Jeffrey Dahmer Theory: The Making of the Monster
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was born to Joyce and Lionel Dahmer on May 21st, 1960 at the Evangelical Deaconess Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. During his life, he earned the nickname “The Milwaukee Cannibal” for the necrophilic and cannibalistic murders of 17 men before his arrest in 1991.
Background
While pregnant with Jeffrey, Joyce Dahmer struggled with mental illness. According to Jeffrey’s father, Lionel Dahmer, Joyce rarely touched Jeffrey as an infant, unless to diaper him or hold him for a photo. Jeffrey’s grandparents were not allowed to hold their grandson either. According to Shari Dahmer (“Dahmer on Dahmer”), Jeffrey’s stepmother, “Joyce didn’t want anyone touching the baby or breathing on it. She was afraid of germs.” When Jeffrey was a child, his father spent many months away at Marquette University, getting a degree in chemistry. When he was home, tensions were high (Sanderson, 2017). Despite these facts, Dahmer was said to be a very happy and seemingly typical child. That all changed at the age of four, when Dahmer underwent surgery to remove a double hernia in his scrotum. Because he did not understand what was happening, the procedure left a young Jeffrey feeling confused and violated. According to reports, this is when he started changing and becoming more withdrawn (Jeffrey Dahmer Biography, 2017).
Shortly after the birth of his
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Steven Hicks, a 19-year-old hitchhiker, was picked up by Dahmer and taken back to Dahmer’s father’s home. Hicks had a few drinks with Dahmer and when he decided to leave, Dahmer bludgeoned and strangled him with a barbell. Dahmer dismembered the body of Steven Hicks and buried the parts in plastic bags around his father’s home. He would later unearth the remains and demolish the bones with a sledgehammer before dispersing of them across nearby woods (Kates,