The Encounter at Grand Avenue Mall
Mortally frightened, Tracy Edwards was running the night streets of Milwaukee. He’d just escaped the clutches of a murderous weirdo who threatened to eat his heart. His left hand was still handcuffed. He saw a police car and rushed to it. Officers Robert Rauth and Rolf Mueller listened to Tracy’s story and shook their heads. It was so shocking, gruesome, and bizarre. It sounded more like a fabrication of a deranged mind. And this is what the man had to go through.
At about 6 pm that day, Tracy and two friends were hanging out at the Grand Avenue Mall. They were approached by a tall blond guy Tracy had already seen before. They’d said “hi” to each other a couple of times. The man introduced himself as a professional photographer and asked if Tracy and his friends would be interested in doing a photoshoot with him. The pay would be nice, $100 each. While the three friends were on the fence about posing for the camera, the new acquaintance seemed a cool enough dude. If the photoshoot didn’t work, they’d just hang out and have a good time.
The Journey to Oxford Apartments
The guys went to a liquor store, stocked up on drinks, and loaded the goods into a cab. Everybody wanted to change for the evening, so the guys split to reunite in a bit. Edwards stayed with the new acquaintance while his friends left with the blond’s address scribbled down, promising to bring girls with them. The cab swung by Tracy’s place for him to change as well and headed to the Oxford Apartments. Once they entered the apartment block, Tracy noticed a horrid stench that intensified as they descended the stairs.
Inside the Apartment of Horror
When the blond unlocked all 8 locks on his door and turned off the burglary alarms, the odor grew a few notches stronger. A sewer pipe had busted, the blond explained. Tracy stepped inside and noticed a surveillance camera in the corner. Why the precautions? Bad neighborhood, the host shrugged. Right on the living room floor, there were boxes of hydrochloric acid. He’d also put on a movie: “The Exorcist 3” theme was chiming.
The Situation Turns Sinister
The two talked about the Army, this and that, and the evening seemed fine. Tracy wasn’t a drinker, so he only made a few social sips from his glass. He was getting a weird buzz, which, due to his inexperience with alcohol, he considered normal. They started talking about exotic fish, and the host turned his guest’s attention to the fish tank in the corner. When Tracy turned to look at it, the blond handcuffed his left arm and pressed a large knife against his ribs.
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Tracy’s Testimony
“I asked him what the problem was, you know, that it’s not necessary to do this, you know,” Tracy later testified. “He told me at that point if I didn’t do what he said, he would kill me, yeah.”
Tracy Edwards
The blonde also told Tracy he’d killed before and enjoyed doing it. His words and actions were scary, but the man himself, his demeanor, turned just plain Eerie.
“It’s like not the same person that we met at Grand Avenue Mall,” Tracy recalled. “His facial structure seemed different, you know, his body structure is like it wasn’t him anymore, you know, it’s like it was a different guy here.”
Tracy Edwards
The Bedroom of Horrors
Dragging Tracy by the handcuffs, the man led him to his bedroom. A large plastic barrel sat in the corner. It was apparent that the odor enveloping the whole building was coming from there. The blond shifted his attention to the TV. Immersed in the movie, he started rocking back and forth, humming and chanting. It was spooky but perfectly in line with the flick.
The Exorcist 3: A Chilling Parallel
The movie tells the story of Damien Karras, a priest possessed by a serial killer’s spirit and the Devil himself. Karras was locked in a mental hospital, but the spirits could easily move out of his body to possess others. A mysterious killing spree ensued, with the victims drugged, drained of blood, and decapitated. Tormented by his fate, the priest is helpless against evil.
Tracy didn’t know it then, but “The Exorcist 3” was his captor’s favorite movie. Like the priest, the man could shift gears and enter a different mind frame. Like the priest, he felt alone and abandoned. Like the priest, he felt rotten and evil. But, very much unlike the priest, he did not resist his murderous urges. He’d already decided that this handsome black man would have to die.
The Killer’s Fascination with the Movie
Tracy observed how his captor’s excitement spiked whenever Karras appeared on the screen.
It appeared like he wanted to mimic it and be like that part, you know, being demonized and whatever, in that nature. Yeah, like he wanted that type of movie, that part, certain parts of that part interested him, you know. It was like he changed with it. At times he’d get more aggressive.
Tracy Edwards
The Role of Alcohol
Probably, the tall blond didn’t know another detail linking him with the movie. Jason Miller, the actor who played Damien Karras, was an alcoholic, just like him. But alcohol meant more than relaxation to the blond. He used it both to desensitize himself before the murders and to render his victims helpless, as the drinks he served his guests were laced with tranquilizers. Tracy didn’t know, but his indifference to alcohol saved his life. A sip or two and he’d be unconscious.
A Terrifying Threat
During one of those exciting episodes, the blond asked Tracy to lie on the carpet face-down. He wanted to cuff his prisoner’s hands behind his back. Tracy lay on his side instead, pleading with the man, repeating that he was his friend and that violence was unnecessary. The blond put his ear to Tracy’s chest. He listened for a minute and announced that he was going to eat that heart. At one point, the host showed Edwards a few photos of his previous victims, as an entomologist would boast his collection to a colleague.
