Jeffrey Dahmer - Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

Jeffrey Dahmer, "the Milwaukee Cannibal" in his first appearance before the
court. One detail: he was wearing the shirt of one of his victims.

Jeffrey Dahmer is probably the most famous serial killer in the world since
Jack the Ripper: he had killed seventeen people in 1991 when he
they were caught, it was just 'in the beginnings' of a rise in violence and their
habits did not reduce to murder and sexual abuse but encompassed the
necrophilia, dismemberment, cannibalism, trepanation, experimentation
and a plan to transform people into zombies. In Inside the Monster
(Alba Editorial), the continuation of the chilling The One Who Fights with Monsters,
Robert K. Ressler, pioneer of forensic psychology and leading authority in the
theme, revealing for the first time the dialogue he had with Dahmer and in the
that 'The Milwaukee Butcher' details his life, the years in which
he tried to stop killing, the way he got rid of the bodies, the times that
the police were at his house and saw nothing, the reasons for each new practice and
explain that, deep down, I simply could not tolerate someone getting up from the
bed and left.

BY ROBERT K. RESSLER

In January 1991, a few months after my retirement from the FBI, the University of
Wisconsin invited me to give a course on criminal profiling in
Milwaukee. It was a routine assignment and I didn't stop to think about the
consequences until I learned from the headlines of the press that summer
that same year they had arrested Jeffrey Dahmer in Milwaukee. Dahmer
was accused of seventeen murders in that area and in the surroundings of
the house where his childhood had taken place, in Bath, Ohio. For me it was a pleasant
surprise to receive a letter, in the month of August, from a researcher who had attended
to the course and that at that moment was participating in the clarification of the case
Dahmer. "It cannot be imagined to what extent his explanations have been useful.
to address the events that occurred recently in Milwaukee," he said.

Later, my intervention in the Dahmer case was more direct and personal. In
in autumn, the defense and a police officer coincided in getting in touch with me
my professional history to the prosecutor. My friend Park Dietz was going to present himself for the
accusation, but on that occasion my opinion differed from theirs and I agreed to advise
to the defense. It's not that I believed Dahmer was innocent from the point of
medical or legal view, but it seemed to me that there were mitigating circumstances that
they allowed for a case of insanity to be made. In my opinion, Dahmer did not respond to either the
neither the classic profile of the 'organized' criminal nor that of the 'disorganized'; while a
an organized killer would be legally sane, and a disorganized killer would be,
For the law, clearly insane, Dahmer was both and neither.
a kind of "mixed" criminal, so there was a possibility that a court
it is considered that he was not in his right mind when he committed some of his
latest murders.

If I accepted, it was because of the allegation that Gerry Boyle wanted Dahmer to present.
January 13, 1992, Boyle announced to the press and the court that Dahmer, who in
a principle had been declared 'not guilty by reason of mental insanity', now it
declared "guilty but insane". The claim "guilty but insane" is
provided for by the law of Wisconsin, although not by many other states. In
Regardless of the outcome of the trial, Dahmer would spend the rest of
his days confined in a secure institution. If the defense won the case, the
an institution would be a psychiatric hospital; if I lost, it would be prison. 'This is a case
about Dahmer's mental state,” Boyle announced to the press.

Born into a middle-class family in a small town in Ohio, Dahmer

he was only eighteen when he killed for the first time: it was in 1978, near his
Bath's house. Eight years passed before she felt the need to
kill again, but then the frequency of crimes accelerated: one in 1986,
two in 1988, one in 1989, four in 1990 and eight in 1991. Finally, a young man
of a color named Tracy Edwards managed to escape from him and stop a police car to
that will help him take off the handcuffs with which Dahmer had immobilized him.

Once arrested, the police found human remains and photographs in his apartment.
of the victims and a large number of macabre trophies from the murdered young people,
in addition to evidence of cannibalism and torture. The investigation showed that the
the police had had numerous opportunities to catch him before his last one
criminal escalation. In 1988, for example, a young Laotian was able to escape from his
apartment. Dahmer had taken him there with the promise of taking some photos of him.
money change, and then he had tried to drug him until he was unconscious.
Dahmer, with a background of alcohol-related offenses, was sentenced
then for second-degree sexual assault. Being on bail in
awaiting sentencing, he committed another murder. When the sentence was handed down, instead of
to imprison him in jail, a sentence of one year in prison was imposed
semi-open regime and the obligation to attend a course on alcoholism. For
At that time, there were several reports of missing young people in the area.
that Dahmer had picked up the young Laotian, and also sufficient evidence to
directly relate it to three of them. The police authorities, without
embargo, they did not connect the dots.

