Jeffrey Dahmer: Introduction

On May 21st, 1960 at 4:34 pm in a Milwaukee hospital, when Lionel and Joyce Dahmer looked for the first time at their son Jeffrey, they were far from suspecting that he would one day be one of the most mediatized persons in history in his category: serial killer.

Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer, also nicknamed "the Cannibal" or « the Monster of Milwaukee », spent most of his life battling his morbid fantasies. But at the end, it is those impulses that will win, guiding him on a path of cold blood killings in order to satisfy his own sexual needs.

17 young men aged 14 to 17 were killed in this rampage. But the horror only got discovered when Tracy Edwards, another young man Jeffrey Dahmer brought to his apartment, succeeded to run away on July, 22^nd 1991. It is then that America and the whole world heard for the first time the shocking story: human remains, men skeletons, a heart, human skin, a blue barrel (used to make the bodies disappear by dissolving them in acid), pictures taken at various stages of dismemberment… the list of parts of human bodies recovered at 213, Oxford Apartments revealed a morbid story. Even 20 years later, many people still try to understand how it came to that.

Apparently full of remorse, Jeffrey Dahmer would help the police to identify the victims, would accept being interviewed by psychiatrists. FBI profilers, by any person who would be able to answer a question he asked himself: why?

Many years before Jeffrey Dahmer’s crimes, the FBI developed techniques to create profiles on the psychology and character of serial killers. But Jeffrey Dahmer was nothing like the serial killers the FBI had encountered until then. Through a detailed analysis of statistics of serial killers, they noticed that many serial killers had similar backgrounds: coming from economically and socially unstable families, childhood abuse, the Mc Donald Triad (fascination for fire, late bed wetting and cruelty against animals). Neither of these elements defines Jeffrey Dahmer: he was raised in a comfortable environment (his parents had good and stable jobs, and never abused any of their children), he was never interested with fire or cruelty towards animals (even though he liked dismembering animals, he used only road kills that were already dead), and didn't have any bed wetting problems. It is thus important to understand how Jeffrey Dahmer went from being a smiling and playful child to a introvert teenager fascinated by dismemberment, to finally become a serial killer with a very elaborate fantasy.

Jeffrey Dahmer: Biography

A normal childhood

Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was born on May 21st, 1960 in Milwaukee. He was like any other child, smiling, loving, extroverted, and curious, with a great fascination for animals. He will develop bonds with his neighbor as well as the dog his parents bought. His parents adored him and were proud of him.

But his mother, Joyce, had a hard time during the pregnancy, which had repercussions on her behavior. She suffered from depression, and had terrible mood swings. Even though the couple moved to live with Lionel Dahmer’s mother, they suffered from these mood swings and argued often.

Just before his 4^th birthday, Jeffrey suffered from a double hernia. This surgery left him with a strange feeling that his was left exposed. His was very scared of this intervention, to know that strangers would go and explore his body. He didn't understand, and nobody felt necessary to give him an explanation. After this, he became more reserved, shy, but only for a short period.

Meanwhile, he discovered remains of small rodents under the house. Very soon he would develop a particular interest in these remains.

As he was 6 years old, his mother Joyce gave birth to his little brother, David. Jeffrey would later pretend that this event didn’t affect him, and that the two brothers were never close. But Joyce and Lionel did spend a lot of time with David. Furthermore, Lionel worked very long hours in his laboratory. He spend Jeffrey’s first years moving for his work and his studies, putting these first in his priorities, before his family. But at David’s birth, Lionel had finished his studies, and they moved in their own house in Bath, Ohio. This house was surrounded by woods where Jeffrey could disappear and create his own imaginary world.

 The first transformation

Even if at the start his childhood seemed normal, the end of it, and his teenager years did not go that well. He became more and more reserved and socially awkward. The feelings of isolation he had during his surgery would be once and for all permanent.

It is also during this time that he would discover he was homosexual and had his first experience with one of his neighbors. Later on he would qualify this experience (kissing and caresses) as negative, disappointing and lacking pleasure. Furthermore, considering the time period, it was very difficult for him to feel self actualized through the discovery of his homosexuality. Society was condemning it and he had nobody he could talk to about it. He would be more and more to himself and would increasingly keep his life more secretive.

« In the township where I was at, homosexuality was the ultimate taboo. It was never discussed, never. I had desires to be with someone, but never met anyone that was gay, that I know of. So that was sexually frustrating. » Jeffrey Dahmer

From then on, according to his father Lionel, he would also develop a strong inferiority complex. As he was 10 years old, his mother had to be treated for serious anxiety problems, which would be the downfall of Lionel and Joyce’s relationship.

 Birth of the fantasy

During his teenager years, his fascination for animals would change, becoming more and more interested and curious as to how they looked like on the inside. Thus he began to collect road kills and to dismember them in the back of their house.

As he was 15/16 years old, he would also develop thoughts becoming progressively obsessions mixing sex with violence. His fantasy started as laying down next to the unconscious body of another man.

