Jeffrey Dahmer biography

Dahmer claims to have found Toumi dead beside him when he awoke. He bought a large suitcase to transport Toumi's body to his grandmother's basement, where he had sex with and masturbated on the corpse, before dismembering it and disposing of the remains in the garbage.

Arrest and Sentencing

Dahmer's killing spree lasted for 13 years: He sought out mostly African-American men at gay meeting places, lured them home to his grandmother's basement with promises of money or sex, where he would feed them alcohol laced with drugs before strangling them to death. He would then have sex with the corpses and/or masturbate on them, and finally dismember his victims' bodies and dispose of them, usually keeping their genitals or skulls as souvenirs. He often took photos of each victim at various stages of the murder process, so he could recollect each act afterwards and relive the experience. This re-enactment included assembling the skulls and masturbating in front of them to achieve gratisfaction.

Dahmer's grandmother eventually tired of the late nights and drunkenness, although she had no knowledge of the other activities, and forced her grandson to move out in September 1988, but not before he had killed another two victims on the premises.

Around the same time, Dahmer had an extremely lucky escape: An encounter with a 13-year-old Laotian boy resulted in charges of sexual exploitation and second-degree sexual assault for Dahmer. He pleaded guilty, claiming that the boy had appeared much older. While awaiting sentencing for his sexual assault case, Dahmer temporarily moved back in with his grandmother, again putting her basement to gruesome use; in February 1989, he lured, drugged, strangled, sodomized, photographed, dismembered and disposed of Anthony Sears, a young, African-American man and aspiring model.

In May 1989, at his trial for child molestation, Dahmer was the model of contrition, arguing eloquently, in his own defense, about how he had seen the error of his ways, and that his arrest marked a turning point in his life. His defense counsel argued that he needed treatment, not incarceration, and, astonishingly, the judge agreed, handing down a one-year prison sentence on "day release"—allowing Dahmer to work at his job during the day and return to the prison at night—as well as a five-year probationary sentence.

Lionel Dahmer later stated in an interview with CNN that, while his son was incarcerated, he wrote a letter to the court that issued Dahmer's sentence, asking that he get psychological help before being released from prison. However, Jeffrey Dahmer was granted an early release by the judge, after serving only 10 months of his sentence. Dahmer spent three months with his grandmother on his release, during which time he does not appear to have added to his body count, before moving into his own apartment in May 1990.

Killing Spree

Over the 15 months that followed, up to the time of his capture, Dahmer's victim count accelerated; 12 more lives were taken using his modus operandi.