00:00:04
-Shortly before midnight
on July the 22nd, 1991,
00:00:09
two Milwaukee police officers
were flagged down
00:00:12
in their patrol car by a man
with a pair of handcuffs
00:00:16
dangling from one wrist.
00:00:18
The police had no idea
that this bizarre encounter
00:00:22
would lead to the arrest
00:00:24
of one of the most prolific
serial killers in U.S. history.
00:00:28
-That night people were afraid.
00:00:31
People were whispering
under their breaths,
00:00:33
you know, it was the devil.
00:00:34
It's the devil.
00:00:36
-The man had escaped from
a small one-bedroom apartment
00:00:39
on North 25th Street.
00:00:41
When the officers
went to investigate,
00:00:43
they found themselves
in a living nightmare.
00:00:46
-They saw the body parts
and then one of the officers
00:00:48
said he heard a scream.
00:00:50
Then he realized later he was
the one who screamed
00:00:51
when he saw the body.
00:00:52
-Without detection,
31-year-old Jeffrey Dahmer
00:00:56
had killed 17 young men
across a 13-year period.
00:01:00
-He hasn't got the same level
of repulsion and shock
00:01:04
at dead bodies or mutilated
bodies that most of us have.
00:01:08
It was just another aspect
of his life.
00:01:10
-Jeffrey Dahmer had etched
his name in history
00:01:14
as one of the world's
most evil killers.
00:01:17
♪♪
00:01:27
♪♪
00:01:37
The name Jeffrey Dahmer
has become synonymous with evil.
00:01:41
Between 1978 and 1991 he killed
17 young men and boys
00:01:47
by drugging them
before strangling them to death.
00:01:51
As the revelations
of the murders came to light,
00:01:54
it was the behavior of Dahmer
once he'd killed his victims
00:01:57
that really stunned the world
00:02:00
with stories of necrophilia
and cannibalism.
00:02:03
The first journalist to arrive
at the crime scene
00:02:06
was Anne E. Schwartz.
00:02:08
-It wasn't a gory crime scene.
00:02:10
It was really quite antiseptic.
00:02:12
It was a very simple one-bedroom
with a kitchen
00:02:15
and a living room.
00:02:17
And it looked like a regular
single guy lived there.
00:02:21
You know some dishes
in the sink, but by and large,
00:02:25
this was not
some chamber of horrors
00:02:27
like people will describe it.
00:02:29
Certainly, not at first look.
00:02:31
Once detectives and officers
started searching further,
00:02:35
that's when they found out
the actual horror
00:02:37
was in that apartment.
00:02:40
-The story of this
macabre killer begins 30 years
00:02:44
before his arrest.
00:02:46
Jeffrey Dahmer was born
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
00:02:49
on May the 21st, 1960.
00:02:53
The family moved to Iowa
before settling in Ohio in 1966.
00:02:58
-He lived with these parents
who were constantly,
00:03:03
constantly as he put it
"at each other's throats."
00:03:06
You know, his mother
appeared to have been
00:03:09
this raging bundle
of neurotic behavior.
00:03:13
Parents were constantly
fighting and screaming.
00:03:17
You know, Dahmer himself
evidently throughout much
00:03:20
of his early life
00:03:22
was completely, completely
ignored by both of them.
00:03:25
They were so caught up in
their own psychological turmoil.
00:03:31
-Jeffrey Dahmer never really
made close social links
00:03:34
with any of his peers.
00:03:36
He was a little bit odd.
00:03:38
And if you speak to his
school friends at the time,
00:03:41
he didn't seem to have a lot
of empathy for other children.
00:03:44
So when children would fall over
in the playground
00:03:47
or get hurt or cry,
00:03:49
he didn't appear
to be affected by that
00:03:50
and would sometimes
laugh at them.
00:03:53
So something wasn't quite right
with a young Jeffrey Dahmer.
00:03:58
-Feeling ostracized
by his family and classmates,
00:04:02
Dahmer spends a lot of time
playing alone in the woods
00:04:05
surrounding his Ohio home.
00:04:07
-Well, he had a really
morbid curiosity with death
00:04:10
from quite a young age.
00:04:11
And this started with a fairly
innocent insect collection,
00:04:15
and he would keep the bodies
of insects inside jars
00:04:18
full of chemicals.
00:04:20
This soon progressed.
00:04:21
He would go fishing,
and he was interested
00:04:24
in what the fish
looked like on the inside,
00:04:26
so he would chop up the fish
to have a look at this.
00:04:30
-Dahmer took his fish
and cut it open.
00:04:32
Was fascinated with
the inside of the fish,
00:04:37
and one of his little
friends asked him,
00:04:39
"Jeffrey, why do you...
00:04:41
what are you doing?"
00:04:43
And he said, "Just look at it."
00:04:45
-You know,
and this escalates to the point
00:04:49
that he's apparently
killing stray dogs
00:04:52
and decapitating them.
00:04:55
-One of the young boys
in the neighborhood
00:04:57
was walking in the woods
behind Dahmer's house
00:05:00
when Dahmer was a teenager,
00:05:01
and he came across
the body of a dead dog,
00:05:04
and it was mutilated,
and it was nailed to a tree.
00:05:07
-So, there's some early interest
in animal anatomy
00:05:12
that blossoms into this
very, very dark obsession,
00:05:18
and then somehow becomes tangled
up with his own sexuality.
00:05:24
-Dahmer continued to struggle
to fit in at high school
00:05:27
and turned to alcohol
from a young age.
00:05:31
-Well, Dahmer started drinking
when he was at school,
00:05:33
and one of his former
classmates remembered
00:05:35
that he used to
come in with a cup
00:05:37
and he didn't have tea
or coffee in this cup.
00:05:39
He had scotch whiskey in it.
00:05:41
So this was quite a disturbing
behavior for a teenager.
00:05:45
-There's a thought that
in hindsight you ask
00:05:49
why more people
didn't try to intervene.
00:05:51
You've got a kid
coming drunk to school.
