Pod Insights Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén Lust Killer: Jeffrey Dahmer About this episode Jeffrey Dahmer seemed quiet, even unassuming. But beneath the surface was a man consumed by violent desire. He didn’t kill out of anger—he killed to satisfy a fantasy. Every detail was deliberate, from the way he lured his victims to the way he posed their bodies. Driven by arousal, obsession, and control, he found pleasure not just in death, but in what came after. With his ritualistic methods and fixation on domination, he’s a textbook example of a hedonistic lust killer.
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Transcript 0:06 Speaker 00 We all crave connection. Some people look for it through friendship, love, even small talk at the grocery store. Most of us learn how to live with the fact that not every bond lasts forever. But others take a different approach. They decide if someone won't stay willingly, they'll make them stay permanently. This week, we're examining "The Lust Killer." In the words of criminologists Ronald and Stephen Holmes, "These are killers who seek sexual gratification through murder. It's not about the fight. It's not even about the kill. It's about what happens after. The control, the possession, the ritual. To them, the victim isn't a person. They're a prop, a character in a fantasy.
0:50 Speaker 00 And when reality doesn't live up to the script, they rewrite the ending again and again." Like today's subject. Who didn't chase strangers down alleyways? He invited them in, promised companionship. And when they tried to leave, he made sure they never could. Welcome to Serial Killers, a Spotify podcast. Every Monday, we bring you the true crime stories that stand out. I'm Janice Morgan. We'd love to hear from you. Follow us on Instagram at SerialKillersPodcast and share your thoughts on this week's episode. Or if you're tuning in on the Spotify app, swipe up and leave a comment. This episode includes discussions of murder, necrophilia, and cannibalism.
1:33 Speaker 00 Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen. Stay with us.
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4:10 Speaker 00 According to Ronald and Stephen Holmes, lust killers aren't driven by anger, vengeance, or even necessity. They kill because it feels good. Hedonism, at its core, is the pursuit of pleasure, and for these murderers, pleasure comes at the highest cost: someone else's life. Hedonistic killers commit murder for personal gratification, but not all seek the same reward. Holmes and Holmes identify three subtypes: comfort- or profit killers, who kill for material gain; thrill killers, who crave the adrenaline rush of the act itself; and lust killers, who are sexually motivated, often blending arousal with domination and death. For lust killers, the murder isn't the end, it's the means.
4:53 Speaker 00 The real reward lies in the power, the control, and the fantasy. They plan meticulously, selecting victims who fit a private script. The violence is ritualized, sometimes involving post-mortem acts, because the body is part of the fantasy, even after life has left it. That's the case with today's killer. His crimes weren't about rage or chaos. They were about desire, twisted, rehearsed, and finally, realized. Unlike many of the serial killers covered on this show, Jeffrey Dahmer didn't experience any major traumas in his childhood. By his own admission, he had loving parents, grew up in a supportive environment, and was never abused in any way.
5:36 Speaker 00 But his childhood home wasn't completely free of struggles. Born in 1960 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Jeffrey realized at an early age that his parents had a lot of love for him, but not much for one another. The couple fought bitterly, and his mother Joyce experienced bouts of depression. Jeffrey himself was a quiet, timid boy without many friends. Teachers noted he was withdrawn and seemed to feel neglected. At home, Jeffrey was resentful toward his brother David, who was born when Jeffrey was six. From Jeffrey's perspective, David was the favorite and got all of their parents' attention. Jeffrey's father Lionel was concerned about his son. Throughout his childhood, he tried to get Jeffrey interested in everything,
6:20 Speaker 00 from playing tennis to joining the Boy Scouts. But after briefly humoring Lionel's requests, Jeffrey always abandoned these hobbies. The only thing he seemed interested in... was bones.
6:35 Speaker 00 Around the age of four, Jeffrey found animal bones in the crawl space of his home. He was already interested in animals and insects, but the discovery took the interest a step further. He wanted to know what they looked like inside. Lionel, who was training to become a research chemist, was thrilled to foster his son's interest in science. He taught Jeffrey how to clean the flesh and tissue from the bones, then showed him how to polish them until they shone. Jeffrey soon had a pail of immaculate bones to carry around. He loved the sound they made when he shook the container and began using it as a makeshift toy rattle. The family called this Jeffrey's Fiddlesticks, and that lighthearted name speaks volumes.
