The Dahmer Book Read online

  The

  DAHMER

  Book

  Steven David Lampley

  OTHER BOOKS

  Outside Your Door

  Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer

  How to Catch a Liar

  True Crime Facts You May Not Know

  Copyright © 2018 by Steven David Lampley

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, contact the author, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the email address below.

  [email protected]

  Printed in the United States of America

  DEDICATION

  To My Sons

  Christopher B. Lampley

  Michael B. Lampley (In Heaven)

  Jason A. Lampley

  Love All of You!

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I want to thank

  Willis Morgan

  and

  Christopher Stewart

  for their information and support.

  EPIGRAPH

  “When I was a little kid I was just like everyone else.” Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer

  CONTENTS

  Foreword

  Preface

  Introduction

  Maps

  Background

  Early Life

  High School and Home Stress

  After High School

  College

  Army

  Florida

  Return Home

  Jeff's Apartment

  Who was Jeff?

  Trial and Psychological

  Prison

  Epilogue

  Bibliography

  About the Author

  FOREWORD

  “It's hard for me to believe that a human being

  could do what I have done,

  but I know that I did it.”

  Jeff Dahmer

  Why a book on Jeff Dahmer? That is the ultimate question any reader might pose. To understand our fascination with this case, we must explore some of the darker sides of human behavior. The most natural starting point is our beguilement of serial murders in general.

  Our brains can process someone that kills out of a crime of passion; we can mentally come to grips with a murderer that meticulously plan a killing. As strange as it seems, we are able to comprehend what happens in these horrific instances. We are able to process what leads to such crimes and the acts themselves. They repulse us, but we can frame them in our reality.

  Serial killers…that’s something we cannot fully understand. Someone that kills three or more people over time, seeming to pick their victims based on instincts or voices in their heads - that is activity that normal people cannot fully grasp. It is unnatural to kill for the sake of killing, for enjoyment. As “regular” humans we desire to fathom how a serial killer thinks and acts. It is defensive on our part. If we recognize a serial killer’s traits, we can spot and defend ourselves from them.

  It is only natural that we want to know how these people ended up being serial killers. Was it genetic, or part of their upbringing? What were the warning signs? If we can grasp how their minds work, we somehow feel safer. Everyone has seen someone at one point or another and pondered if they are a Jeff Dahmer in the making, admit it. The closer we get to that understanding, the more we start to look at others and say things to ourselves like, “I wonder how many people he has under his crawl space?”

  Cannibalism elicits the same sort of intellectual curiosity. Killing human beings is morally wrong and repulsive. Eating another human being out of necessity is something we struggle with, often posing the question, “Would I do that in the same circumstances?” Many instances of cannibalism feel strangely plausible to us…the Donner Party and the crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 in the Andes place cannibalism in the same context as survival. To survive, many people would be willing to do the otherwise unthinkable.

  There are other stories of cannibalism that are more gruesome because they are not based on survival, but on desire to consume victims. The legend of Sawney Bean and his cannibalistic family in the lowlands of Scotland is not one of survival as much as a myth of a family of incestuous cannibals that ate human flesh for pleasure, harvesting victims for consumption. The Bean Clan spawned the movie, The Hills Have Eyes, and are stories designed to shock us with horror and fear. They are the kinds of stories told to children to frighten them. “Eat your vegetables or Sawney Bean will come and get you.”

  More frightening than myth are those cannibals that partake of human flesh for pleasure. Ed Gein, the Butcher of Plainfield, who was the source of Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs, dined on some of his victims. Gein’s use of body parts and skin was so twisted that it is hard for us to fully grasp. Eating another human being because you desire to, is a subject that draws us in…we want to know more about it.

  Another concept most people struggle with is necrophilia – having sex with dead people. For most humans, sex is awkward and clumsy enough with living people, let alone with the deceased. The idea of another human being engaging in sex with a dead person is repulsive if not nauseating. Even the thought of touching dead flesh makes many people cringe.

  All of which leads us to Jeff Dahmer.

  Jeff is the trifecta of these dark and deviant behaviors. A cannibalistic necrophiliac serial killer. Any one of these would be worthy of fully exploring. To have all three in one person is extremely rare. Perhaps understanding how he ended up the way he did will give us ways to protect ourselves from future Dahmers that may be lurking in the shadows.

  Many of us get our understanding of such criminals out of the bits and pieces that the media feed us. Sometimes the information is wrong. Other times it is incomplete or lacks context. Since we are dealing with nuggets of data and incomplete facts, our understanding of the bizarre behaviors of men like Jeff Dahmer are more confusing to us.

  Nothing beats going to the case files of the investigators themselves. This data about murders is often hard to digest (no pun intended) for the layman. There is no filter – just data about the crimes and the perpetrator. True crime authors spend countless hours in their offices sorting through reams of reports and transcripts, organizing it in a concise way to tell a comprehensible story. It is unseen work that often goes unnoticed and us necessary for many readers. I have shown friends of mine the reports my daughter and I have used in our books and they are befuddled that we are able to turn that information into something that makes sense.