00:05:54
But back in the '70s
00:05:55
when Dahmer's coming
to school intoxicated,
00:05:58
nobody thinks, "Gee, we better
make sure we take care of this
00:06:01
because what if he turns out
to be a serial killer?"
00:06:06
-In the summer of 1978 Dahmer's
parents finally divorced.
00:06:11
-The breakdown of Jeffrey
Dahmer's parent's marriage
00:06:14
was quite a tough time for him.
00:06:15
His parents were
at each other's throats.
00:06:18
It was not an amicable
divorce at all.
00:06:20
And each of them was forcing him
to side with them,
00:06:23
so he felt very much torn
between his parents.
00:06:26
So this was a real source
of conflict for him.
00:06:30
And I think at this time
children often,
00:06:32
who have these experiences,
will retreat into themselves.
00:06:35
They will preoccupy themselves
with things
00:06:37
that they're interested in
00:06:39
and will lose themselves
in their own fantasy world.
00:06:42
And I think that's very much
what happened with Dahmer.
00:06:44
-Having just recently
graduated from high school,
00:06:47
Dahmer soon had no one
around him at all.
00:06:50
-Well, in 1978 Jeffrey
Dahmer was 18.
00:06:53
His mother had gone away
with his younger brother,
00:06:56
and his father
was living in a hotel.
00:06:58
So he's alone,
and he's ruminating,
00:07:01
and he's fantasizing,
00:07:03
and things are going to
take a turn for the worse
00:07:06
quite soon after this.
00:07:08
-On June the 18th, 1978,
Dahmer's fantasy world
00:07:13
collided with the real one
when he pulled over to pick
00:07:16
a 19-year-old hitchhiker
called Steven Hicks.
00:07:20
-Dahmer picked him up
and invited him back
00:07:23
to his house
to have some drinks,
00:07:24
and I guess maybe
smoke some dope.
00:07:27
-They were in the basement
of his parents' home.
00:07:30
They had had sex.
00:07:32
And then Steven Hicks
wanted to leave,
00:07:35
and that was when Dahmer just
wanted so badly to have company.
00:07:40
Sounds like such
a textbook psychological thing.
00:07:43
You know, abandonment syndrome,
but this was at the heart
00:07:46
of what made him
so needy for company.
00:07:50
-And then when the guy said
he wanted to leave,
00:07:52
Dahmer clubbed him on the back
of the head with a barbell
00:07:55
and then strangled him.
00:07:57
Then, ultimately, disposed of
the body, removed all the flesh,
00:08:03
and eventually
dissolved it in acid
00:08:06
and pulverized the bones
with a sledgehammer.
00:08:09
-This is a really, really
brutal crime.
00:08:12
And he disposes
of the body parts
00:08:14
in the woods behind his house,
00:08:16
and that's already symbolic
place for Jeffrey Dahmer
00:08:18
'cause this is a place where
he's dismembered animals before,
00:08:22
where he's displayed
mutilated dogs on tree trunks.
00:08:25
So we're seeing that this place
is special to him.
00:08:28
-Dahmer had experienced taking
the life of another human
00:08:32
for the first time.
00:08:34
♪♪
00:08:37
-I think that the first murder
00:08:39
is a real milestone
for Jeffrey Dahmer.
00:08:41
So he knows now
that he's capable of this.
00:08:44
He knows that he's capable
of taking someone else's life,
00:08:47
so it's not just
a fantasy anymore.
00:08:49
It's now a reality.
00:08:51
He's gone from harming animals
to harming people.
00:08:53
And he's not gonna stop.
00:08:55
-He's not desperate,
but he becomes accustomed to it.
00:08:59
He becomes ready to kill again,
and just kill and kill
00:09:03
and kill and kill
until he gets caught.
00:09:07
-But it wasn't until
13 years later in August 1991
00:09:11
that Dahmer was finally
apprehended after one
00:09:14
of his potential victims escaped
from his Milwaukee apartment.
00:09:18
Once in custody Dahmer
confessed to killing
00:09:21
17 young men and boys.
00:09:25
The man whose job it was to
prosecute the relentless killer
00:09:28
was Milwaukee District Attorney,
Mike McCann.
00:09:32
-The word evil
doesn't come up very often.
00:09:33
It just doesn't.
Guilty. Not guilty.
00:09:35
Did he do it?
Didn't he do it?
00:09:36
Culpability, yes.
00:09:38
But not often evil because evil
is almost a moral issue.
00:09:41
That word came up with Dahmer.
00:09:43
You couldn't help see
what he did.
00:09:44
Innocent people, strangers,
00:09:47
to take for
a couple of hours of sex
00:09:49
to take a human being's life.
00:09:51
That's so evil.
00:09:52
So evil.
00:09:54
-Dahmer's case made headlines
across the world
00:09:57
after the details of his
grizzly confession were leaked.
00:10:00
-A<i> New York Times</i> reporter
00:10:02
compromised the integrity
of a worker at our building
00:10:04
and got a copy
of the confession.
00:10:06
It was a detailed
38-page confession.
00:10:08
So the details of
the gory things he had done,
00:10:11
again, captured
people's interest.
00:10:14
So that's how it rapidly became
a matter of intense interest.
00:10:18
-The confession
outlined the life
00:10:20
of a deranged serial killer.
00:10:22
After murdering Steven Hicks and
desecrating his body in 1978,
00:10:28
Dahmer didn't kill again
for 9 years.
00:10:31
After dropping out
of Ohio State University
00:10:34
after just one semester,
00:10:36
he was spending
most of his days drinking
00:10:39
until his father urged him
to enlist in the U.S. Army.
00:10:43
-The alcohol continued as
a theme when he joined the army,
00:10:46
and he moved to Germany.
00:10:49
One of his former colleagues
remembers him
00:10:51
just sitting in his room
drinking gin all day long,
00:10:54
not even leaving
his room to eat.
00:10:56
So there was
a real dependency on alcohol.