7:19 Speaker 00 Nobody seemed alarmed by Jeffrey's bone fixation, but in fairness, his parents had other things on their mind. The Dahmer family was constantly uprooted due to Lionel's research. When Jeffrey was two, the family had moved from Milwaukee to Ames, Iowa, then to Doylestown, Ohio, followed by a nearby town called Barberton, all in the span of eight years. In 1968, the family finally settled in Bath, Ohio. Their house was nestled in a large area of woodland, surrounded for miles by trees and wildlife. A lot of kids might have felt lonely there, but not Jeffrey. He busied himself by roaming the forest, gathering dead dragonflies and moths.
8:01 Speaker 00 He'd bring the carcasses home and preserve them in bottles of formaldehyde. Soon, Jeffrey grew bored of insects and started searching for larger trophies. He collected roadkill, squirrels, chipmunks, sometimes even cats and dogs, and cleaned their skeletons just like Lionel had taught him. He buried some of the bones in a makeshift cemetery and preserved others in bottles of formaldehyde.
8:26 Speaker 00 By the time he was 10, Jeffrey had an impressive variety of animal remains, which he kept on a shelf inside the garden shed. But he wasn't merely a collector. Jeffrey sometimes dissected the dead animals he found, fascinated by the inner workings of their bodies. Interestingly, it doesn't seem as if Jeffrey ever actually killed any of these animals. By all accounts, they were dead when he found them. But as he became an adolescent, his obsession with death began to mingle with a burgeoning interest in sex. But this was not a straightforward sexual awakening. For one thing, at age 13, Jeffrey realized he was attracted to men, which he knew would make him an outcast at a time when homosexuality wasn't as openly accepted.
9:10 Speaker 00 But his sexual urges were tinged with something else, something society would be even less willing to accept. When Jeffrey fantasized about sex, he imagined his partner remaining very still, barely reacting in any way. In fact, more often than not, his fantasy lover wasn't even breathing. These urges would be classified as necrophilia, a sexual interest in deceased bodies or body parts. What causes necrophilia isn't exactly known, but it's often related to a need for control. Psychiatrist Jonathan Rossman and Philip Resnick found that, among the 122 cases they studied, the most common motive was to possess an unresisting and unrejecting partner.
9:55 Speaker 00 This makes sense for Jeffrey, whose home life was spiraling out of control and whose social life was nearly nonexistent. Jeffrey's social isolation led to extreme loneliness and shame. Because he felt unwanted and incapable of relating to others, he fantasized about a situation where he wouldn't have to be wanted and where he would have complete control over his partner. According to Homes and Homes, hedonistic lust killers derive sexual satisfaction not just from violence, but from the power over the victim. Necrophilia, in Jeffrey's case, wasn't just an afterthought. It was the fantasy fulfilled. A corpse can't leave, reject, or resist. It became the perfect vessel
10:39 Speaker 00 for turning a human being into an object of pleasure.
10:43 Speaker 00 At 16, Jeffrey tried to make this dream a reality. That year, he became intrigued by a jogger who he saw run past his house every day. The jogger began to consume more and more of his thoughts. He imagined attacking him, knocking him out, then sexually assaulting him while he was unconscious.
11:04 Speaker 00 One morning, Jeffrey snuck out onto the road outside of his home holding a baseball bat. He waited there for hours, but the jogger never came. He must have skipped his run that day. Eventually, Jeffrey trudged home feeling frustrated and defeated. His first attempt at a violent assault had been thwarted, but it was only a matter of time until things boiled over. During his final years of high school, Jeffrey's life spiraled even further out of control. Lionel and Joyce decided to divorce in 1978, and Lionel moved out while their lawyers fought over who would keep the house. Jeffrey was nearly 18 by this point, but the parents battled viciously for custody of his 12-year-old brother, David.
11:48 Speaker 00 Jeffrey had never been especially tied to the world around him, but during the divorce proceedings, he disconnected entirely. When his parents were fighting, he went out into the backyard and hit sticks against the trees until they broke. He developed a drinking habit and often came to school with a bottle of liquor hidden in his jacket. When a friend asked him why he was drinking in class, he responded, "It's my medicine."