He would later describe an episode where three of his classmates attacked him without reason, just because he was in their way. This happened when at the same time the relationship between his parents went downhill. When they would argue and fight, Jeffrey would find shelter in the woods where he would hit the trees with a stick.

In high school, he was considered as a strange boy, having no friends, but who was seeking attention by playing the clown. He had the reputation to play pranks, which gave birth to the expression “doing the Dahmer”. The biggest prank had been when he managed to persuade the authorities to give him a tour of the Vice President of the United States of America’s office at the White House (usually closed to the public) during a school trip.

But his fantasies will become more and more powerful, and Jeffrey would start drinking to try to escape them. The alcohol only contributed in pushing him even further aside from society, his classmates being aware of his drinking and mocking him.

At age 16, he will act on his fantasy for the first time. He noticed a jogger who used to take the same path every day. One day, he decided to wait for him with a baseball bat to knock him unconscious and lay next to the inanimate body, but that day, the jogger did not show up. Jeffrey would not go back to that spot to wait for his victim.

 The first kill

Jeffrey graduated High School in Bath, Ohio, in 1976. But his parents were arguing more and more, to end up in a divorce as Jeffrey was almost 18 years old. This was the beginning of a long battle for the custody of his little brother David. When the divorce was pronounced, in 1978, Lionel leaves the family house to move in a motel a few kilometers away. Sometime later, and without saying anything to her ex husband, Joyce decides to move to Wisconsin with David, leaving Jeffrey alone in the house. Once alone, Jeffrey will have all the freedom he needs to give reality to his fantasy.

During the two years before he met Stephen Hicks, Jeffrey had the fantasy to meet a handsome hitchhiker and to take sexual pleasure from him. This fantasy became reality the week Jeffrey was left at home alone.

He was driving back home when he noticed an attractive young man hitchhiking on the side of the road. He stopped and asked him if he was interested to come back with him for a beer and pot. Stephen Hicks accepts. Once in Jeffrey’s room, they drank beers, but Jeffrey quickly realized that Stephen Hicks was not gay. Suddenly, Stephen Hicks decided he wanted to go home, but Jeffrey didn't want him to leave. Panicked, not knowing how he could make him stay, he hit Stephen Hicks on the head then strangled him.

He got scared by what he just had done. He paced for a while, and, while staring at the body, started masturbating. He was sexually aroused by captivity, by knowing he was dominating his victim.

The next day, he had to find a way to get rid of the evidence. He bought a hunting knife, and the next night, opened Stephen Hicks’ abdomen. Aroused by his internal organs, he masturbates again. Finally, he dismembers his victim, bags the body parts in garbage bags, and drops the bags in the car trunk to dispose of them at the municipal landfill. But while he was driving, he got pulled over by a police car. After fining Jeffrey for driving too much on the left, the police let him drive away. Jeffrey decides then to drive back home and change strategy.

He took Stephen Hicks’ head, cleaned it and laid it down on the floor of the bathroom, masturbated again. Then let the body decompose during two and a half years. As he came back from Miami and the army, he picked up the bones, crushed them and scattered them in the woods.

 Enrolling in the army

After his murder, Jeffrey feels very bad about what he had done. He has remorse, but his fantasy continues to haunt him. He will then sink himself into alcohol. He will be arrested several times for behaviors and noise nuisance under drunken state. Lionel, his father, tries to help him, and takes him to AA meetings, to meetings with psychologists. He will even register his son to Ohio State University. But Jeffrey won’t show much interest for studies, and spends his time drinking. He will be dismissed after the first semester.

Lionel decided then that the only way for his son to go back to a normal life was to enroll him in the army. As for every decision his father made for him, Jeffrey accepted passively his enrolling in the army professionally. Starting his new career in December 1978, he was trained as a doctor, where he learned a lot about human anatomy. He was then transferred to a division based in Germany.

Even though he showed a great interest in his job, he continued drinking, what put him in a lot of trouble. He was asked to go to counsel therapy. This going nowhere, he is then asked to enter a program for alcoholic rehabilitation. But Jeffrey refuses the treatment and stated he had no desire to control his alcohol problem.

Therefore he was transferred to Fort Jackson, USA, on March 24, 1981 and would be discharged from the army on March 26 of the same year.

 After the army

A short time after being discharged, Jeffrey decided that instead of going back to his parents, to settle down in Miami, as he was tired of the cold. He found a part time job as versatile worker. But the money was not enough, as he continued to drink. He ended up quickly without a place to live, and was later forced to move back in with his parents in Ohio, what he did in September 1981. Three month later, after having been arrested again for driving while being intoxicated, he moved out from his father’s house to move in with his grandmother in West Allis, Wisconsin.

 West Allis

For a few months, life becomes quieter, until he pulled down his pants in front a group of people in 1982.

