Jeffrey Dahmer profile

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Jeffrey Dahmer was responsible for a series of gruesome murders of 17 young men from 1988 until he was caught on July 22, 1991, in Milwaukee.

Dahmer's Childhood Years

Dahmer was born on May 21, 1960, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Lionel and Joyce Dahmer. From all accounts Dahmer was a happy child who enjoyed typical toddler activities. It was not until the age of six, after undergoing hernia surgery, that his personality began to change from a jubilant social child to a loner who was uncommunicative and withdrawn. His facial expressions transformed from childhood smiles to a motionless blank stare, a look which remained with him throughout his life.

Pre-Teen Years

In 1966, the Dahmers moved to Bath, Ohio. Dahmer's insecurities grew after the move and his shyness kept him from having many friends. While his peers were busy listening to the latest songs, Dahmer was busy collecting road kill and stripping the animal carcasses and saving the bones.

Other idle time was spent alone, buried deep inside his fantasies. His nonconfrontational attitude with his parents was considered an attribute yet in reality it was his apathy towards the real world that made him appear obedient.

Disturbing High School Years

Dahmer continued being a loner during his years at Revere High School. He had average grades, worked on the school newspaper and developed a bad drinking problem. His parents, possibly distracted from their own struggles, divorced when Jeff was almost 18. He remained living with his father who traveled a lot and was busy nurturing a relationship with his new wife.

After high school Dahmer enrolled at the Ohio State University and spent most of his time skipping classes and getting drunk. After two semesters he dropped out and returned home. His father issued him an ultimatum - get a job or join the Army. In 1979 he enlisted for six years into the Army, but his drinking continued and in 1981, after serving only two years, he was discharged because of his drunken behavior.

First Kill

Unknown to anyone, Jeffery Dahmer was mentally disintergrating. In June of 1988, he was struggling with his own homosexual desires, mixed with his need to act out his sadistic fantasies. Perhaps this struggle is what pushed him to pick up a hitchhiker, 19-year-old Steven Hicks. He invited Hicks to his father's home and the two drank and engaged in sex, but when Hicks was ready to leave Dahmer bashed him in the head with a barbell and killed him.

He then cut up the body, placing the parts in garbage bags, which he buried in the woods surrounding his father's property. Years later he returned and dug up the bags and crushed the bones and disbursed the remains around the woods. As insane as he had become, he had not lost site of the need to cover his murderous tracks. Later his explanation for killing Hicks was simply, he didn't want him to leave.

Prison Time

Dahmer spent the next six years living with his grandmother in West Allis, Wisconsin. He continued drinking heavily and stayed in trouble with the police. In August 1982, he was arrested after exposing himself at a state fair. In September 1986, he was arrested and charged with public exposure after masturbating in public. He served 10 months in jail, but was arrested soon after his release after sexually fondling a 13-year-old boy in Milwaukee. He was given five-years probation after convincing the judge that he needed therapy.

His father, unable to understand what was happening to his son, continued to stand by him, making certain he had good legal councel. He also began to accept that there was little he could do to help the demons which seemed to rule Dahmer's behavior. He realized that his son was missing a most basic human element - a conscience.

Murder Spree

In September 1987, while on probation on the molestation charges, Dahmer met 26-year-old Steven Toumi and the two spent the night drinking heavily and cruising gay bars, then went to a hotel room. When Dahmer awoke from his drunken stupor he found Toumi dead.

Dahmer put Toumi's body into a suitcase which he took to his grandmother's basement. There he discarded the body in the garbage after dismembering it, but not before gratifying his sexual necrophilia desires.

Passive Sex

Unlike most serial killers, who kill then move on to find another victim, Dahmer's fantasies included a series of crimes against the corpse of his victims, or what he referred to as passive sex. This became part of his regular pattern and possibly the one obsession that pushed him to kill.

On His Own

Killing his victims in his grandmother's basement was becoming increasingly difficult to hide. He was working as a mixer at Ambrosia Chocolate Factory and could afford a small apartment, so in September 1988, he got a one bedroom apartment on North 24th St. in Milwaukee.