12:14 Speaker 00 Jeffrey graduated from high school in May. Over the summer, his parents finalized their divorce. Joyce took young David and moved to Wisconsin to live closer to her family. Lionel was still living on his own at a motel about 10 miles away. Jeffrey stayed in the family home, alone, with no money and no food. He was done with school, and he didn't have a job, so he sat alone with his fantasies until they grew too strong to ignore.
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13:18 Speaker 00 On June 18th, 1978, 18-year-old Stephen Hicks left his parents' home in Coventry Township, Ohio, to hitchhike to a nearby concert. The same afternoon, Jeffrey Dahmer borrowed his father's car to go to the movies. While driving down the highway, Jeffrey noticed a young man with his thumb outstretched trying to hitch a ride. Like Jeffrey, 18-year-old Stephen Hicks had recently graduated from high school. That day, he was on his way to a concert nearby and was thrilled when Jeffrey offered him a ride. Once Stephen was in the car, Jeffrey asked if he wanted to come back to his place to hang out for a while. The concert wasn't due to start for hours, and it was only a short drive away, so Stephen agreed.
14:01 Speaker 00 The two men went back to the empty Dahmer house and drank a few beers together. Jeffrey was attracted to Stephen, but when Stephen mentioned his girlfriend, Jeffrey knew his advances would be rejected. Still, company was company, so Jeffrey kept up the conversation. But eventually, Stephen got restless. He told Jeffrey they should start driving to the concert. Jeffrey felt wounded by Stephen's eagerness to leave. He couldn't bear to let him go. So when Stephen's back was turned, Jeffrey bludgeoned him over the head with a barbell, knocking him unconscious. Then, he strangled Stephen to death. Jeffrey engaged in necrophilia, then dismembered Stephen's body and scattered his remains in a wooded area near his home.
14:46 Speaker 00 Stephen's family wouldn't know what happened until 13 years later, when Jeffrey was caught and confessed to his murder. Jeffrey would later tell his lawyer that after killing his first victim, he felt shock and fear about what he had done. But he also felt excited. For years, Jeffrey had been fantasizing about the ideal lover, completely unresisting and submissive. According to criminologist Scott Bond, this is typical of a hedonistic lust killer. They visualize their perfect victim and rehearse what they might do to them. This often happens for a long period of time before they actually commit their first murder. Jeffrey had envisioned a physically fit, handsome man since he was a pre-teen. That's why he'd chosen the jogger.
15:31 Speaker 00 And when that didn't work out, he decided a hitchhiker might be the perfect target. He fantasized about the hitchhiker for months, until he found Stephen Hicks. For the first time in his life, Jeffrey felt a sense of control.
15:47 Speaker 00 In September 1978, Lionel Dahmer finally returned to check on Jeffrey. For the past several months, he'd been living at a motel just 10 miles away. The moment he stepped in the front door, he realized something was seriously wrong. The house was covered in beer cans and liquor bottles. There was no food in the fridge. Lionel moved back in and tried to help Jeffrey get his act together. Over his protests, Lionel enrolled Jeffrey at Ohio State University. Supposedly, Jeffrey was majoring in business, but he was still drinking so much that he couldn't get up to go to class in the morning. He also couldn't relate to any of his fellow students. Killing Stephen had only widened the gulf that Jeffrey felt
16:30 Speaker 00 between himself and the rest of humanity. He dropped out after less than three months, much to his father's dismay.
16:38 Speaker 00 With options dwindling, Lionel suggested that Jeff join the Army. The regimented structure of military life might be good for him. At the very least, he'd have to stay sober through boot camp. For a while, it stuck. Jeffrey trained as a medical specialist, which allowed him to embrace his fascination with human anatomy. He even served as a combat medic in Germany for a while. But the structure and discipline of the Army couldn't keep Jeffrey's demons at bay for long. He began drinking heavily again, and in March of 1981, he was honorably discharged. Jeffrey returned to Ohio right back at square one. Only two weeks later, he was arrested at a hotel for being drunk and disorderly.
