The late 20s and early
30s: subsequent murders
Ambassador Hotel
On November 20, 1987, Dahmer—at the time residing with his
grandmother in West Allis, Wisconsin—encountered
a 25-year-old man from Ontonagon,
Michigan named Steven Tuomi at a
bar and persuaded him to return to the Ambassador
Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
where Dahmer had rented a room for the evening. According to Dahmer, he had no
intention of murdering Tuomi, but rather intended to drug and rape him as he
lay unconscious. The following morning, however, he awoke to find Tuomi lying
beneath him on the bed, his chest "crushed in" and "black and blue" with bruises.
Blood was also seeping from the corner of his mouth, and Dahmer's fists and one
forearm were extensively bruised. Dahmer stated he had no memory of having
killed Tuomi, and later informed investigators that he "could not believe this had happened."
To dispose of Tuomi's body, he purchased a large suitcase in
which he transported the body to his grandmother's residence. There, one week
later, he severed the head, arms, and legs from the torso, then filleted the
bones from the body before cutting the flesh into pieces small enough to
handle. He then placed the flesh inside plastic garbage bags. He wrapped the bones inside a sheet and
pounded them into splinters with a sledgehammer. The entire dismemberment
process took Dahmer approximately two hours to complete, and he disposed of all
of Tuomi's remains—excluding the severed head—in the trash.
For a total of two weeks following Tuomi's murder, Dahmer
retained the victim's head wrapped in a blanket. After two weeks, Dahmer boiled
the head in a mixture of Soilex (an
alkali-based industrial detergent) and bleach in an effort to retain the skull,
which he then used as a stimulus for masturbation. Eventually, the skull was
rendered too brittle by this bleaching process, so Dahmer pulverized and
disposed of it.
Intermediate
incidents
Following the murder of Tuomi, Dahmer began to actively seek
victims, most of whom he encountered in or close to gay bars, and whom he
typically lured to his grandmother's home. There, he drugged them before or
shortly after engaging in sexual activity with them. Once he had rendered the
victim unconscious with sleeping pills, he killed them by strangulation.
Two months after the murder of Steven Tuomi, Dahmer encountered a 14-year-old Native American male prostitute named James Doxtator; Dahmer lured the youth to his home with an offer of
$50 to pose for nude pictures. At Dahmer's West
Allis residence, the pair engaged in sexual activity before Dahmer drugged
Doxtator and strangled him on the floor of the cellar. Dahmer left the body in the cellar for one
week before dismembering it in much the same manner as he had with Tuomi. He
placed all of Doxtator's remains (excluding the skull) in the trash. He boiled
the skull and initially retained it before pulverizing it.
On March 24, 1988, Dahmer met a 22-year-old bisexual man
named Richard Guerrero outside a gay
bar called The Phoenix. Dahmer lured Guerrero to his grandmother's
residence, although the incentive on this occasion was $50 to simply spend the
remainder of the night with him; he then drugged Guerrero with sleeping pills
and strangled him with a leather strap, with Dahmer then performing oral sex
upon the corpse. Guerrero's body was
dismembered within 24 hours of his murder, with the remains again disposed of
in the trash and the skull again retained before being pulverized several
months later.
On April 23, Dahmer lured another young man to his house;
however, after giving the victim a drugged coffee, both he and the victim heard
Dahmer's grandmother call, "Is that
you, Jeff?" Although Dahmer
replied in a manner that led his grandmother to believe he was alone, his
grandmother did observe that Dahmer was not alone. Because of this, Dahmer
opted not to kill this particular victim, instead of waiting until he had become
unconscious before taking him to the County
General Hospital.
In September 1988, Dahmer's grandmother asked him to move out
of her house because of his habit of bringing young men to her house late at
night and the foul smells emanating from both the basement and the garage.
Dahmer found a one-bedroom apartment on North
25th Street and moved into his new residence on September 25. The following day, Dahmer was arrested for
drugging and sexually fondling a 13-year-old boy whom he had lured to his home
on the pretext of posing nude for photographs. In January 1989, Dahmer was convicted of
second-degree sexual assault and of enticing a child for immoral purposes. Sentencing for the assault was suspended until
May 1989. On March 20, Dahmer commenced
a 10-day Easter absence from work, during which he moved back into his
grandmother's home.
Two months after his conviction and two months prior to his
sentencing for the sexual assault, Dahmer murdered his fifth victim. He was a
mixed-race 24-year-old aspiring model named Anthony Sears, whom Dahmer met at a gay bar on March 25, 1989.
