One of the most prominent and prolific serial killers in US history, Jeffrey Dahmer, is certainly one of the first people who comes to mind when you hear the term “serial killer.”
In order to ostensibly satiate his own sexual cravings, Dahmer killed at least 17 individuals in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, between 1978 and 1991; the majority of them were LGBT or people of color.
He would use the bodies of his victims, some of whom were as young as 14, for sex activities, consume their remnants, or keep some of their corpses in his apartment after torturing and killing them. In 1991, the police arrived at Dahmer’s front door thanks to the courageous escape of one potential victim.
Four severed heads, together with wrapped-up human organs and body parts, were discovered in his kitchen when the authorities finally apprehended him. In his bedroom, four torsos were dissolving in acid in a large drum, and a collection of Polaroids showed a number of other victims’ heads being cut off in different ways.
But since the death penalty has been abolished in the state, what should you do with a man like this?
Without a lawyer present, Dahmer would eventually voluntarily admit to what he had done in taped interviews. He refuted the notion that he would purposefully target people of color and said instead that he had a “preferred physical type.”
As part of their ongoing Conversations With a Killer series, Netflix will release these tapes in October. But first, they will release Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, which was made by Ryan Murphy and stars Evan Peters from American Horror Story.
It was no longer a question of whether Dahmer was guilty; it was a question of whether he had a mental illness that prohibited him from managing his emotions. At the initial hearing in February 1992, Dahmer entered a guilty plea, although he argued that he was insane.
Both the prosecution and the defense called psychiatrists and medical professionals as expert witnesses, claiming that Dahmer had a variety of psychological conditions, including schizotypal disorder, borderline personality disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Both parties concurred that he had aberrant sexuality known as a paraphilia and was a necrophile (had a sexual attraction to dead bodies).
The key question is whether any of these diagnoses would indicate that he was unable to control his compulsions and himself. The prosecution said he knew what he was doing because he turned down chances, to tell the truth, planned the murders, and hid evidence. The defense, on the other hand, said he wasn’t sane when the crimes were done.
The jury decided he was sane enough to know what he was doing at the time of each murder was wrong because he was usually nice, he could hide his bad intentions in public, he knew how to get his victims alone to avoid witnesses, and he hid the crimes.
He received a total of 15 life sentences as a result of Wisconsin having abolished the death penalty. By 1994’s end, he had passed away.
Jeffrey Dahmer’s Cause of Death
On November 28, 1994, Jeffrey Dahmer was killed at Columbia Correctional Institution.
He had lived in solitary confinement for the majority of his first year in prison out of fear that other inmates who knew about his terrible actions would try to harm him.
Dahmer was later transferred into the general population, nevertheless, at his request. He said that solitary confinement had been too limiting for him and that he needed some form of mental stimulation.
He had to spend two hours a day cleaning the restroom complex as part of his job responsibilities.
Dahmer, who had asked for a Bible while waiting for his court date, developed an obsession with Christianity while he was incarcerated. Later, he committed himself to the faith, and in May 1994, he was baptised.
His life had been in danger more than once. Just two months after he was baptized, a prisoner attacked him in church with a “shank” made of a razor inserted into a toothbrush.
Many people who were close to Dahmer, including his parents, have claimed that he was prepared and willing to die in retaliation for what had happened.
On November 28, convicted killer Christopher Scarver killed him with a bludgeon he had stolen from the prison gym. Jesse Anderson, another murderer who was on the run, also got hurt badly in the same thing.
Dahmer made it to the hospital and then passed away just an hour later. Anderson passed away two days later.
After the incident, Scarver instantly admitted to the killings and said, “God had instructed him to do it.” He received two further life sentences.