He then managed to keep his behavior under control for almost four years. He stopped drinking, went to church with his grandmother, tried to fight the best he could what he thought were immoral homosexual impulses, until he got arrested again in 1986 for masturbating in front of two young men. He would then be on probation for a year.

After four years of success repressing his fantasy, Jeffrey went to the public library. A man came to him to give him a note where he proposed some favors to Jeffrey. Jeffrey refused the offer, but it became a turning point in his life: this event would awaken his sexual fantasy again. He started drinking again, and his fantasy became stronger every day.

He started by stealing a mannequin in a store. He looked for a means to satisfy his fantasy without hurting anyone. But the mannequin was not very fulfilling.

One day, as he was going through the newspaper, he saw the obituary for the death of a 18 year old man. He went to the morgue, saw the body, and discovered that the young man was very attractive. He became so aroused that he ran to the toilet to masturbate. He then decided to take the body back to his home, but as he tried to dig into the ground, realized that the ground was too hard. He abandoned the project.

He started going to gay saunas (place where gay people go to have anonymous sexual encounters), where he would start experimenting. Indeed, most of the men he met there would practice sodomy, and Jeffrey did not like it much. He wanted to find a way to spend a night next to a man, play with him, without having to practice sodomy. He would then try drugging his partners, mixing sleeping pills with their drinks. As they were lying unconscious, Jeffrey would lay down next to them, listening to the sounds of their bodies, their stomach, to their heartbeats. But one day, one of his partners did not tolerate the mix and had to be hospitalized for a whole week. Jeffrey was then banned from the establishment.

At the same time, he discovers gay bars and discos. One evening, he meets a young man in front of one of these discos, and invites him to spend the night at a hotel. This young man’s name was Steven Tuomi. Jeffrey did not remember anything until he woke up the next morning with Steven lying next to him, dead. Horrified by the scene, even more because he booked the room under his name, he decided to go and buy a suitcase, brought it back to the room, and placed the body of the victim.

Once back to his grandmother’s house, he waited patiently for her to go to church to take care of the body. He took his hunting knife, opened Steven Tuomi’s body, masturbated, quartered the body and placed the meat in trash bags. He wrapped the skeleton in old sheets and crushed it with a hammer. All the bags would be taken on the next Monday morning with the rest of the trash. But still he kept the skull that he diluted in bleach to clean it. It didn't work out the way he expected, so he got rid of it.

After this incident, « my moral compass was so out of whack, and the desire, the compulsion, was so strong, that I just continued with that mode » Jeffrey Dahmer

He will, from then on, let go of his impulses, and attract, drug, rape, kill, dismember, two young men: Jamie Doxtator and Richard Guerrero.

During the Summer of 1988, his grandmother asked him to leave her house : she could not stand the stench coming from the basement anymore, as well the late hours Jeffrey would come back home and the fact that he started drinking again.

 North 24th Street

On September 25, 1988, Jeffrey moved into an apartment in North 24th Street in Milwaukee. The very next day, he would already find himself in a dangerous situation.

He offered 50 USD to a young Laotian boy to pose in front of the camera for him. He brought him back to his place, drugged him, but did not perform any violence or sexual act on him. The young man managed to escape and go back home. His parents went immediately to the police and filed a complaint. The police arrested Jeffrey on the count of second degree rape.

The trial took place on January 30^th, 1989, where he pleaded guilty. The Assistant of the District Attorney, Gale Shelton, required 5 years prison, and declared during the trial:

« In my judgment it is absolutely crystal clear that the prognosis for treatment of M. Dahmer within the community is extremely bleak… His perception that what he did wrong here was choosing too young a victim, - and that’s all he did wrong – is part of the problem… he appeared to be cooperative and receptive, but anything that goes below the surface indicates that the deep-seated anger and deep-seated psychological problems that he is unwilling or incapable of dealing with. »

Three psychologists examined him, and their conclusions converged in the sense that Jeffrey was a manipulator, resistant and evasive. They all recommended a hospitalization with intense treatment.

Jeffrey had to wait March for the sentence, and until then, he can walk free. This enabled him to meet Anthony Sears, who would be his 5^th victim.

He was sentenced to one year in prison (but would still be able to leave it during the day to go to work) with five years of parole. After only ten months, and despite a letter sent by Jeffrey’s father, the judge reduced his sentence and let him out of prison. Lionel asked the judge in his letter the request for intensive treatment to be respected. « I sincerely hope that you might intervene in some way to help my son, who I love very much and for whom I want a better life… this may be our last chance to institute something lasting. » Lionel Dahmer

But it was too late, as Jeffrey was already out of prison and back to live temporarily with his grandmother.

 Oxford Apartments: Highway to hell

On May 24th 1990, Jeffrey moved in 924 North 25th Street, apartment 213, and started his harvest of bodies. Within the next 15 months, he engaged in a rampage that would cost the lives of twelve young men. This madness grew even worse between may and July 1991, when he lost his job at the chocolate factory.