Dahmer's Ritual

Dahmer's killing spree continued and for most of his victims the scene was the same. He would meet them at a gay bar or mall and entice them with free alcohol and money if they agreed to pose for photographs. Once alone, he would drug them, sometimes torture them and then kill them usually by strangulation. He would then masturbate over the corpse or have sex with the corpse, cut the body up and get rid of the remains. He also kept parts of the bodies including the skulls, which he would clean much like he did with his childhood road kill collection and often refrigerated organs which he would on occasion eat.

Known Victims

Name - Age - Date Murdered

• Stephen Hicks - 18 - June, 1978
• Steven Tuomi - 26 - September, 1987
• Jamie Doxtator - 14 - October, 1987
• Richard Guerrero - 25 - March, 1988
• Anthony Sears - 24 - February, 1989
• Eddie Smith - 36 - June, 1990
• Ricky Beeks - 27 - July, 1990
• Ernest Miller - 22 - September, 1990
• David Thomas - 23 - September, 1990
• Curtis Straughter - 16 - February, 1991
• Errol Lindsey - 19 - April, 1991
• Tony Hughes - 31 - May 24, 1991
• Konerak Sinthasomphone - 14 - May 27, 1991
• Matt Turner - 20 - June 30, 1991
• Jeremiah Weinberger - 23 - July 5, 1991
• Oliver Lacy - 23 - July 12, 1991
• Joseph Bradeholt - 25 - July 19, 1991

A Near Escape

His murdering activity continued uninterrupted until an incident in May 27, 1991. His 13th victim was 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone, who was also the younger brother of the boy Dahmer was convicted of molesting in 1989.

Early in the morning the young Sinthasomphone was seen wondering the street nude and disoriented. When police arrived on the scene there were paramedics, two women who were standing close to the confused Sinthasomphone and Jeffrey Dahmer. Dahmer told police that Sinthasomphone was his 19-year-old lover who had become drunk and the two had quarreled.

The police escorted Dahmer and the boy back to Dahmer's apartment, much against the protest of the women who had witnessed Sinthasomphone fighting off Dahmer before the police had arrived.

The police found Dahmer's apartment neat and other than noticing an unpleasant smell nothing seemed amiss. They left Sinthasomphone under Dahmer's care.

Later the police, John Balcerzak and Joseph Gabrish, joked with their dispatcher about reuniting the lovers. Within hours Dahmer killed Sinthasomphone and performed his usual ritual on the body.

The Killing Escalates

In June and July 1991, Dahmer's killing had escalated to one a week until July 22, when Dahmer was unable to hold captive his 18th victim, Tracy Edwards.

According to Edwards, Dahmer tried to handcuff him and the two struggled. Edwards escaped and was spotted at around midnight by police, with the handcuff dangling from his wrist. Assuming he had somehow escaped from the authorities the police stopped him. Edwards immediately told them about his encounter with Dahmer and led them to his apartment.

Dahmer opened his door to the officers and answered their questions calmly. He agreed to turn over the key to unlock Edwards's handcuffs and moved to the bedroom to get it. One of the officers went with him and as he glanced around the room he noticed photographs of what appeared to be parts of bodies and a refrigerator full of human skulls.

They decided to place Dahmer under arrest and attempted to handcuff him, but his calm demeanor changed and he began to fight and struggle unsuccessfully to get away. With Dahmer under control the police then began their initial search of the apartment and soon discovered skulls and other various body parts along with an extensive photo collection Dahmer had taken documenting his crimes.

The Crime Scene

The details of what was found in Dahmer's apartment were horrific, matching only to his confessions as to what he did to his victims.

Items found in Dahmer's apartment included:

• A human head and three bags of organs, two being a heart were found in the refrigerator.

• Three heads, a torso and various internal organs were inside a free-standing freezer.

• Chemicals, formaldehyde, ether, and chloroform plus two skulls, two hands and male genitalia were found in the closet.

• A filing cabinet which contained three painted skulls, a skeleton, a dried scalp, male genitalia, and various photographs of his victims.

• A box with two skulls inside.

• A 57-gallon vat filled with acid and three torsos.

• Victims' identification.

• Bleach used to bleach the skulls and bones.

• Incense sticks. Neighbors often complained to Dahmer about the smell coming from his apartment.

• Tools - Claw hammer, handsaw, 3/8" drill, 1/16" drill, drill bits.

• A hypodermic needle.

