Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer

Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer

Born: May 21, 1960
- West Allis, WI

Died: November 28, 1994 (Age 34)
- Beaten to death by a fellow inmate (Christopher Scarver)

# of Victims: 17

Span of Killing: 1978-1991 – OH, WI

EARLY LIFE

-          Mother had a difficult pregnancy

-          Age of 8, family moved to Bath, OH, where he attended Revere High School

-          Early childhood was reportedly “normal”

-          He grew increasingly un-communicative between the ages of 10 and 15

-          He showed little interest in hobbies or social interactions

-          He biked around his neighborhood looking for dead animals, which he dissected at home.

• He once even went so far as to place a dog’s head on a stick

-          He began drinking in his teens and became an alcoholic by his high-school graduation

-          In 1977, his parents divorced

-          He attended Ohio State University, but dropped out after one quarter, having failed most of his classes

• He spent most of his time there drunk

-          His dad forced him to join the military

• He did well at first, but was discharged due to alcoholism

-          When he was discharged in 1981, he had a ticket to go anywhere in the country

• He went to Miami Beach, FL; He wanted to avoid the cold winters of WI and OH, and he was desperate to avoid his father

-          He spent the majority of his time in Florida in the hospital, but was kicked out for drinking

-          He went back to OH, but continued to drink heavily and was arrested for disorderly conduct in 1981

-          In 1982, he moved in with his grandmother in West Allis, WI

• He lived here for six years; During his time here, his behavior grew increasingly strange:
  • His grandmother found a fully dressed male mannequin in his closet that he had stolen from a store, and a .357 Magnum underneath his bed
  • Terrible smells came from the basement where he lived; Dahmer told his father that he had dissolved a squirrel in chemicals

-          He was arrested twice for indecent exposure; once for masturbating in front of two boys

-          In 1988, his grandmother asked him to leave because of his late nights, strange behavior, and the disgusting smells

-          He found an apartment on Milwaukee’s West side, closer to his job at the Ambrosia Chocolate Factory

-          On September 26, 1988, one day after moving into his apartment, he was arrested for drugging and sexually fondling a 13-year-old boy

• He was sentenced to probation, and one year in a work-release camp
• He was also required to register as a sex offender

-          He was paroled from work-release two months early, and moved into a new apartment where he began a string of murders that led to his arrest in 1991

MURDER CHARACTERISTICS

-          Bludgeoning

-          Dismemberment

-          Cannibalism

All of the above are signs of repressed homosexuality

KNOWN VICTIMS

-          June 6, 1978 – Stephen Hicks (Age 19)

-          September 15, 1987 – Steven Tuomi (Age 26)

-          January 1988 – Jamie Doxtator (Age 14)

-          March 24, 1988 – Richard Guererro (Age 25)

-          March 25, 1989 – Anthony Sears (Age 24)

-          June 1990 – Eddie Smith (Age 36)

-          July 1990 – Ricky Beeks (Age 27)

-          September 1990 – Ernest Miller (Age 22) and David Thomas (Age 23)

-          February 1991 – Curtis Straughter (Age 19)

-          April 1991 – Errol Lindsay (Age 19)

-          May 24, 1991 – Tony Hughes (Age 31)

-          May 27, 1991 – Konerak Sinthasomphone (Age 14)

-          June 30, 1991 – Matt Turner (Age 20)

-          July 5, 1991 – Jeremiah Weinberger (Age 23)

-          July 12, 1991 – Oliver Lacy (Age 23)

-          July 19, 1991 – Joseph Bradehoff (Age 25)

JEFFREY DAHMER TALKS ABOUT CANNIBALISM –

Hannibal Lecter

Hannibal Lecter, M.D.

((Fictional character from the novels Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, and Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris. Also in the movies Manhunter (Brian Cox), Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal (Anthony Hopkins),  and Hannibal Rising (Gaspard Ulliel)

Born: January 20, 1933
Aliases: Lloyd Wyman, Dr. Fell, Mr. Closter
Nicknames: Hannibal the Cannibal, The Chesapeake Ripper
# of Victims: 29+

Hannibal starts killing due to a traumatic experience during his teen years. During a war where he lived, he and his sister, Mischa, were captured by fleeing criminals. When the criminals had nothing left to eat, they decided that it was a good idea to eat Mischa, because she was smaller and weaker than Hannibal. They did so, leaving Hannibal traumatized. Later in life, he went on a hunt for the men who ate his sister, finding them, killing them, and filleting their cheeks. After this was over, he just couldn’t stop killing. What started as revenge had become an addiction for him, and he couldn’t stop eating human flesh.

