmer lured Guerrero to his grandmother's residence, offering him $50 to spend the night with him.
66.
Jeffrey Dahmer dismembered Guerrero's body within 24 hours, again disposing of the remains in the trash and retaining the skull before pulverizing it several months later.
67.
In September 1988, Jeffrey Dahmer's grandmother asked him to move out, largely because of his drinking, his habit of bringing young men to her house late at night, and the foul smells emanating from the basement and the garage.
68.
Jeffrey Dahmer's father hired attorney Gerald Boyle to defend his son.
69.
At Boyle's request, Jeffrey Dahmer underwent a series of psychological evaluations prior to his court hearings.
70.
The evaluations found that Jeffrey Dahmer harbored deep feelings of alienation.
71.
Two months after his conviction and two months prior to his sentencing, Jeffrey Dahmer murdered his fifth victim, a 24-year-old mixed-race aspiring model, Anthony Sears, whom he met at a gay bar on March 25,1989.
72.
Jeffrey Dahmer stripped the flesh from the body and pulverized the bones, which he disposed of in the trash.
73.
On May 23,1989, Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to five years' probation and one year in the House of Correction, with work release permitted so he could keep his job.
74.
Two months before his scheduled release, Jeffrey Dahmer was paroled from this regimen.
75.
Jeffrey Dahmer temporarily moved back to his grandmother's home in West Allis.
76.
On May 14,1990, Jeffrey Dahmer moved out of his grandmother's house and into 924 North 25th Street, Apartment 213, taking Sears' mummified head and genitals with him.
77.
Jeffrey Dahmer boiled the legs, arms, and pelvis in a steel kettle with Soilax, which allowed him to rinse the bones in his sink.
78.
Jeffrey Dahmer later spray-painted Smith's skull, which he placed alongside the skull of Sears upon a black towel inside a filing cabinet.
79.
On this occasion, Jeffrey Dahmer accidentally consumed the drink laden with sedatives intended for his guest.
80.
In June 1990, Jeffrey Dahmer lured a 27-year-old acquaintance, Edward Smith, to his apartment, where he drugged and strangled him.
81.
On this occasion, rather than immediately acidifying the skeleton or repeating previous processes of bleaching, which had rendered previous victims' skulls brittle, Jeffrey Dahmer placed Smith's skeleton in his freezer for several months in the hope it would not retain moisture.
82.
Jeffrey Dahmer later informed police he had felt "rotten" about Smith's murder, as he had been unable to retain any parts of his body.
83.
Less than three months after the murder of Edward Smith, Jeffrey Dahmer encountered a 22-year-old Chicago native named Ernest Miller outside a bookstore on the corner of North 27th Street.
84.
On this occasion, Jeffrey Dahmer had only two sleeping pills to give his victim.
85.
Jeffrey Dahmer then posed the nude body for various suggestive Polaroid photographs before placing it in his bathtub for dismemberment.
86.
Jeffrey Dahmer repeatedly kissed and talked to the severed head while he dismembered the remainder of the body.
87.
Jeffrey Dahmer wrapped Miller's heart, liver, biceps, and portions of flesh from the legs in plastic bags and placed them in the freezer for later consumption.
88.
Jeffrey Dahmer boiled the remaining flesh and organs into a "jelly-like substance" using Soilax, which enabled him to rinse the flesh off the skeleton, which he intended to retain.
89.
Jeffrey Dahmer persuaded him to return to his apartment for a few drinks, with additional money on offer if he would pose for photographs.
90.
Jeffrey Dahmer photographed the dismemberment process and retained these photographs, which later aided in Thomas's identification.
91.
In February 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer observed a 17-year-old named Curtis Straughter standing at a bus stop near Marquette University.
92.
Jeffrey Dahmer drugged Straughter, cuffed his hands behind his back, then strangled him to death with a leather strap.
93.
Jeffrey Dahmer then dismembered Straughter, retaining his skull, hands, and genitals and photographing each stage of the dismemberment process.
94.
Jeffrey Dahmer lured Lindsey to his apartment where he drugged him, then drilled a hole in his skull through which he injected hydrochloric acid with a baster.
95.
Jeffrey Dahmer then flayed Lindsey's body, placing the skin in a solution of cold water and salt for several weeks in the hope of permanently retaining it.
96.
On May 24,1991, Jeffrey Dahmer encountered 31-year-old aspiring model Tony Hughes at a nightclub.
97.
Jeffrey Dahmer was lured to Dahmer's apartment with an offer of money to pose for photographs.
98.
Hughes was drugged into unconsciousness before Jeffrey Dahmer injected hydrochloric acid into his skull in an effort to disable his will and render him submissive, although on this occasion, the drilling and injection proved fatal.
99.
Unknown to Jeffrey Dahmer, Sinthasomphone was the younger brother of the boy he had molested in 1988.
100.
