Jeff Dahmer was born in Milwaukee on May 21, 1960, to Lionel and Joyce Dahmer. He was a child who was both loved and cared for, despite the difficulties of his mother?s pregnancy. He was born a healthy and beautiful child whom his parents loved very much. While a toddler Jeffrey enjoyed spending time playing with his building blocks horse. He suffered from a few unusual throat and ear infections, Jeffrey developed into a normal youth. His father reminisced on a time he remembered from Jeffrey?s childhood when he nursed a sick bird back to health.
As his father held the bird in his cupped hand he remembers the look on Jeff?s face as the one the happiest times he ever witnessed in his son?s life. From then all the way until his last arrest in 1991 his life was filled with secret killings and homosexual relationships which led to multiple killing. The one that stands out most of all is his final killing of a fourteen year old boy named Konerak. This one is the most insane of all because it could have been prevented if it were not for the drugs that Mr. Dahmer slipped his victim.
He would have been caught immediately, had the symptoms of the chemical Dahmer gave his victim been more apparent to the common observer. The drugs used made his victim seem more intoxicated then under the influence of a narcotic. As Konerak attempted to run, police came across him naked making little sense when talking, so it was believed the boy was merely intoxicated. Upon Dahmer?s request they returned him to his care, claiming the boy was his nineteen year old homosexual lover. Later the police would find out the mistake they had made.
Two months later on July 22, 1991, two Milwaukee police officers were driving around in the very high-crime area around Marquette University. The heat was oppressive and the humidity almost unbearable. The two officers sat in their car; they saw a short, black man with a handcuffs hanging from his wrist. Thinking that this man had escaped from another policeman, they asked him what he was doing. The man started to tell a tale about this “weird dude” who put the cuffs on him in his apartment. The man was Tracy Edwards. He led the officers to Dahmers apartment.
As they reached Dahmers he opened the door looking very calm and intelligent. He offered to get the key to the handcuffs in the bedroom. Edwards remembered that the knife that Dahmer had threatened him with was also in the bedroom. One of the officers decided to go into the bedroom and take a look. He saw photographs around that shocked him: dismembered human bodies, skulls in the refrigerator. After seeing this he yelled to his partner to cuff Dahmer and place him under arrest. Jeffrey Dahmer was indicted on 17 murder charges, which was later reduced to 15.
Dahmer was not charged in the attempted murder of Edwards. His trial began on January 30, 1992. With evidence overwhelmingly against him, Dahmer pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. The trial lasted two weeks. The court found Dahmer sane and guilty on 15 counts of murder and sentenced him to 15 life terms, totaling 957 years in prison. At his sentencing hearing, Dahmer expressed remorse for his actions, and said that he wished for his own death. In May of that year, Dahmer was extradited to Ohio, where he entered a plea of guilty for the murder of his first victim, Stephen Hicks.
