Crime Rate: Jeffery Dahmer

“I had these obsessive desires and thoughts wanting to control them, to -- I don’t know how to put it -- possess them permanently.”

With widespread social media coverage about Netflix's new Dahmer series, who else would I talk about for my first post? 

Born May 21, 1960 in Milwaukee, Jeffery Dahmer grew up the son of Joyce Annette and Lionel Dahmer. While reports conflict on the nature of his upbringing, Jeffery was described as an "energetic and happy child".

 

Victimology: 17/20

Dahmer targeted gay and bisexual men. Thus, he often frequented  establishments with high concentrations of gay men. Now, killing gay men because of homophobia is stupid -- hate crimes are so over done in this age. Dahmer, on the other hand, killed gay men because he himself was gay. Much more exciting -- this gains him points. Of his 17 victims, one was Native American, one was Asian, two were Latin American, and ten were black. That is a very impressive spread of ethnicity that you don't usually see in serial killers; most stick to one specific race. His trailblazing diversity and relatively high number of victims garner him a high victimology score.

 

Modus Operandi: 20/20

For a majority of his murders, Dahmer lured gay/bisexual men to his home with promises of sexual acts and money. There, he would drug then and then strangle them. His utilization of strangling as his kill method indicates that he was interested in a prolonged and personal death. Much more impressive than a gun shot to the head, for example. Points for that! After killing his victims and committing acts that will not be covered here on this blog, he would take Polaroid photos of his decreased victims. I am an enjoyer of Polaroid pictures, so keep adding on the points. He would then dismember and decapitate the bodies, keeping their skulls and (occasionally) body parts as trophies. While not uncommon for serial killers to keep trophies of their victims, the fact that he kept their skulls is dope af. More and more and more points. For the disposal of bodies, Dahmer utilized knowledge learned from his father (a chemist) to dissolve the remains. He also attempted drilling holes into his victims' brains and injecting hydrochloric acid or boiling water in an attempt to induce a submissive state. His experimentation always result in death, but he tried. Man. In. STEM.🤩.


Motive: 12/20

Everything Dahmer did was about domination. Strangling his victims, keeping their body parts, they were all ways for him to exert his control over his victims. Domination by itself is a rather lame motive. I want passion and fury, not just "I want to be on top of you".


Justice: 3/20

In 1991, a almost-victim managed to escape from Dahmer's grasp and report him to the Milwaukee police. Soon after, officers searched his house and found no shortage of evidence. Skulls, Polaroids, severed body parts were found and Dahmer readily admitted to his crimes. C'mon man. There was NO attempt to be even a little bit subtle about his crimes. Pathetic. Upon reaching prison, Dahmer committed himself to Christianity, which is pretty cool. From there he would just kinda vibe until 1994, when he was murdered by another inmate. I can't even begin to speak on how much this infuriates me. This is legitimately the saddest way for a serial killer to meet his demise.


X-factor: 13/20

Cannibalism! Very few serial kills are actually cannibals, so this is hella dope. Other than the cannibalism though, he didn't really have that much else going for him. He did some experimentation (see injecting hydrochloric acid in an attempt to induce a submissive state), which is admirable, but overall it's nothing that I can give him that many extra points for.


Total: 65/100

Dahmer's very impressive score is completely ruined by his "Justice" subscore. But looking beyond that, he was quite impressive as a serial killer. There are many great "American" serial killers that everyone knows about, and he is one of them. There's definitely something in that. Perhaps that's not what I would want my legacy to be, but nonetheless it is an admirable one.

 

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