When Dahmer, in a semi-open regime, requested parole

word, even his father, one of his most ardent defenders, wrote to
court opposing his release before the program was completed
treatment, but nonetheless he was released. From then on, the vortex
the murders accelerated like never before. The authorities had at least two
more opportunities to catch him. On July 8, 1990, one of his victims in
power began to scream so loudly that Dahmer had no choice but to
let her go; the incident was reported to the police, with the description of a
aggressor named Jeff and the address of his apartment, but it did not take place
no investigation. The second chance came at the end of May 1991,
when Dahmer kidnapped another Laotian boy at a shopping mall
he turned out to be the younger brother of the one who had managed to escape three years earlier
from him. This time, the young man was also able to escape, after having been raped, and he left
running naked into the street, where a crowd gathered to help him
until the arrival of the police. Surprisingly, the police and the
firefighters who responded to the emergency call were convinced by him: they
he assured that the boy was his lover and that he was very drunk. The police
they went so far as to accompany the Laotian to the house of his attacker. The police did not
he took notice of the stench that filled the apartment and left, leaving behind
Dahmer with his victim; a few minutes later, the boy was strangled.

When he was finally arrested for murder in the summer of 1991, at first
he tried to deny his crimes, but the pile of evidence found (a canister
full of human remains, skulls set out to dry and varnished, hundreds of
(photos) made him change his mind and provided a detailed description of the
murders. He not only confessed to the murder of the young people but also to a series of
horrific practices that included copulation with corpses, cannibalism and
prolonged torture as a prelude to the murders. Dahmer martyred some
of their victims by drilling into their skulls and pouring acid directly on them
brain.

Imagine, if you wish, a deep and resonant voice, seemingly laconic,

calm and fluid, but with clear signs of great tension and effort
to control what he is saying. We have to tear the words out of him. To encourage him
Next, I murmured monosyllables of assent after every sentence, but
I have removed them from the transcription to make reading easier. Dahmer wanted to give the
impression that he collaborated and that he remembered what he had done with some
objectivity, as if the author of the murders had been a very different person
distinct.
Let's go back to the time of Bath, when you committed your first crime, and took away the
life to a human being. Before that...?

There was nothing.

No aggression, or anything like that?

No. Violence against me, yes. It was me they attacked, for no reason.

Can you briefly describe what happened?

I had gone to visit a friend and was coming home at night; I saw that someone was approaching me.
three high school boys, senior students. One of them pulled out a baton and
He hit me on the nape. Just like that, without reason. I started to run.

Let's talk a little about the breakup of your family. It's painful for many people, for
the people who have done the same as you, and can become an element
important in your life. Allow me to ask you: did you ever suffer
any sexual assault?

No.

So, this was not the cause. I have heard about your interest in dissecting animals and
things like that. When did it start?

At fifteen or sixteen years old.

Did it start in biology class?

Yes. They made us dissect a piglet.

How would you describe your fascination with, well, with dismemberment (Dahmer ...
laugh) at animals?

Well... one was a big dog I found on the road. I was going to separate the
meat, blanch the bones, reconstruct them and sell it. But I never got to do it.
I don't know how I started getting into this; it's a bit of a strange hobby.

I seem to remember that you put your head on a stick and left it behind your
house.

It was a joke. I found the dog and I slit it open to see what it was like inside.
Later it occurred to me that it would be fun to nail my head to a stake and
leave her in the forest. I took one of my friends and told him that I had
found among the trees.
How old were you then?

I think sixteen.

What year was it?

At the end of the seventies.

We were now ready to delve into the realm of murders.

Dahmer has a fixed image in his head, the moment of picking up a man.
hitchhiking, and when it materializes in real life, one feels dragged along
due to the events and it has to go all the way to the end.

You were about eighteen years old when you committed your first murder, isn't that right?