17:20 Speaker 00 He didn't serve any jail time, but he did receive a citation. Lionel had remarried around the time Jeffrey enlisted in the Army. He was exhausted by his son's drinking, so he sent him to live with his grandmother in Milwaukee, hoping her influence might finally be enough to stabilize him. Like the Army, it worked for a while. Jeffrey found a job at a blood plasma center and helped his grandmother with chores around the house in his spare time. He even started to socialize more. Unlike anywhere he'd lived before, Milwaukee had an actual gay scene. Jeffrey started to frequent bathhouses and bars and hook up with other men. But it didn't feel like much of a liberation.
18:03 Speaker 00 Jeffrey's grandmother was very religious, and he knew she wouldn't approve of his lifestyle. And he also felt ashamed of himself for his sexuality, so he kept his personal life a guilty secret. On top of this, Jeffrey rarely felt fulfilled by any of his encounters. He still yearned for a passive, motionless partner, an object rather than a person. So in June of 1986, Jeffrey found a solution. He got a prescription for sleeping pills, mixed them into a bottle of liquor, and brought it with him to the bathhouse. He would partner up, pour the other man a drink, and head into a private room. About half an hour later, the man would fall asleep, and Jeffrey would sexually assault him.
18:47 Speaker 00 Some of the men realized they'd been drugged and complained to management. Others didn't say anything at all. It's common for victims of sexual assault to feel too ashamed to report the incident to the authorities. That problem was only magnified by the fact that the victims in question were gay.
19:05 Speaker 00 Up until 1983, sodomy had been a crime in Wisconsin. And even a few years after that law was stricken from the books, going to the police about a sexual incident at the bathhouse could create more problems than it solved. By Jeffrey's count, he drugged and assaulted at least 10 men at the same bathhouse. All the while, the management quietly ignored it until one man overdosed on the pills and was hospitalized for a week. That was the last straw. Jeffrey was officially banned from the bathhouse. However, Jeffrey's crimes weren't reported to the police, so he decided to hunt at local gay bars. Jeffrey's main haunt was a popular dance club in downtown Milwaukee. Typically, he took a stool at the bar and sat alone,
19:48 Speaker 00 watching the drag shows and dancers until closing time. But at the end of the night, Jeffrey would find a man he liked and start up a conversation. Bringing men home to his grandmother's house was a risky proposition, so instead, he rented a cheap room at the Ambassador Hotel. From there, Jeffrey repeated the same routine he'd mastered at the bathhouse: Pour them a drug drink, wait for them to fall asleep, then take control. Again, he was never reported to the police. And all the while, Jeffrey's rap sheet was expanding in other directions. Over the past year, he'd been arrested or cited three times. In April 1985, he earned a disorderly conduct charge
20:30 Speaker 00 after threatening to shoot a bartender who refused to serve him. Four months after that, he got a citation for giving the finger to a police officer on the street. Then, in September 1986, Jeffrey was charged with indecent exposure after two 12-year-old boys saw him masturbating by the river. He was sentenced to one year of probation and court-ordered counseling. According to his therapist, Dr. Evelyn Rosen, Jeffrey was extremely uncooperative during sessions. He wouldn't talk about the incident that led to his arrest. He wouldn't talk about his personal life. Sometimes, he refused to speak at all for the entire session.
21:11 Speaker 00 Eventually, Dr. Rosen diagnosed him with schizoid personality disorder. According to the DSM-5, this disorder is marked by a pattern of detachment from social relationships and a restricted range of emotional expression. Someone with schizoid personality disorder will be uninterested in forming close relationships, prefer spending time by themselves, and have difficulty expressing their emotions either verbally or through body language. Jeffrey was also sent for an evaluation at the University of Wisconsin's Clinical Psychology Department. There, Dr. Kathy Bose concluded that he could become a psychopathic deviant or sociopath. Without intervention, his substance abuse and violent urges could spiral further.
21:54 Speaker 00 But Jeffrey didn't seek further intervention, and Dr. Bose turned out to be correct. On November 21, 1987, Jeffrey headed out to his usual gay bar. There, he met 25-year-old Stephen Toomey. They hit it off, so Jeffrey suggested they get a room at the Ambassador Hotel. Stephen agreed. After getting back to the hotel, the pair drank heavily. At some point, Jeffrey said he passed out. According to him, when he woke up, he was lying on top of Stephen's lifeless body. Jeffrey was never charged in the death of Stephen Toomey, but even though he claimed to not remember what happened, he later confessed to killing Stephen.