00:11:00
-In 1981, 21-year-old Dahmer
00:11:03
was discharged from the army
after his drinking
00:11:07
rendered him
incapable of serving.
00:11:10
After spending a month sleeping
rough on the beaches of Florida,
00:11:13
he returned to Ohio.
00:11:16
But his father had had enough
and shipped him off
00:11:18
to start a new life
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
00:11:22
-He was sent to live
with his grandmother,
00:11:24
who is the one adult
apparently he had,
00:11:26
you know, something approaching
a normal affection for.
00:11:30
It was there he really embarked
on this career of horror.
00:11:35
-By 1986 Dahmer had been
arrested a couple of times
00:11:39
for exposing himself in public,
00:11:41
once in front
of a group of children.
00:11:44
The hopeless alcoholic
had managed to find work
00:11:48
at a local chocolate factory
in Milwaukee
00:11:51
and was frequenting
gay bars and bathhouses.
00:11:54
-I think being homosexual
affected Dahmer in two ways.
00:11:58
Firstly, it was
a source of shame for him
00:12:00
because it was quite
a stigmatized social identity
00:12:03
at the time.
00:12:04
But also it enabled him
an opportunity
00:12:07
when it came to
his killing behavior.
00:12:10
So being homosexual
at this time,
00:12:12
it was something
that happened in the shadows.
00:12:14
It was something that
happened underground,
00:12:15
and this was the ideal place for
someone like him to go hunting.
00:12:19
-It was this exposure
to the gay scene
00:12:22
that seemed to reawaken the dark
sexual urges inside of him.
00:12:26
And by September 1987,
over 9 years since
00:12:30
the murder of Steven Hick,
00:12:32
Jeffrey Dahmer
was ready to kill again.
00:12:35
-His idea was to drug people
and keep them with him
00:12:39
so that they wouldn't
answer back to him,
00:12:42
they wouldn't argue with him,
they wouldn't fight him.
00:12:44
They would stay with him.
00:12:45
That's what he wanted.
00:12:46
He wanted companionship.
00:12:48
So, he would go to the bars
on Milwaukee's near south side,
00:12:52
and he would have conversations
with people in these bars.
00:12:55
And when he was talking
to these people,
00:12:57
these perspective victims,
he would say,
00:13:01
"So what was it like
when you came out?
00:13:03
How is your family about it?"
00:13:05
So if your response was,
"Oh, my family has been great.
00:13:08
They're so supportive.
00:13:09
I'm very close to my parents."
00:13:12
That person wasn't
gonna be a victim.
00:13:14
But if the person answered,
00:13:16
"My parents aren't
speaking to me anymore.
00:13:19
I'm estranged from my family.
00:13:20
I'm kind of on my own now."
00:13:23
That was the perfect victim
for Jeffrey Dahmer
00:13:25
because he wanted to choose
people who wouldn't be missed.
00:13:30
-Between September 1987 and
March 1988, Dahmer killed 3 men.
00:13:36
The youngest a 14-year-old boy
00:13:39
who he paid to pose
for nude photographs
00:13:41
before drugging
and strangling him to death.
00:13:45
He would dissolve
the bodies in acid.
00:13:47
-He cleverly developed
a program to destroy the bodies,
00:13:50
get rid of the bodies,
left no evidence.
00:13:52
This was a very clever killer.
00:13:55
Very clever killer.
00:13:56
-Dahmer would dissolve
his victims,
00:13:59
presumably to make it easier
to dispose of them.
00:14:02
Dissolving tissue in chemicals
can certainly interfere
00:14:06
with identifying it
as human tissue.
00:14:08
It'll interfere with DNA.
00:14:10
You're really left predominately
with skeletal remains
00:14:13
to try and identify features
such as age, sex, race.
00:14:18
-Dahmer murdered
two of the victims
00:14:20
at his grandmother's house
where he was living.
00:14:22
-His grandmother became aware
00:14:24
that he was bringing these
young guys back to her house.
00:14:28
I mean, she thought for gay sex.
00:14:31
Obviously, she had no inkling
of the atrocities
00:14:34
he was committing
on their bodies,
00:14:37
although she was complaining
also about a foul odor
00:14:40
that she noticed.
00:14:41
-On September the 25th, 1988,
Dahmer moved into
00:14:45
his own apartment on
North 25th Street in Milwaukee
00:14:49
and didn't wait long
before attacking again.
00:14:53
The very next day,
September the 26th,
00:14:55
he enticed a 13-year-old boy
back to his home
00:14:59
and drugged him.
00:15:00
-One of the methods that Dahmer
used to subdue his victims
00:15:04
was to use benzodiazepine.
00:15:06
It's the same family
of drugs as Valium.
00:15:09
He put them in drinks.
00:15:11
That would make you
woozy, sleepy,
00:15:14
and then eventually
go unconscious.
00:15:16
-Dahmer sexually assaulted
the boy,
00:15:19
but somehow, possibly due
to Dahmer passing out drunk,
00:15:23
the 13-year-old escaped
and went to the police.
00:15:27
In January 1989, he was
convicted of sexual assault,
00:15:32
but the sentencing was delayed
until May,
00:15:35
during which time
an unrelenting Dahmer,
00:15:38
unbeknownst to the authorities,
managed to claim a fifth victim.
00:15:43
The 29-year-old
served 10 months in prison,
00:15:46
but when he was released
in March 1990,
00:15:49
he picked up
right where he left off.
00:15:53
-So, Jeffrey Dahmer really
did ramp up his offending.
00:15:57
The scale and the nature
of his behavior
00:16:00
became all the more grotesque.
00:16:02
So he wasn't just killing
people, dismembering them,
00:16:05
and then disposing
of their bodies,
00:16:08
he started to do some
really bizarre things.
00:16:11
-He was in the process
of constructing
00:16:14
some hideously
diabolical shrine in his bedroom
00:16:21
out of the skulls and skeletons
of some of his victims.
