One of America’s most infamous serial killers – Jeffrey Dahmer – was an active threat during the late 1980s. His 17 victims were typically African American gay men, who Dahmer picked up repeatedly in front of gay bars. His actions were obviously repulsive, yet people still formed separate perspectives surrounding this man. Although Jeffrey Dahmer was a known serial killer, the perspective of his parents, the opinion of the public eye, and Dahmer’s own view of himself vary wildly.
In the beginning, Jeffrey Dahmer’s family tried to perceive him as who they thought he was, not the villain he was becoming. Lionel Dahmer, Jeffrey’s father, was a soft spoken, shy man, and when he noticed his son’s behavior changing drastically after having a double
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After finally addressing the change happening to his son, Lionel expected Jeff to feel inferior as he did when he was young (Chin). Instead of watching his son become antisocial, Lionel Dahmer encouraged his son to try lifting weights and playing the clarinet in a feeble attempt for Jeffrey to make friends (Chin). Any effort made by Lionel did not repair the relationships between him and his son or between Jeffrey and his peers. While Jeffrey attended Revere High School, his father was not told by Revere staff about any red flags coinciding with Jeff’s behavior (Chin). After Lionel and his wife Joyce observed that Jeffrey was often drinking, Lionel continuously confronted his son about his alcoholism, and was allegedly homophobic on biblical grounds, which caused tensions between them to rise (Chin, Kincaid). In 1981, Jeffrey, who resided in his parent’s …show more content…
When something is as momentous as murder, and as controversial as Jeffrey Dahmer’s spree, is publicized, people will take in popular standpoints, and align themselves into opinionated groups. Christopher Scarver, an inmate at Columbia Correctional Institution the same time as Jeffrey, admitted to being offended by Dahmer’s macabre sense of humor (Pearson). Dahmer’s humor consisted of taking prison meals and transforming them into faux bodies covered in ketchup blood, and saying “I bite” to scare wardens when they stood near him (Pearson). In a turn comparably terrible to Dahmer’s crimes, many civilians turned a blind eye to the damage he caused in order to humanize his actions. During his trial, there were many people in the courtroom in denial of their own repulsion towards Dahmer’s atrocities (Ullman). Many doctors and jurors pointed out good characteristics Dahmer showed in court, and focused on his possible “...mental illness, treatment needs, and prognoses….”(Ullman). “Dahmer’s lawyer…and … Milwaukee District Attorney…” needed to deny their disgust of Dahmer and the deterioration the city had endured due to his deeds (Ullman). Groups orientated around mental health and legal matters recorded pieces of Jeffrey’s trial in order to teach about “mental illness and the insanity defense”(Ullman). Another Dahmer apologist had