  Providing those reports and interviews along with the context gives the reader a view of these crimes that they might never have. Reading investigative reports puts the reader in the shoes of the true crime author. You see what we see. You are able and capable of drawing your own conclusions.

  That is what Steven Lampley has done with this remarkable work. I welcome you to pull up a chair and join the ranks of true crime authors, sorting through the myriad details and facts. Welcome to the life we live and share with us the nightmares that haunt us. Be careful. Peeling back the layers of Jeff Dahmer’s life in so intricate a manner can leave you wondering just how many more such men and women are out there.

  Blaine Lee Pardoe www.BlainePardoe.com

  New York Times Best Selling Author

  The Murder of Maggie Hume

  A Special Kind of Evil: The Colonial Parkway Killings

  PREFACE

  “I made my fantasy life more powerful than my real o
ne.”

  Jeff Dahmer

  The media - Hollywood as well. Both are at least partly responsible for the misinformation regarding serial killers. It's commonplace for a film to portray a serial killer as either a profound genius or perhaps just as profoundly insane. That's not always the case, but it sells movie tickets and gets ratings.

  While there are those serial killers who, indeed, are at genius level, there are those as well who fall in the lower reaches of IQ levels. Many people are surprised to learn that the IQ levels of serial killers follow the bell curve of intelligence quotient of frequency of the general population. Most serial killers fall in the range of slightly below average to average to slightly above average.

  So too, is the frequency that a serial killer is profoundly insane. Yes, there are some who can be diagnosed as insane (some people argue that one must be insane to do what a serial killer does) but not all. In fact, most are sane. It should be noted, however, that most serial killers suffer from personality disorders such as anti-social personality, psychopathy, and others. Personality disorders, yes. Insane, for the most part, no.

  This was the situation with Jeff (the media has latched on to Jeffrey Dahmer, but he preferred to be called Jeff). He had some personality disorders, but was ruled sane in court and was, at least, somewhat above average in intelligence due to his assignment into the medical military occupational specialty (91B at that time) which required one of the highest ASVAB GT scores to be accepted.

  Serial killers are typically placed in a box and all are classified as the same. That is not true. In my book, Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer, I explain the differences between the motives and classifications. For the purposes of this work, however, suffice it to say serial killers can operate differently, select their victims differently, and can have different characteristics.

  Jeff was different. But Jeff was far different in one major way from most all known serial killers. As we go through the life of Jeff, you may begin to see the difference.

  INTRODUCTION

  “I would cook it and look at the pictures and masturbate.”

  Jeff Dahmer

  Serial killers don't have a flashing neon sign on their foreheads flashing “Serial Killer,” “Serial Killer,” “Serial Killer.” Serial killers are us. They are mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, friends and acquaintances, co-workers, and day to day strangers we meet on the sidewalks and in every day life.

  Jeff was not different in that respect. No one suspected that it was Jeff Dahmer who was responsible for these missing individuals and, since there were no bodies lying around, there were no murder victims or murder scenes to investigate to even begin to look for a serial killer.

  Different too, in the fact that he wanted to stop his heinous acts of murder, dismemberment, and cannibalism, but despite his efforts, he was unable to stop. A preponderance of serial killers have no desire to stop and some, in fact, enjoy the pain, terror, and destruction they bring. Not Jeff. In his words, murder was not the objective, having someone stay with him and not leave was the objective and that included attempting to make mindless zombies out of them to murdering then and keeping their body parts. He would say that it was better to have their parts than to have them leave him.

  In The Dahmer Book we will track Jeff's life from birth to death covering almost all facets of his life.

  MAPS

  On the next two pages, you will find two maps. These are provided to you to help you understand the juxtaposition of the locations of some of the events of Jeff's life.

  (Maps Provided Compliments of OpenStreetMap)

  (Maps Provided Compliments of OpenStreetMap)

  BACKGROUND

  “I bite!”

  (Said to prison guards)

  Jeff Dahmer

  Milwaukee in the early 1960s was mostly typical of any city her size during that time with the possible exception of the business savvy beer barons Blatz, Pabst, Miller, Schlitz, who had created a thriving beer industry that began around 1840. Milwaukee was growing and was the eleventh largest city in the United States. Thriving, yes, but as most cities of the time, the great lakes city was experiencing her share of racial tensions and protests and segregation was in full force. It was during the 1960s that Milwaukee began experiencing population decreases.

  Despite its problems, Milwaukee had a lot of good going for her. The beer industry was flourishing and the people of the city enjoyed a plethora of entertainment. Hot spots such as Walnut Street's Deacon Jones Chicken Shack, Bluemound Drive In Theater, Larry's Frozen Custard (Joe Lewis would often hang out front at Larry's), Pinky's Bowl, and the Regal were just a few of the city favorites.