• Various videos, some pornographic.

• Blood soaked mattress and blood splatters.

• King James Bible.

The Trial

Jeffrey Dahmer was indicted on 17 murder charges which were later reduced to 15. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Much of the testimony was based on Dahmer's 160-page confession and from various witnesses who testified that Dahmer's necrophilia urges were so strong that he was not in control of his actions. The defense sought to prove that he was in control and capable of planning, manipulating, then covering up his crimes.

The jury deliberated for five hours and returned a verdict of guilty on 15 counts of murder. Dahmer was sentenced to 15 life terms, a total of 937 years in prison. At his sentencing Dahmer calmly read his four page statement to the court. He apologized for his crimes and 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."

Life Sentence

Dahmer was sent to the Columbia Correctional Institute in Portage, Wisconsin. At first he was separated from the general prison population for his own safety. But by all reports he was considered a model prisoner who had adjusted well to prison life and was a self-proclaimed born-again Christian. Gradually he was permitted to have some contact with other inmates.

Murdered

On November 28, 1994, Dahmer and inmate Jesse Anderson were beaten to death by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver while on work detail in the prison gym. Anderson was in prison for killing his wife and Scarver was a schizophrenic convicted first-degree murder. The guards for unknown reasons left the three alone only to return 20 minutes later to find Anderson dead and Dahmer dying from severe head trauma. Dahmer died in the ambulance before reaching the hospital.

Fighting Over Dahmer's Brain

In Dahmer's will he had requested upon his death that his body be cremated as soon as possible, but some medical researches wanted his brain preserved so it could be studied. Lionel Dahmer wanted to respect his son's wishes and cremate all remains of his son. His mother felt his brain should go to research. The two parents went to court and a judge sided with Lionel. After over a year Dahmer's body was released from being held as evidence and he was cremated as he had wished.

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Westley Allen Dodd - Child Serial Killer and Child Molester

Westley Allan Dodd

In 1989, Westley Allen Dodd sexually assaulted and killed three boys ages 11, 10 and four. His methods were so heinous, forensic psychologists dubbed him one of the most evil killers in history.

Westley Allan Dodd - His Childhood Years

Westley Allan Dodd was born in Washington State on July 3, 1961. Dodd grew up in what has been described as a loveless home and was often neglected by his parents in favor of his two younger brothers.

A Child Molesting Children

At age 13, Dobbs began exposing himself to children passing by his house. Realizing the dangers of getting caught, he began bicycling around the streets looking for opportunities to expose himself. His parents, distracted by their own problems of getting divorced, were aware of Dodd's strange sexual behavior, but avoided confronting the boy about it or getting him help.

Even less attention was given to Westley after his parents divorced. His desires expanded from exhibitionism to physical contact. He first molested those closest to him. His younger cousins, ages six and eight and the child of a woman his father was dating, became regular victims of his growing perversions.

Entrusted Caretaker of Children

Dodd grew up to be good-looking, fairly intelligent and personable teenager. These qualities helped him in finding part-time jobs where he was entrusted with the care of children.

He would often baby-sit for his neighbors, seizing the private time to molest the children he was caring for as they slept.

He worked as a camp counselor during the summer months, taking advantage of children's trust and admiration for him. Dodd spent most of his teen years devising new and better ways to abuse children, putting any child that came near him at potential risk of being abused.

He learned how to combine the adult persona with a sense of conspiratorial camaraderie to completely control his young, innocent victims. He could cajole them into playing doctor, or dare them to go skinny-dipping with him. He took advantage of their natural curiosity and often normalized what he did by offering it as a "grown up treat". But Dodd could not master not being caught. On the contrary, he got caught a lot molesting kids, starting with his first arrest at 15 for exposing himself. Tragically nothing much was ever done, but to remand him to professional counseling.

Refining Techniques

The older he got the more desperate he was to find victims. He discovered he could use more force and less cajoling and began approaching children in parks, demanding that they follow him into a secluded area or that they remove their clothing.

In 1981, after a failed attempt to capture two little girls which was reported to the police, Dobbs joined the Navy. That did not stop his pedophiliac desires which were growing into sadistic fantasies. While stationed in Washington he began hunting children who lived on the base. He prowled the nearby movie theater rest rooms and arcades in his spare time.

