Jeffrey Dahmer’s dad had a theory on what was to blame for his son becoming a serial killer.
Lionel Dahmer – who died last year at the age of 87 – spoke about his son’s heinous crimes and what he thought could have led to him becoming one of the world’s most notorious killers.
Dahmer’s story was documented in the Netflix drama, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, in which Lionel was played by Richard Jenkins.
The series followed Dahmer from a young age, showing how he grew into the violent murderer he did.
He killed 17 men and boys during a murder spree that lasted from 1978 until his arrest in 1991.
He dismembered his victims – with one of them being only 14-years-old – and also committed necrophilia, cannibalism, and kept trophies of his victims.
In the series, Lionel (Richard Jenkins) offers an explanation as to why Dahmer went on to commit such horrific crimes.
He suggested there could have been a link between the medication his wife, Joyce, took before Dahmer was born and his crimes – though none of this has ever been confirmed.
Lionel says: “You do know that pills are what started this whole thing.
Netflix
“How many pills you think she was on when she was pregnant with him? Thousands. She was on sleeping pills, sedatives, seizure medication.”
He added: “She never even held him. She scared the s**t out of him. And then she just left. She got in her car, and she drove away, and she left that kid in that house all summer.”
Lionel also made these allegations in real life too, during an interview with CBS’ Inside Edition.
“My ex-wife had been taking about 26 tablets of different medications about one month after becoming pregnant,” he said.
In a TV special called Dahmer on Dahmer, he and his second wife, Shari, also spoke openly about Joyce’s abilities as a mother.
They claimed she wasn’t very tactile and would rarely touch or hold him.
Curt Borgwardt/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images
“When Jeff was born, the grandparents were not allowed to hold the baby,” Shari said.
“Joyce didn’t want anyone touching the baby, or breathing on it. She was afraid of germs.”
In his 1994 book A Father’s Story, Lionel not only spoke about the prescription drugs Joyce was taking, he also pondered whether or not his son’s shyness could have been a red flag at the time.
According to reports, he blamed himself for not giving enough to Jeffrey emotionally.
He wrote in the book: “As a scientist, I wonder if the potential for great evil resides deep in the blood that some of us may pass on to our children at birth.”
In a never-before-heard tape of a conversation between serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and his father, the notorious monster was asked what his earliest ‘disturbing’ fantasy was.
Even decades after his death in 1994, Dahmer, who was nicknamed the ‘Milwaukee Monster’ continues to fascinate, horrify, and capture the public imagination.
Dahmer committed the murders of 17 men and boys during a murder spree that lasted from 1978 until his arrest in 1991.
More than that, the nature of his crimes was so truly shocking that the memory has endured to this day.
He raped and dismembered his victims – one of them was only 14-years-old – and also committed necrophilia, cannibalism, and kept trophies of his victims.
Upon his capture, police found photographs of mangled corpses in his home, as well as a severed head in the fridge.
It’s understandable why this case still continues to attract attention, even after Dahmer was killed by a fellow prison inmate in 1994.
Now, a new show on Fox Nation probes newly-released phone conversations between the killer and his father, Lionel Dahmer.
Fox Nation
The recordings – according to one participant on the show – depict a ‘father looking for answers’, although Lionel himself admits to having some strange thoughts in his own youth, though he was ‘never caught’.
At one stage in the tapes, Lionel Dahmer asks: “What was the very first fantasy, I was wondering that you could remember having which you thought to yourself was kind of odd or disturbing?”
He adds: “I had weird thoughts too, in my childhood,
“You’re just like me, Jeff.”
Lionel also states: “Amazingly all the times I should’ve been caught, I never was.”
It’s not clear what he is referring to there, but we have to assume that it’s nothing like the atrocities that his son was convicted of.
The four-part series claims to offer a ‘new insight into one of the world’s most infamous string of crimes’ and features Dahmer family’s home videos, as well as the audio tapes and interviews with others connected to the case.
Milwaukee Sheriff’s Department
Those other interviews include Dahmer’s high school friend, members of law enforcement in Milwaukee, and even a survivor of Dahmer, Ronald Flowers.
In a press release about the show, Fox Nation President Jason Klarman said: “The Jeffrey Dahmer case has captivated the public for over three decades and now with these exclusive tapes released for the very first time, viewers will hear from Dahmer in his own words and get insight into his relationship with his father.”
Also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal or the Milwaukee Monster, Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991.
Netflix series Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story dropped last week and offers a fictionalised account of the serial killer’s horrific crimes.
Naturally, the new show has seen many people hooked in disbelief at what had happened, and now a clip of an interview with Dahmer by Inside Edition’s Nancy Glass has been going viral on TikTok.