For a couple of years, I had the fantasy of finding a man.

handsome hitchhiking and (dramatic pause)... sexually enjoying him.

Where did you get it from: a movie, a book?

No. It came from within me.

From within.

It happened by chance one week when there was no one at home. My mother
I was out with David, in a motel about eight kilometers away; I had the car,
It was more than five in the morning and I was returning home after having drunk.
I wasn't looking for anyone, but a kilometer from home, I saw him. He was hitchhiking. He wasn't wearing
shirt and was handsome. I felt attracted to him. I walked past him, stopped, and thought:
What should I do? Should I make him go up or not? I asked him if he wanted to smoke a joint and he
he replied, 'Great!'. We went to my room, drank some beers and in the
The time we spent together, I saw that he wasn't gay. I didn't know how to hold on if he wasn't.
grabbing the weight bar and hitting him in the head. Then I strangled him.
with the same bar.

Do you have any idea where this fantasy of taking someone by force came from?
Did you also imagine taking someone's life?

Yes, yes. Everything... everything revolved around having absolute power. Why, or of
I don't know where this came from.

Did you feel out of place in your relationships with people?

In the town where I lived, homosexuality was the highest taboo. Never did it
I was talking about that. I felt a desire to be with someone, but I never met anyone.
that he was gay, at least as far as I knew; it was very frustrating sexually.
And after strangling him? Was there sexual activity before that?

No. I was very scared about what I had done. I walked around for a while.
for another around the house. In the end, I masturbated.

Were you excited about what happened?

For having him captive.

Good. I was unconscious, or dead; I couldn't go anywhere. Does that tell you
excited?

Exactly. Later I took the corpse down to the basement. It stays there, but I can't
sleep, I go back up to the house. The next day I have to think of a way
to get rid of the evidence. I buy a hunting knife. At night I go back to
I go down, I open my belly and I masturbate again.

Did only the physical excite you?

The internal organs.

The internal organs? The act of gutting it?

Yes, then I'll cut off an arm. Then I'll cut the whole body into pieces. I'll put each piece in
a bag and then everything in three large plastic garbage bags.
I put the bags in the back of the car and I'm going to throw the leftovers away at a
ravine, fifteen kilometers away. It's three in the morning. I'm going for a
deserted secondary road and, halfway, a policeman stops me for going
too far to the left. The agent requests reinforcements. There are two. They are testing me.
of alcohol level. They pass it. They light up the back seat with the flashlight, see the bags
and they ask me what it is. I tell them it’s trash, because there isn’t any near my house.
no landfill. They believe me despite the smell. They fine me for driving
too far to the left... and I'm going back home.

And what did you do with the bags?

I left them in the basement again. I grabbed the head, washed it, and put it on the floor of the
bathroom, I masturbated; then I put my head back in with the rest of the
bags, down. The next morning... I put the bags in a drainage pipe
buried that was about three meters long. I crushed the entrance of the pipe until
I closed it and left them inside for about two and a half years.

When did you go back to look for them?

After the army, after working a year in Miami. I opened the pipe,
I grabbed the bones, broke them into small pieces, and scattered them over the underbrush.

Why did you break the bones?

To put an end to everything. The pendant he was wearing and the bracelets... I threw them into the river.

Did you keep anything from that episode? –No. I burned the clothes.

I don't want you to describe each of the cases, but I would like to focus
in some. When did the next homicide occur?

-In 1986. I invited a guy I had met in a gay bar, behind the Hotel
Ambassador, to spend a night of sex and emotions. It had already started to give
pills to the people.

What kind of drug were you using?

Sleeping pills.

How did you become fond of them?

I had been going to the sauna for a while and most of the people I knew there wanted
anal sex; I wasn't interested in this, I preferred to find a way to
stay with them all night without the need for this.

What effect did you notice in them?

They remained unconscious for about four hours.

What was your plan?

To have control over others without harming them.

At that time, did you have intentions of taking someone home?

-No, not at all. That's why I started using the mannequin. Did you know this? I was looking for the
way to satisfy me without harming anyone.
Did you try to distance yourself from all of this?

