Jeffrey Dahmer, also known as the cannibal Milwaukee monster, was a serial killer who terrorized the city of Wisconsin from 1978-1990.

Jeffrey was a serial killer, a rapist, as well as a cannibal who enjoyed eating parts of his victim's body, all in the name of "being close to them."

Let's find out more about who he was and also learn a few lesser-known facts about him.

Who Was Jeffrey Dahmer?

Jeffrey Dahmer became a famous name in the catalog of serial killers as he murdered and slaughtered 17 men and boys.

Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, on May 21, 1960, to Lionel Herbert and Joyce Annette Dahmer. His father was of German and Walsh descent, while his mother was of Norwegian and Irish descent.

He had a younger brother, David, and the family moved several times before finally settling in Bath, Ohio, in 1968.

Jeffrey attended Revere High School, where he was, at best, an average student. His excess drinking caused his grades to go downhill. Jeffrey played sports, mainly tennis, and played the clarinet. His teachers described him as polite and calm, though quite reserved.

However, he was also a class clown, as he was famous for entertaining his pals by performing hoaxes, such as assaults, hitting things, and making loud, unbearable noises.

After graduating in 1978, he enrolled at Ohio State University after much persuasion from his father. His stay at the college was not extended, as he dropped out three months later. He later joined the army but was soon let go because of his unacceptable behavior.

Jeffrey Dahmer later worked in a chocolate factory during the day and magnified his insidious deeds at night.

A Neglected Child From A "Tense" Home

Some say that as a child, Jeffrey Dahmer suffered neglect from both parents. His mother Joyce found the repeated breastfeeding strenuous and irritating and thus rarely breastfed her child. She was also lazy and often complained of weakness.

Yet, some sources suggest that both parents adored Jeffrey. Everyone agreed that his mother made their home uncomfortable with her tense attitude, greed for attention and pity, and repeated quarrels with her husband and the neighbors.

On one occasion, Joyce tried to take her own life by taking an excess of pills.

Later, Jeffrey Dahmer would describe his parents' "constant quarrels and quarrels" and conditions at home as "overly strained."

A Habit Of Excessive Drinking

Jeffrey Dahmer started drinking at 14. He drank heavily and was reported to be drinking both beer and stronger liquor. He drank before, during, and after classes, smuggled drinks to school in a military jacket, and drank to unconsciousness. On one occasion, his teacher recounted seeing him with a mug of beer on his desk.

Dahmer stated that he drank so much to suppress his sexual "compulsions." However, alcohol had the opposite effect because some victims said he became a greater monster while drunk. He was more brutal and sexually violent.

The excess drinking affected his education as his grades dropped in high school. It also affected his social life, as most students perceived him as an outcast.

Even while he was in the army, his way of drinking got him into a lot of trouble. He allegedly brutally sexually abused fellow soldiers while he was drunk. Also, his performance as a combat physician began to deteriorate, hence his dismissal in 1981.

Fascination With Bones

At the age of four, Jeffrey Dahmer was intrigued by the bones of animals in particular and how they "merge." Once, while helping his father clean the remains of dead rodents under their house, Jeffrey toyed with the bones, ran his hands through them, and became excited and unusually thrilled by the rattling sounds of the bones as they were thrown into metal buckets.

Jeffrey took his fascination to another level when he started collecting stray animals from the street and ditches. He disassembled their bodies behind the house in the karst forest and stored the parts in jars. Then his friends admitted to him that he looked obsessed with what was happening, and on one occasion, he was knocking down a dog's corpse before nailing it to a tree.

His father remembered that at the age of 10, Jeffrey asked what would happen if the chicken bones were covered with bleach. Lionel, who was an academic in chemistry, understood this question as an intellectual curiosity of his young son and took the opportunity to explain to his son how he could properly clean and preserve his collections.

Others noticed Jeffrey was overly excited and diligent whenever his biology subject involved dissecting an animal.

He Committed His First Killing The First Week After High School

Jeffrey Dahmer, who later became one of America's scariest serial killers, committed his first murder at 18, although he fantasized about killing earlier.

His victim was 18-year-old Steven Mark Hicks, who was on his way to a rock concert when Jeffrey invited him to his house for a few beers. Steven agreed, and they both drank and listened to music. Soon it was time for Steven to leave, but Jeffrey didn't want to, so he hit him with a 10-pound dumbbell and strangled him to death.

After killing Steven, he raped the corpse and took it behind the house, where he dissected it and buried it in a shallow grave. A few weeks later, he exhumed the body, cleaned the meat from the bones, and dissolved the flesh in acid. He crushed bones and scattered them in the woods behind his house. At the time, Jeffrey Dahmer was living alone in his parents' house.

