Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was born on May 21, 1960, to Joyce “Rocky” Flint, and Lionel Dahmer. He killed 17 people from 1978 until he was apprehended on July 22, 1991. Not only did he kill his victims, but he also cannibalized them, which is one of the reasons his case has fascinated the public since his capture and then death.
The First Murders
Starting with his first victim, Stephen Hicks, 19, who was a hitchhiker Dahmer picked up on his way to a concert, he killed at least seventeen people and molested and raped young boys and young men. Stephen Hicks’ death was caused by first a devastating blow to his head, and then manual strangulation with a barbell at his parent’s house in Bath, Ohio. After killing Stephen, Jeffrey panicked and dismembered his body before smashing his bones to dust and spreading them among the woods behind the house.
Stephen Tuomi, 26, was his next victim. Jeffrey Dahmer had picked Tuomi up and they had gone to a hotel to spend the night together. After passing out from drinking the night before, he woke up the next morning to find Tuomi lying dead on the bed with his chest beaten and bruised. Jeff later said that he thought he had tried to rip Tuomi’s heart out in his blackout daze and didn’t intend to kill him that night.
Subsequent Murders
Jeffrey Dahmer also killed Richard Guerro, James Doxtator, Anthony Sears, Eddie Smith, Ricky Beeks, David Thomas, Curtis Traughter, Errol Lindsey, Tony Hughes, Matt Turner, Jeremiah Weinberger, Oliver Lacy, and Joseph Bradehoft all by manual strangulation. Jeffrey Dahmer also most notably killed Ernest Miller and Konerak Sinthasomphone, who was only 14 at the time.
Ernest Miller
Dahmer cut Ernest Miller’s throat after he woke up from a bunked attempt of Dahmer slipping him sleeping pills when Dahmer was only able to put two into his drink instead of more that would have rendered him completely helpless. When Ernest came to, it startled Jeff and he ended up slashing his carotid artery with the knife Jeffrey used to fillet and dissect his victim’s bodies with, which caused to Ernest Miller bleed out within seconds.
The next most notable death (and incident) that Jeffrey caused was that of fourteen-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone.
Konerak Synthasomphone and the “Experiment”
Jeffrey had recently molested his brother and why the boy’s parents didn’t intervene and prevent the boys from seeing Jeffrey Dahmer, I do not understand, but he paid Konerak to come with him. Once Konerak was in Dahmer’s apartment, Jeffrey got him inebriated. After Konerak was completely out of it, Dahmer decided he would like to play God and make the perfect lover, or “zombie”, as Jeff himself called it, by drilling a hole into Konerak’s skull and injecting a solution of hydrochloric acid into it. Konerak woke up, dazed, and managed to escape.
Two young women found him stumbling towards them, and tried to help by calling the police. When the police appeared, Dahmer had already been verbally aggressive with the females who were trying to aid poor Sinthamophone, but the cops ended up returning him to Dahmer when Dahmer made the excuse that they were lovers and he was just drunk. When he got Konerak back into the apartment, he injected another dosage of acid into the hole from which he died.
The Trial
At the trial, Jeffrey Dahmer tried to plead insanity by claiming that he was mentally unfit and was evaluated by George Palermo, a forensic psychiatrist, who determined that Dahmer had as many as 12 different mental health issues, which included “possible” Asperger’s, sexualized fixation on human bodies that concerned homosexuality and necrophilia, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Schizoid tendencies, Borderline Personality Disorder, deep-seated abandonment problems, alcohol and drug abuse, and several more.
It was proven in these sessions that Jeffrey Dahmer showed psychopathic tendencies as early as 4 years old and a fascination for dead roadkill which eventually matured into killing animals, including when he impaled a dog’s head to a tree.
Homosexuality
It is clear Jeffrey Dahmer had many issues, but I do not think that we can blame his mental illness, his Asperger’s, or his upbringing, nor can we blame homosexuality for his behavior. I believe that Asperger’s did not cause him to lose control. Sure it caused him to have social problems, but I believe that the long shadow of why Jeffrey Dahmer killed those men is caused largely because of his inability to accept his sexuality. When coupled with mental illness, this combo can be devastating. Why do I say this? Because I, myself, am bisexual and dealt with the inability to express and be myself.
Now I’m not likening myself to a serial killer by any means, but I can understand that in the right circumstances such as Dahmer’s, his already skewed perception of people and how to interact with others was vastly affected.
In the 80s, it was less acceptable in the USA than today to be an LGBTQ+ American. This is why a lot of the gay scene was focused heavily
in areas of prostitution, and why Dahmer found it so hard to find a partner anywhere else but the bathhouses until he was kicked out.
In his mind, he didn’t want a one night stand, he wanted a relationship, he wanted his partners to lie down and cuddle with him instead
of forcing him to do things that he wasn’t comfortable with. I think that is something that a lot of everyday people deal with within their lives,
gay or not. Please do note though, Jeffrey was killing before the bathhouses, he was just able to “quench his thirst” for the time being along
with finding new victims.
What We Can Learn From Dahmer
In the end, I believe that unacceptable and shame along with mental illness were the cause of the perfect storm that was Jeffrey Dahmer, and I believe
we should take this lesson to help motivate us to move forward with helping each other feel accepted, getting the people we love who have mental
health problems professional help, and to not judge people for things that they can’t control.
Dahmer would have killed even if he was a straight man because he had deep-seated issues buried from childhood. However, I hope this brings to light some of the issues that LGBTQ+ people face. Whether it is in his victim’s shoes of being raped, tortured, and murdered, or it is in Jeffrey Dahmer’s case of shame, hatred for himself, depression, and anger, the Jeffrey Dahmer case brings up significant issues that must be addressed in society if we are looking to change the American perception of the LGBTQ+ culture.
References
https://www.academia.edu/11950000/The_Profile_of_Jeffrey_Dahmer_Cannibal_and_Serial_Killer
Falla, K. The profile of Jeffrey Dahmer: Cannibal and Serial Killer (2015) SNHU
https://www.distractify.com/p/jeffrey-dahmer-parents
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-dec-06-me-61803-story.html