Hannibal is known for his extremely violent physical and emotional torture methods, and he is very big into piquerism and cannibalism, like Albert Fish.

Hannibal Lecter: “First principles, Clarice. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature? What does he do, this man you seek?”
Clarice Starling: “He kills women…”
Hannibal Lecter: “No. That is incidental. What is the first and principal thing he does? What needs does he serve by killing?”
Clarice Starling: “Anger, um, social acceptance, and, huh, sexual frustrations, sir…”
Hannibal Lecter: “No! He covets. That is his nature. And how do we begin to covet, Clarice? Do we seek out things to covet? Make an effort to answer now.”
Clarice Starling: “No. We just…”
Hannibal Lecter: “No. We begin by coveting what we see every day.”

WARNING – VIDEO MAY NOT BE APPROPRIATE FOR PEOPLE UNDER THE AGE OF 13

Ein Männlein steht im Walde -

German
Ein Männlein steht im Walde ganz still und stumm,
Es hat von lauter Purpur ein Mäntlein um.
Sagt, wer mag das Männlein sein,
Das da steht im Wald allein
Mit dem purpurroten Mäntelein.

Das Männlein steht im Walde auf einem Bein
Und hat auf seinem Haupte schwarz Käpplein klein,
Sagt, wer mag das Männlein sein,
Das da steht im Wald allein
Mit dem kleinen schwarzen Käppelein?

English
A little man stands in the woods, quiet and mute
He wears a purple little coat,
Tell me, who may be the little man,
Who stands in the woods all alone,
With his purple little coat.

The little man stands on only one leg,
And has a little black cap on his head,
Tell me, who may be the little man,
Who stands in the woods all alone
With his little black cap.

Dexter Morgan

Dexter Morgan
(Fictional character; from Novels Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Dearly Devoted Dexter, Dexter in the Dark, and Dexter by Design by Jeff Lindsay*; also in the Showtime TV series Dexter, played by Michael C. Hall)

Occupation: Blood Splatter Analyst for the Miami – Metro Police Department

LIFE STORY

When Dexter was three, he and his older brother Brian witnessed their mother and three other people being brutally murdered by drug dealers, and were left sitting covered in blood and surrounded by four dismembered corpses for days. Harry Morgan took Dexter from the scene and adopted him, while Brian was sent to a mental institution for disturbed children. Both boys grew up to be serial killers, but Dexter was raised with morals.

Harry began to teach Dexter how to be a cautious, meticulous, and efficient killer after he discovered the remains of the neighborhood pets Dexter had been killing. Harry suspected that Dexter was a Sociopath with an innate need to kill, and taught Dexter to force his violent tendencies towards a positive cause; killing other killers.

Not only did Harry teach Dexter to kill efficiently, he also taught him to live a lifestyle that would keep suspicion away from him. He taught Dexter to fake emotions and to give people the reactions they would expect from a normal person, even though he never truly felt any of it. In the end, Harry gave Dexter a system of ethical principles that Dexter grows to call the “Code of Harry.”

Dexter killed his first victim at the age of 19, when his father, dying of coronary artery disease, gave him “permission” to kill a nurse that had been killing people in the hospital with overdoses of Morphine.

PSYCHOLOGICAL MAP

Dexter is driven to kill by an inner voice he likes to call the “Dark Passenger.” When that voice can no longer be controlled, he “lets ‘the Dark Passenger’ do the driving.” – This is very reminiscent of what Ted Bundy said about his other half, “The Entity.” He claimed that all of the darkness inside him was pushed into “The Entity” and when it could no longer be controlled, he was forced to let it take over.

He explains his “code” in the TV show as: “My intention was never to save lives, but save lives I did.”

Dexter considers himself emotionally “divorced” from the rest of humanity, and he often refers to humans as though he isn’t one himself. He makes frequent references to an internal “emptiness,” and says that he kills to feel alive.

He has no interest in romance, and claims that he only uses his girlfriend as a cover for what he is. He does, however, show that he is capable of feeling; he says once that “If I were capable of love, how I would have loved Harry.”

