This article discusses violent crimes. Reader discretion is advised.
Who was Jeffrey Dahmer?
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was an American serial killer and sex offender who murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991. Born on 21 May 1960 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he grew up mainly in Ohio. His crimes, which involved dismemberment, necrophilia and cannibalism, made him one of the most notorious criminals in US history, and he became known as the “Milwaukee Cannibal”.
His crimes
Dahmer committed his first murder in 1978 in Bath Township, Ohio, shortly after finishing high school. He did not kill again until 1987, but over the following four years he murdered 15 more young men and teenagers, most of them in Milwaukee. Many of his victims were Black, Asian or Latino, and many were gay men from marginalised communities.
He was arrested in July 1991 after a would-be victim, Tracy Edwards, escaped and flagged down police. In February 1992, Dahmer was sentenced to 15 consecutive life terms in Wisconsin, with a 16th life sentence later added in Ohio for his first murder. In November 1994, he was killed by a fellow inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Wisconsin.
Controversy over the police response
The case sparked anger and debate. Critics argued that Milwaukee police had missed opportunities to stop Dahmer, most infamously in May 1991, when officers returned a 14-year-old victim to Dahmer’s apartment. Many believed the disappearances of gay men and people of colour were not taken seriously enough.
The case has been examined in numerous books, including Anne E. Schwartz’s The Man Who Could Not Kill Enough (1992).
The Netflix series
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, premiered on Netflix on 21 September 2022, with Evan Peters as Dahmer and Niecy Nash as his neighbour Glenda Cleveland. It quickly became one of Netflix’s most-watched English-language series, and Peters won a Golden Globe for his performance.
The series is based on real events, though some scenes and characters are dramatised or composited. It explores Dahmer’s childhood, including his troubled family life and early signs of disturbance, as well as the failures of the authorities and the impact on victims’ families.
Criticism
The show was also criticised, particularly by relatives of Dahmer’s victims, who said they had not been consulted and that it forced them to relive their trauma. The debate raised wider questions about true-crime entertainment and the responsibility to centre victims rather than killers.
Conclusion
Jeffrey Dahmer’s crimes remain disturbing more than three decades later. The renewed attention from Netflix has prompted fresh discussion not only about the killer himself, but about the victims, the community he targeted and the failures that allowed his crimes to continue for so long.
