Jeffrey Dahmer Thesis

Jeffrey Dahmer

"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 (Dahmer)." Jeffrey Dahmer was a narcissist, a necrophiliac, somewhat of a sadist and a cannibal. In many ways he fit a typical sexual serial killer profile, but in some ways he didn’t. By the time of his apprehension, Dahmer had sodomized, murdered, and cannibalized at least seventeen men, mostly black, Hispanic or Asian, in the Milwaukee area between the years of 1978 until his arrest in 1991 (Anonymous, 2010).

Jeffrey Dahmer was born in Milwaukee on May 21, 1960, to Lionel and Joyce Dahmer. Despite the difficulties of Joyce's pregnancy, he was wanted and adored

as a child. Dahmer seemed to be a happy, cheerful adolescent."When I was a little kid I was just like anybody else” (Dahmer). At the young age of six, Dahmer suffered a double hernia and needed surgery to correct the problem. After the operation, he was never the same bright, happy boy he previously was. After Dahmer’s surgery, which was around the same time as his brother’s birth, He became more and more distant and insecure about himself. The family then moved from Iowa to Ohio due to a job opportunity for his father. By the end of Dahmer’s middle school years he had grown to be a shy, tense, and largely friendless young man (unknown). In the beginning of his high school years, Dahmer grew more isolated and withdrawn. His classmates considered him a loner and an alcoholic (Anonymous, 2010).
In the fall of 1978, Dahmer entered Ohio State University, where he remained drunk for the majority of the semester and inevitably had to drop out. When he came back home, his father gave him an ultimatum, either find a job or join the Army (Montaldo). After refusing to look for a job, His father drove him to the recruiting office to join the Armed Forces in January of 1979. Although he seemed to

enjoy life in the Army, he was discharged early for habitual drunkenness (Montaldo).
Without anyone knowing Jeffrey was mentally ill.

He has been struggling with his mind for several years now. His own homosexual desires, mixed with his need to act out his sadistic fantasies is what pushed him to commit his first murder. He picked up hitchhiker, 19-year-old Steven Hicks. Dahmer invited Steven to his father's home and the two drank beer and had sex, but when Hicks decided to leave Dahmer bashed him in the head with a barbell and killed him. He then proceeded to dismembering the body, placing the parts in a garbage bag and burying them in his father’s back yard (unknown). Dahmer said "I was completely swept along with my own compulsion. I don't know how else to put it. It didn't satisfy me completely, so maybe I was thinking, 'Maybe another one will. Maybe this one will.' And the numbers started growing and growing and just got out of control.” As you can see, this was only the begging of Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer killing spree.

For the next six years Jeffrey lived with his grandmother in West Allis, Wisconsin. During these six years he encounters the police several times and His consumption of alcohol heavily increases (Anonymous, 2010).In August 1982, he was arrested after exposing himself to a couple of young boys at a state fair. He was arrested again in September 1986 for masturbating in public; he got 10 months in jail. Shortly after his released he was arrested for the 3rd time for touching inappropriately a 13 year old boy in his home town. He was given five-years

probation after persuading the judge that he needed help (Montaldo).
On September 1987, Dahmer committed his second murder: Steven Toumi, whom he met in a gay bar. They checked into a hotel room and drank heavily, and by the following morning, Dahmer found Toumi dead (Montaldo). He bought a large suitcase to transport Toumi's body to his

grandmother's basement, where he had sex with and masturbated on the corpse, before dismembering it and disposing of the remains in the garbage (Anonymous, 2010).
On September 1988, Dahmer’s grandmother was tired of her grandsons late nights and drunkenness. She forced Dahmer to move out. He was working as a mixer at Ambrosia Chocolate Factory and could afford a small apartment; he got a one bedroom apartment on North 24th St. in Milwaukee (Montaldo).
Dahmer continued killing young men uninterruptedly until an incident in May 27, 1991. A 14 year old boy named Konerak Sinthasomphone had escaped from his “care”. This was his 13th victim and was also the younger brother of the boy he was convicted of molesting in 1986 (Anonymous, 2010). Early in the morning the young Sinthasomphone was seen wondering the street nude and disoriented. When the police asked Dahmer what was going on, he said that the boy was his lover and that they had a fight and he had a little too much to drink. The police walked them back to Dahmer’s apartment, took a quick look determined nothing was wrong and left. Only a couple hours passed by before Dahmer kills Sinthasomphone and performs his usual ritual on the young boys body (Montaldo).
Over the next months that followed up to the time of his capture, Dahmer's victim count accelerated to one a week until July 22, when Dahmer was unable to hold captive his 18th victim, Tracy Edwards (Montaldo). After Edwards escaped he immediately went to the police. He led the officers back to Dahmers apartment, where officers found several incriminating evidence to arrest him (Montaldo).
Jeffrey Dahmer was indicted on 17 murder charges which were later reduced to 15.

He was not charged in the attempted murder of Edwards. His trial began on January 30, 1992. With evidence

overwhelmingly against him, Dahmer pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity (Montaldo).

The trial lasted two weeks, he was found sane and guilty on 15 counts of murder and sentenced him to 15 life terms, totaling 957 years in prison. At the end of his sentencing he calmly read his 4 page statement and apologized for his crimes (Montaldo). He ended with,

"I hated no one. I knew I was sick or evil or both. Now I believe I was sick. The doctors have told me about my sickness, and now I have some peace. I know how much harm I have caused... Thank God there will be no more harm that I can do. I believe that only the Lord Jesus Christ can save me from my sins... I ask for no consideration."

Dahmer served his time at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin, where he ultimately declared himself a born-again Christian (Montaldo). Dahmer and inmate Jesse Anderson were beaten to death by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver while working in the prisons gym, on November 28, 1994. Dahmer died of severe head trauma while on his way to the hospital

(Montaldo).
.