He would then spend all his time and money finding new victims, buying new equipment to make it easier to get rid of their bodies. The only moment he had pleasure was during sex, that would unfortunately implicate murder.

 The end: arrest and trial

On July 22nd 1991, Jeffrey attracted a new victim to his apartment. His name is Tracy Edwards. After attempting in vain drugging Tracy Edwards, he handcuffed him and threatened him with his hunter knife. Jeffrey forced him to go to the bedroom, where Tracy saw the pictures of the dismembered bodies hanging on the wall, and realized the horrible stench emanating from a blue barrel.

It took Edwards only a moment where Jeffrey lost focus to punch him in the face, kick him in the stomach, and run for freedom. He stopped a police patrol and the officers, accompanying him back to the apartment 213, discovered the horrors.

The trial began. The objective of the trial was not to prove Jeffrey Dahmer’s culpability, first because the evidence was speaking for itself, and second because he already pleaded guilty. Nevertheless, three main questions had to be answered:

-          Was he sane?

-          If yes, was he able to understand that what he did was wrong?

-          Was he able to act in respect of the law?

Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced on 15 accounts to 957 years in prison. He expressed remorse, and apologized to the families.

He died on November 28, 1994 at the Colombia Prison in Portage, Wisconsin, beaten to death by a fellow inmate, Christopher Scarver.

Jeffrey Dahmer: Victimology

Jeffrey Dahmer chose his victims according to their physical type: he liked them slim fit to slightly muscular with smooth skin (non hairy). He even referred to his ideal victim as the “Chip and Dale” type.

His preference were adult males, approximately the same age, without any racial preference. There are two remarks to be done:

-          His victims were age 14 to 31, but even though Konerak Sinthasomphone looked young, Jeffrey thought his would be much older than he looked (as is the major image about Asian people).

-          Most of his victims were African American, not because of his tastes, but simply because they represented the predominant race in the bars Jeffrey would go to.

In his interview with Robert Ressler, he described his ideal partner as being a totally submissive man, who would be willing everything Jeffrey would ask him to do. But he was aware that there were not many people like this. Had he found a partner who would have accepted these conditions, he may have not ended up killing. He did not have a lot of time to hunt, as he worked 6 days a week and he did not have the patience to wait. He wanted to satisfy his impulses as quick as possible.

« I would have liked to have, like on the videotape, a well developed white guy, compliant to my wishes. I would have preferred to have him alive and permanently staying with me. » Jeffrey Dahmer

Most, but not all of his victims, were homosexuals or bisexuals. Some were heterosexuals. If we have a close look at Jeffrey Dahmer’s practices, it seems clear that the sexual preference of the victim does not matter much at the end of the day.

On the other hand, his victims all shared an essential characteristic: they were available and willing to go back to his place. Indeed, although he chose his victims on physical criteria, but also on their availability and the opportunity the victim represented. More than the sexuality of the victim, it was their willingness to follow him voluntarily, spontaneously and quickly that would arouse Jeffrey Dahmer most.

He would often meet his victims in gay places, as gay people represent a part of the population that can be considered “high risk” of victimization. Whether in saunas, where men go for quick and anonymous sex, or in bars and discos, or even in public meeting places (parks, public toilets), many of the gay people meet in the hopes of finding company and not having to go back home alone. The gay scene is very much based on sexual encounters and fighting loneliness, and it is not unusual that two men who just met end up spending the night together, in one of their homes or in a hotel.

Furthermore, it is not uncommon to meet men (homosexual or heterosexual) having a difficult financial time in their lives who are ready to sell their bodies or favors to other men for money.

It is clear by looking at the pictures of Jeffrey Dahmer’s victims that he was looking for manly looking men, men who would look like straight men. He chose them because they looked like men. This might explain why some of his victims were actually heterosexual. Besides, as already said, the sexual preference of his victims did not matter much to him: he was after a body type, and anyway, his sex acts were performed on unwilling and unconscious victims.

He did not try to get to know his victims, and so kept their conversations to a minimum. But he was still looking for some crucial information, being careful not to, as he himself confessed, bring back a man driving a car or anything that would draw attention to him.

Finally, he did not hate his victims (unlike most serial killers). At the contrary, he chose them because he liked them, because they attracted him.

Jeffrey Dahmer: Modus Operandi

It is important to notice that he had a tendency to drink alcohol during the whole process. He started at home, before going out, then in the bar, back home with his victim, after the killing, and even during dismemberment. Through the years, he developed a good resistance to alcohol, and to make sure he would not lose control, he would drink bier, one of the lightest alcoholic beverages.

 Before the crimes.

 Before even going out to hunt for a prey, Jeffrey would take some time to meditate and fantasize on the possible scenarios for the evening: the approach, but most and for all, he would fantasize on the man he would like to meet and what he would like to do with him.

His favorite hunting ground were gay bars, gay libraries and in the street or at the shopping mall.