22:37 Speaker 00 He said he probably beat the 25-year-old to death. He went out and bought the largest suitcase he could find and put Stephen's body inside. He brought it back to his grandmother's basement, where he sexually abused the body, then dismembered it and threw it in the trash. But he held on to Stephen's severed head. He planned to keep the skull for sexual use. As a child, Jeffrey's father had shown him how to boil chicken bones in a bleach solution to clean them. Now, he tried the same method on Stephen's skull. He kept it for a short time, then threw away the remains. It had been more than nine years since the murder of Stephen Hicks, Jeffrey's first
23:20 Speaker 00 victim, and as Jeffrey later said, now that he'd taken a second life, he wouldn't be able to stop.
23:38 Speaker 00 After Jeffrey killed Stephen Toomey, he believed he had a blueprint for how to ensnare more victims. He killed again just two months later, luring 14-year-old James Dockstater away from a dance club by promising him money and alcohol. But Jeffrey had grown a little more bold. This time, he didn't take his victim to a hotel. He brought James back to his grandmother's house. Jeffrey drugged James, then strangled him. He cut up his body and kept some of the parts so he could engage in necrophilia. One week later, he disposed of the remains. In March of 1988, he struck again, killing and mutilating Richard Guerrero.
24:19 Speaker 00 Once again, he used bleach to clean and preserve the bones. Around this time, Jeffrey's grandmother had started to notice some of his unusual activities. She had no idea he was killing people, but she did know that he was drinking heavily and bringing strangers home to her cellar at night. The last straw came when she smelled a harsh chemical odor emanating from the basement. When she asked Lionel to investigate, he discovered Jeffrey's bone collection. Though Jeffrey told his family the bones belonged to animals, it was still too much for his grandmother to tolerate in her home. She asked Jeffrey to move out. Without missing a beat, Jeffrey found an apartment and went right back to his routine. In September 1988,
25:03 Speaker 00 he picked up a 13-year-old boy, drugged him, and sexually assaulted him. The boy managed to escape and went to the police. Days later, Jeffrey was arrested and charged with second-degree sexual assault. He pleaded guilty and was allowed to remain free while he awaited sentencing, which gave him an opportunity to strike again.
25:24 Speaker 00 On March 25th, 1989, Jeffrey murdered 24-year-old Anthony Sears and preserved several of his body parts in acetone. At a sentencing hearing for the sexual assault, Jeffrey showed no indication of this brutality. In fact, he appeared remorseful for what he'd done, so he got off lightly. The judge sentenced him to just one year behind bars, five years probation, and psychological counseling. And then, within two months of being released in May of 1990, Jeffrey claimed his sixth victim. Jeffrey moved into an apartment on North 25th Street in Milwaukee. He met 32-year-old Raymond Smith at a bar and invited him to his apartment,
26:06 Speaker 00 promising him $50 in exchange for sex. Once they were inside, he strangled Raymond to death, then took Polaroid pictures of the body in sexual poses. After that, he began his usual routine: boiling and bleaching the bones, dissolving some of them in acid and keeping others as trophies. Then he placed Raymond's skull inside a filing cabinet alongside Anthony's. Now that he felt like he'd finally perfected his preservation technique, Jeffrey started to experiment. After killing and dismembering his next victim, 27-year-old Edward Smith, he tried to dry out some body parts in the oven and preserve others in the freezer. A few months later, in September,
26:50 Speaker 00 he escalated further. He killed two victims within weeks of each other and experimented with eating parts of their bodies. Jeffrey later said he did this in order to make his victims a part of him, to ensure they could never leave him. But while this symbolic act felt good to him in the moment, it didn't solve his loneliness.
27:14 Speaker 00 In early 1991, Jeffrey began to fantasize about a more permanent solution to that particular problem. He wanted a way to create a partner with no free will of their own. A living human, but one who could never leave him. Essentially, he wanted to create a zombie. According to Holmes & Holmes' framework of hedonistic lust killers, Jeffrey's criminal trajectory exemplifies the escalation of violent sexual fantasies. His early fantasies involved control and possession, initially centered around unconscious partners. As these fantasies became more dominant and dissatisfying in their imagined form, Jeffrey acted them out. First through drugging victims to create submissive, nearly lifeless states, and eventually through murder.