REUTERS / Alamy Stock Photo
In the interview, Glass asks Dahmer what he was doing during the nine years he stopped his killings and his answer is shocking.
Glass asks: “What happened to you in the nine years in between that you were able to stop? That you were able to control yourself?”
With a calm and collected demeanour, Dahmer replies: “There just wasn’t an opportunity to fully express what I wanted to do. There was just not that physical opportunity to do it then.”
PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo
He added: “When I moved to Milwaukee in ’81, I started reading pornography, going to the bookstores… eventually that led to frequenting the gay bars.
“One time I brought this young man back to the hotel room, the Ambassador Hotel, was just planning on drugging him and spending the night with him. I had no intention of hurting him.
“I woke up in the morning he had a broken rib here, he was heavily bruised. Apparently, I had beaten him to death with my fists.”
“And you have no memory of it?” the interviewer asked.
“I have no memory of it,” said Dahmer.
“But that’s what started the whole spree all over again.”
Netflix
Commenting on the clip, many TikTok users noted the way Dahmer held himself during the interview.
One user said: “What scares me most about this man was how honest and blunt he was when he got caught, he had nothing to lose. Feel so bad for the victims.”
Another said: “The scariest part of Dahmer has always been his self-awareness.”
Others said they thought that he was relieved he got caught.
Another wrote: “I feel like in real life he is more self-aware and expressive than the series.”
While others said they felt for the families of his victims, particularly now they have to relive it all again.
One wrote: “I feel so sorry for the victims’ families! Constantly having to relive this every time they bring out a new documentary.”
According to the outlet, the series is also the second most-watched English-language series within a week of its release, falling right behind season four of Stranger Things, which clocked 335.01 million hours from May 30 to June 5.
In week two, the show was miles ahead of the streaming platform’s second most-watched series, Dynasty: Season 5, which earned over 44.61 million hours viewed from September 26 to October 2.
Dahmer dives into the life and crime spree of the notorious serial killer, who murdered more than a dozen people over the course of 13 years.
Shortly after the series debuted, Netflix issued a warning urging viewers to look after their mental health as some could not make it past the first episode.
One person tweeted: “Y’all actually sat through the whole Jeffrey Dahmer series? I watched the first 3-5 minutes of the first episode and immediately NO.”
Another commented: “Can’t even get past the first episode of Jeffrey Dahmer, how have people watched the full season.”
While another shared: “I’ve listened to so many crime podcasts, heard 911 phone calls, seen so many crime documentaries, and for some reason I just can’t get past the first episode of Jeffrey Dahmer on Netflix. it makes me so uncomfortable.”
The series also received widespread controversy, as many have accused it of profiting off families of the victims.
Rita Isbell, sister of Errol Lindsey, one of Dahmer’s victims, wrote an essay for Business Insider slamming Netflix and the production.
She wrote: “I feel like Netflix should’ve asked if we mind or how we felt about making it. They didn’t ask me anything.
“They just did it. I could even understand it if they gave some of the money to the victims’ children. … The victims have children and grandchildren.
In one partially bone-chilling moment, Dahmer was asked how he managed to live a double life for so long.
He was asked by Inside Edition’s Nancy Glass: “How did you live that double life? How did you go to work? How did you have a normal relationship with your family?”
Dahmer frankly replied: “When you’re trying to keep a terrible secret like I was, it warps every other aspect of your life. But I managed to go to work [and] conduct myself just like anyone else would.”
Dahmer, aka the ‘Milwaukee Cannibal’, also opened up about his ability to hide his dark side, saying: “I had these obsessive desires to wanting to control them… possess them permanently. As my obsession grew, I was saving body parts such as skulls and skeletons.”
Dahmer worked at a chocolate factory in Milwaukee and his first ever victim was a hitchhiker called Steven Hicks.
Dahmer was just 18 when he murdered Hicks and dismembered his body, hiding the remains in a drain pipe.
Netflix
Of how he chose his victims, Dahmer said: “[It was] not because I hated them or because I was mad at them but because I wanted to keep them with me.”
He added: “I always knew that it was wrong, but the first killing was not planned. No one had a clue [as] to what was happening for over a decade.”
Murphy’s show Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story stars American Horror Story’s Evan Peters in the titular role.
The series’ official synopsis reads: “[It’s] a series that exposes these unconscionable crimes, centreed around the underserved victims and their communities impacted by the systemic racism and institutional failures of the police that allowed one of America’s most notorious serial killers to continue his murderous spree in plain sight for over a decade.”