The Time Jeffrey Dahmer Hosted A Séance For His Prom Date
Here's a little scenario for you: Imagine you're 16 years old. An 18-year-old guy at school asks you to the prom because his friend is dating your friend. He's not the worst choice, nor ideal, and comes across as shy, polite, and "goofy." You don't talk much, there's no kissing, no going out afterwards, and that's that — the night's done. Sometime later this guy asks you over to his house. A few people are there. There's no music, drinks, or food, but there are, oddly, some lit candles. Everyone circles up at one point, and someone — not your prom date — declares, "Let's call Lucifer." You scream and book it. Over a decade later your date is on the news because he's killed and eaten a bunch of people. His name is Jeffrey Dahmer.
Far from being a fictional scenario, this actually happened, as outlets like The Cinemaholic recount. Dahmer's prom date, Bridget Geiger, describes her experience in an interview posted on YouTube. Dahmer was picked on horribly at school, she says, but never picked on anyone else. She didn't really want to go with him, but her mom said, "A couple hours is not going to kill you." From there, we've only got Geiger's report to go on for the apparent séance. But even taking potentially faulty and-or hyperbolized memories into account, the general gist is admittedly creepy. And in case anyone's wondering, yes, Dahmer and Geiger did indeed share a meal together — sort of.
A reluctant date
When Dahmer asked Geiger to the prom in 1978, it was her first date, as she says in an interview posted on YouTube. It was also the day before the prom, and Dahmer framed his request by saying, "Mike said you said you'd go to the prom with me. Is that right?" Geiger was reluctant about the whole thing, but her mother made her go because it was "his only senior prom." Dahmer (above, in 1978) came over and met Geiger's dad, was extremely anxious about stabbing Geiger with her corsage pin, and everyone ate together. Later on at the prom Dahmer vanished for a bit. He'd gone to McDonald's because he'd been too nervous too eat much at Geiger's house, and had a cheeseburger wrapper as evidence.
Suffice it to say, at the end of such a night — which ended by 11 or 12, as Geiger recollects — there was little reason for Geiger and Dahmer to see each other again. But as The U.S. Sun describes, Dahmer included her on his list of invitees to a later "party" at his house. We don't know who the other people were, but we know that it wasn't a typical get-together. There was a low table laid out in addition to the aforementioned candles and lack of food and drinks. Dahmer told her the house was haunted, and that an "evil ghost" sometimes told him "to do things that scare me." This all happened around the time of Dahmer's first murder.
The devil and friends
When envisioning what went down on the night of the séance at Dahmer's house, it'd be easy to conjure images of a Hollywood demon possession scene complete with projectile vomit, bloody showers, lots of shrieking, and things like that. The truth is undoubtedly far more tame, no matter that the whole thing freaked Geiger out, and no matter that future serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was present and talking about an "evil ghost" commanding him to do things.
While we don't know the precise course of events, we know that at some point the lights got flipped off. Geiger (above, as an adult) got scared and yelled something like, "Find the light, find the light. I'm out of here. I don't want any part of this," as The U.S. Sun recounts. She also says that the "flame on the candles snapped." Dahmer, she states, showed no reaction to her fear. Geiger left, and they never saw each other again. It was only a short time later that Dahmer killed his first victim, Steven Hicks. As Men's Health reports, Dahmer killed Hicks, had sex with the corpse, chopped up the body, dissolved the remains with acid, crushed the bones, and scattered the remains in the woods.
The Cinemaholic reports that Geiger went on to get married; by the time of her interview on YouTube she seemed to be doing all right. As for Dahmer, the "Lucifer" invoked during the séance need not be anything more than the impulses that drove him.