Yes. For two years. Around 1983, I started attending church with my
Grandma. I wanted to straighten out my life. I was going to mass, reading the Bible, trying to set everything aside.

thought related to sex, and during those two years I moved forward. But
One night, in the local library, reading a book and thinking about my things, I was struck by...
A boy approached, threw a note on my lap, and hurried away.
The note said: 'If you go down to the bathroom on the ground floor, I'll suck you off.' I took it as a joke.
and I didn't give it more importance. But about two months later I started again, the
impulse, the compulsion. The sexual desire increased. I went back to drinking and to associating with the
sex shops. At that time I had my desire under control, but I wanted to find the
a way to satisfy myself without harming anyone. So I became a member of the sauna, I was going
a gay man was trying to find satisfaction with the mannequin. Then it happened that
cemetery incident. I read the obituary of an eighteen-year-old and I
I presented myself at the funeral home. I saw the corpse and it was a very attractive man. When I
they had buried, I grabbed a shovel and a wheelbarrow with the intention of taking it away
a corpse at home. Around midnight I headed to the cemetery, but the ground
It was freezing and I had to abandon my purpose.

Did you find that it was easy to get someone to go home with you in bars?
Exactly. He was a very handsome boy. I invited him to the hotel room.
We were drinking. I was having cola with high-proof rum. I made him drink.
he too and fell asleep. I kept drinking and I must have blacked out,
because I don't remember anything that happened until I woke up in the morning.
He was lying on his back, with his head hanging off the edge of the bed; I
he had his forearms covered in bruises and he had some broken ribs and others
injuries. Apparently, he had beaten him to death.

Do you have no memory of having done it?

I don't remember doing it and I had no intention of doing it.

What are you doing next?

I was horrified. But... I had to do something with the corpse. I locked it up in the
closet, I went to the mall and bought a large suitcase with wheels. I put it in
inside. I reserved the room for another night. I sat there,
terrified. The next night, at one in the morning, I left the hotel,
I asked the taxi driver to help me put the luggage in the trunk, and I headed to
my grandmother's house. I hid the suitcase in the basement and left it there for about
one week.

And did it not emit any smell?

No, because it was cold. It was Thanksgiving and I couldn't do anything.

because some relatives were going to come for a visit.

Why didn't you leave the corpse in the room?

Because it was in my name.

Let's continue. You have the corpse hidden down there for a week.
My grandmother goes out for a couple of hours to go to church, and I go down to look for it. I grab a
knife, I slashed his stomach, I masturbate, then I separate the meat and put it in
bags, I cover the skeleton with a blanket and smash it to pieces with a mallet. I
I wrap everything up and on Monday morning I throw it in the trash. Except for the skull. The
I kept the skull.

How long did you keep it?

One week. I put it in concentrated bleach to whiten it. It came out clean, but
too fragile and I threw it away.

Weren't you scared to throw everything in the trash?

I didn't know what else to do.

Did your grandmother not imagine something strange?

She only complained about some bad smells.

At a certain moment, you left his house.

I thought that after eight years with her, it was time to have my own house.
where I wouldn't feel so restricted.

And where was that first house?

On Twenty-fourth Street. That's where I took that photo (of the first victim
Laosian). I didn't want to harm her.

He was very young, wasn't he? How old was he?

Thirteen, fourteen. I thought he was older. You know, an Asian can be twenty-one.
years and still having a kid's face.
That's right. What motivated you?

It was a Sunday morning. I had gone out for a walk. I needed

sexual activity. I saw him, he was very attractive. I offered him fifty dollars to take him out.
some photos. He accepted. I took two photos, I gave him a drink and I thought he was
unconscious. He escaped, and the police showed up.

There you have it, the plan backfired. The police arrested you.

Mmm-hmm. The agent and I returned to the apartment. They searched the house. No
they found the skull that was in a dresser in the hallway.
How is it possible that they didn't see him?
It was under the clothes. In Ohio, they overlooked the garbage bags, and
now they could not see the skull.

If they had found it, things would have changed considerably.

right?

Yes. And leaving the hotel as I did. It was nothing normal. Matter of luck. In the
In the following dialogue, you will observe that Dahmer misinterprets what I am saying. I say
that the willingness of homosexuals to interact with strangers is a
dangerous practice for them, but he interprets any reference to danger as
danger for him, not for others.

Most of your victims were picked up from bars or gay neighborhoods. What do you think?
Are you willing to interact with strangers? Do you not think it is dangerous?