Dexter likes children. He won’t hurt them, and if someone has killed children, he becomes even more violent in killing them than he would normally be.

“1 in 25 ordinary Americans secretly has no consience and can do anything at all without feeling guilty.” – Martha Stout, Ph.D.

Least Expected…

This was just so fitting. I had to post it.

Theodore Robert Bundy

Theodore Robert Bundy

Born as: Theodore Robert Cowell
Aliases: Chris Hagen, Richard Burton, Officer Roseland, Rolf Miller

Born: November 24, 1946
Burlington, Vermont

Died: January 24, 1989
(Age 42) by electric chair

# of Victims: 26-35+

Span of Killing: 1973 – 1978; Washington, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Florida

EARLY LIFE

-          Father unknown

-          Mother claimed to be seduced by “Jack Worthington”

-          His mother was abused by her father

-          His grandparents claimed him as their son to avoid social stigma

-          He grew up thinking that his mother was his older sister

-          Learned that Louise (the “sister”) was actually his mother in high school OR in 1969 following a traumatic breakup with his college girlfriend

-          Lived with his “sister” in Philadelphia for the first few years of his life, then moved to Tacoma. His name was changed from Cowell to Nelson for unknown reasons

-          Louise married Johnny Culpepper Bundy in 1951, and he adopted Ted

-          Ted remained emotionally detached from Johnny, despite his efforts to be a father to Ted

-          Ted was a good student in High School, and was religious (Methodist); also in the Boy Scouts

-          Introverted through high school and early college years

-          Claimed to have “hit a wall” in high school and was unable to understand social behavior; he maintained a façade of social activity, but had no natural sense of how to get along with people

• “I didn’t know what made things tick. I didn’t know what made people want to be friends. I didn’t know what made people attractive to one another. I didn’t know what underlay social interactions.” – TED BUNDY

-          Ted was a compulsive thief, and a shoplifter

-          He spoke of something called “The Entity”; the side of him that was all of the “evil” or “bad” thoughts. – this is a sign of early self-induced dissociative identity disorder.

-          He searched libraries for books on crime that featured pictures of dead bodies and violent sexuality

-          He was arrested twice as a juvenile, and the records were expunged

UNIVERSITY YEARS

-          Ted took courses in psychology and oriental studies

-          He worked as a grocery bagger and shelf-stocker at a Safeway in Seattle

-          He later worked as a night-shift on the suicide hotline

-          He worked with Ann Rule, who later wrote a biography of him

-          His college girlfriend, Stephanie Brooks, broke his heart because he was too “immature” for her, and she was going to higher places than he was

-          Ted became very depressed, and dropped out of college

-          Uncovered the truth of his parentage?

-          After a bit, he became more focused and dominant

-          He got back into college, and majored in psychology again

-          He moved to where Stephanie was, made her fall back in love with him, and then broke her heart as a way of coping with the past breakup

-          He went to prison for the attempted kidnapping of a 13 year old girl (1976)

-          He got his degree in psychology

-          He started a murderous rampage

LIST OF KNOWN VICTIMS

-          1973

• MAY – Unknown hitchhiker
  • Tumwater, WA
  • NO REMAINS FOUND

-          1974

• JANUARY 4 – Joni Lenz
  • University of WA
  • Age 18
  • SURVIVED (Bludgeoned in her sleep)
  • FEBRUARY 1 – Lynda Ann Healy
    • University of WA
    • Age 21
    • BLUDGEONED WHILE SLEEPING
  • MARCH 12 – Donna Gail Manson
    • Olympia, WA
    • Age 19
    • Abducted
    • NO REMAINS FOUND
  • APRIL 17 – Susan Elaine Rancourt
    • WA State College
    • Age 18
    • NO REMAINS FOUND
  • MAY 6 – Roberta Kathleen Parks
    • OR State University
    • Age 22
    • NO REMAINS FOUND
  • JUNE 1 – Brenda Carol Ball
    • Burien, WA
    • Age 22
    • NO REMAINS FOUND
  • JUNE 11 – Georgeann Hawkins
    • University of WA
    • NO REMAINS FOUND
  • JULY 14 – Janice Ann Ott and Denise Marie Naslund
    • Ages 23 and 19
    • NO REMAINS FOUND
  • SEPTEMBER 2 – Unknown hitchhiker
    • ID
    • NO REMAINS FOUND
  • OCTOBER 2 – Nancy Wilcox
    • Age 16
    • Holladay, UT
    • NO REMAINS FOUND
  • OCTOBER 18 – Melissa Smith
    • Age 17
    • Midvale, UT
    • NO REMAINS FOUND
  • OCTOBER 31 – Laura Aime
    • Age 17
    • Lehi, UT
    • ABDUCTED FROM A HOLLOWEEN PARTY – NEVER FOUND
  • NOVEMBER 8 – Carol DaRonch
    • Murray, UT
    • SURVIVED (Jumped out of his car and ran for it)
  • NOVEMBER 8 – Debra Kent
    • Age 17
    • Bountiful, UT
    • KNEE CAP FOUND

