What made Jeffrey Dahmer tick?

When you hear the phrase serial killers, you immediately think of names like Ted Budy, John Wayne Gacy, and Henry Lee Lucas. The first name that comes to MY mind, is Jeffrey Dahmer. I just finished watching a Stone Phillips – Jeffrey Dahmer interview, the first and last national interview Jeffrey Dahmer ever did, and am still baffled how a seemingly SOMEWHAT normal person can become one of the world’s most horrific individuals to ever walk the face of the earth.

Jeffrey didn’t try to blame anyone OR anything on his sickness, I really don’t think he knew what made him become the monster he became. He talked some about the fights between his parents, but did not try to say it was a contributing factor in his murderous, cannibalistic crimes he committed years later.  Hell, I grew up in a family with an alcoholic father who was mean, and was always surrounded by fights, sometimes physical. Adults can come from such backgrounds, and go on to live a somewhat normal life as an adult. I could see Jeffrey as an awkward child and teen, but he didn’t try to say that was even a part of what made him what he became. If you listen to him in interviews, he seems somewhat normal, perhaps withdrawn and emotionless, but alot of people are like that. Myself, I think Jeffrey Dahmer was just plain evil. Having done time in prison in my 20′s, I came across people who I believe are just plain evil, it has nothing to do with upbringings, or anything to do with a person’s mental state. Jeffrey was fascinated with dead animals, and their innards, at an early age. I was a boy, and boys tend to find somewhat gruesome things to be interesting. Jeffrey’s became an obsession. He admits that the time came when the fascination with dead animals wasn’t enough, and he crossed that murderous line.

 

Watching the Stone Phillips/Dahmer interview, surprisingly, the person I found MOST Sane, was Jeffrey himself. His father Lionell comes off as creepy as hell to me, somewhat of a zombie. The part of the video where Jeffrey and his Dad embrace and Jeffrey apologizes for what he did, I found disturbing. Lionell’s reaction? “You don’t need to apologize”. SAY WHAT?? Jeffrey killed, tortured, raped, and mutilated 17 young men, and his Father doesn’t think an apology is needed? I just found his reaction to be TOTALLY out of the norm, NOT something any parent who’s child had committed such horiffic crimes would say. And Jeffrey’s Mom seemed like a nutcase to me. She seemed more worried about what people thought of HER, rather than the atrocities her son commited against innocent victims. If I had committed crimes 1/100 as severe as the ones Jeffrey committed, my Mother would be HORRIFIED. The feeling I got from the interview, was that BOTH parents were totally CLUELESS as to the damage their son had caused to the victims and their families. Frankly, I found them both to be totally f*cked in the head.

 

I’d be curious to see what others think caused Jeffrey Dahmer to become the monster he did. Please login using one of the social networks below, and leave a comment sharing your thoughts.

What made Jeffrey Dahmer tick?