Yes, I thought about it, but the compulsion overshadowed everything.

It seems you had crafted a very detailed plan to convince people.

that you would be with me. You were sure that you would always get it.

Yes.

But sometimes it didn't work.

-Sometimes, very rarely, I was very drunk, and I would take someone who did not
he was as attractive as I had believed, and in the morning he had a hangover and was leaving. Others
Sometimes I didn't want to kill them, because I didn't want to be with them. This happened to me three or
four times. Other nights I didn't want to be with anyone and went home to watch a
video or read.

You didn't have many video tapes.

As the years went by, I began to set aside the videos and magazines that
I was not attracted to them. Apart from the porn movies, the Jedi ones (trilogy of The war of
the galaxies), the character of the Emperor, with his absolute control, fit in
perfectly in my fantasies. I suppose many people would like to have the
Total control is a very common fantasy.

This idea of domination and control, do you think it has increased since the
second victim until the last?

Mmm-hmm.

And you started to perfect your technique of taking boys home.

It became the driving force and focus of my life, the only thing that gave me satisfaction.
Did you have something to do with the occult sciences? Was it an attempt to gain more power?

Yes, but it wasn't anything serious. I did some drawings. I was going to specialized bookstores.
occult sciences and bought materials, but I never performed any rituals with them.
victims. I probably would have done it six months later, if they hadn't
detained.

I have a copy of one of your drawings. It's quite a fantasy, isn't it?

It would have been a reality, with six more months.

Dahmer wanted to build what he sometimes called a 'power center' and other times
"temple", formed by a long table on which he would place six skulls. Two
Complete skeletons would flank her, one at each end, suspended from the ceiling.
A large lamp would stand in the center of the table and would extend six globes of
light over the skulls. Dahmer's purpose was to create an environment from where
connect with another level of perception or being, in order to achieve success in the
love and finance.
Were you thinking of buying all that equipment?

Yes. I already had the lamps and the skeletons.

Did you ever believe...?

I was never sure, but...

What was behind the fact that you kept the skeletons, the skulls, the
hair, the parts of the body...

Preserving the skulls was a way of feeling that it had been a waste.
totally kill them. I was going to use the skeletons for the temple, but this was not the
motivation to kill them; it occurred to me afterwards.

It seems that you had a hard time tolerating people leaving.

They were lifts from one night. They always made it clear to me that they had to return to
work. And I didn't want them to leave.

Do you think it was realistic? Didn't you ever think about establishing a relationship?
permanent?

I couldn't. When I moved to the apartment, I was already in over my head with a certain
way of doing things. Also, I have never met anyone who inspired me to the
trust to maintain that type of relationship.
So, would you have preferred it but it was impossible to find?

I didn't have time to go looking. I worked six days a week,

I had time constraints, and I wanted immediate solutions.

With the first boy, whom you tried to turn into a zombie, it didn't go well.
Did you try again?

I tried again, doubled the dose and the result was fatal. This time there was no
strangulation. Then I tried to inject boiling water. Later he/she woke up.
I was very dazed. I gave him more pills and he fell asleep again. This was at night.
Next. During the day, I left it there.

Had you tied him/her?

No. He was always lying down. That night he died.

And what do you say about (another victim)?

I gave him the first injection when he was high, I went for a beer and
when I returned...

Was that before or after the police came?

Before. The first injection was before. He left the apartment. They gave it to me again.
bring, believing that he was drunk. I gave him the second injection, and that was
fatal.

Was it immediate or...?

Immediate. He was the brother of the one I had photographed. I went for a walk to the
shopping center and I ran into him. I didn't know him. How many chances were there of
What would happen if something like this occurred? Astronomical.

How far did you drill?

Only to the bone. I injected it. He was asleep and I went out for a beer.
quickly to the bar across the street before they closed. When I came back, I saw him sitting in the
someone had called the police. I had to think quickly: I told them that
He was a friend of mine who had gotten drunk and they believed me. In the middle of a
dark alley, at two in the morning, with the police on one side and the
firefighters to the other. I couldn't go anywhere. They asked me for my identity card and
I showed them. They tried to talk to him and he replied in his language. There was no
blood traces; they examined him and believed he was completely
drunk. They told me to take him inside; he didn't want to go in, but between two
agents took him up to the apartment.
Did they examine him?