Most of the time, he would go to gay places, but would not spend all his time hunting. At the contrary, he would enjoy the evening, drink beers, doing small talk with other people (he had no problem to fit in the groups), and would patiently wait that an opportunity would present itself to him. He would usually go out on Friday nights, because that would give him the rest of the week end to get rid of his victim.

Once a potential victim spotted (preferably at the bar’s exit), he would go and propose the man to come home with him, either for sex, or to have a drink while watching porn, or by offering money in exchange for favors or to pose for photographs. This is called the “con approach” method: he is initially nice, friendly and even charming and seducing. His objective was to gain the victim’s trust to diminish his victim’s possible mistrust and resistance. This technique worked pretty well because, according to his own sayings, one person on three he approached at the shopping mall accepted to go home with him to be photographed, whereas in the gay bars, the ratio was two on three.

He liked going out wearing yellow contact lenses. This eye color reminded him the main characters of his two favorite movies: the Emperor in “The Return of the Jedi” and “The Exorcist III”. They both had yellow eyes that would irradiate their power. People would notice his eyes and apparently appreciated. He would not feel more powerful, but it was just part of his fantasy.

Once the proposal accepted, they would both go to Jeffrey’s apartment, where he would offer a drink to his victim, who would accept. He would mix sleeping pills to the drink (5 or 6 pills of halcium 125mg).

Within half an hour, the victim was unconscious. Sometimes, he would already at this point start having sex with the victim. He liked a lot to lie down next to the unconscious body and listen to the sounds coming from the victim’s body.

 During the crime.

 Once drugged, Jeffrey would usually strangle the victim, either with his hands, or with a leather strap. He strangled them while they were drugged because he did not want to hurt them. He did not want to inflict any suffering. He just wanted to have the ultimate control over their body.

The death of the victim had no importance for Jeffrey, it was a means to an end, and so Jeffrey did everything he could to kill them quickly. He had no pleasure in the killing, and had he found a way to avoid killing them, he would certainly have avoided it. But it was required transition to achieve his goal.

 After the crimes.

 Very often, once the victim dead, and having total control on the victim’s body, he would start having sex with the victim: penis to anus, fellatio, and often he would open the body just above the pubic area and would penetrate the body there. Sometimes, he would cut open the body and masturbate on the entrails. He was fascinated by the color of the entrails, and was turned on by the heat emanating from the fresh corpse.

Before cleaning up, he had to take pictures so he would be able to remember each moment and each sensation he had during every murder. Then, he would start dismembering the victim, still photographing every step of the process. He would dismember his victims by cutting them from the sternum to the pubic area, to empty them of their internal organs. He would cut the meat, starting with the calves, and the thighs. Then he would cut the head and place it in the freezer until he would boil it to take out the meat. He would add some soilex (cleaning powder) mixed with the water to clean the skull from meat and hair. This would take approximately an hour.

The bodies had to disappear totally. So he used and tested many chemical products and acids to dissolve the dismembered parts, leaving only a black and smelly residue that he could finally flush down the toilets. Everything took place in his apartment, and at the end, no part of the victims’ bodies ever left the apartment. Generally, he liked dismembering his victims naked, as it made it more intimate.

With Ernest Miller, he started keeping trophies. He would generally keep the skull and genitals. He would keep the latter in formaldehyde. The skulls, once skinned, were painted in a grey color that would remind to plastic, to give them an artificial look. He kept three in total.

He would often pose the victims’ bodies to take pictures, to emphasize some parts of their body, before or after their death. He would then keep the pictures as keepsake and would masturbate while reminiscing.

Jeffrey Dahmer: Signature

The need to control.

 The most important aspect of Jeffrey Dahmer’s life is his need to control. Control is the fuel of his actions. Many serial killers suffered forms of extreme abuse (physical, mental, sexual) in their childhood: they were humiliated, felt defenseless. Later, as they grew up, this people developed a need to inflict the same pain they had to others, and the only way for them to overcome this feeling of impotence is to totally control others. Even though Jeffrey never had to suffer from any abuse, it is clear that some elements in his life gave him an inferiority complex, made him very vulnerable, and lead him directly to the development of a need to control. He would take a lot of pleasure by being in control.

His objective was to render his victim unconscious as fast as possible with the drugs. By depriving them of their waken state, he could do with them whatever he wanted without having to communicate his desires to them, or having to manage their possible resistance. He always tried not to know too much about his victims. This gave him the impression that they were intimate objects. The fact that he considered his victims as objects and not people gave him a feeling of power and domination that would enhance his libido. The victims were there for him, objects only destined to satisfy his own sexual pleasure. He based all his motivation in knowing that he had total control over his victims and that he could do with them whatever he wanted.

All his MO is based on control and domination

-          The con approach gave him control from the start

-          He drugged the victims to get them unconscious

-          He posed the victims to take pictures

-          Even his necrophilia and cannibal practices had control as origin

This absolute need to control took him to rather strange paths: one of the paths he took was to use some sort of lobotomy that he tested on some of his victims. Once the victim drugged, he would dig a hole in the victim’s skull and inject some type of acid in their brain. His intention was to destroy the victim’s intellect and free will and to keep the body alive but totally submissive.