According to Dahmer, on this particular occasion, he was not looking to commit
a crime; however, shortly before closing time that evening, Sears "just started talking to me". Dahmer
lured Sears to his grandmother's home, where the pair engaged in oral sex
before Dahmer drugged and strangled Sears.
The following morning, Dahmer placed the corpse in his
grandmother's bathtub, where he decapitated the body before attempting to flay
the corpse. He then stripped the flesh
from the body and pulverized the bones, which were again disposed of in the
trash. According to Dahmer, he found Sears "exceptionally
attractive", and Sears was the first victim from whom he permanently
retained any body parts: he preserved Sears' head and genitalia in acetone and
stored them in his work locker. When he moved to a new address the following
year, he took the remains there.
On May 23, 1989, Dahmer was sentenced to five years'
probation and one year in the House of
Correction, with work release permitted in order that he be able to keep
his job; he was also required to register as a sex offender.
Two months before his scheduled release from the work camp,
Dahmer was paroled from this regime. (His five years' probation imposed in 1989
began at this point.) On release, Dahmer
temporarily moved back to his grandmother's home in West Allis before, in May 1990, moving into the Oxford Apartments, located on North 25th Street in Milwaukee. Although located in a high
crime area, the apartment was close to his workplace, was furnished and, at
$300 per month inclusive of all bills excluding electricity, was economical.
1990 killings
On May 14, 1990, Dahmer moved out of his grandmother's house
and into 924 North 25th Street, Apartment 213, taking Anthony Sears'
mummified head and genitals with him. Within one week of his moving into his new apartment,
Dahmer had killed his sixth victim, Raymond
Smith. Smith was a 32-year-old male prostitute whom Dahmer lured to Apartment 213 with the promise of $50
for sex. At Dahmer's apartment, he gave
Smith a drink laced with seven sleeping pills and manually strangled him.
The following day, Dahmer purchased a Polaroid camera with which he took several pictures of Smith's body
in suggestive positions before dismembering him in the bathroom. He boiled the
legs, arms, and pelvis in a steel kettle with Soilex, which allowed him to then rinse the bones in his sink. He dissolved the remainder of Smith's
skeleton—excluding the skull—in a container filled with acid. Dahmer later
spray-painted Smith's skull, which he placed alongside the skull of Anthony Sears upon a black towel inside
a metal filing cabinet.
Approximately one week after the murder of Raymond Smith, on or about May 27,
Dahmer lured another young man to his apartment. On this occasion, however,
Dahmer himself accidentally consumed the drink laden with sedatives intended
for consumption by his guest. When he awoke the following day, he discovered
his intended victim had stolen several items of his clothing, $300, and a
watch. Dahmer never reported this
incident to the police, although, on May 29, he divulged to his probation officer
that he had been robbed.
In June 1990, Dahmer lured a 27-year-old acquaintance named Edward Smith to his apartment. He
drugged and strangled Smith. On this occasion, rather than immediately
acidifying the skeleton or repeating previous processes of bleaching (which had
rendered previous victims' skulls brittle), Dahmer placed Smith's skeleton in
his freezer for several months in the hope it would not retain moisture.
Freezing the skeleton did not remove moisture, and the skeleton of this victim
would be acidified several months later. Dahmer accidentally destroyed the
skull when he placed it in the oven to dry—a process that caused the skull to
explode. Dahmer himself was to later inform police he had felt "rotten" about Smith's murder
as he had been unable to retain any parts of his body.
It was my way of
remembering their appearance, their physical beauty. I also wanted to keep ...
if I couldn't keep them there with me whole, I at least could keep their
skeletons.--Jeffrey Dahmer, recollecting
his motivations for both photographing his victims and retaining sections of
their skeletal structure. February 1993.
Less than three months after the murder of Smith, Dahmer
encountered a 22-year-old Chicago
native named Ernest Miller on the
corner of North 27th Street. Miller
agreed to accompany Dahmer to his apartment for $50 and further agreed to allow
him to listen to his heart and stomach. When Dahmer attempted to perform oral
sex upon Miller, he was informed: "That'll
cost you extra," whereupon Dahmer gave his intended victim a drink
laced with two sleeping pills.