No. They knocked him down on the sofa and took a look at the apartment. They didn't go in.
my bedroom. If they had done it, they would have seen the corpse (of a victim
previous) that was still there. They saw the two photos I had taken of
boy, who were on the dining room table. One agent said to the other:
"Do you see? He has told the truth." And they left.

Where did you get this calmness? In situations like this, people start to
to tremble.

The first time they came, I was trembling... Well, I don't know. I don't know where I have
I took out this tranquility. I don't know!

Many serial killers keep trophies or mementos of their victims. Dahmer

had taken this trend much further. From the walls of his apartment
they hung numerous photos of slender male models. I asked him if the
the poses of the victims in their photos imitated those others.

It was meant to enhance her physique.

What did this mean to you?

It was a way of exercising control, of making them look the way I wanted.

It was important to preserve the photos.

I used them to masturbate.

You had heaps. And you didn't hide them?

Before yes, but at the time of the arrest, I was becoming very careless.

Going back to the boy from the apartment: how long did you wait to dismember him and
Get rid of the corpse?

-Until the next day.

How long did you take?

About two hours.

Just that?

I had a lot of practice. It's a dirty job. I worked quickly.

Always in the bathtub?

Yes.

And you got rid of it. Did you flush a lot down the toilet? Didn't it get stuck?

No, it never got stuck.

I asked Dahmer if he had read anything about other serial killers like Gacy and
he replied that when he had heard about this for the first time, he had already
killed several people. I cannot assure if he was lying or not, because it is common
that murderers read about the crimes of other murderers, and apart from the
satisfaction that it brings them to see that they act in the same way, sometimes
they learn their techniques.

Did you torture any of those guys?

Never. Never.

Was it always about nullifying his consciousness with drugs and death?

I wanted it to be as painless as possible.

When did the sexual activity take place?

After drugging them.

Do you think it was realistic to keep them in that state?

No, drugging them. That's why I started with trepanations. Drugging them didn't work.

You had reservations about hurting them. When they were conscious and you hurt them,
Were you worried?

-That’s why I couldn’t continue with (victim's name). And ended up calling the
police. But they didn't believe him. He was three kilometers away from my house and I brought him another.
I had the knife, but I was unable to use it.

Did you ever bite them?

Yes, yes. To the first one. When he was already dead, I bit his neck.
And what was behind that, what was the motivation?

The feeling that they were becoming a part of me.

Which of the victims did you start eating?

With M. It was after (the Laotian). I think it was the third of the apartment.

More or less the number seven.

I suppose.

How did it happen?

While I was dismembering it. I kept the heart. And the biceps. I cut them into
small pieces, I washed them, I put them in airtight plastic bags and them
I kept it in the freezer; I was looking for something else, something new to satisfy me.
Afterwards, I cooked them, and I masturbated while looking at the photo.

Have you never felt an inclination towards children? What were your preferences?

-The men made and right.

Of your same age?

Mmm-hmm.

Whites, blacks, and browns.

This is the thing. Everybody thinks it was a racial issue, but it was
different. The first was white, the second was a Native American,
the third was Hispanic and the fourth was mulatto. The only reason for raising up
black men were the majority in gay bars.

So it was a matter of zone.

Yes. I hope it has been made clear.

Have you been harassed by the black inmates in prison for this reason?

Yes. They think that... it is something racial.

The time Dahmer opened a closet and the manager smelled the contents of a
plastic barrel with a capacity of more than one hundred liters, filled with the solution of
acid used to dissolve bones, the administrator was about to
to fade away. He explained to him that there he poured the dirty water from the fish tank and the man
he/she believed it.

From the fishbowl? Was it a believable excuse?

I don't think so. But apparently, he/she swallowed it.

Shortly after, he threw the barrel with its contents and grabbed a huge blue drum.
of oil.

What was inside?

–The headless torsos.

Was that blue container for storing and processing them later?

It was for the acid. To treat the torsos.

What was the purpose of the lamps?

They were blue balloons. I would turn off the overhead light and create an atmosphere.
mysterious and dark to the stage. Special effects.

What a scene!

-Like in the Jedi movies.

And why varnish the skulls?