27:59 Speaker 00 He escalated further by engaging in necrophilia and cannibalism, incorporating these elements into a fantasy-driven ritual that allowed him to permanently possess his victims. And on April 7th, he put his next plan into action. He lured 19-year-old Errol Lindsay to his apartment and drugged him with sleeping pills. Then, he drilled a hole in the front of Errol's skull and poured hydrochloric acid into it. This was essentially a crude attempt at a frontal lobotomy. Jeffrey hoped it would transform Errol into a submissive, compliant companion. But when Errol regained consciousness, Jeffrey realized things hadn't gone to plan. The teen was groggy but agitated and complained of a headache.
28:44 Speaker 00 Jeffrey drugged Errol again, then strangled him to death. He then disposed of everything but the skull. The next month, Jeffrey crossed paths with 14-year-old Konrak Sinthe Simfoam. He was the brother of the 13-year-old boy Jeffrey had assaulted in 1988. Once they were inside, Jeffrey drugged the teen and injected hydrochloric acid into his brain. Then, in a decision that shows just how reckless he was becoming, Jeffrey left the unconscious teenager at his apartment and went out to buy alcohol. Konrak woke up and staggered outside into the street completely naked. There, he collapsed in front of three young women. As they talked to a 911 operator, Jeffrey appeared.
29:29 Speaker 00 He tried to laugh off the situation, telling the three bystanders that this was his friend who'd had too much to drink, but the young women knew something was wrong. When they refused to let Jeffrey take Konrak, he turned on them. He started aggressively pulling at the boy's arm, trying to drag him back into the apartment. He snapped at the teenagers. "This has nothing to do with you." Around that time, the police showed up. Jeffrey told officers that the disoriented teen was his boyfriend and that he'd fled their apartment after a drunken argument. They seemed to believe him. Frustrated, the young women pointed out that Konrak was bleeding and seemed barely able to stand, but the cops basically told them to mind their own business.
30:11 Speaker 00 An officer escorted Jeffrey and Konrak back inside the apartment, then left, noting the incident as a domestic dispute. After the police left, Jeffrey injected more acid into Konrak's skull. This time, it killed him. Had the officers taken the time to search Jeffrey's unit, or even asked around the building, they would have quickly realized something was amiss. Jeffrey's neighbors had started to complain about foul smells coming from his apartment. He'd been getting more and more sloppy, not disposing of bodies in a timely manner, and as a result, his home smelled of decay. Additionally, if police had bothered to run a background check, they would have found
30:54 Speaker 00 out that Jeffrey was on probation for the sexual assault of Konrak's brother. Instead, a 14-year-old boy was left to die. When the details of Konrak's death later emerged, the officers involved were fired, but later reinstated.
31:12 Speaker 00 Experts believe prejudice played a part in Jeffrey's ability to get away with his crimes. Konrak and most of Jeffrey's victims were people of color, while Jeffrey was white. The witnesses who called 911 were black women, and Jeffrey was the one police believed. Even as the women protested, even as Konrak himself was clearly in danger, they defaulted to believing the one person on the scene who looked like them. The police missed all of the red flags, so Jeffrey remained at large. Over the course of that summer, he killed four more victims and stored their heads and other body parts in different locations in his home.
31:54 Speaker 00 Soon, Jeffrey's control over his life started deteriorating as fast as conditions inside his apartment. He took showers in the same bathtub where he kept body parts. He called out of work so often he got fired. His property manager warned him that if the smell coming from his unit didn't end immediately, he'd be evicted. Eventually, the chaos caught up with him. On July 22, 1991, Jeffrey met 32-year-old Tracy Edwards near a mall and invited him home. As soon as Tracy set foot inside the building, he was on edge. There were multiple locks on both the inside and outside of the door, plus an alarm system that had to be disengaged before they could enter.
32:37 Speaker 00 Once inside, Tracy noticed the foul smell and spotted several bottles of hydrochloric acid on the floor. Just as Tracy considered leaving, Jeffrey quickly put a handcuff on his wrist. Then he pulled out a knife and told Tracy to undress for a photo shoot. Afraid to agitate Jeffrey, Tracy did as he was told. As he took his shirt off, he noticed that Jeffrey was swaying from side to side, chanting excitedly to himself. Then, according to Tracy, Jeffrey walked up to him, laid his head on his chest, and listened to his heart. Tracy punched Jeffrey and ran for his life, handcuffs still dangling from his wrist. He escaped out into the street and flagged down two police officers.