Necrophilia.

 Jeffrey Dahmer’s necrophiliac practices started after the third murder. He used to go to saunas, where he would render his partners unconscious to take advantage of their body. Also, and very important in the development of his necrophilia, was the incident at the morgue when he read about the death of a 18 year old. Just by looking at the body he felt attracted and had to masturbate.

According to numerous studies from Rosman and Resnick (1989), there are several types of necrophilia:

-          Homicidal necrophilia: consists in killing in order to have sex with the corpse

-          Common necrophilia: the use of the corpse of somebody already dead for sexual pleasure

-          Necrophiliac fantasy: the fantasy of having sex with a dead corpse, but without doing it in reality

According to these studies, Jeffrey Dahmer would be part of a different category, considered more as pseudo necrophilia: he was attracted by lifeless corpses, but that was not the ultimate goal of his sexual fantasy. Indeed, the death was only a means to an end. He demonstrated and repeated it on many occasions; his desire and fantasy were about domination. He would not get any pleasure from killing. Moreover, he would have rather met a young man in his taste, alive but submissive to the extreme. Necrophilia was only a way for him to satisfy his fantasy, and not the culmination of it.

Cannibalism.

 We can consider Dahmer’s cannibalism as an escalation of his practices based on power and domination. Indeed, he liked to experiment on his victims. For example, he started biting one of his victims in the neck after killing it, or drank the blood of another victim, to see what turns him on.

His cannibalism started after Konerak Sinthasomphone, during his dismemberment. He decided to keep his heart and biceps:

« And I would cook it, and then look at the pictures and masturbate. » Jeffrey Dahmer

He tried various seasonings, techniques to make the meat even more tasty. He savored human meat, and described like a tender and juicy filet mignon. He liked eating the heart, the liver, the meat from the hip, and even tried a bicep.

For him, eating human flesh was sexually gratifying. It started as an experiment, but gave him the impression that his victims became part of him. It excited him, gave him the ultimate control over his victims, and made him feel like he and his victims became one. He would often be sexually aroused while eating human flesh.

But he would only practice cannibalism with his favorite victims, those he really liked. He wanted them to become part of him, to be with him all the time.

Of course his orientation towards cannibalism emanates from a perversion, but above all from his desire for possession. In her book « Cannibalism: the Ancient Taboo in Modern Times », Rachel Bell describes the different forms of cannibalism, so as their origins. We discover that Jeffrey Dahmer’s cannibalism joins all the different forms of existing cannibalism

-          Epicurean cannibalism: in the preparation of the organs, and in his way of describing the taste and texture of these organs (compared to a filet mignon), it is clear that he really enjoyed human flesh in the way of a gastronome.

-          Sexual cannibalism: the fact of consuming human flesh would give him an erection, and would at the same time enable him to relive, enhance and extend the experience he had with the person. He would regularly masturbate while cooking and eating his victims.

-          Spiritual cannibalism: Jeffrey thought that it would give him power, would increase his potential to reach a higher level of existence.

« It made me feel like they were a permanent part of me, besides the mere curiosity of what it would be like to feel like they are a part of me, it gave me sexual satisfaction » Jeffrey Dahmer

Jeffrey Dahmer: The Fantasy

“It is absolutely normal to have aggressive thoughts that we don’t transform into aggressive, bad, dangerous or murderous behaviors. But serial killers try to enter life with many fantasies, a mix of sex and violence, and because they cannot share these fantasies with others, they end up alone pondering their fantasies for a long time, increasing in complexity and frequency. When they start killing they are in reality pursuing their dream, they try to perfect what they fantasized about their whole life. And because it is impossible, because this perfection is out of reach, they continue killing, hoping to do better the next time, achieving the perfect kill.” Jack Levin, Phd Criminology

            All Jeffrey Dahmer wanted, was to have someone to hold in his arms, next to whom he could spend time, caressing him, without any request being made for sodomy that he did not like. His fantasy consisted in having total control over another man. He confessed that the simple fact of having total control would give him as much pleasure as the sex acts he practiced on his victims.

            At age 13 and 14, he started fantasizing having sex with a corpse and this thought would push him to masturbate very often (three to four times a day). He started drinking at the same time to repress his fantasies. At age 16, his fantasies shifted more towards having total control. At this age, it is very normal for a young man to get spontaneous erections, without having any apparent motive. It is very probable that Jeffrey could have conditioned himself by associating these spontaneous erections with violent thoughts of mutilation and control.

            He also had fantasies and thoughts for what he called the entrails. Indeed, when he started dismembering animals, he realized it would turn him on. His sexual fantasy would start mixing with violent thoughts.