-To give them a more uniform appearance. After a few weeks, some do not
they were as white as the others and had an artificial appearance, as if manufactured
for an announcement.

I have seen photos and it's true, it almost looked like a commercial campaign. Did you take them?
ever?

A long time ago. Once I took a boy from Chicago home.

he saw and thought they were bought.

Some corpses had the soles of their feet sliced. Why?

That was simply so that the acid would have a larger surface to
disintegrate the flesh. The skin on the soles of the feet is normally very thick.

We continue talking about two cases that did not end in homicide. In the first one,
a young man had survived 'the drink' at grandma's house and Dahmer him
he was allowed to leave, but later the boy had to be hospitalized and
reported the incident to the police, who did not follow up very well on it.
Subject. Below follows the narration, word by word, of the second case.

What happened to that boy you hit with a hammer?

He left angrily, saying he was going to call the police. Fifteen more minutes
In the evening, he returned. He knocked on the door and I let him in. He said he needed money for
the phone, or the taxi, or I don't know what. I found it incredible that he/she/it came back. Can it
believe it?

Instead of going to the police?

I was afraid to let him go again; we struggled for about five minutes. Both of us.
we were exhausted. We stayed in the bedroom until seven in the morning. It
calm; he promised me he wouldn't call the police. We went to the corner, I stopped a taxi
and that was the last time I saw him.

It's rare that he didn't file a complaint.

-She did it, but told an absurd story that I had hit her and didn't...
they believed.

Drinking too much has been a constant problem in your life, hasn't it?

Yes. It was my way of coping with family life. The divorce. And the beatings. I drank.
to erase the memory. For a time it worked.

Can it be said that you were in a state of semi..?

In a state of drunkenness.

Did you feel it as a necessity?

It all seemed easier that way.

Did the act of cutting itself bring you pleasure?

At first yes. Then it became a routine.

And sex after death?

Pleasant.
And what about the remains?

It wasn't as pleasant as when I had them whole.

Have you always known that what you were doing was wrong?
Yes, yes.

At some point did you tell yourself: 'This is crazy'?

Yes. When I started with the drill. It was at number twelve, or thereabouts.

Were you aware that...?

–That it was already too much.

Did you tell yourself: 'I won't do it again'?

-No. I wanted to master the zombie technique.

Why do you think domination, control, and power over others were so
important? For ordinary people, they are important factors, but not until the
extreme that you took them.

If I had had normal interests and hobbies, like sports, it wouldn't have
were so important. Why were they? I don't know. (Long pause). I suppose I
made life more attractive, or fuller.

Okay. But it was a power and control... out of control.

Do you understand what I mean?

Now yes.

When you started with the drill, did you have the feeling that they were going to
grab you?

-No. I thought I could avoid being discovered. It was after losing the
I was working when everything started to crumble around me.

Was it shortly before they arrested you?

Maybe a month.

Why did you lose your job?

I called one night when I was with the black weightlifter. I believed
that I still had one day off for illness, but no. I decided to spend the
night with him, because I thought that the next day I would still have the job. It was because
that.

And what about the yellow contact lenses?

The two protagonists of these movies (Return of the Jedi and The Exorcist III)
They wore glasses on their eyes that emanated power. It was part of my
fantasy.

I continued with the whole list of crimes to find any clue about his condition.
mental in the time period of each of them. For me, the key event was the
what had happened at the Ambassador Hotel in 1986. I was interested in how it was
life in that era.

At that time, I had stopped trying to resist my desires, but,

When I met someone, I would go to their house and limit myself to spending a night of sex.
with them. Violence was not part of my plans.

But this time you wake up and the boy is dead. From then until January.
Two years pass from 1988, but from January 1988 to March 1988, it is a span of...
just two months. What happened at the Ambassador, did you find it pleasant...?

No.

...or terrible?

Terrible.

Why?

I hadn't planned it. It was a surprise for me to find myself in what happened.
And what was it that he would accompany you to your grandmother's house? A multitude of
circumstances?

Yes. We undressed. We were in bed, caressing each other. We masturbated.

And... I found him so attractive that I wanted to keep him.

The following questions aimed to discern which specific crime had occurred.
planned and which spontaneous. We reviewed all cases in a sequence
temporary. The next one had been in March 1988.

Where did you find it?

