A new series which focuses on the life of a notorious killer has dropped on Netflix.
The Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story tells the story of the serial killer, who would have turned 62 in May had he not been beaten to death in prison. The American shot to notoriety after his heinous crimes were exposed and since has had multiple books, programmes and movies made about him - the latest one being a 10-episode long drama directed by Ryan Murphey and starring American Horror Story’s Evan Peters.
But who was Jeffrey Dahmer, what were his crimes and how was he finally caught?
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Known as the “Milwaukee Cannibal” or the “Milwaukee Monster”, Jeffrey murdered and dismemberment 17 men and boys, many of who belonged to the LGBTQ+ community, over a period of 13 years. Between 1978 and 1991, the American serial killer committed horrific murders, some of which were right under his unassuming gran's nose, according to the Daily Star.
The criminal committed his first murder three weeks after he graduated from high school. Having lured 18-year-old hitchhiker Steven Mark Hicks back to his house on the promise of a “few beers”, Dahmer bludgeoned Hicks with a dumbbell before strangling him to death, performing sex acts on him and burying the remains of his dissected body in his back garden. Covering his tracks, Dahmer later dug up the body and dissolved it in acid so he could crush and scatter the bones.
Attempting to escape the past, Dahmer joined the army but was discharged after a few years due to drinking heavily. When he returned to his hometown, he began frequently visiting gay bathhouses where he would sedate men and assault them. His second murder occurred in the late 80s, this time of a man he tricked into coming back to his hotel room.
Horrifically, the first person Dahmer killed in his grandmother's house was a 14-year-old boy. The depraved killer lured James Doxtator with a promise of money and strangled him to death, leaving his body in the basement for a week. He then dismembered the body and disposed of everything in the house bin, all bar the head.
As Dahmer’s list of victims grew so did his twisted fantasies as a lot of his later murders involved cannibalism, necrophilia and the permanent preservation of the skeleton. One of Dahmer’s most ghastly kills was inflicted on 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone, who Dahmer kept alive whilst he drilled a hole in the back of his head and injected acid into the front of his brain. He performed other deranged experiments on the teenager as he carried out crazed sex fantasies, before eventually chopping him up and storing his body in acid.
Despite having been arrested numerous times throughout his life, including once for groping a young boy, police only discovered the true horror of Dahmer’s crimes when one of his victims escaped in 1991 and informed the authorities of a foul smell and boxes of hydrochloric acid in Dahmer's apartment. On that same day, police found body parts and severed heads, in Dahmer’s fridge, freezer, and kettle inside his apartment. Dahmer was arrested and given 15 life sentences before he was killed by a fellow inmate in November 1994.
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