00:16:25
It's almost as though
some bizarre archaic thing
00:16:30
had broken through and he was
performing or creating
00:16:36
some sort of ancient
human sacrificial temple
00:16:43
in this little
Milwaukee apartment.
00:16:47
-In 1990, Dahmer killed
another four young men.
00:16:51
His M.O. was becoming
more and more polished.
00:16:55
-He would offer
his victims money to go back
00:16:58
to his apartment with him
00:16:59
to take pictures,
nude photographs of them.
00:17:03
And then perhaps to have sex.
00:17:06
Every single one of his victims
went with him willingly.
00:17:10
He would offer them a drink,
00:17:12
and once he found out
what they wanted to drink,
00:17:15
he kept a lot of things on hand,
different kinds of alcohol,
00:17:19
and that's when he would
put a drug in it
00:17:21
that would put them to sleep
00:17:23
or that would relax them
so that they would pass out.
00:17:25
-They would pass out.
00:17:27
He would then have sex with them
while they were passed out.
00:17:29
Do with them as he wished,
00:17:30
but of course,
they couldn't do to him.
00:17:32
Then as they approached
recovery, coming out of it,
00:17:34
he would strangle them to death.
00:17:35
-It seemed as though Dahmer got
a thrill, not from the murder
00:17:39
but from the dead bodies
of his victims.
00:17:42
-Dahmer liked necrophilia.
00:17:44
He liked sex
with unconscious people.
00:17:46
He wasn't a slasher in the sense
that he took delight in killing.
00:17:50
His purpose was sex
with these people,
00:17:52
company with these people.
00:17:53
That's hard to believe.
00:17:55
-He would commit necrophiliac
sex acts on the corpses,
00:18:00
dismember the corpses,
dissolve parts of the bodies
00:18:03
in these vats of acid he had,
00:18:05
keep certain organs
in his refrigerator,
00:18:07
some of which he would
actually cannibalize.
00:18:11
-Dahmer said that the
cannibalism that he engaged in
00:18:14
was born out of a curiosity.
00:18:17
He wanted to find out, first of
all, what that would be like.
00:18:21
He also said that there was
an element of wanting
00:18:24
to make these people
a part of him
00:18:27
so they would be
with him forever.
00:18:29
-Dahmer, from the beginning,
is driven
00:18:33
by this terror of being alone.
00:18:37
He killed his first victim,
Steven Hicks when Hicks
00:18:40
said he had to go and Dahmer
didn't want to be alone.
00:18:43
There's some desire, which is
part of normal sexuality.
00:18:46
You know you love somebody...
00:18:48
Somebody will say, "I love you
so much I want to eat you up."
00:18:51
With normal people,
that's, obviously, metaphorical.
00:18:55
But it does express some desire
to be so close to the person
00:19:00
that you want to
incorporate them into,
00:19:02
you want to merge with them.
00:19:04
With somebody like Dahmer
that becomes
00:19:06
this very literal horror.
00:19:08
-And the horror
only became worse when Dahmer
00:19:11
began experimenting
with his semi-conscious victims.
00:19:16
-He would drill holes
in their skulls
00:19:18
and put muriatic acid
inside to see
00:19:21
if he could get them
to a zombie state
00:19:24
so that he could keep them
alive and subservient to him.
00:19:29
-It's essentially
an amateur version
00:19:33
of attempting to perform
a lobectomy or a lobotomy,
00:19:36
but it would be
an incredibly unpleasant
00:19:38
and damaging thing to do
to someone's brain.
00:19:41
If you affect the frontal lobes,
you will affect personality,
00:19:45
potentially make
somebody docile.
00:19:47
If he's less accurate, you could
essentially cause a stroke
00:19:50
that could cause paralysis,
speech problems.
00:19:53
It really very much depends
on which part of the brain
00:19:56
is actually damaged.
00:19:58
-But, of course,
that didn't work,
00:20:00
and his victims died
one after another.
00:20:04
Hearing about that is
the stuff of horror movies,
00:20:10
and the fact that it was
happening in a city
00:20:13
where we were known for
manufacturing and beer
00:20:18
and a very good
Midwestern work ethic,
00:20:22
tight families, this isn't the
kind of thing that happens here.
00:20:27
-In May 1991, 31-year-old
Jeffrey Dahmer
00:20:31
was in his killing prime.
00:20:33
He'd already murdered 11 men
and had begun collecting
00:20:37
bones and skulls
from his victims
00:20:40
and cannibalizing their organs.
00:20:43
What would've been a nightmare
for most was a fantasy for him,
00:20:47
and he carefully went
about his killings
00:20:49
under the radar of the police
and the people of Milwaukee.
00:20:54
-Jeffrey Dahmer had a job
in a local chocolate factory.
00:20:57
And I think for him
it enabled him
00:20:59
to maintain a façade
of normality.
00:21:01
He was just an average Joe,
00:21:03
a regular guy
who went to work every day.
00:21:06
-I think he killed so
many people without being caught
00:21:09
because of the fact that
he looked like everyone else.
00:21:12
He did what successful
serial killers do.
00:21:15
He blended.
00:21:16
They blend in with society.
00:21:19
Now he was a Caucasian male
00:21:20
living in a predominantly
African-American neighborhood,
00:21:24
but he didn't talk to anybody,
bother anybody.
00:21:27
He was barely someone
people noticed.
00:21:31
Barely noticed.
00:21:33
He also was targeting
people who he found out
00:21:38
might not be missed.
00:21:40
-For most people,
if they were to commit
00:21:42
the type of acts
that Jeffrey Dahmer did,
00:21:44
they would no way be able
to function normally,
00:21:47
but Jeffrey Dahmer
was not most people.
00:21:50
He hasn't got the same level
of repulsion and shock
00:21:53
at dead bodies or mutilated
bodies that most of us have.
00:21:57
It was just another aspect
of his life.
00:22:00
-It was not known that we had a
serial slayer loose in our city.
00:22:03
We did not know because
he was so cleverly
00:22:05
disposing of the bodies.