On this occasion, he had only two sleeping pills to give his
victim. Therefore, he killed Miller by slashing his carotid artery with the
same knife he used to dissect his victims' bodies. Miller bled to death within
minutes. Dahmer then posed the nude body
for various suggestive Polaroid photographs before placing the body in his
bathtub for dismemberment. Dahmer repeatedly kissed and talked to the severed
head while he dismembered the remainder of the body.
He wrapped Miller's heart, biceps, and portions of flesh
from the legs in plastic bags and placed them in the fridge for later consumption.
Dahmer boiled the remaining flesh and
organs into a "jelly-like substance"
using Soilex, which again enabled
him to rinse the flesh off the skeleton, which he intended to retain. To
preserve the skeleton, he placed the bones in a light bleach solution for 24
hours before allowing them to dry upon a cloth for one week; the severed head
was initially placed in the refrigerator before also being stripped of flesh,
then painted and coated with enamel.
Three weeks after the murder of Ernest Miller, on September 24, Dahmer encountered a 22-year-old
man named David Thomas at the Grand Avenue Mall and persuaded him to
return to his apartment for a few drinks, with additional money on offer if he
would pose for photographs. In his statement to police after his arrest, Dahmer
stated that, after giving Thomas a drink laden with sedatives, he did not feel
attracted to him, but was afraid to allow him to awake in case he would be
angry over having been drugged. Therefore, he strangled him and dismembered the
body—intentionally retaining no body parts whatsoever. He photographed the dismemberment
process and retained these photographs, which later aided in Thomas's
subsequent identification.
Following the murder of David
Thomas, Dahmer did not kill anyone for almost five months, although on a
minimum of five occasions between October 1990 and February 1991, he
unsuccessfully attempted to lure men to his apartment. He is also known to have regularly complained
of feelings of both anxiety and depression to his probation officer throughout
1990; with frequent references to his sexuality, his solitary lifestyle, and
financial difficulties. On several occasions, he is also known to have referred
to harboring suicidal thoughts.
1991 killings
In February 1991, Dahmer observed a 17-year-old named Curtis Straughter standing at a bus
stop near Marquette University.
According to Dahmer, he lured Straughter into his apartment with an offer of
money for posing for nude photos, with the added incentive of sexual
intercourse. Dahmer drugged and strangled Straughter with a leather strap, then
dismembered him, with Dahmer retaining the youth's skull, hands, and genitals
and photographing each stage of the dismemberment process.
Less than two months later, on April 7, Dahmer encountered a
19-year-old named Errol Lindsey
walking to get a key cut. Lindsey was heterosexual. Dahmer lured Lindsey to his
apartment, where he drugged him, drilled a hole in his skull and poured
hydrochloric acid into it. According to Dahmer, Lindsey awoke after this
experiment (which Dahmer had conceived in the hope of inducing a permanent,
unresistant, submissive state), saying: "I
have a headache. What time is it?"
In response to this, Dahmer again drugged Lindsey, then
strangled him. He decapitated Lindsey and retained his skull; he then flayed
Lindsey's body, placing the skin in a solution of cold water and salt for
several weeks in the hope of permanently retaining it. Reluctantly, Dahmer
disposed of Lindsey's skin when he noted it had become too frayed and brittle.
By 1991, fellow residents of the Oxford Apartments had repeatedly complained to the manager of the Oxford Apartments, Sopa Princewill, of
the foul smells emanating from Apartment
213, in addition to the sounds of falling objects and the occasional sound
of a chainsaw. Princewill did contact
Dahmer in response to these complaints on several occasions, although Dahmer
initially excused the odors emanating from his apartment as being caused by his
freezer breaking, causing the contents to become "spoiled". On later occasions, he informed Princewill
that the reason for the resurgence of the odor was that several of his tropical
fish had recently died, and that he would take care of the matter.
On the afternoon of May 26, 1991, Dahmer encountered a
14-year-old named Konerak Sinthasomphone
on Wisconsin Avenue. By coincidence,
Sinthasomphone was the younger brother of the boy whom Dahmer had molested in
1988. He approached the youth with an offer of money to accompany him to his
apartment to pose for Polaroid pictures.
According to Dahmer, Sinthasomphone was initially reluctant to the proposal,
before changing his mind and accompanying Dahmer to his apartment, where the
youth posed for two pictures in his underwear before Dahmer drugged him into
unconsciousness and performed oral sex on him.
