The new series about Jeffrey Dahmer just dropped on Netflix, and by the looks of the bone-chilling trailer, true-crime junkies will want to add this to their queue.
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, is co-created by American Horror Story’s Ryan Murphy and his frequent collaborator Ian Brennan. Murphy is also an executive producer.
AHS alum Evan Peters plays the titular serial killer, while actor Richard Jenkins plays Jeffrey’s father, Molly Ringwald plays his stepmother, and Niecy Nash plays Jeffrey’s neighbor.
This story is an upsetting one that involves murder, cannibalism, necrophilia, and a lot of other truly horrifying details. Jeffrey was eventually convicted and sent to prison, but with the new series exploring his life and victims, everyone has a lot of questions about where he is now.
Who is Jeffrey Dahmer?
Jeffrey was an American serial killer born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Lionel and Joyce Dahmer. According to Biography.com, as a child, Jeffrey was energetic and happy but became disengaged, tense, and a loner as he got older. In high school, he was in the band and played intramural tennis according to the New York Times. After a semester at Ohio State University, Jeffrey enlisted in the army where he was honorably discharged.
What did Jeffrey do?
In 1978, Jeffrey Dahmer murdered his first victim, Steven Hicks. Dahmer, who had recently graduated from high school, picked up Hicks while he was hitchhiking and took him back to his parent’s house in Ohio. He gave Hicks alcohol, had sex with him, and then when Hicks tried to leave, Jeffrey hit him in the head and strangled him with a barbell.
Dahmer confessed to Inside Edition in 1993 saying: “I always knew that it was wrong. The first killing was not planned.” He continued to say that the idea came to him when he was coming back from the shopping mall and saw a hitchhiker. Dahmer felt like he could have complete dominance and control over whomever he picked up.
Between 1978 and 1991, Dahmer murdered 16 more people. What’s even more disturbing is that he had sex with some of their corpses, kept some body parts as trophies, and ate others.
One detective testified during the trial that he used a technique involving Crisco, a meat tenderizer, and a skillet to fry the victim’s bicep, as reported by The Washington Post.