00:22:06
The families were reporting
the sons were missing,
00:22:09
but the police
were not finding bodies.
00:22:10
And not infrequently young men
something happens in their life,
00:22:13
they just up and leave town.
00:22:15
It happens enough that
the police don't get worried.
00:22:17
If it's a woman, they'll
immediately commit resources
00:22:19
to investigate,
but a young man they don't.
00:22:22
-But on May the 26th, 1991,
00:22:25
Dahmer came agonizingly
close to capture
00:22:28
after an encounter
with a 14-year-old boy.
00:22:32
-Dahmer had taken
Konerak Sinthasomphone,
00:22:35
a young Asian male
who he found attractive.
00:22:38
He met him in the mall.
00:22:40
Offered him money
to go back to his apartment.
00:22:43
He went, and he began
to work the ritual.
00:22:47
Dahmer would drug him,
and then he began
00:22:51
the process
of this crude lobotomy,
00:22:55
and he had drilled a hole
in this young man's head.
00:22:58
He took a break.
He ran out to get more beer.
00:23:01
While he was gone, Konerak ran
out of the apartment.
00:23:05
He was naked.
He was completely dazed.
00:23:08
And he's running up the alley
00:23:10
next to Dahmer's
apartment building.
00:23:11
A woman in another apartment
building saw him running up
00:23:17
the alley and said,
00:23:19
"There's a boy
running up the alley.
00:23:20
Something's going on."
00:23:22
And then these women
call the police.
00:23:24
-And then Dahmer appeared.
00:23:26
Again, this is another
remarkable characteristic
00:23:30
of these psychopaths
was that they have an ability
00:23:34
to maintain a kind of coolness
00:23:39
under the most extraordinarily
high-pressured circumstances.
00:23:44
-So he walked up
to the officers.
00:23:46
"Good evening, officers."
He's very polite.
00:23:48
He's sober.
00:23:50
And he said,
"This is my boyfriend.
00:23:53
He came to stay with me.
00:23:55
We had a little bit
too much to drink,
00:23:56
and he ran out of the house."
00:23:58
Said, "How old is he?"
Dahmer said, "He's 19."
00:24:02
And the officers said,
"Okay, well, just to make sure
00:24:07
let's all walk back up
to the apartment together."
00:24:10
-The cops went in
and looked around.
00:24:12
They even peeked
into the bedroom
00:24:13
where there was
a decomposing corpse
00:24:15
of one of Dahmer's
previous victims,
00:24:17
but they took such
a cursory look at it
00:24:19
that they didn't even notice it.
00:24:22
-Assuming the couple
were having a lover's tiff,
00:24:24
the two police officers
00:24:26
left Konarek alone with Dahmer
00:24:28
in the apartment building.
00:24:30
And in the early hours
of the morning,
00:24:32
he murdered the 14-year-old boy.
00:24:34
An opportunity to catch
the killer had been missed.
00:24:38
-I think
that really speaks volumes
00:24:40
about the attitudes
of the police
00:24:42
at the time in terms
of ethnic minorities,
00:24:44
in terms of young people,
in terms of the gay community.
00:24:47
And that was another victim
00:24:49
that could potentially
have been saved.
00:24:53
So there's this terrible thing
going on behind closed doors,
00:24:56
and people just
aren't seeing it.
00:24:58
People aren't wanting to see it.
00:25:00
Even the police
are not joining up the dots
00:25:03
and finding out
what's really going on,
00:25:04
so this is allowed to just
bubble away and get worse.
00:25:08
-After evading capture,
Dahmer was free to continue.
00:25:13
-There was two sides really
to Dahmer's pleasure
00:25:15
that he got from
killing his victims.
00:25:17
So he was a sadist
who enjoys the pain
00:25:20
and suffering of other people.
00:25:22
And with sadist that thrill ends
when the victim dies.
00:25:26
But Dahmer was also something
of a necrophiliac
00:25:28
who as interested
in having corpses around
00:25:32
and doing things
with those corpses.
00:25:34
And that means that the thrill
starts with death.
00:25:36
So he has this continuous
fulfillment going on.
00:25:39
And he's always
fully in control,
00:25:41
and I think that's what's really
at the root of Jeffrey Dahmer.
00:25:44
It's power, and it's control,
and it's the feeling
00:25:47
that he has all this knowledge
about what he's done
00:25:49
and nobody else quite knows
what he's up to.
00:25:53
-By July 1991, Dahmer's desire
to kill had become insatiable.
00:25:59
In just 16 days,
he murdered four more men
00:26:02
bringing his total
number of victims to 17.
00:26:06
But Dahmer's reign of terror
was about to come to an end.
00:26:10
On July the 22nd, he met a man
called Tracy Edwards.
00:26:15
-While they were together
in the apartment,
00:26:18
Dahmer threw a handcuff on him.
00:26:21
This was now the beginning
of his ritual.
00:26:24
Dahmer had taken photographs
of his victims
00:26:26
in various stages
of dismemberment.
00:26:28
Polaroids.
00:26:29
And those were sitting on
the dresser inside the bedroom.
00:26:32
They weren't sitting out
in the main living room,
00:26:36
but there was some speculation
00:26:37
that Tracy Edwards
had perhaps seen that.
00:26:40
And he ran out of the apartment
in his underwear.
00:26:44
Ran down the street.
00:26:46
And when he saw the police car,
00:26:49
Tracy Edwards has said
his intention
00:26:51
was just to get
the handcuff off.
00:26:53
That's all he wanted.
00:26:54
He stopped these cops to say,
00:26:55
"Hey, can you just
get this off of me?"
00:26:57
So he stopped, and the officers
start talking to him
00:27:01
about what he saw.
00:27:02
And then they said, "Well, we
should probably check this out.
00:27:06
Let's all go back
to the apartment."
00:27:08
Dahmer answered,
and the minute he saw
00:27:11
that it was the police he tried
to shut the door on them.
00:27:14
The police pushed
the door open a bit.
