Netflix has produced its justifiable share of true-crime dramas all through the years, however nothing has been fairly as chilling as “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” which paperwork the lifetime of the notorious serial killer by means of intimate vignettes of his troubling life. The ten-episode sequence, starring Evan Peters, provides viewers a way of what it was like for Dahmer’s household, his victims, and even his neighbors — Glenda Cleveland and Pamela Bass — to look at as his grueling crimes unfolded.
Whereas the present has garnered controversy for glorifying Dahmer’s crimes and exploiting the trauma his victims endured, as of Sept. 27, the present is presently Netflix’s most-watched title, amassing greater than 196 million viewing hours up to now week, per CNN. The hype behind “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” aligns with the precise hysteria that possessed Individuals when Dahmer’s story was first revealed.
However how a lot of the present is rooted in actual fact? As chilling as it’s, the reply is most of it. Maintain scrolling for a deep dive into what was fictionalized and what really occurred due to the heinous killer.
Was Jeffrey Dahmer Truly Arrested?
“Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” begins the place Dahmer’s rampant killing spree ends: when he’s lastly arrested for the tried homicide of Tracy Edwards. The fact of Dahmer’s arrest shouldn’t be a lot totally different than the sequence’s first episode, which reveals Edwards escaping Dahmer’s house and flagging down native authorities. Just like the occasions depicted within the sequence, the Milwaukee Police Division discovered Edwards operating half bare with handcuffs on following his escape. Edwards then led the authorities again to Dahmer’s house, the place they uncovered the crime scene of 15 murders that 12 months.
Towards the top the sequence, Edwards testifies in opposition to Dahmer in his case in opposition to the state of Wisconsin, which additionally occurred in actual life. Edwards was instrumental within the prosecution of Dahmer and gave a grotesque testimony of the person who lured him again from a bar beneath the false pretenses of watching “The Exorcist” earlier than making an attempt to drug, sexually assault, and homicide him. “[Dahmer] underestimated me,” Edwards stated, in accordance with ABC. “God despatched me there to maintain the state of affairs.”
Did Jeffrey Dahmer Truly Go 9 Years With out Killing After His First Sufferer?
Dahmer’s first sufferer was a hitchhiker in Cleveland. In episode three, titled “Doin’ a Dahmer,” we see the serial killer choose his first sufferer, Steven Hicks, proper off the road. Hicks was hitchhiking in Akron, OH, when Dahmer lured the 18-year-old again to his childhood dwelling, the place his household used to depart him alone for months at a time. When Hicks tried to depart, Dahmer struck him from behind with a barbell and strangled him to dying. In comparison with real-life occasions, this depiction can be pretty correct. Within the present, Dahmer takes a nine-year hiatus from killing after murdering his first sufferer. In actuality, Dahmer killed his second sufferer, Steven Tuomi, solely 4 months after Hicks. He detailed his first killing, and the regret he felt thereafter, in a jailhouse interview with Inside Version in 1993.
Who Have been Jeffrey Dahmer’s Victims?
Whereas “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” does not go into element about each homicide he dedicated, it paints a vivid image of the rituals the killer relied on to successfully prey on the younger, native, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ neighborhood. By zooming in on the backstory of some of Dahmer’s victims, like his romantic relationship together with his boyfriend and eventual sufferer Tony Hughes, who was additionally part of the deaf neighborhood, the present tries to pay homage to the toll these murders took on his victims’ households. Nonetheless, there’ll by no means be sufficient justice dropped at the households who misplaced their family members to Dahmer’s violence.
Forward, see a timeline and breakdown of all of the victims Dahmer confessed to killing through the years:
- Steven Hicks, 18, murdered on June 18, 1987
- Steven Tuomi, 24, murdered on Nov. 20, 1987
- Jamie Doxtator, 14, murdered on Jan. 16, 1988
- Richard Guerrero, 25, murdered on March 24, 1988
- Anthony Sears, 26, murdered on March 25, 1989
- Raymond “Ricky Beeks” Smith, murdered on Might 20, 1990
- Edward W. Smith, 28, murdered in June 1990
- Ernest Miller, 22, murdered in September 1990
- David C. Thomas, 23, murdered on Sept. 24, 1990
- Curtis Straughter, 18, murdered on Feb.18, 1991
- Errol Lindsey, 19, murdered on April 7, 1991
- Anthony “Tony” Hughes, 31, murdered on Might 24, 1991
- Konerak Sinthasomphone, 14, murdered on Might 27, 1991
- Matt Turner, 20, murdered on June 30, 1991
- Jeremiah Weinberger, 23, murdered on July 5, 1991
- Oliver Lacy, 23, murdered on July 15, 1991
- Joseph Bradehoft, murdered on July 19, 1991
- Tracy Edwards, 32, escaped tried homicide on July 22, 1991, resulting in Dahmer’s life sentence in jail
Was Jeffrey Dahmer a Cannibal?
A few of the most grotesque scenes in “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” contain Dahmer’s cannibalistic tendencies, and sadly, these tendencies are additionally an correct depiction of his real-life habits. In an interview for Inside Version in 1993, Dahmer informed the platform that his urge to eat individuals stemmed from the will to have full and complete management over them. The killer by no means went into immense element in regards to the variety of victims he really consumed. So whereas we do not know the precise quantity, the assassin has been open about consuming human organs.
Did Jeffrey Dahmer Die in Jail?
Within the sequence’s last episode, “God of Forgiveness, God of Vengeance,” Dahmer is overwhelmed to dying by a fellow inmate on the Columbia Correctional Institute. The scene is rewarding as an outsider who watches Dahmer get away with a number of crimes earlier than his incarceration. It is also a full-circle second contemplating he killed his first sufferer with a barbell. Like many of the different putting moments on this sequence, the main points of Dahmer’s dying are additionally precisely portrayed on display. Dahmer died two years into his lifelong sentence in 1994 at age 34, in accordance with The New York Occasions, in the identical manner his last breaths had been depicted within the present.