  During 1960 Cathy's Clown by the Everly Brothers was number one on the charts and The Beatles had not yet made their arrival in the United States, although they had begun touring in Britain and Scotland.

  The average price of a home was $12,700. Gasoline was 25 cents a gallon and a loaf of bread was 20 cents. It was in 1960 when the cartoon, The Flintstones, made its debut on television.

  •••

  May 21, 1960, was cloudy, foggy, and rainy and the occasional gust of wind at 23 miles per hour made it feel that much colder than the actual 55 degrees. That Saturday, nestled securely and warmly in a hospital room at the Evangelical Deaconess Hospital (an unremarkable - in appearance - five story, brown brick medical facility that had a multi-story high cross on one of its exterior walls on the new wing at Wisconsin Avenue and 19th Street) a man and woman were awaiting the birth of their first child.

  As expected, a healthy child, a baby boy, was born to Lionel Herbert Dahmer [Welsh and German ancestry] and Joyce Annette Flint Dahmer [Born February 7, 1936, Columbus, Ohio. Norwegian and Irish ancestry. Daughter of Floyd “Rocky” and Lillian (Rundberg) Flint]. Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer had entered the world at 4:34 pm. [NOTE: Lionel and Joyce were married August 24, 1959.]

  EARLY LIFE

  “I still have guilt. I will probably never get rid of that.”

  Jeff Dahmer

  The pregnancy with Jeff was a problematic pregnancy. Joyce Dahmer had persistent morning sickness and her pregnancy issues caused her to resign as a teletype operator. Joyce was constantly aggravated at their neighbors for making noise and would summon Lionel to make them stop, but the noises continued unabated. If that was not enough, Joyce suffered with bouts of severe muscle spasms and would even salivate and foam from her mouth. Jeff's birth had to be a welcomed relief from the pre-birth medical issues. Initially, Joyce seemed to be happy, but that was short-lived. Her initial attempt at breast feeding did not go well and she abandoned the effort. It seemed to go downhill from there with Joyce causing hardships on Lionel.

  When Jeff was born, his dad was a student at Marquette University. Obtaining his Master’s degree in analytical chemistry.

  Jeff was like most children, he was a happy child who was energetic and loved stuffed animals. And his dog, Frisky. At one point, Jeff and his dad found an injured bird and took it in to help it survive. Lionel and Jeff successfully helped the bird regain its health and then released it back into the wild.

  Happy times, yes, but unfortunately, Jeff had more than his share of ear infections which negated some of that happiness.

  They remained in Milwaukee until 1962 when the family moved to Ames, Iowa, so Lionel could pursue a Doctor of Philosophy degree in analytical chemistry.

  It was two years after their move when Jeff began having severe pains in his scrotum. After a physical exam, it was determined that Jeff had a double hernia. The surgery went well and the hernias were repaired but there was a new problem.

  Lionel, Joyce, and others close to the family noticed a change in Jeff. The child that, before the surgery was happy and energetic, had been replaced with an empty version of himself. The new Jeff was less affectionate and oftentimes listless, and withdrawn. He was not the happy child he had been before the surgery.

  The efforts of Jeff's parents to bring back the old Jeff were inconsequentia
l. No one could know it at the time, but the old Jeff, the happy, bubbly child was gone forever. Jeff's personality change was an additional hardship on Lionel.

  It was not all bad, however, there were moments of happiness. Lionel and Jeff would watch Popeye most Saturdays and Jeff liked to watch Batman.

  Jeff's mom, Joyce was known to be a needy individual and desirous of attention, especially from her husband, Lionel. She was known to be argumentative with both Lionel and her neighbors. During that time Joyce was abusing medications such as sleeping pills and copious amounts of laxatives.

  Family problems just seemed to grow and grow in the Dahmer household.

  It was during this time, Lionel observed Jeff collecting and playing with animal bones that he had collected from under their home.

  When Jeff was six years old his mom was spending a lot of time in bed and was not devoting much time to Jeff. To heighten the neglect, Lionel and Joyce were expecting their second child.

  This pregnancy fell in the same painful course as her pregnancy with Jeff. Joyce could be seen on occasion with bouts of seemingly uncontrollable shakes.

  Lionel completed his Doctor of Philosophy degree in October of 1966 and the family left Ames, Iowa, and moved to Doylestown, Ohio, so he could take a job as an analytical chemist for the City of Akron. This move was temporary, however, as the family would move several times over the next months in order to find just the right home for them. After their move, the shyness and withdrawn tendencies Jeff had begun to experience after his hernia surgery, increased significantly. (At some point, Jeff was told that his mom had suffered from postpartum depression after his birth and Jeff took this to mean that he was the cause of at least some of the discord between his parents and their marital problems.)