00:27:16
They started
struggling with him,
00:27:18
and then finally
he just gave in.
00:27:22
And that was when Dahmer
was officially finished.
00:27:26
He was finished killing, and
he knew that he was finished.
00:27:30
-The police officers
immediately arrested Dahmer
00:27:33
after finding the remains
of some of his victims
00:27:36
in his apartment.
00:27:37
-They saw the body parts
and then one of the officers
00:27:39
said he heard a scream.
00:27:40
Then he realized later
he was the one who screamed
00:27:42
when he saw the body,
00:27:43
so they knew they were dealing
with a very serious offense.
00:27:45
Dahmer did not resist.
00:27:47
A little slight resistance, but
Dahmer was taken into custody,
00:27:49
and the investigation
was initiated.
00:27:51
-What followed was
an incredible media circus
00:27:54
on Dahmer's doorstep
as unbelievable stories
00:27:57
about what was
being uncovered inside
00:27:59
his apartment were revealed.
00:28:01
-It was so fantastical that you
think people are making it up
00:28:07
when they're telling you
the details.
00:28:09
But as it turned out,
they weren't making it up.
00:28:12
All of the atrocities
that we heard about
00:28:14
that had happened in that
apartment really did happen.
00:28:17
-The medical examiner
who was called to the scene
00:28:19
didn't know what was happening.
00:28:21
It was so strange.
There was a freezer there.
00:28:22
Body parts in the freezer.
00:28:23
Called in a Hazmat crew.
00:28:26
Well, our television stations
cover the police radio.
00:28:28
When they hear that,
they dispatch crews there.
00:28:30
And the first day
it was local television.
00:28:32
Second day, national television.
00:28:34
By the third day,
it was international television.
00:28:36
-They were able
to show video of these items
00:28:41
coming out of the front door
of this apartment building.
00:28:44
That's not usual
at a crime scene.
00:28:46
We saw a large blue barrel
in which we know
00:28:48
that Jeffrey Dahmer was trying
to dissolve body parts.
00:28:52
It had a refrigerator
that was holding skulls
00:28:55
and also it was
holding body parts.
00:28:58
So these are coming down
the stairs,
00:29:01
and people were just
incredulous to watch it.
00:29:05
When I wrote the story for the
<i> Milwaukee Journal</i> that morning,
00:29:08
and it was released
in the paper about 8:00,
00:29:13
I think, in the morning.
00:29:15
Normally, we were
an afternoon paper,
00:29:17
but we went out early with it
00:29:18
because it was
such an incredible story.
00:29:20
-But no one quite knew
the enormity of the crimes
00:29:24
until Dahmer confessed
to detectives
00:29:26
at the local police station.
00:29:28
-When I've spoken
to the detectives
00:29:30
that were working this case,
00:29:33
they have said this was
not a great whodunit.
00:29:37
This would've been a whodunit
if Jeffrey Dahmer
00:29:39
hadn't confessed to everything.
00:29:42
-When Dahmer was arrested
there were already
00:29:43
a number of bodies
in his quarters.
00:29:45
He gave full confessions
to the police
00:29:47
detailing his involvement
in 16 separate slayings.
00:29:51
Most of the time he did not know
the name of the victims.
00:29:54
-When Dahmer remembered a crime
00:29:57
that he might not have shared
with the detectives,
00:30:00
he would have the jail call them
00:30:02
whether it was
the middle of the night
00:30:03
or the middle
of the day and say,
00:30:06
"I remembered something else.
Please, come over."
00:30:08
Dahmer had said
he wanted to make sure
00:30:10
that he didn't forget anything
00:30:12
because he wanted those
families to have closure.
00:30:15
I'm not sure about that.
00:30:17
That may be giving
Jeffrey Dahmer more credit
00:30:20
than he is deserved,
00:30:23
but he did claim
to want to try and remember
00:30:26
so that all of those families
would have closure.
00:30:30
-One of the interesting
things about Dahmer
00:30:32
that does differentiate him
from other killers of his breed
00:30:36
is that he did seem
to be capable
00:30:39
of a certain degree of remorse,
00:30:41
and certainly recognized
the extent of his depravity.
00:30:45
-Although he confessed
to killing 16 people
00:30:48
in the state of Wisconsin,
00:30:50
Dahmer was first charged
with four counts of murder
00:30:53
on the 25th of July, 1991,
00:30:56
and a further 11 counts
were added in August.
00:31:00
The following month,
investigators in Ohio
00:31:02
found teeth and bone fragments
belonging to Steven Hicks
00:31:06
in the woods
near Dahmer's family home.
00:31:09
A preliminary hearing
was set for January 1992.
00:31:13
His legal team were going
to argue that the killings
00:31:16
were the work of a madman.
00:31:18
-The issue wasn't going to be
did he do it or not.
00:31:20
The issue was going to be was he
sane or insane when he did it.
00:31:23
And his hope was that at least
in even one of the cases
00:31:25
he could induce the jury
to believe that he was insane.
00:31:27
Under those circumstances,
00:31:29
he would be sentenced
not to a prison
00:31:31
but to a mental health facility.
00:31:32
People would say to me, "Mike,
this guy killed 16 people.
00:31:35
He was drinking their blood,
eating parts of their body.
00:31:38
He must've been crazy."
00:31:40
It sounds like
he's crazy to say that,
00:31:42
but that's not what
the insanity rule is.
00:31:44
-The city wanted justice.
00:31:46
They wanted to see the man
the press were calling
00:31:49
The Milwaukee Cannibal
locked away in prison
00:31:52
for the horrific crimes
he had committed.
00:31:56
The trial of Jeffrey Dahmer
00:31:58
would be one of the biggest
in the history
00:32:00
of not just Wisconsin
but the entire U.S.A.
00:32:05
-My reaction to it
then was the same reaction
00:32:08
I think that everybody
who lived in
00:32:10
Milwaukee had when they heard
about the case.
00:32:14
No, it can't be.