Tracy’s Survival Strategy
Whether or not Tracy had doubts before, it was the moment he realized: that if he didn’t do something, he’d be dead soon. The whole time, he was doing his best to put the blond freak at ease. The host continued talking about how he didn’t want Tracy to leave and didn’t want to be alone, and Tracy played along. Over and over again, Edwards repeated that he was his friend and was in no hurry to leave. The man appeared to be gay, frequently complimenting Tracy on his handsome appearance, so he unbuttoned his shirt a bit.
How did Tracy Edwards escape Dahmer?
It was hot, and Tracy persuaded his captor to move to the living room. It smelled a bit better and had air conditioning. For hours they sat there, talking and drinking. Occasionally, the blond host would fall back into his rocking trance or just sit silent and motionless altogether. Once he finished his beer, he asked Tracy to grab another can from the fridge.
When the blond was having one of those blank moments, Tracy asked if he could use the bathroom. The host didn’t reply, but Tracy noticed the man wasn’t holding on to the handcuff. He got up and punched the man, knocking him off balance. Tracy raced to the door, with his captor at his heels, armed with a knife. Edwards swung around and punched the pursuer in the groin. Later, he would say that it was as if God himself guided his hand. Of all the 8 locks, he miraculously picked the only one locked, and the door swung open.
Confronting the Police
The officers didn’t take Tracy’s story seriously. They simply didn’t listen. A half-naked black man with a cuff on – for them, it was giggling material more than anything. At the time, racial and sexual tolerance was ebbing in Milwaukee. Putting it bluntly, the officers’ treatment of Tracy was nothing short of racist and homophobic. Even when the officers noticed the handcuffs, they didn’t think much of it. Their key didn’t work, too, and they were very much ready to roll their way, but Tracy didn’t back down. He kept pleading with them until one of the policemen finally caved in and followed Tracy back to the apartment block.
The Killer Exposed
It’s unimaginable what Tracy was feeling. Yet, the man must have had nerves of steel. Having endured over 5 hours in the apartment, he still had enough courage left to go up and confront the freak. The blond opened the door. “Come in, and I’ll take them off,” he said as if nothing had happened. Tracy ran downstairs and managed to drag Rauth and Mueller upstairs. The hospitable blond let them in. Right away, Tracy pressured the officers to look for the knife he was threatened with, and, sure enough, there it was, under the bed. The host didn’t offer any explanations, but he did say the key they were looking for was in the bedside dresser.
He made a move to go fetch it, but Officer Mueller told him to back off. Mueller entered the bedroom and noticed an open drawer with photos inside. He looked closer, and his eyes bulged. Mueller walked back to Rauth with the pictures in his hand. “These are for real,” he said. Rauth instantly pinned the blond to the ground and cuffed him. As if mimicking the last scene from “The Exorcist 3,” the man turned his head to the policemen and said: “For what I did I should be dead.”
The Horrific Discovery
One of the officers opened the fridge. “OH MY GOD! THERE’S A GODDAMN HEAD IN HERE! HE’S ONE SICK SON OF A BITCH!” he yelled. It was too much. They called for backup. The man arrested that night was Jeffrey Dahmer, a 31-year-old quiet chocolate factory worker. At home, however, he was cooking other meals altogether. The Criminal Investigation Bureau searched the apartment and came up with 4 severed heads in Dahmer’s kitchen, 2 entire human skeletons, 7 human skulls, and various body parts, including severed and preserved sets of male genitalia. In addition, the 57-gallon drum contained 3 dismembered torsos dissolving in the acid solution.
The Aftermath
The case instantly went public. The brutality of the murders, the boldness of the killer, and the racial problems of the city all created a powerful media whirlpool. Tracy Edwards survived the ordeal and was recognized as a hero who dragged the police up to the cannibal’s apartment. “He underestimated me. God sent me there to take care of the situation,” Tracy said. Edwards sued the city’s police department for not following up on earlier tips about Dahmer. After all, that could have prevented other deaths and his encounter with the cannibal.
Tracy’s Legal Battles and Downward Spiral
Edwards sought to be compensated with $5 million, but the suit was thrown out of Milwaukee court. He didn’t participate in the class action suit that the families of Dahmer’s victims filed against the killer. The families received about $500,000, but Edwards, the true hero of Dahmer’s story, was left with PTSD and nothing more. Tracy was utterly broken by the whole experience. Before meeting Dahmer, he had brushes with the law and had been charged with the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl. But in the following years, it went steadily downhill: drug possession, theft, property damage, failure to pay child support, and bail jumping.
Where Is Jeffrey Dahmer’s Survivor Tracy Edwards Now?
Finally, in 2002, he found himself living on the streets. As if that wasn’t enough, on July 26, 2011, just 4 days past the 20th anniversary of Dahmer’s arrest, Tracy was booked for murder. He and his friend, Timothy Carr, had a heated argument with Jonny Jordan, another homeless man. A witness at a gas station just across the street saw the three fighting on a bridge over the Milwaukee River and reported the incident after Jordan was pushed over the railing and fell 20 feet into the river below. Reportedly, Carr jumped after the man in an attempt to save his life, but it was too late.
The Final Chapter
The police never released the details of the case, but eventually, Tracy pled guilty and was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison and 2 years of extended supervision for aiding a felon. Carr got 4 years for recklessly endangering the victim. “It’s like Humpty Dumpty. It’s like he was never able to put the pieces back together again.” Could Tracy’s life have turned out any different if Milwaukee officials had treated him better? Definitely. Could the police have caught Dahmer long before Tracy entered the picture? Oh, yes. This blond made history as one of the cruelest people who ever walked the earth.