On this occasion, Dahmer drilled a single hole into
Sinthasomphone's skull, through which he injected hydrochloric acid into the
frontal lobe. Before Sinthasomphone fell
unconscious, Dahmer led the boy into his bedroom, where the body of 31-year-old
Tony Hughes, whom Dahmer had killed
three days earlier, lay naked on the floor. According to Dahmer, he "believed [that Sinthasomphone] saw this body," yet did
not react to seeing the bloated corpse—likely because of the effects of the
sleeping pills he had ingested and the hydrochloric acid Dahmer had injected
through his skull. Sinthasomphone soon became unconscious, whereupon Dahmer
drank several beers while lying alongside Sinthasomphone before leaving his
apartment to drink at a bar, and then purchase more alcohol.
In the early morning hours of May 27, Dahmer returned toward
his apartment to discover Sinthasomphone sitting outside naked on the corner of
25th and State, talking in Lao, with
three distressed young women standing near him. Dahmer approached the trio and explained to
the women that Sinthasomphone (whom he referred to by an alias) was his friend,
and attempted to lead him to his apartment by the arm. The three women
dissuaded Dahmer, explaining they had phoned 911.
Upon the arrival of two officers named John Balcerzak and Joseph
Gabrish, Dahmer's demeanor relaxed: he informed the officers that
Sinthasomphone was his 19-year-old boyfriend, that he had drunk too much
following a quarrel, and that he frequently behaved in this manner when
intoxicated. The three women were exasperated and when one of the trio
attempted to indicate to one of the officers that Sinthasomphone was bleeding
from his buttocks and that he had seemingly struggled against Dahmer's attempts
to walk him to his apartment, the officer harshly informed her to "butt out," "shut the hell
up" and to not interfere, adding the incident was "domestic."
Against the protests of the three women, the officers simply
covered Sinthasomphone with a towel and walked him to Dahmer's apartment where,
in an effort to verify his claim that he and Sinthasomphone were lovers, Dahmer
showed the officers the two semi-nude Polaroid pictures he had taken of the
youth the previous evening. The officers later reported having noted a strange
scent reminiscent of excrement inside the apartment (this odor emanated from
the decomposing body of Hughes). Dahmer
stated that to investigate this, one officer simply "peeked his head around the bedroom but really didn't take a good
look." The officers then left, with a departing remark that Dahmer "take good care" of
Sinthasomphone.
Had they conducted a background check on Dahmer, it would
have revealed that he was a convicted child molester under probation. Upon the departure of the two police officers
from his apartment, Dahmer again injected hydrochloric acid into
Sinthasomphone's brain. On this second occasion, the injection proved fatal.
The following day, May 28, Dahmer took a day's leave from work to devote
himself to the dismemberment of the bodies of Sinthasomphone and Hughes. He
retained both victims' skulls.
On June 30, Dahmer traveled to Chicago, where he encountered a 20-year-old named Matt Turner at a bus station. Turner accepted Dahmer's offer to travel to Milwaukee for a professional photoshoot. At Dahmer's apartment, Dahmer drugged, strangled and dismembered Turner
and placed his head and internal organs in separate plastic bags in the
freezer. Turner was not reported missing. Five days later, on July 5, Dahmer
lured 23-year-old Jeremiah Weinberger
from a Chicago bar to his apartment
on the promise of spending the weekend with him. He drugged Weinberger and
twice injected boiling water through his skull, sending him into a coma from which
he died two days later.
On July 15, Dahmer encountered 24-year-old Oliver Lacy at the corner of 27th and Kilbourn. Lacy agreed to Dahmer's ruse of posing nude
for photographs and accompanied him to his apartment, where the pair engaged in
tentative sexual activity before Dahmer drugged Lacy. On this occasion, Dahmer
intended to prolong the time he spent with Lacy while alive. After
unsuccessfully attempting to render Lacy unconscious with chloroform, he phoned
his workplace to request a day's absence; this was granted, although the next
day, he was suspended.
After strangling Lacy, Dahmer had sex with the corpse before
dismembering him. He placed Lacy's head and heart in the refrigerator and his
skeleton in the freezer. Four days
later, on July 19, Dahmer received word that he was fired. Upon receipt of this news, Dahmer lured
25-year-old Joseph Bradehoft to his
apartment. Bradehoft was strangled and left lying on Dahmer's bed covered with
a sheet for two days. On July 21, Dahmer removed these sheets to find the head
covered in maggots, whereupon he decapitated the body, cleaned the head and
placed it in the refrigerator. He later
acidified Bradehoft's torso along with those of two other victims killed within
the previous month.
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