Jeffrey Dahmer Had A Traumatic Childhood. Did It Turn Him Into A Serial Killer?
He is the Charming, Articulate, Mysterious, and Deadly serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is all over the media once again more than 30 years after his horrific crimes were revealed. But there is one common question that comes to our mind once we learn, that after doing the unspeakable to the victims he also cut up their bodies, ate the organs, and even kept them in his apartment. Why? What was going on in Jeffrey Dahmer’s Twisted Mind?
Jeffrey Dahmer’s parents had a toxic relationship
We have to go back to the beginning see, Jeffrey grew up with parents who always had screaming matches.
His mother had a history of mental illness:
The only time it would be quiet in the house was when his mother Joyce Would get knocked out by her anti-anxiety medication. While his father Lionel would go to work and would be gone for long hours to avoid his mother! They never talked to him to explain why they were fighting It didn`t help that he had a younger brother who would take what little attention he was getting.
Dahmer parents neglected him:
In this dysfunctional family, young Jeffrey Dahmer was always left alone to take care of himself and think for himself. Naturally, his feelings of neglect affected him. He was a quiet boy growing up! He kept his feelings to himself as he was used to. His abandonment issues were mixed with identity issues that no one knew about. He didn`t develop any interest or hobbies either until one day he showed interest in dead rodents found under their house.
What was Jeffrey Dahmer’s relationship with his father like?
His father got excited about this because as a research chemist himself, he thought that Jeffrey was becoming fascinated by science as well and so Lionel taught his son how to preserve dead animal bones. It became their father-and-son bonding moment. Little did Lionel know what he taught Jeffrey would become one of the twisted ways his son would disrespect his victims. Jeffrey was already thin about it as young as 13 years old and an adolescent with full libido. Jeffrey fantasized about male joggers in their community and planned on killing him with a bat. But the jogger didn`t run that day when Jeffrey was waiting for him. So Dahmer had to move on back to his dysfunctional household.
Jeffrey Dahmer’s parents divorce:
5 years later, his parents’ marriage ended in a messy divorce. His mother left in a rush, taking his little brother but not him. All while his father had to finish his doctorate in another state.
How Jeffrey Dahmer’s Alcohol Addiction Led to His Crimes:
Jeffrey who had become an underage alcoholic by this time was physically left all alone While it wasn`t new to him. His feelings of isolation went off the charts! This was when he started exercising full control of his life and his would-be victims.
Who Were the First Victims of Jeffrey Dahmer?
Because this is when he killed for the first time he invited a 19-year-old hitchhiker, Steven Hicks to the house to have drinks. But when Steven sensed something was wrong he tried to leave. But Dahmer refused to let him go. He didn’t want to be left alone anymore and so when Steven insisted.
How Jeffrey Dahmer killed his victims
Dahmer attacked him with a barbell and strangled him to death with it. Violated the corpse and he did what he knew how to do best dismember his body like the animals he collected. He dissected the body and buried the remains in their backyard. A few weeks later, he dug them up, took the bones, and dissolved the flesh in acid.
There was a 9-year gap between Jeffrey Dahmer’s first and second murders:
He wouldn’t kill again until 9 years later and during this time he joined the army and got dismissed because of his alcoholism.
Jeffrey Dahmer Grandma House Story:
He went to live in his grandma’s house. Dahmer was arrested several times. Twice for indecent exposure. He lived his fantasies through the dead. He dug up fresh corpses of young men. He loved that these dead bodies couldn’t say no to him. He could do anything he wanted to them. Best of all, they couldn’t leave him.
His grandma eventually kicked him out seeing his strange behaviour. He ended up in Milwaukee, where he continued living his fantasies but this time with men who were alive and did to them what he did with his first kill.
This time he drugged them first then put them in a zombie-like state by drilling holes into the men’s heads and filling them with boiling water or acid. This was Dahmer way of getting his victims to stay and have full control over them.
Why Did Jeffrey Dahmer Take Polaroid Photos of His Victims?
He took photos of them in different positions. He violated their bodies alive or dead. He then mutilated the corpses, drained the blood, ate some of the organs, and preserved their bones and other body parts like the heart, head, and genitals. Eating them and keeping them as souvenirs was Jeffrey Dahmer’s way of keeping those men with him forever.
Jeffrey Dahmer Almost Got Caught
Several times, Jeffrey Dahmer was almost caught but because of his calm demeanor, he was able to charm police officers sent to his place enough for them not to check. His arrest records and parole until one day he was finally caught when his last victim Tracy Edwards was able to escape and bring the police to him.
Read more: 10 shocking facts about Jeffrey Dahmer
What was inside Dahmer’s apartment?
What they found was an apartment full of pieces of people 17 men dead. The body parts of 11 of them were found in Jeffrey Dahmer’s apartment along with the photos he took documenting what he did with the bodies. He confessed to his crimes and even appeared in many interviews.
But the strangest thing about all of this? Jeffrey Dahmer never blamed his parents and his awful childhood for what he became. He even maintained that he had loving parents just like a normal person.
It was like he didn’t want to be one of these killers who had always been weird. If you see his interviews he talked so casually about his kills about what he did to the bodies. He seemed to want to give the impression that he was normal that what he did was just a regular thing that he wasn’t strange. It was probably his last attempt to belong to not be isolated. His last attempt was to not get abandoned.
Jeffrey Dahmer’s story is a reminder that we should be mindful of our children. Kids need attention, they need to know that they can speak and that they are heard. They need to know what’s going on in the family. When something is not right, they need to know that they can share their feelings because keeping all these feelings bottled up inside is never good for anyone, especially young minds.