Jeffrey Dahmer offered Sinthasomphone money to accompany him to his apartment to pose for Polaroid pictures.
101.
On this occasion, Jeffrey Dahmer drilled a single narrow hole into the crown of Sinthasomphone's skull, through which he injected hydrochloric acid into the frontal lobe.
102.
Jeffrey Dahmer then drank several beers while lying alongside Sinthasomphone before briefly falling asleep, then leaving his apartment to drink at a bar and purchase more alcohol.
103.
Jeffrey Dahmer approached the women and told them that Sinthasomphone was his friend, and attempted to lead him to his apartment by the arm.
104.
Jeffrey Dahmer added his lover had consumed Jack Daniel's whiskey that evening.
105.
Inside his apartment and in an effort to verify his claim that he and Sinthasomphone were lovers, Jeffrey Dahmer showed the officers the two semi-nude Polaroid pictures he had taken of Sinthasomphone the previous evening.
106.
Jeffrey Dahmer stated that to investigate this odor, one officer simply "peeked his head around the bedroom, but really didn't take a good look".
107.
The officers then left, with a departing remark that Jeffrey Dahmer "take good care" of Sinthasomphone.
108.
Turner accepted Jeffrey Dahmer's offer to travel to Milwaukee for a professional photo shoot.
109.
At the apartment, Jeffrey Dahmer drugged, strangled and dismembered Turner and placed his head and internal organs in separate plastic bags in the freezer.
110.
Jeffrey Dahmer drugged Weinberger and twice injected boiling water through his skull, sending him into a coma from which he died two days later.
111.
On this occasion, Jeffrey Dahmer intended to prolong the time he spent with Lacy while alive.
112.
Jeffrey Dahmer placed Lacy's head and heart in the refrigerator and his skeleton in the freezer.
113.
Bradehoft was strangled and left lying on Jeffrey Dahmer's bed covered with a sheet for two days.
114.
Jeffrey Dahmer decapitated the body, cleaned the head and placed it in the refrigerator.
115.
Jeffrey Dahmer later acidified Bradehoft's torso, along with those of two other victims killed within the previous month.
116.
On July 22,1991, Jeffrey Dahmer approached three men with an offer of $100 to accompany him to his apartment to pose for nude photographs, drink beer and simply keep him company.
117.
Jeffrey Dahmer noted a blue 57-gallon drum in the corner, from which a strong odor emanated.
118.
Jeffrey Dahmer then brandished a knife and informed Edwards he intended to take nude pictures of him.
119.
Edwards observed Jeffrey Dahmer rocking back and forth and chanting before turning his attention back to him.
120.
Jeffrey Dahmer placed his head on Edwards' chest, listened to his heartbeat and, with the knife pressed against his intended victim, informed Edwards he intended to eat his heart.
121.
In continuous attempts to prevent Jeffrey Dahmer from attacking him, Edwards repeated that he was Jeffrey Dahmer's friend and that he was not going to run away.
122.
Jeffrey Dahmer consented, and the pair walked to the living room when Edwards exited the bathroom.
123.
Inside the living room, Edwards waited until he observed Jeffrey Dahmer have a momentary lapse of concentration before requesting to use the bathroom again.
124.
When Edwards rose from the couch, he noted Jeffrey Dahmer was not holding the handcuffs, whereupon Edwards punched him in the face, knocking Jeffrey Dahmer off balance, and ran out the front door.
125.
At this point, Edwards divulged to the officers that Jeffrey Dahmer had brandished a large knife upon him and that this had happened in the bedroom.
126.
Jeffrey Dahmer made no comment to this revelation, indicating to one of the officers, Mueller, that the key to the handcuffs was in his bedside dresser.
127.
When Jeffrey Dahmer saw that Mueller was holding several of his Polaroids, he fought with the officers in an effort to resist arrest.
128.
Jeffrey Dahmer waived his right to have a lawyer present throughout his interrogations, adding he wished to confess all as he had "created this horror and it only makes sense I do everything to put an end to it".
129.
Jeffrey Dahmer confessed to having consumed the hearts, liver, biceps, and portions of thigh of three victims he had killed at the Oxford Apartments, and to have retained the flesh and organs of other victims for intended consumption.
130.
Typically, Jeffrey Dahmer would tenderize the body parts he intended to consume prior to preparing meals flavored with various condiments.
131.
Incense sticks were to be placed at each end of the black table, above which Jeffrey Dahmer intended to place a large blue lamp with extending blue globe lights.
132.
The entire construction was to be placed before a window covered with a black, opaque shower curtain, in front of which Jeffrey Dahmer intended to sit in a black leather chair.
133.
On July 25,1991, Jeffrey Dahmer was charged with four counts of first-degree murder.
134.
Three days later, Jeffrey Dahmer was charged by authorities in Ohio with Hicks' murder.
135.
Jeffrey Dahmer was not charged with the attempted murder of Edwards, nor with the murder of Tuomi.