-          1975

• JANUARY 12 – Caryn Campbell
  • Age 23
  • Snowmass, CO
  • NO REMAINS FOUND
  • MARCH 15 – Julie Cunningham
    • Age 26
    • Vail, CO
    • NO REMAINS FOUND
  • APRIL 6 – Denise Oliverson
    • Age 25
    • Grand Junction, CO
    • NO REMAINS FOUND
  • MAY 6 – Lynette Culver
    • Age 13
    • Potacello, ID
    • NO REMAINS FOUND
  • JUNE 28 – Susan Curtis
    • Age 15
    • Provo, UT
    • NO REMAINS FOUND

-          1978

• JANUARY 15 – Lisa Levy, Margaret Bowman, Karen Chandler, Kathy Deshields, and Cheryl Thomas
  • Ages 20 (Lisa) and 21(Margaret)
  • Karen, Kathy, and Cheryl – SURVIVED
  • Chi Omega Sorority House, FL
  • FEBRUARY 9 – Kimberly Leach
    • Age 12
    • Lake City, FL
    • RAPED AND MURDERED – FOUND IN A DITCH

All of the above listed victims were very similar in appearance to his ex-girlfriend, Stephanie. An obvious link can be made as to the psychological reasons for this. Ted realized his demise was near after the Chi Omega killings, and began to become more careless, almost as if he wanted to be caught. Ted was killed in the electric chair on January 24, 1989 at age 42 for the Chi Omega and Kimberly Leach cases.

Warning Signs…

Warning Signs of Serial Killers in Childhood:

1. ENURESIS (Bed wetting)

2. PYROMANIA (Fire starting)

“Oh, what ecstasy setting fires brings to my body! What power I feel at the thought of fire… Oh, what a pleasure, what a heavenly pleasure! I see the flames and no longer is the fire just a daydream. It is the reality of Heaven on Earth! I love the excitement of the power fire gives me… the mental image is greater than sex!”

-          Joseph Kallinger

3. PRECOCIOUS SADISM (Animal torture)

“I found a dog and cut it open just to see what the insides looked like, and then for some reason I thought it would be a fun prank to stick the head on a stake and set it out in the woods.”

-          Jeffrey Dahmer

Ten General Traits Observed by the BSU…

Ten General Traits of Serial Killers Observed by the BSU (Behavioral Sciences Unit):

1. Most are single white males
2. They tend to be smart, with a mean IQ of “bright normal”
3. Despite their intelligence, they do poorly in school, have spotty employment records, and generally end up as unskilled workers
4. They come from deeply troubled families
   1. Typically they have been abandoned at an early age by their fathers and grow up in broken homes dominated by their mothers
5. There is a long history of psychiatric problems, criminal behavior, and alcoholism in their families
6. As children they suffer from significant abuse
   1. Sometimes psychological, sometimes physical, often sexual
   2. Such brutal mistreatment instills them with profound feelings of humiliation and helplessness
7. Because of their resentment toward their distant, absent, or abusive fathers, they have a great deal of trouble with male authority figures, and because they were dominated by their mothers, they have a powerful hostility toward women
8. They manifest psychiatric problems at an early age and often spend time in institutions as children
9. Because of their extreme social isolation and a general hatred of the world and everyone in it (including themselves), they often feel suicidal as teenagers
10. They show a precocious and abiding interest in deviant sexuality and are obsessed with fetishism, voyeurism, and violent pornography

Psychopath VS Psychotic

Psychopath VS Psychotic:

Psychopaths: The Mask of Sanity

-          Knows right from wrong

-          Rational

-          Often highly intelligent

-          Capable of great charm

-          Seem normal

-          Lack empathy

-          Incapable of love/caring/regret

-          People are objects for them to use

-          Outstandingly selfish

-          Egotistical

-          Deceitful

-          No guilt

-          No remorse

EXAMPLE:

Jeffrey Dahmer; a victim escaped, handcuffed and bleeding. He calmly talked the police into returning the boy to his custody, after which he took the boy to his basement, killed and ate him.