Going out for drinks. I had been drinking all night and I was already going home. When
I went out, saw him, and made him the offer.

And again to grandma's house, the drugs and everything else?

Mmm-hmm, the same plan.

Did you know at that moment...?

At that moment... yes, without a doubt. The plan... Mmm-hmm.

A year passes. We are in March 1989. That time, when you left
House, were you looking for someone? Were you planning to do it?

Yes, yes. I was looking for someone to take me.

The following crime occurred fourteen or fifteen months later. 'Which

What had the circumstances been?

I found him in front of a bar. He was engaged in prostitution and he was very handsome.
I offered money, we went home, and... the same plan.

When you went to Chicago, had you arranged to meet someone?

Yes.

Did you think the date could end in homicide?

Yes, probably.

I asked Dahmer if, in the middle of a series of crimes, before going out to the
hunting fantasized about what would happen.

Just looking at photos of previous victims. Videos, pornographic movies,

magazines. I didn't have elaborate fantasies before going out.

So, you relied on photos and pornography to fill the gaps between...

Exactly.

...between events.

Yes.

I asked him again about his sexual preferences, what kind of person he would be.
desired as a sexual partner.

I would have liked to have a well-developed and accommodating white man.

I would have preferred to have him alive and to always have him by my side.

What would come out to work and lead a normal life, or just be.
with you?

That they were only with me.

Less preferable, but still desirable, said Dahmer in response to other questions,
it would have been leaving someone in a 'zombie state'. Lowering the scale, he said it would have
preferred "what I have been doing", that is, flirting with men in bars and
take them home to kill them. Going even lower on the scale of the
preferences, however, he said: 'Nothing.' Neither normal homosexual sex nor sex
heterosexual normal, no couple. Or, in any case, pornography.

And then?

Celibacy, without any sexual activity. This was the state he was trying to achieve.
the two years I went to church.

Were you trying to reach that state because you knew you wouldn't get into trouble?

Indeed, indeed.

At the time you committed the crimes, did you believe you had the right to do so?
What were you doing?

I always tried not to get to know the person too well. That way
they seemed more like an inanimate object. But I always knew it wasn't right.
I had guilt.

Have you ever thought that the other person had done something wrong and that you had
justification for...?

No. This is what Palermo, the forensic psychologist, believed. That he was doing it to free the
world of villains. And I wasn't doing it for that.

No deep psychology, okay? It doesn't always work.

We laughed and concluded the sessions. Dahmer agreed to return to

to receive me after the trial so that I could continue with the interviews. I told him that
he would take care of himself and that he smoked too much. He responded that if he ended up having a
cancer and dying would solve the problem for all those who did not know what to do
with him.

A jury of non-experts confirmed that a person, to be considered

mentally ill, should act as such most of the time. For
consequently, he considered that Dahmer was legally of sound mind when
commit the crimes. Once this verdict was issued, the jury had to
considered Dahmer guilty of fifteen murders and was sentenced to fifteen
life sentences, which would be equivalent to about 936 years in prison. In Wisconsin
the death penalty does not exist.
During the years he spent in prison, according to Boyle, his lawyer, he refused to accept
special protection and insisted on mixing with the other inmates. At the end of
November 1994, he was killed by a black inmate, just as he had feared. It was
beaten to death in the bathroom by Christopher J. Scarver, who also
he was serving a life sentence for murder. Scarver had been convicted despite
having claimed that voices were telling him that he was the Son of God and warning him
about whether or not to trust a person.

For many, Dahmer's violent death was an appropriate end; there were others, without
embargo, among them some columnists, who were furious because Scarver
he had deprived the citizens of the right to have Dahmer serving time during
many more years the crimes committed. In my opinion, neither Dahmer nor Scarver
they should have been imprisoned if not confined for life in an institution
psychiatric.

The problem, in reality, is that people like Dahmer pose a dilemma to the
society, which has not developed an appropriate way to deal with them. Focus on
concepts such as good and evil are not even a close approximation to the complex
reality of what Dahmer did. In the 1970s, I asked the killer in
Edmund Kemper series and his personality and problems were included in the DSM.
II, and he responded that he did not believe they would be included until the DSM entered its
sixth or seventh edition..., an edition that would not be published until well into the
21st century.