American serial killer and sex offender Jeffrey Dahmer (May 21, 1960 – November 28, 1994) killed and dismembered seventeen men and boys between 1978 and 1991. He was also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal and the Milwaukee Monster.
Necrophilia, cannibalism, and the permanent retention of body parts, usually all or part of a skeleton, were common in many of his later crimes. Dahmer was determined to be legally sane, despite having been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, and psychotic disorder before his trial.
On February 17, 1992, he was found guilty of murdering sixteen people in Wisconsin and received fifteen consecutive life sentences. Dahmer was convicted of another murder in 1978 in Ohio and received a sixteenth life sentence.
How did Jeffrey Dahmer die?
On November 28, 1994, Christopher Scarver, an inmate at the same facility, beat Dahmer to death. Both were inmates at Columbia County, Wisconsin. The death penalty was abolished in Wisconsin in 1853, making it unlikely that Dahmer would be executed despite his horrific crimes (despite the fact that he wished for death).
(More on that to come.) Scarver, also incarcerated for murder during an armed robbery, entered the facility around the same time as Dahmer in 1992. The security of the serial killer’s cell was a major concern for the prison administration. The first year of Dahmer’s incarceration was reportedly spent in protective isolation, as reported by the New York Times.
Among the state’s most notorious killers, authorities believe his death could earn an inmate “a place of honor in the prison community.” After further evaluation, he was allowed to join the other 622 convicts. The assassination attempt on Dahmer took place in July 1992. The inmate tried to cut Dahmer’s throat with a makeshift plastic knife, but failed.
The incident resulted in no injuries and prison officials expected it to be a one-off. Some of Dahmer’s fellow inmates have reported feeling threatened by him. Apparently, the serial killer would cook prison meals that looked like severed limbs and pour ketchup packets over the top to make it look like blood to taunt other convicts, Scarver recounts.
Scarver told the New York Post in 2015, “He would position them in places where people would be.” There were convicts and staff he crossed the line with. There are also repentant prisoners, but he was not one of them. Scarver avoided Dahmer like the plague, but never left the house without a newspaper clipping detailing the cannibal’s atrocities.
Scarver snorted as he realized Dahmer had reached into his back. He went to the weight room and got a metal bar, then confronted Dahmer with it. I was quite put off and asked him directly if he had such behavior. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Scarver confirmed to the Post that “it really was.”
It wasn’t long before he started looking for a way out. I closed the door in front of him. Dahmer only to receive two blows to the head with the barbell. Dahmer was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead an hour later from a fractured skull. He was 34. He eventually died. “I put his head down,” Scarver said of the kill.
Rita Isbell, the sister of Dahmer’s latest victim, Errol Lindsey, said she expects him to be killed behind bars. For two years, she reportedly received calls from boys pretending to be inmates, assuring her that Dahmer would “take care of him.” This was published by The New York Times.
“You don’t know me,” the callers allegedly told her. With Jeffrey Dahmer, I find myself in that position. Do not be afraid. Just leave it to us; we will manage. Her next statement was: “I wouldn’t say I wanted it to happen this way, but Jeffrey broke up my family.”
The Confession of Jeffrey Dahmer
Jeffrey Dahmer admitted to killing 17 young men and women. After his arrest, Dahmer was questioned for about 60 hours without a representative. Dahmer explained his actions to Inside Edition in 1993. “I had obsessive desires and fantasies of control [my victims]he stated. The reporter asked, “So you killed them?” “Yeah, not because I was angry or hated them, but because I wanted them around.
I started saving skulls and skeletons as my passion grew. His desire to kill and maim didn’t “come overnight”, but dehumanizing people and seeing them as objects did. Dahmer was diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder, psychotic disorder, and borderline personality disorder, yet was legally sane to stand trial.
Dahmer pleaded not guilty to 15 counts of murder on September 10, 1991, but changed his plea to guilty but insane in January 1992, eliminating the need for a criminal trial. Unlike criminal cases, the decision was not unanimous. In order to be found guilty, 10 out of 12 jurors must agree on the defendant’s mental state.
Dr. Holly Schiff said Dahmer said he knew his behavior was bad, but the question was whether it could be controlled. By pleading insane, “Dahmer had to convince 10 out of 12 jurors that he was insane at the time of the murders.”
Jurors heard about Dahmer’s atrocities and the victims’ families for three weeks. Dahmer told the court he would like to be executed for the “holocaust” he caused after receiving 15 consecutive life sentences, the maximum sentence Milwaukee County District Court Judge Lawrence S. Gramm Jr. can hand down, according to the New York Times . Christopher Scarver’s wish was granted.