These Were Jeffrey Dahmer's Bone-Chilling Final Words
Known to be one of the most notorious murderers to come out of the state of Wisconsin, Jeffrey Dahmer was at last apprehended and sentenced to 957 years in state prison. The "Milwaukee Cannibal," as Dahmer is also known, confessed to taking the lives of 17 young men. Many of his victims were drugged and sexually assaulted prior to having their flesh and organs removed and eaten.
Dahmer had a seemingly normal upbringing in the small town of Doylestown, Ohio. Beneath the surface, however, were significant family issues that bubbled up on and off while Dahmer and his brother were growing up. Lionel Dahmer, Jeffrey's father, was gainfully employed as a chemist (via A&E) But his long hours at the job led to young Jeffrey feeling neglected by the patriarch. Compounding this problem were the deeply seeded psychological problems his mother was experiencing. Suffering from chronic depression and attempting to rebound from several suicide attempts, Joyce Dahmer was mentally incapable of filling the void that an absentee father would leave.
Teachers began to notice Dahmer becoming more and more withdrawn. By the time Dahmer was nearing the end of high school, he was abusing alcohol. He had also spent his teenage years abusing the corpses of animals he had found dead at the side of the road. His bizarre behavior escalated until the age of 18, when he committed his first murder. He had just graduated high school three weeks prior (via Crime Museum).
The victim count continues to grow
In June of 1978, Jeffrey Dahmer murdered his first victim. Steven Hicks was a hitchhiker Dahmer picked up on the highway. The two young men went back to Dahmer's home, where they drank several beers. Not wanting Hicks to leave, Dahmer bludgeoned him to death with a dumbbell. He then carefully "dissected, dissolved, and pulverized" the body before scattering the remains all over the Dahmers' backyard (via Crime Museum). When Dahmer's parents returned home later that night, nothing was seemingly amiss.
More than nine years passed before Dahmer claimed his second victim, Steven Tuomi, in the fall of 1987. This doomed young man left a bar with Dahmer one night after the two had been heavily drinking. During a police interview after his arrest years later, Dahmer recalled waking up to Tuomi's corpse lying next to him. Dahmer realized that he had murdered Tuomi during a period of time that he was blacked out from alcohol.
Dahmer began frequenting gay bars more and more. His M.O. was to lure young men back to his apartment, where he would then drug them and sexually assault them. Afterward, he would strangle them to death. While almost a decade had passed between his first two murders, Dahmer murdered one man a year from 1987 to 1989, and four more in 1990. The urge was growing well beyond Dahmer's control as the year 1991 began to tick away.
Murder spree
Jeffrey Dahmer began to become obsessed with the idea that he could transform a victim into a sex slave. Several of his victims in 1991 were drugged and sexually assaulted, but not immediately killed. Dahmer began experimenting with drilling into his victims' skulls and dumping hydrochloric acid into their brains. Instead of zombifying his prey, this just prolonged their agony before they were taken by death.
As if rape and murder weren't enough to make Dahmer gruesome, he was also cannibalizing his victims. When the last man he lured into his apartment of horrors managed to escape to the police, investigators were disgusted at what they found inside. Skulls and severed heads were found in his refrigerator, as well as photographs of numerous victims post-mortem (via A&E). It only took a few moments for those on the scene to realize that they were about to apprehend a serial killer.
Tried in court, Dahmer's jury rejected his insanity plea. Instead, they sentenced him to 15 consecutive life terms, with an additional term added later for the murder of Steven Hicks. Remorseful for his horrific actions in court, Dahmer profusely apologized to the public and to the families of his numerous victims.
Jeffrey Dahmer's final statement in court
Found guilty of 15 murders, Dahmer probably knew that he would never have a life outside of prison. After hearing from the family members of Dahmer's victims, Dahmer was allowed to address the court before he was sentenced for his crimes. The monster that had raped, tortured, and murdered more than a dozen innocent men and boys did not deny any of the atrocities that he was convicted of committing. Rather, he took responsibility for his actions and insisted that none of his crimes were motivated by hatred. In his statement, he told the court (via CBS News), "... this was a case to tell the world that I did what I did not for reasons of hate. I hated no one. I knew I was sick or evil, or both. Now I believe I was sick."
Dahmer professed that he "should have stayed with God," but failed and instead had "created a holocaust." He then stated that he was thankful that he would never be able to harm anyone ever again. In his statement, Dahmer revealed that the reason he wanted to stand for trial was so that there wouldn't be any "unanswered questions," and that he hoped that anyone with disorders similar to his would be able to get help.
Dahmer also appeared to realize that he was about to be sentenced to the maximum allowable by law. Admitting that he deserved to receive whatever sentence he was about to be handed, Dahmer's last word to the court was, "I am prepared for your sentence, which I know will be the maximum. I ask for no consideration."
Last words of a cannibal
Dahmer began serving his prison sentence at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin. Here, Dahmer began studying the Bible, and declared himself to be a born-again Christian (via Crime Museum). His stay in prison wasn't a long one, however, as someone else on the inside had plans for the recently incarcerated serial killer.
While cleaning the prison showers on the morning of November 28th, 1994, Jeffrey Dahmer was attacked by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver. Scarver used a metal bar to strike Dahmer over the head, taking Dahmer off guard. Scarver then began beating Dahmer without restraint. Still alive after the attack, Dahmer was found by prison workers, who then called for an ambulance. Dahmer was unconscious, and barely alive. He died from his injuries shortly after being taken into medical care.
When questioned by authorities, Scarver declared that he was "the chosen one" to carry out Dahmer's death (via The New York Times). Scarver also revealed to authorities the chilling details of Dahmer's murder. After striking Dahmer with the metal bar, Scarver reported that Dahmer stated (via the Famous People), "I don't care if I live or die. Go ahead and kill me." Fitting words for a monster who took so much life from this world.