136.
Jeffrey Dahmer was not charged with Tuomi's murder because the district attorney only brought charges where murder could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt and Dahmer had no memory of actually committing this particular murder, for which no physical evidence of the crime existed.
137.
At a scheduled preliminary hearing on January 13,1992, Jeffrey Dahmer pleaded guilty but insane to 15 counts of murder.
138.
Jeffrey Dahmer was tried in Milwaukee for the 15 counts of first-degree murder before Judge Laurence Gram.
139.
Attorneys at Jeffrey Dahmer's trial debated whether he suffered from either a mental or a personality disorder.
140.
The defense argued that Jeffrey Dahmer suffered from a mental disease and was driven by obsessions and impulses he was unable to control.
141.
Defense expert Fred Berlin testified that Jeffrey Dahmer was unable to conform his conduct at the time that he committed the crimes due to his paraphilia or, more specifically, necrophilia.
142.
Fosdal testified to his belief that Jeffrey Dahmer was without mental disease or defect at the time he committed the murders.
143.
Jeffrey Dahmer described Dahmer as a calculating and cunning individual, able to differentiate between right and wrong, with the ability to control his actions, and whose lust overpowered his morals.
144.
Jeffrey Dahmer only has to drink alcohol to overcome it because he is inhibited against killing.
145.
Dietz noted that Jeffrey Dahmer strongly identified with the villains of The Exorcist III and Return of the Jedi, particularly the level of power held by these characters.
146.
Jeffrey Dahmer killed those men because he wanted to kill the source of his homosexual attraction to them.
147.
Friedman testified that it was a longing for companionship that caused Jeffrey Dahmer to kill and testified that Jeffrey Dahmer was not psychotic.
148.
Jeffrey Dahmer was, and still is, a bright young man.
149.
McCann argued that by pleading guilty but insane to the charges, Jeffrey Dahmer was seeking to escape responsibility for his crimes.
150.
On this date, Jeffrey Dahmer's attorney announced his client wished to address the court.
151.
Jeffrey Dahmer then approached a lectern and read from a statement prepared by himself and his defense as he faced the judge.
152.
Jeffrey Dahmer further stressed that none of his murders had been motivated by hatred, that he understood that nothing he either said or did could "undo the terrible harm" he had caused to the families of his victims and the city of Milwaukee, and that he and his doctors believed his criminal behavior had been motivated by mental disorders.
153.
Jeffrey Dahmer added that this medical knowledge had given him "some peace", and that although he understood that society would never forgive him, he hoped God would.
154.
Jeffrey Dahmer was then sentenced to life imprisonment plus ten years upon the first two counts.
155.
Three months after his conviction in Milwaukee, Jeffrey Dahmer was extradited to Ohio to be tried for the murder of his first victim, Steven Hicks.
156.
Jeffrey Dahmer received ample correspondence from individuals across the world, with several individuals donating money which he spent on items such as cassette recordings, stationery, cigarettes, and magazines.
157.
Shortly after completing his lengthy confessions in 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer had requested to Detective Murphy that he be given a copy of the Bible.
158.
In May 1994, Jeffrey Dahmer was baptized by Roy Ratcliff, a minister in the Church of Christ and a graduate of Oklahoma Christian University whom he had met on April 20.
159.
Jeffrey Dahmer received superficial wounds and was not seriously hurt in this incident.
160.
Jeffrey Dahmer's head had been repeatedly struck against the wall in the assault.
161.
Jeffrey Dahmer had stated in his will that he wished for no services to be conducted and that he wished to be cremated.
162.
In September 1995, Jeffrey Dahmer's body was cremated, and his ashes divided between his parents.
163.
Jeffrey Dahmer's murders were committed at a time of heightened racial tension in Milwaukee.
164.
Many in the city's gay community were nervous of the intentions of others after the extent of Jeffrey Dahmer's murders became known, although the fear and distrust generated by Jeffrey Dahmer's crimes was short-lived.
165.
The Oxford Apartments at 924 North 25th Street, where Jeffrey Dahmer had killed twelve of his victims, were demolished in November 1992.
166.
Jeffrey Dahmer's estate was awarded to the families of eleven of his victims who had sued for damages.
167.
Lionel Jeffrey Dahmer lived with his second wife, Shari, until her death in January 2023.
168.
Jeffrey Dahmer died of natural causes on December 5,2023.
169.
Jeffrey Dahmer killed seventeen young men between 1978 and 1991.
170.
Jeffrey Dahmer was adamant that the race of his victims was incidental to him and that it was the body form of a potential victim that attracted his attention.
171.
Four of Jeffrey Dahmer's victims killed in 1991 had holes bored into their skulls through which Jeffrey Dahmer injected hydrochloric acid or, later, boiling water, into their frontal lobes in an attempt to induce a permanent, submissive, unresistant state.