Dahmer, Jeffrey (1960-1994), was an American serial killer. A serial killer is someone who murders two or more victims in separate events. From 1978 to 1991, Dahmer murdered 17 teenage boys and young men in Ohio and Wisconsin.
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was born on May 21, 1960, in Milwaukee. His family moved to Bath Township, near Akron, Ohio, when he was eight years old.
Dahmer committed his first murder in 1978, shortly after graduating from high school. He picked up a hitchhiker, killed him, and buried his dismembered (cut up) body in the woods behind his parents’ house. Dahmer enlisted in the United States Army and was posted to Germany. However, he was soon discharged for alcoholism. His continued heavy drinking led to several brushes with the law. In 1981, he moved back to Wisconsin to live with his grandmother.
It was several years before Dahmer killed again. From 1987 to 1990, he murdered eight people in his grandmother’s basement and others in an apartment in Milwaukee, where he moved in 1990. Dahmer routinely drugged his victims before strangling them. He killed an additional eight people in 1991.
Dahmer was nearly caught in May 1991, when one of his victims escaped from Dahmer’s apartment. However, the boy had been drugged and was unable to speak. Dahmer persuaded police to release the boy to him and later killed him. Dahmer was finally arrested in July 1991, when another victim broke free and flagged down a police car. When police entered Dahmer’s apartment to investigate, they found several human heads and other body parts.
At his trial in 1992, Dahmer was charged with 15 murders. He pleaded guilty but insane. However, the jury found him to be sane. He was sentenced to 15 terms of life in prison, totaling more than 900 years. On Nov. 28, 1994, Dahmer was beaten to death by a fellow prisoner.