00:32:15
This is Milwaukee.
00:32:17
Those kinds of things
don't happen here.
00:32:18
This is the Midwest.
00:32:20
This is a very nice place.
00:32:24
-The trial of Jeffrey Dahmer
began on
00:32:27
the 30th of January, 1992.
00:32:29
Anne had a front row seat.
00:32:32
-The courtroom was
an odd spectacle
00:32:35
because Court TV
00:32:37
was still new in the game
back then.
00:32:41
And the idea that you would
come to court
00:32:46
and you'd be on television
was still kind of new to people.
00:32:50
It was the kind of media
attention to a trial
00:32:54
that Milwaukee hadn't seen in
a very, very long time if ever.
00:32:59
I can remember so clearly
the first time Jeffrey Dahmer's
00:33:02
initial appearance
in court when he walked in.
00:33:06
I think the real fear
that people had
00:33:08
when they first
saw Jeffrey Dahmer
00:33:10
was that he looked
like everybody else.
00:33:13
He was a good-looking young man,
00:33:16
and he is not the person
that you would look at and say,
00:33:20
"Stay away from that guy."
00:33:22
-It would be up to
Milwaukee D.A., Mike McCann,
00:33:26
to prove that Dahmer was sane
and responsible for his actions.
00:33:31
-Guilty wasn't going
to be an issue,
00:33:32
but we wanted the jury
to know enough about the facts
00:33:35
and so did the defense to say,
00:33:36
"All right, what really happened
here?" How atrocious was it?
00:33:38
How planned was it?
How was he behaving?
00:33:40
What skills were involved?
He couldn't control himself.
00:33:44
-It was a lot to take in
00:33:47
because the testimony
was so graphic.
00:33:50
We all knew Mike McCann.
00:33:52
He was a religious man.
00:33:56
And we've seen him in court.
00:33:58
He was this good attorney.
00:34:01
But the kinds of things
that he was reciting
00:34:03
out of the criminal complaint
00:34:05
and the confession
were unheard of.
00:34:08
These things were unheard of.
00:34:11
And they happened
right here in our city.
00:34:14
-He did it quietly.
00:34:15
He concealed the bodies.
00:34:16
Cleverly concealed.
Destroyed the bodies.
00:34:19
Planned it well.
Laid in the equipment.
00:34:20
Got the drugs that he used.
00:34:22
No one that he worked
with thought he was insane.
00:34:24
The way he conducted
himself was in a way
00:34:27
that it seemed that he was sane,
00:34:29
and that's what we wanted
to get across to the jury.
00:34:31
-Mike employs the help
00:34:33
of psychiatry expert
Dr. Phillip Resnick.
00:34:36
-The more bizarre the crimes,
00:34:38
such as involving cannibalism,
the more the lay public
00:34:42
wants to think that guy
had to be out of his mind.
00:34:46
But in looking at it from
the actual strict definition
00:34:49
of insanity, generally,
the diseases
00:34:53
of paraphilias like necrophilia
00:34:56
where someone has trouble
controlling themselves
00:34:59
are not viewed
for the most part
00:35:03
as diseases
which qualify for insanity
00:35:06
because of the social
implications.
00:35:09
One of the points that I made
as a consultant is
00:35:12
even if you have necrophilia,
00:35:15
and even if you have trouble
controlling your impulse,
00:35:19
the majority of necrophiliacs
will select a setting
00:35:24
where they can accomplish this
without homicide.
00:35:27
So some become assistants
in morgues
00:35:31
or assistants in pathology labs
00:35:35
where they may have
access to dead victims.
00:35:37
Others will actually dissenter
bodies after they're buried
00:35:42
so that one does not
have to actually kill
00:35:46
to exercise
the necrophiliac impulse,
00:35:50
and that's one
of the reasons I felt
00:35:51
that he didn't
qualify for insanity.
00:35:53
-The trial was
essentially a debate
00:35:56
between specialtist
psychiatrists
00:35:58
about the mental state of Dahmer
00:36:00
who sat watching the whole thing
play out over two weeks.
00:36:04
-Dahmer was very calm in court.
00:36:06
When you talk are you assessing
a person by what you see?
00:36:09
No one studying him
would believe he was insane.
00:36:12
He was watching
what was going on.
00:36:14
He wasn't reacting
in any negative way.
00:36:17
He conducted himself in a very
rational way, a very proper way.
00:36:21
-This was a case
to tell the world
00:36:24
that I did what I did
not for reasons of hate.
00:36:26
I hated no one.
00:36:28
I knew I was sick
or evil or both.
00:36:31
Now I believe I was sick.
00:36:33
-On February 15th,
the jury had reached a verdict
00:36:36
on Dahmer's sanity.
00:36:38
-Someone like Dahmer
comes along who has never been
00:36:41
in a psychiatric hospital
and alleges insanity.
00:36:45
Juries are gonna
be skeptical of it.
00:36:48
And then when it's all
in the form of a sexual drive
00:36:52
rather than
a traditional psychosis
00:36:55
where someone's out
of touch with reality,
00:36:58
and he's taken careful steps
to cover his tracks,
00:37:01
it's very difficult
to succeed with insanity
00:37:03
with that type of case.
00:37:06
-Jeffrey Dahmer was ruled
to be sane by the jury.
00:37:09
On February 17, 1992,
Judge Lawrence Gram
00:37:13
sentenced him
to life imprisonment
00:37:15
for each of the
15 counts against him.
00:37:18
-When the verdict
was announced in court,
00:37:20
there was a great shout
from the gallery,
00:37:25
especially from
the victims' families.
00:37:26
They cried.
00:37:28
-I was pleased in the sense,
happy, not exuberant,
00:37:31
but happy that this danger
was removed from our community,
00:37:33
that the jury had
not been hoodwinked,
00:37:35
that the jury realized
this chap was not insane.
00:37:38
-The state of Wisconsin
does not have the death penalty,
00:37:41
but Dahmer would have to serve
a minimum of 936 years.