            But he had already developed a big part of his fantasies before turning to pornography and masturbation, and tried to satisfy them. At age 16, he starts fantasizing hitting man in the back of the neck to render him unconscious and have sex with him. As he was in High School, he was himself victim of a group assault from his peers who hit him in the back of the neck with a black jack. He started after that fantasizing on revenge, which would excite him.

            His desire was present with him all the time and he could only more or less control it between two victims thanks to the photographs he had taken and his « mementos » (he kept body parts of his victims as « mementos »). He would have a cooling down period (cooling down refers at the time between two murders where he is in control of the fantasy) of two months. But the more time went by, the more his impulses would grow and it would be more and more difficult to get satisfaction from the picture or the “mementos”. He had to find a new victim.

            Hunting was part of his fantasy: not to know who he would meet, or how the victim would look like, or even the level of pleasure his next victim would give him, all this would excite him. He would spend time before going out fantasizing on how the evening would unfold, on the type of man he would want to meet that evening.

            We can also notice an evolution in his fantasy: at the beginning, he had a lot of pleasure eviscerating his victims, but it became a routine. Sex with corpses was nice… but that was not as satisfying as keeping having them whole and alive. The problem is that reality never comes close to the fantasy. The fantasy always gives more pleasure that is why it has to be refined and perfected. He would try many new strategies: the mannequin, drug men in the sauna… but at the end, he will develop a new idea: create an army of “sexual slaves” or zombies. To do this, he started by drilling a hole in the frontal lobe of his victims to pour muriatic acid. But all his victims died. So he tried freezing the body of a victim so he could profit from it longer. This did not work either. Finally, he tried his experiment creating zombies again, but replacing the acid by boiling water, but still no results. His goal was to take away his victims free will so that they would end up in his control and would never leave him.

            He also developed the idea of a shrine made with his victims’ bones (entire skeletons, skulls…) and two griffin statues. This shrine’s purpose was to give him special powers and to encourage energies to help him socially and financially. He was also hoping that the shrine would give him superpowers like his heroes in “The Return of the Jedi” or “The Exorcist III” that would enable him to control his victims’ spirit.

During an interview with R. Ressler (former FBI agent who developed criminal profiling), he gave a list of preference:

-          The man he described (white, Chip and Dale type) and who would have only lived to satisfy Dahmer’s desires

-          Less preferable, but still desirable, was to transform a man into a zombie

-          Lower on the scale, what he did: hunt men in bars, take them back home to drug and kill them

-          Even lower on his scale of desirability: “nothing” Jeffrey Dahmer

-          No ordinary gay sex, no heterosexual sex, just no partner. Or maybe pornography

-          Finally, celibacy and abstinence

Jeffrey Dahmer: Criminogenic Factors

The relationship between his parents.

 The relationship between Lionel and Joyce Dahmer is a key element explaining Jeffrey’s actions. Indeed, even before Jeffrey was born, the pregnancy was heavy on Joyce, who had trouble managing her depressive and ever changing moods. Once born, they tried their best. They did not have any financial problems, both having a decent job, but they did not show a lot of affection.

In addition, their relationship was tumultuous. They spent a lot of time arguing, what had quite a big influence on Jeffrey. He would even end up giving up on marriage to avoid ending like them: « they were constantly at each other’s throat » Jeffrey Dahmer. When they would argue, he would find refuge in the woods, where he would express his latent anger and violence by hitting trees with sticks.

Lionel worked long hours in his lab, and spent many years of Jeffrey’s childhood studying. They also moved often what would leave Jeffrey without friends. Finally, when they settled in their own house surrounded by woods, Jeffrey would create his own little world. Adding to that the birth of his brother David, who, even if Jeffrey did not seem to suffer from it, would become the center of attention and would leave little time for Lionel and Joyce to give attention to Jeffrey.

Having no friends, and feeling neglected by his parents, Jeffrey would progressively isolate himself in his own world and develop his fantasy.

The climax of Lionel and Joyce’s relationship is reached just after Jeffrey’s graduation, just before his 18^th birthday, as they decide to divorce. Then would start a war for David’s custody, won by Joyce. Lionel moves out of the house to into a motel a few kilometers away. Soon after, Joyce decides to move too to Wisconsin with David, without telling Lionel. Jeffrey ends up alone at home, abandoned by both his parents. Nobody seemed to pay any attention to him. It is then that he would kill for the first time.

Jeffrey Dahmer the victim.

 Robert Ressler, during his interview with Jeffrey Dahmer, noticed that Jeffrey liked to position himself as a victim. He felt as a victim several times in his life. Even towards his own victims, he tends to puts his actions into perspective, as if everything was just circumstantial.

His first victimization took place during his childhood, when he was diagnosed with a double hernia. He was terrorized by the surgery, by the fact of being opened to strangers. Nobody explained him, and this episode imprinted his unconscious.

He would also talk about the day he got attacked by his school mates, who hit him. This also left a mark, and it is really possible that this was the day where Jeffrey started to associate impulses of vengeance with violence and sex: as he was thinking about vengeance, he felt aroused.