Three Murders In His Grandmother's Basement

Jeffrey's first murder led to several others, three of which he committed in his grandmother's basement. Due to his disorderly conduct in the military, his father sent him to stay with his grandmother. There, in Wisconsin, he found his second victim, Steven Tuomi.

When he was later questioned about the murder, Jeffrey Dahmer said he had no recollection of Tuomi's murder. He recalled they drank together after he invited him to a hotel room. When he woke up, he found Tuomi dead with blood on his hands.

He took the body to his grandmother's basement, raped the corpse, dismantled its parts, and dumped the remains. He committed two more similar murders in the basement before his grandmother forced him to leave in 1988 since she was disturbed by his excessive drinking and late nights.

Negrophilic And Cannibalistic Killer

Jeffrey Dahmer was a homosexual serial killer who engaged in morbid sexual activities and eventually ate them. He allegedly raped all his victims.

Cannibalism was also part of Jeffrey's murder ritual, as he admitted to guarding and eating part of his victims. He ate their biceps, hearts, lungs, among other parts. The investigation that led to his arrest showed that he stored various parts of the victims' bodies in the refrigerator and other ordinary groceries.

Jeffrey Dahmer's Disorders

Jeffrey Dahmer showed signs of almost all of many psychiatric disorders.

He had no remorse and empathy, failed to adapt to social norms, but knew how to deceive, lie, and exploit others. These are the characteristics of an antisocial personality, a sociopath without a conscience who cares only for his own needs.

Add to this Jeffrey Dahmer's alien-directed predatory violence, intelligence, calmness, charisma, inability to feel, hypersensitivity to alcohol, lack of goals, the constant need for stimulation, violation of parole, and we see a psychopathic personality.

Dahmer's borderline personality disorder, a diagnosis made by a prison psychiatrist, might have been caused by sexual abuse in childhood, often incestuous. There is no evidence, but there has been much talk of possible abuse at the time of Jeffrey's arrest.

The media was full of hints that he was sexually abused at the age of eight. Lionel Dahmer allegedly blamed a neighbor for this in an informal conversation with a psychiatrist.

A borderline personality disorder is also characterized by problems in establishing an identity, mistrust, difficulties in controlling anger and other emotions and impulsive and self-destructive behavior, paranoia.

Severe childhood trauma is common in individuals suffering from dissociative states. Previous trauma is also characteristic of post-traumatic stress disorder. Dahmer did not remember his second murder, which he committed nine years after the first. Some things seem too traumatic, even for a serial killer.

Jeffrey Dahmer was a helpful, polite, seemingly satisfied young man with good relations with his family, a regular job. But, on the other hand, he was a predatory killer, rapist, and real-life monster.

Jeffrey Dahmer's Trial

Jeffrey Dahmer was charged with 17 counts of murder, later reduced to 15. He pleaded not guilty due to insanity. Most of the testimony is based on Dahmer's 160-page confession and from various witnesses who testified that Dahmer's had no control over his actions.

The prosecution tried to prove that he was under control and capable of planning, manipulating, and covering up his crimes.

The jury debated for five hours and returned the verdict of guilt on 15 counts of murder. Dahmer was sentenced to 15 life sentences, a total of 937 years in prison. At his sentencing, Dahmer calmly read his four-page statement before the court.

He apologized for his crimes and concluded:

"I didn't hate anyone, I knew I was sick or evil or both. Now I believe I'm sick, the doctors told me about my illness, and now I have a little peace. How much damage I did … Thank God there will be no more harm I can do. I believe that only the Lord Jesus Christ can save me from my sins … I am not asking for any consideration. "

Life Sentence And Violent Death In Prison

Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested on July 22, 1990. He was charged with 16 counts of murder and sentenced to 940 years in prison. He was imprisoned at Columbia Penitentiary, Wisconsin.

He was initially separated from the general prison population for his safety. He was gradually allowed to have contact with other prisoners. According to all reports, Dahmer was considered a model of a prisoner who adapted to prison life and was a self-proclaimed born-again Christian.

However, he could only serve a three-year sentence because prisoner Christopher Scarver killed him on November 28, 1994. Jeffrey Dahmer and two other inmates, including Scarver, were asked to clean the bathroom. Shortly after they began cleaning, Scarver took an iron bar and hit Jeffrey and another prisoner named Jesse Anderson. Before the guards could return, Jeffrey was already dead. The other prisoner was injured and died a few days later.

Asked about his motive, Scarver claimed that he was disturbed by Dahmer's crimes and his habit of making limbs out of prison food to tease the other prisoners.

Jeffrey Dahmer's body was cremated at his request.