00:37:46
He was immediately sent
to the Columbia Correctional
00:37:48
Institute in Portage.
00:37:51
Three months later,
on the 1st of May, 1992 in Ohio,
00:37:55
Dahmer was also found guilty of
murdering Steven Hicks in 1978
00:38:00
and given yet another
life sentence.
00:38:03
-Dahmer always said that
he was compelled to kill.
00:38:07
That they were urges.
00:38:08
He said, "I had urges
that I could not control."
00:38:11
He also said that even
though he was in prison,
00:38:17
he was relieved
that the killing was done.
00:38:20
He still had the urges.
00:38:22
They didn't go away.
00:38:25
He was just in a place
where he couldn't act on them.
00:38:28
-Locked away
for the rest of his life,
00:38:30
Dahmer found comfort
in the Bible.
00:38:33
And by 1994,
he decided to get baptized.
00:38:37
The prison called on
local minister Roy Ratcliff.
00:38:41
-So I was quite surprised
to be escorted
00:38:43
to a little room and left alone,
00:38:46
and then Jeff come to the room,
and he closes the door.
00:38:49
And then there's he and I
sitting together
00:38:52
across the table,
and I'm thinking for a moment,
00:38:55
"Wow, I'm in a room with a man
who has killed several people."
00:38:58
So, yeah that was
a little bit disconcerting,
00:39:00
but I was there for a purpose
and for a reason,
00:39:02
so I wanted to find out
what was going on
00:39:04
and to see
what I could do to help.
00:39:06
So my fears were
set aside primarily
00:39:09
because of my focus
on what I was trying to do.
00:39:11
Jeff was a normal guy.
00:39:13
Courteous,
very respectful to me.
00:39:15
When we shook hands, I noticed
his hands were really small.
00:39:18
Looking at his hands
and thinking,
00:39:20
"Wow, these are the hands
that strangled people.
00:39:22
These are the hands
that murder people.
00:39:23
These are the hands
that dismembered people."
00:39:25
-On May the 10th, 1994,
00:39:28
the same day
that notorious serial killer
00:39:31
John Wayne Gacy was executed,
00:39:34
Jeffrey Dahmer was baptized
in a prison bathtub.
00:39:38
-Then the door opens,
and I walk into the room,
00:39:40
and Jeff had already
crawled into the tub.
00:39:42
And the only thing
that was above the water
00:39:44
was just simply his head.
00:39:45
And so said, "I baptize you
in the name of the Father, Son,
00:39:47
and the Holy Spirit for
the forgiveness of your sins,"
00:39:50
and pushed his head down under.
00:39:51
And then when he came back up
I said something I often say
00:39:54
to people when I baptize them.
00:39:55
I said,
"Welcome to the family of God."
00:39:57
He said,
"Well, thank you very much."
00:39:59
-But just six months
after his baptism,
00:40:01
on November the 28th, 1994,
00:40:05
Dahmer and another convicted
murderer, Jesse Anderson,
00:40:09
were attacked and killed
by a fellow inmate.
00:40:13
-Christopher Scarver
took a barbell,
00:40:16
went into the bathroom,
00:40:18
and beat both Jeffrey Dahmer
and Jesse Anderson to death.
00:40:21
There were a number of people
00:40:24
who felt that Jeffrey Dahmer
got exactly what he deserved.
00:40:27
When I called his mother,
she said,
00:40:29
"Well, now everybody
got what they want.
00:40:31
The monster is dead."
00:40:33
And then she said,
"And he was my son.
00:40:35
He was my boy."
00:40:37
-It was a terrible, terrible
death in that sense there.
00:40:40
But for some people,
it was a relief.
00:40:42
They were glad because
all they could think
00:40:43
about are the crimes
he committed.
00:40:45
They're not thinking about
where I'm thinking about
00:40:46
is here's a person who is trying
to serve God as best as he can
00:40:50
and now his life
has been taken from him.
00:40:52
-I mean, some people see
some sort of poetic symmetry
00:40:56
in the fact that
Dahmer's first murder
00:40:59
was the one
in which he bludgeoned
00:41:02
the teenage hitchhiker,
Steven Hicks,
00:41:03
to death with a barbell,
00:41:06
and that he himself died
in a very, very similar way.
00:41:11
-The apartment
on North 25th Street
00:41:13
that housed Dahmer's macabre
collection of victims' remains,
00:41:17
and where 12 young men
lost their lives,
00:41:20
was demolished in November 1992.
00:41:24
But Dahmer's twisted legacy
has been impossible to wipe out.
00:41:28
He has become one of the most
infamous serial killers
00:41:32
in the world.
00:41:33
-I think of Dahmer as
sort of like the flip side
00:41:35
of somebody like Mozart.
00:41:38
How do you account for somebody
creating that kind of music?
00:41:41
Ultimately, how do you
account for somebody
00:41:44
who is luring young men
to his apartment
00:41:47
and drilling holes
in their skull
00:41:48
and injecting brains
with muriatic acid
00:41:51
to turn them into zombies?
00:41:53
There's something there
ultimately inexplicable.
00:41:56
-Jeffrey Dahmer committed
some of the most evil acts
00:42:00
that I have ever written about
or heard about
00:42:03
or seen on a television show
because they were real.
00:42:07
I don't know
if he was sane or insane
00:42:12
because that's not my training
to figure that out,
00:42:15
but I can absolutely say
00:42:17
that he did some of the most
evil acts known to man.
00:42:24
-Dahmer's crimes
would not feel out of place
00:42:26
in a perverse horror movie.
00:42:28
He was a man
who killed to satisfy
00:42:31
his unhealthy
sexual perversions.
00:42:33
Keeping parts of his
victims' skeletons and trophies
00:42:36
and eating their organs.
00:42:38
Jeffrey Dahmer truly
is the stuff of nightmares,
00:42:42
and unquestionably one of
the world's most evil killers.
00:42:48
♪♪
00:42:56
♪♪
00:43:04
♪♪