33:22 Speaker 00 He told them what happened, and fortunately, these officers listened. They went back to Jeffrey's apartment with Tracy. Jeffrey, trying to play it cool, let them in. At first, the officers just asked a few questions. They didn't think anything was amiss. But when they stepped into the bedroom, one of the officers noticed the knife lying just under the edge of the bed. Then he saw an open drawer full of Polaroids of naked men. Upon closer inspection, the police saw they were photographs of dismembered human bodies. Sensing he was about to be caught, Jeffrey attacked one of the officers. But it was two against one. They pinned Jeffrey to the ground and arrested him.
34:06 Speaker 00 Once they conducted a thorough search of the apartment, the grisly extent of Jeffrey's crimes became clear. Officers found human heads and limbs stuffed into the refrigerator and freezer, two preserved skulls on top of a computer, and several decomposing bodies inside a 57-gallon drum. A forensic sweep confirmed that these were the remains of at least 11 separate victims. But back in the interrogation room, Jeffrey ultimately confessed to 17 killings, and the details of the murder set off a media frenzy. The grim saga of the Milwaukee Cannibal was covered feverishly by international press. When his trial began in January of 1992,
34:49 Speaker 00 the Milwaukee County Courthouse was swarmed with journalists. Though he confessed, Jeffrey pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. But after two weeks of testimony, the jury rejected this claim, finding that he was sane and able to distinguish right from wrong at the time of the killings. He was convicted of 15 murders.
35:09 Speaker 00 Shortly after this ruling, Jeffrey made an unusual statement to the court. Standing at a lectern in the courtroom, he expressed his remorse over what he'd done to his victims' families and to his own. He said that he didn't want freedom, and even suggested that he deserved the death penalty. He ended by stating that he knew the judge would impose the maximum sentence and that he didn't want any special consideration. Sure enough, he received 15 consecutive life sentences.
35:39 Speaker 00 On November 28th, 1994, Jeffrey was beaten to death by a fellow inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institute. That inmate, Christopher Scarver, was also a convicted murderer. But when he read the details of Jeffrey's crimes, he said he was disgusted. It turned out Jeffrey was the kind of monster who gave other killers nightmares. Christopher also told the New York Post that Jeffrey seemed totally unrepentant about his crimes. So you have to wonder if his remorse in the courtroom was all an act. Jeffrey himself admitted his drive to kill couldn't be controlled, and it was motivated by one thing: lust.
36:20 Speaker 00 According to Homes and Homes, hedonistic lust killers garner more attention than any other type. The sensational grotesque crimes capture the public because it defies our own understanding of human behavior. Like Albert Fish, who killed as many as 10 children in the 1920s. He was motivated by disturbing sexual fantasies, including cannibalism. Or Jerry Brudos, who was known as "The Lust Killer." He showed early signs of sexual deviance, stealing women's shoes and underwear as a teenager. He only escalated from there, carrying out his fantasies by strangling women, photographing their bodies, and keeping their feet in his freezer.
36:58 Speaker 00 It's frustrating that systemic flaws, racism, and homophobia left Jeffrey and other killers free to take so many lives. But learning about his crimes can teach future investigators lessons about how to catch a lust killer or even intervene before the murders start. In the words of Jeffrey's attorney Gerald Boyle, "If we can illuminate the condition which afflicts people like Jeffrey Dahmer, we might have done some little thing for humanity."
37:34 Speaker 00 Thank you for listening to Serial Killers. We're here with a new episode every Monday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram at Serial Killers Podcast. And if you're tuning in on Spotify, swipe up and leave us your thoughts. For more information on Jeffrey Dahmer, amongst the many sources we used, we found the Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer by Brian Masters extremely helpful to our research. Stay safe out there.
38:01 Speaker 00 This episode was written by Emma Dibden, edited by Chelsea Wood, researched by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood, fact-checked by Sophie Kemp, and sound designed by Alex Button. I'm your host, Janice Morgan.
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