A Failed System

After the Navy he got a job at a paper mill. His debased proclivities never ceased to occupy most of his thoughts and purpose. Once he offered a group of boys $50 to accompany him to a nearby motel to play strip poker. He was arrested, but the charges were dropped even though he admitted his intentions to molest them to the authorities. Not much later he was arrested again for an attempted molestation and served 19 days in jail and was again ordered to seek counseling.

This wouldn't be the last time Dodd was caught. In fact, it could almost appear as if he wanted to be caught after being arrested several other times for assaulting the children of friends and neighbors. But as usual, Dobb's penalties rarely added up to any real jail time because many parents were reluctant to put their traumatized child through the court system.

In the meantime, Dodd's fantasies were escalating and he began to carefully plan his attacks. He kept a diary, filling its pages with his morbid fantasies of what he would like to do to his future victims.

Diary Excerpts

"Incident 3 will die maybe this way: He'll be tied down as Lee was in Incident 2. Instead of placing a bag over his head as had previously planned, I'll tape his mouth shut with duct tape. Then, when ready, I'll use a clothespin or something to plug his nose. That way I can sit back, take pictures and watch him die instead of concentrating on my hands or the rope tight around his neck -- that would also eliminate the rope burns on the neck . . . I can clearly see his face and eyes now..."

"He suspects nothing now. Will probably wait until morning to kill him. That way his body will be fairly fresh for experiments after work. I'll suffocate him in his sleep when I wake up for work (if I sleep)."

The Crimes

Possibly the fact that he had now molested about 30 children with impunity helped Westley go a step further towards violence. His yearnings became increasingly difficult to control, and his fantasies darker. He went from sketching torture racks to actually building one. He stopped cajoling and persuading and began ordering. He began to tie up his victims. He became consumed with thoughts of torture, mutilation and cannibalism.

The Desire to Kill

In 1987, at age 26, he could no longer ignore his desires to kill his victims. He made up his mind to do it. His first attempt failed when the eight-year-old boy Dobb's lured into the woods managed to escape back to where his mother sat.

He told his mother to call the police and Dodd was apprehended. Dobb received yet another slap on the wrist, in spite of the fact that prosecutors stressed his history of sex crimes. He served 118 days in jail and one year probation.

His fantasies sunk to new depths, and he began to depersonalize his targets, thinking of them as "it", rather than he or she. He wrote in his dairy "if I can just get it home...".

On Labor Day weekend at David Douglas Park, he hid beside a trail. His plans were frustrated by hikers, watchful parents and by the whimsy of the children themselves, who would come tantalizingly close, only to dart down a side path or skip back the other way from where he hid.

Dobb gave up, but returned to the park in the early evening hours, this time determined not to fail. Dobb gave up, but the pressure to indulge his perverse and twisted desire to molest and kill a young child was overpowering and he returned to the park in the early evening hours, determined not to fail.

The Neer Brothers

Billy, 10, and his big brother Cole, 11, were late getting home from collecting golf balls from the local golf course, so decided to take the short cut through the park. They came upon Dodd, blocking their way on the dirt trail. Dodd did not waste time and ordered the boys to follow him. The boys did as instructed, possibly out of fear when realizing the usually busy park was deserted so late in the day.

Once off the trail it took Dodd only 20 minutes to molest the boys, stab them and clean up the evidence. Cole took most of the abuse, probably in an attempt to save his younger brother, but nothing could save either boy from the pure evil which possessed Dodd. Dobb slashed at the boys and believing both boys were dead, he took off.

Billy was found first, still alive, but he would die shortly after after being taken to the hospital. Cole's body was found several hours later after the Neers reported that their sons were missing and authorities knew to look for a second child.

At first Dodd worried that police would somehow link him to the murder of the Neer brothers, but Dodd's unspeakable lusts were only heightened by his successful kills. His monstrous thoughts reached new depths of depravity. He pondered the greater thrill of castrating a young boy and watching the child bleed to death, or to keep him alive so that Dodd could cook the victims genitals in front of him and force feed them to the child. Possibly, he considered, the terror would actually be worse if Dodd himself ate them in front of their previous owner.