The stress factor.

 If one thing is sure, is that Jeffrey Dahmer did not wake up one day thinking: « Oh, and what if I would start killing men… ». The fantasy developed progressively. But as stated by Jack Levin, Criminologist, every sex and violence fantasy does not necessarily translate into violent acts. For fantasies to become action there need to be stressors or stress factors, that is to say moments where the level of stress experienced by the killer does not give him any choice, where the impulses get so strong that he cannot resist them anymore.

 As far as Jeffrey Dahmer is concerned, we can single out three main stressors:

-          His parents’ divorce: just after feeling abandoned and rejected by his parents, he acts for the first time by killing Stephen Hicks, because he didn’t want Stephen to leave him. At that point, impulses were stronger than reason and that is why he panics and then regrets his action, for a short time, until he realizes how much pleasure he got from dominating his victim.

-          The episode at the library when a young man will solicit him to have a sexual encounter. Even though he will decline the offer, this event will reawaken his impulses, to a point that will lead him to kill his second victim, Steven Tuomi, and not remember it. The psychiatrists confirm to the possibility that he does not remember anything. The stage of dissociation, associated with a big stressor at a time of great tension can cause the loss of consciousness.

-          The loss of his job: from that moment on, he dedicated his time looking for new victims and spent his money on perfecting the way to get rid of the bodies. The frequency of the murders also increased to one victim a week.

And there is what we call synchronicity. A synchronicity is when a person experiences two or more events that are apparently casually unrelated or unlikely to occur together by chance, yet are experienced as occurring together in a meaningful matter. In Jeffrey Dahmer’s life, many events happened that many people would call coincidental or fate or just life. But for someone living outside reality and in his fantasy, these same events could be pointers, could just tell them that they are on the “right path”, that the fantasy they have created is just right. For the majority of the people, it might just have been coincidence that when his fantasy of meeting a hitchhiker and knocking him unconscious grew more and more powerful, that Jeffrey Dahmer was alone at home and happened to meet Stephen Hicks. In some people’s lives, these two events might never have occurred at the same time. But for Jeffrey Dahmer, that could have been a sign, his fantasy calling him and asking him to act it out.

 The influence of movies.

Pornography did not seem to play a big role in Jeffrey Dahmer’s fantasy. He usually used pornography as palliative to murder, to quiet the sexual tension growing in him. But he was not inspired by it. Moreover, he discovered pornography after he developed his fantasy of sex and violence.

On the other hand, two non pornographic movies had a real influence on his actions: “The Return of the Jedi” and “The Exorcist III”, and more specifically the principal characters representing evil in these movies. They represented everything Jeffrey Dahmer was looking for in his fantasy: they were powerful and knew how to control others. He felt so inspired that he was even wearing contact lenses that reminded him of his heroes (like people would wear a mask to portray a different personality), and he wanted to build a temple to gain more power. He later told that while he was watching “The Exorcist III”, he would rock his body back and forth mumbling spells and incantations, as if he would try to extract energy and power from his hero.

 His homosexuality.

 Jeffrey discovered he was gay at age 13. An experience with a boy from his neighborhood would make him discover his sexuality. Even though this experience was not very positive in terms of pleasure, and even though they only kissed and caressed each other, Jeffrey knew from then on that he was more attracted to men than women.

He did not like it, as it made him different from others, but different in a negative sense of the term. In the 1970, homosexuality was not recognized and known, and was judged badly. He himself judged it in a very negative way. Life was not easy for gays, and they had to keep this part of themselves hidden to avoid problems. Not knowing any other gay person, there was this whole secretive part of him that he could not share with anyone.

Nevertheless, during the few years he lived with his grandmother, Jeffrey would pray and pray to try to get rid of his homosexuality. He would later say that he tried to “straighten his life”. But after the episode at the library, his impulses got the best of him, and Jeffrey decided not to fight them anymore.

Gay relationships are different from straight relationships, in the way that they are much more based on physical criteria  whether in the search of a partner or in the type of relationship. Indeed, it is much easier for gays to find a punctual relation (just sex or one night stands) without promises or engagement, just based on the exchange of mutual pleasure, than to find a real committed relationship, sharing more than just sex. Jeffrey seemed to suffer from it, and until the end stated he did not like sodomy. In reality, the act of sodomy represents in a gay relationship an act of abandon to the other, the ultimate intimacy. Intimacy that Jeffrey was not ready to share with the men he met.

He suffered from the difficulty of finding a partner who would stay, who would not leave after sex. But at the same time, the victims he would choose, the MO he used… Jeffrey would not have been able to handle a long term relationship. Even though he tried and even had a longer relationship with one man that mattered, he ended it. The only type of relationship he could have kept in the long term he would have found it in a specific scene: the S&M scene, where he could have found the ideal man, both physically and mentally (a slave with a nice body, ready to answer to all of Jeffrey’s expectations and without expecting anything in return).