Psychotics: The Living Nightmare

Psychosis: A severe mental illness characterized by some degree of personality disintegration.

-          Hallucinations

-          Delusions

-          Bizarre beliefs

-          Great amounts of emotion/overly emotional

-          Seem very out of their minds/”crazy”

EXAMPLE:

“You see, the thing is, people get together, say, in the White House. People like to sing the die song, you know, people like to sing the die song. If I am president of my class when I graduate from high school, I can tell two, possibly three young male homosapiens to die. I can sing that song to them and they’ll have to kill themselves or be killed – an automobile accident, a knifing, a gunshot wound. You ask me why this is? And I say, well they have to do that in order to protect the ground from an earthquake because all of the other people in the community had been dying all year long, and my class, we have to chip in so to speak to the darkness, we have to die also. And people would rather sing the die song than murder.”

Herbert Mullin, Paranoid Schizophrenic (13 victims)

Simple Differentiation…

Simple way to differentiate between Mass, Serial, and Spree Murderers:

MOTIVE/INTENT –

1. Mass…
   1. Rage about an unraveling life.
      1. i. Often described as “human time bombs.”
2. Serial…
   1. a. Sexual depravation or abuse.
      1. i. Completely controlled by the subconscious mind.
3. Spree…
   1. Revenge.
   2. A person who has lost everything and sees their life as being over.
      1. i. Often, they will not stop until they die or are locked away forever.

The Definition of a Serial Killer

Definition of a Serial Killer (FBI):

“Three or more separate events, in three or more separate locations, with an emotional ‘cooling-off period’ between homicides.”

-FBI Crime Classification Manual (1992)

FBI Definition’s three elements –

1. Quantity…
   1. There must be at least three murders.
2. Place…
   1. The murders must take place at different locations.
3. Time…
   1. There must be a “cooling-off period” – an interval between the murders that can last anywhere from several hours to several years.

The second and third elements are meant to differentiate from “Mass Murder…”

General Definition of Mass Murder:

“A suicidal, rage-filled individual [who] slaughters a bunch of people at once; A disgruntled employee, for example, who shows up at his office with an automatic weapon and blows away a half a dozen co-workers before turning the gun on himself.”

-          The Serial Killer Files by Harold Schechter (2003)

Problems with the definition the FBI put in place:

1. It’s too broad…
   1. It can be applied to homicidal types who aren’t serial killers;
      1. i. Professional hit men
      2. ii. Western outlaws
      3. iii. “Mad Bombers”
2. It’s too narrow…
   1. It specifies that a serial killer has to kill “in three or more separate locations.” There are many who killed in one place;
      1. i. Jeffrey Dahmer
      2. ii. John Wayne Gacy

1. It doesn’t specify the “nature” of the crimes…
   1. a. According to The Serial Killer Files by Harold Schechter, the modern serial killers all have one thing in common: “a strong component of depraved sexuality.”

“Recognizing this fact, some experts stress the serial murder, defining it as the act of ultraviolent deviants, who get twisted pleasure from inflicting extreme harm on their victims and who will keep on committing their atrocities until they are stopped.”

-          The Serial Killer Files by Harold Schechter

“I wanted to cut her body so she would not look like a person, and destroy her so she would not exist. I began to cut on her body. I remember cutting her breasts off. After this, all I remember is that I kept cutting on her body.”

-          James Lawson, Serial Killer by Definition of Intent (1 victim)

Definition of a Serial Killer (National Institutes of Justice)

“A series of two or more murders, committed as separate events, usually, but not always, by one offender acting alone. The crimes may occur over a period of time ranging from hours to years. Quite often the motive is psychological, and the offender’s behavior and the physical evidence observed at the crime scenes will reflect sadistic, sexual overtones.”

-          National Institutes of Justice