Lee Iseli

When Dodd realized that the police had no leads in the murders of the Neer boys, he began to plan his next move. He drove across the bridge to Portland, Oregon and cruised the parks and playgrounds, having some near misses. He finally went to a movie theater, but no opportunity to abduct a child presented itself. The next day he went to Richmond School Playground. Some older kids were playing football, but he noticed four-year-old Lee Iseli playing alone on a slide.

Dodd asked little Lee if he wanted to have some fun and make some money. Lee - who had been taught not to talk to strangers - said no, but Dodd grabbed his hand and started toward his car. When Lee began to resist, Dodd told him not to worry, that Lee's father had sent Dodd to pick him up.

Inside Dodd's apartment, Lee was subjected to unimaginable acts of abuse and torture, all carefully documented by Dobbs with pictures and entries in his diary. The morning after his capture, Dobbs hung Lee Iseli to death in his closet before heading off to work. He took photographs of the little boy dying and hanging dead, hid the body behind some blankets and left.

After work he made an entry in his diary that he would, "have to find a place to dump the garbage," meaning the tiny tortured body of Lee Iseli. He decided to leave the boy by the Van Couver Lake and burn any evidence, accept for the child's Ghostbusters underpants.

Robert Iseli, Lee's father, still had hope. Although Lee had been missing for several days, Mr. Iseli made a public statement expressing the hope that Lee had been taken by a lonely, but kindly person, but on the morning of November 1, 1989, all hope ended after the body of Lee Iseli was found.

Capture and Confession

Dodd, avoiding the local parks, decided that movie theaters would be a good place to hunt his next victim. He went to the New Liberty Theater, and waited for a young child to go unattended to the restroom. He managed to get the screaming six year old boy outside, but was captured by William Ray Graves, the boyfriend of the child's mother.

Dodd was interrogated by police from Washington and Oregon, as a suspect in the murders of the Neer brothers and Lee Iseli. At first he denied any knowledge and maintained that he only meant to molest the child from the theater. Then his whole attitude changed and he confessed to the murders, delighting in revealing the shocking details. He directed police to his diary, Lee Iseli's Ghostbusters briefs, the incriminating photos and the unused torture rack.

Trial and Prosecution

Dodd was charged with three counts of first degree murder plus the attempted kidnapping from the New Liberty Theater. Against his lawyers advice, he pleaded not guilty, but later changed that to guilty. It was up to a jury to decide the penalty.

The district attorney made it clear the verdict he expected. He told the jury, "He planned child murders. He committed child murders. He relived and fantasized child murders. With life in prison without possibility of parole, two of those things are still available to him". The jury was then shown the diary, pictures and other evidence.

Dobb's defense called no witnesses and presented no evidence. Dodd's attorney, Lee Dane, did offer that no sane person would be capable of these heinous crimes. Dodd received the death sentence on July 15, 1990.

No Appeals

Dodd refused to appeal his death penalty and chose hanging as the method of execution, claiming he wanted to experience what Lee Iseli had experienced. He told the court, "I must be executed before I have an opportunity to escape or kill someone within the prison. If I do escape, I promise you I will kill and rape and enjoy every minute of it."

When You Meet a Stranger

His date of execution was set for January 5, 1993. He received a lot of attention, because no legal hanging had been done in the U.S. since 1965.

Dodd enjoyed telling his story to the media and he wrote a pamphlet on how to avoid child molesters entitled "When You Meet a Stranger."

During the months before his execution, Dobbs seemingly turned to the Bible for comfort. During one of his interviews he said, "I believe what the Bible teaches: I'll go to Heaven. I have doubts, but I'd really like to believe that I would be able to go up to the three little boys and give them a hug and tell them how sorry I was and be able to love them with a real true love and have no desire to hurt them in any way."

Last Words

Westley Allan Dodd was executed at 12:05 a.m. on June 5, 1993. His final statement was, "I was once asked by somebody, I don't remember who, if there was any way sex offenders could be stopped. I said, `No.' I was wrong. I was wrong when I said there was no hope, no peace. There is hope. There is peace. I found both in the Lord, Jesus Christ. Look to the Lord, and you will find peace." There were no apologies for his crimes, no obvious look of remorse. Outside the prison those who were in support of the execution could be heard chanting rhymes like "What the heck stretch his neck" while the non-supporters wept at the news that his execution had gone on as planned.

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