The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer

Product Information

The 2012 documentary The Jeffery Dahmer Files included fictionalized reenactments of Dahmer’s life (with Andrew Swant portraying him) along with real-life interviews with people involved with his cases. Several other documentaries have been produced about Dahmer as well. In September 2022, Netflix released a ten-part anthology series called Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Co-created by American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy, the series starred Evan Peters as Dahmer and highlighted incidents in which Dahmer was nearly apprehended before his arrest, with a particular focus on how police incompetence allowed him to extend his killing spree. In September 1989, about a year after moving into his new apartment, Dahmer lured a 13-year-old Laotian boy to his house, claiming he wanted to take nude photos of him. This resulted in charges of sexual exploitation and second-degree sexual assault for Dahmer. He pleaded guilty, claiming that the boy had appeared much older. A prison guard claimed that shortly after the murders, Scarver, who was believed to be schizophrenic, said “God told me to do it.” In 2015, Scarver spoke to the New York Post about his reasons for killing Dahmer. Scarver alleged that he was disturbed not only by Dahmer’s crimes but by a habit Dahmer had developed of fashioning severed limbs from prison food to antagonize other inmates.

After being taunted by Dahmer and Anderson during their work detail, Scarver said that he confronted Dahmer about his crimes before beating the two men to death. He also claimed that prison guards allowed the murders to happen by leaving them alone. Catherine Lacy, the mother of Dahmer’s victim Oliver Lacy, said his death brought her no closure: “The hurt is worse now, because he’s not suffering like we are.” Jeffrey Dahmer’s House After My Friend Dahmer, this is the second book on Dahmer I have read. And considering how I felt about that one, I can’t say that this was worse. However, it wasn’t my ideal, so to speak. It’s very dry in places and meanders quite a bit, plus Masters isn’t emotionally connected to any of this at all, except that he was present during the trial. Bizarre connections to the ancient Roman deity Dionysus, the American Indian legendary creatures known as wendigos, and other ancient mythos that, while interesting on its own, seemed out of place here. Actor Evan Peters played Jeffrey Dahmer in the Netflix series D ahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (2022). Netflix

Curtis Straughter, 17

Edwards claimed that the knife Dahmer had threatened him with was in the bedroom. When the officer went in to corroborate the story, he noticed Polaroid photographs of dismembered bodies lying around. Dahmer was subdued by the officers, after which he muttered the words, “For what I did, I should be dead,” according to Masters.

Then there’s the focus on the “shrine”. All that talk about Dionysus and wendigos was meant to give context to the bizarre, ritualistic, quasi-religious nature of Dahmer’s modus operandi. By now everyone familiar with the case knows about the “shrine” he was building, complete with griffin statues standing guard and flashing lights (?). The average onlooker would assume the altar was nothing more than a byproduct of mental illness, yet another sign of the insanity. But Masters bulks it up, ascribing the attributes of our primitive pagan ancestors to a primal killer’s instincts. And that’s fine – it makes sense, I suppose. Dahmer doesn’t know why he did it or where the idea came from, so Masters is putting his own spin on it, drawing his own conclusions. Everyone is going to see this case through their own filters anyway. The] world already has enough misery in it without my adding more to it. [from Albany Times Union; published on August 7, 1991]From a young age, Dahmer developed a fascination with animal bones and studied how to be clean and preserve them. As a child, he collected large insects and the skulls of small animals, preserved in jars of formaldehyde, according to the Brian Masters book The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer. His drinking problem persisted, and in early 1981, the Army discharged him. Although German authorities would later investigate possible connections between Dahmer and murders that took place in the area during that time, it is not believed that he took any victims while serving in the Armed Forces. Dahmer initially pleaded not guilty to all charges, despite having confessed to the killings during police interrogation. He eventually changed his plea to guilty by virtue of insanity. His defense then offered the gruesome details of his behavior, as proof that only someone insane could commit such terrible acts. In accordance with his inclusion in regular work details, Dahmer was assigned to work with two other convicted murderers, Scarver and Jesse Anderson. After they had been left alone to complete their tasks, guards returned to find that Scarver had brutally beaten both men with a metal bar from the prison weight room. Dahmer was pronounced dead after approximately one hour. Anderson died from his injuries days later.