Jeff Dahmer
Essay title: Jeff Dahmer
Its the first week of February and jury selection has begun. Nearly 450 press passes have been distributed to about 100 media outlets from around the world — from Spain to England to Akron, Ohio.
Even when psychologist Judith Becker recounts his lonely and sometimes tragic childhood, Dahmer doesnt show a moist eye. But Beckers anecdotes of the killers pathetic youth seem to move the audience. She tells of how Dahmer, as a young boy, found a snake and took it to his garage to keep as a pet. The snake, though, wound itself around the spokes of Dahmers bike and once he went for a ride, the new-found pet was killed. Becker says Dahmer wondered why, of all places, the snake had to go into the spokes and lose its life. A wave of sympathy for the boy Dahmer seems to pass over the spectator section.
The audience is snapped out of any sympathetic mindset when the psychologist goes on to tell how young Jeffrey encouraged a childhood friend to put his hand in a hornets nest. There are only ladybugs in there, Dahmer assured the boy. The friend did what he was told by Dahmer and, of course. was stung. The anecdote prompts Channel 12 reporter Angle Moreschi to let out the loudest guffaw of the courtroom.
Even the families of the victims who pack the spectator seats seemed moved by Dahmers childhood memories, as told by the psychologist. Their sympathy isnt for the killer, though, but for his parents. At days end, many of them walk up to the Dahmers and talk briefly. As they leave, some of the victims relatives grab Mr. and Mrs. Dahmer and hug.
Lionel and Shari Dahmer sit in the back row, the husband in the aisle seat. They often hold hands during the trial; Mrs. Dahmer, though, sometimes takes notes. For what? Who knows. One afternoon, the defendants stepmother decides to do her nails and its enough of a routine change that television cameras capture the “event.”
The Dahmers try their best to avoid contact with the media and, surprisingly, the reporters oblige: Nobody hounds them for comment. “You could just see how pained his father felt about this,” observes one reporter of Lionel Dahmer.
While being taken from his cell to the courtroom each day, Dahmer says little to his escorts, if anything. In time, the deputies begin to carry on as if the prisoner is oblivious to their presence. But one day, with their charge close by in another room, a commanding officer remarks to a sergeant that Dahmer seemed to be adjusting to and accepting his notoriety. To the surprise of his handlers, a previously silent Dahmer shouts from the other room: “Youre wrong. Im not accepting anything.”
Deputies escort Dahmer from the Safety Building for the last time. Lt. Klopp gets the feeling of watching a condemned man depart. Klopp and his colleagues never got to know Dahmer well, but he never caused them any problems. His requests were always practical — a glass of water or something to read — and that was all the conversation the guards and their prisoner had. Klopp wondered how theyd handle their final dealing with Dahmer. What would they say? But on the way out, its Dahmer who breaks the ice.
“What are you guys going to do for overtime now that Im gone?” he asks. “He didnt smile or laugh, but he obviously meant it to be humor,” says the lieutenant. The lawmen dont respond, but continue their walk to the car that will take Dahmer to prison.
Finally, the deputies turn their prisoner over to the state to be jailed. Says Klopp: “His final words to us were, “I guess Ill have to find something to do now.”
Jeffrey Dahmer is the son of a Born Again Fundamentalist (Church of Christ) father. Jeffreys Born Again Fundamentalist home life led him to feel he could not acknowledge his homosexuality to his Fundamentalist father, and instead he developed an intense hatred of himself and of other gay men.
Anger at his homosexuality led Dahmer to kill, psychiatrist says”
Serial killer Jeffrey L. Dahmer killed his victims out of anger at his homosexuality and kept body parts as trophies, like a hunter, a psychiatrist testified in Dahmers sanity