Jeffrey Dahmer: Tracking a Monster
Jeffrey Dahmer – Do we create monsters because humanity does not like to admit what heinous things we can do to one another? Consuming one of our own, preserving them as a reminder of the heinous crime done to them, prowling at night in search of prey, all of these are nightmares reserved for monsters. But too often, when the monster is encountered, and we remove the mask, we find ourselves.
This is indeed the case with Jeffrey Dahmer. Unassuming and quiet, he was able to enter a world few of us can understand, transforming into a creature all of us fear. He eventually became the monster he himself feared and went on to terrorize Milwaukee and change America forever. To get close to Dahmer’s old stomping grounds, book a tour with Brew City Ghosts!
A Synopsis
Jeffrey Dahmer murdered at least 17 men between the years of 1978 and 1991. Like a true predator, he separated his prey from the herd, selecting his victims that dwelled on the fringes of society, making their disappearances less noticeable and reducing the likelihood of his capture. He lured his victims to his home with promises of money and other enticing means, just to end their life. His legacy is a sad tale of victims scattered and forgotten. But each of these victims has a story to tell and no matter how much we hope his victims have found peace, we cannot deny his actions were the perfect recipe for ghosts. But let’s go back to where it all started.
4480 W. BATH ROAD, AKRON, OHIO
The three-bedroom house in Akron, Ohio, where a young Jeffrey Dahmer made his first kill was last on the market in 2005 before it was sold on 12/21/2005 for a little over a quarter of a million dollars. Dahmer and his parents moved into the house in 1968 when he was eight years old. Ten years later, Dahmer’s first murder occurred just after graduating high school, in June of 1978, when he went out on his first hunt, eventually picking up a hitchhiker named Steven Hicks and taking him home to his parent’s house. This was the predator’s first kill. The transformation had begun.
Now, the asking price of the house was a bit exorbitant for a quaint home on the outskirts of Akron. But you are paying for the ambiance, the ownership of the lair of one of America’s most famous serial killers. It has been said that the ghost of Steven Hicks still roams the one-and-a-half acres of this property. How could he not? Hicks was struck down in the prime of his youth; his body was disposed of without a proper burial and without care. All of these situations are prime elements in the production of hauntings.
THE KILLER STRIKES AGAIN
It wasn’t until September 1987 that Dahmer took his second victim. Steven Tuomi and Dahmer checked into a hotel room at the Ambassador Hotel and drank. Dahmer claimed to have awoken to find Tuomi dead, with no memory of the previous night’s activities. He had apparently blacked out, and the monster that dwelled inside simply took over. But Dahmer was prepared if such an event occurred. Like a demonic boy scout, he was always prepared. He had brought a large suitcase to transport Tuomi’s body to his grandmother’s basement, where he disposed of the remains. This began Dahmer’s trait of keeping souvenirs for later plans, however, your mind chooses to process that.
Since then countless claims of strange happenings have gone on in the hotel room Dahmer stayed in. The room has since been renovated but you can still book a stay in the infamous room just like Taylor Momsen, lead singer of the band, The Pretty Reckless, did for one Halloween and she explains her experience here.
TO GRANDMOTHER’S HOUSE WE GO: THE TERROR AT 2357 SOUTH 57th STREET, MILWAUKEE, WI
His next victim was a 14-year-old native American male named James Doxtator whom he paid $50 to pose for pictures before ending his life and leaving his body in the dark basement of his grandmother’s house. In March 1988, Dahmer met his next victim, 22-year-old Richard Guerrero, outside a Milwaukee bar. Dahmer baited him with an offer of $50 to return with him to his grandmother’s home, where Dahmer drugged Guerrero and killed him. Dahmer’s next conquest was a year later, in March of 1989. This victim was Anthony Sears, an aspiring model. The 24-year-old Sears met his killer at a gay bar. Dahmer convinced Sears to accompany him to his grandmother’s home, where he subdued the young man by drugging him and then set about ending the life of his prey. Dahmer’s poor grandmother only had so much patience with her grandson’s antics, and in September of 1988, she had enough of her Jeffrey bringing men over to her house in the dead of night, not to mention the foul stench emanating from the basement. Jeffrey would simply have to find his own apartment.
What horrors went on in that basement? What ghosts have been conjured by such heinous acts against humanity? These victims had no time to say goodbye to their loved ones, no time to get loose ends tied up. They were simply removed from the world of the living. Within that house in Wisconsin, the hauntings have begun. Not only the strange noises and dragging sounds but the painful moans and sad cries have been heard reverberating from this house, residual reminders of the monstrous events etched into the very fabric of the residence.
The Killing Floor of 924 North 25th Street, Milwaukee, WI.
After a short stint in jail, Dahmer was back on the street. He also moved into his very own apartment. Just because Dahmer moved out of his grandmother’s house did not mean the killings stopped. Indeed, upon finding his own apartment, Dahmer could now work with a newfound sense of privacy. Within the year of getting his place, the killings began again.
That is when Dahmer stalked a 32-year-old named Raymond Smith. Again, the predator lured his victims with bait, Dahmer offering Smith $50 to come home with him. He then drugged him and ended his life. Dahmer was acquainted with his next victim, 27-year-old Edward Smith. They’d been seen together at clubs before, and Smith seemed genuinely interested in being Dahmer’s friend. However, Dahmer killed the man, dashing any hope of friendship.
Two of Dahmer’s victims were killed during the month of September 1990. 22-year-old Ernest Miller and 22-year-old David Thomas. Miller was murdered first. Three weeks later, Dahmer met Thomas and managed to get him back to his apartment, where he ended his life.
Next, Dahmer used his usual ploy of offering money for photos to 17-year-old Curtis Straughter, who agreed to return to Dahmer’s apartment. Dahmer then proceeded to drug and kill him.
In April of 1991: Errol Lindsey, 19 years old, suffered one of the most agonizing deaths. He was kept alive for a gruesome experiment. Dahmer was becoming crazed, becoming desensitized to the simple act of killing. Now Dahmer was more animal than man. He was quickly losing any semblance of human reason.
Now the killings were happening more systematically and more often. In May of 1991, the Milwaukee cannibal claimed two other victims. Dahmer met the 31-year-old Anthony Hughes at a Milwaukee gay bar. Hughes, who was deaf, agreed to go home with Dahmer, where he was then drugged and strangled. Not long afterward, Dahmer lured 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone to his apartment. Dahmer attempted his experiments again, but Sinthasomphone managed to escape. Dahmer, however, who had gone out for groceries when the young man had escaped, found him with a pair of women and his worst nightmare, the police. Dahmer managed to convince the police that the young man was actually his lover and the police agreed to release him once they accompanied the pair of men home to ensure things were actually okay. Upon returning to the apartment and giving the all-clear, the police left the young man in Dahmer’s care and once the police were gone, the experiment began again, eventually killing the young man.
Less than a month later, Matthew Turner, 20, died just like so many others had at the hands of this predator. One month later, in a seeming frenzy, Dahmer took three lives. In two weeks, Dahmer killed 23-year-old Jeremiah Weinberger, 24-year-old Oliver Lacy, and 25-year-old Joseph Bradehoft. But on July 22, 1991, Dahmer was cornered like a rabid beast. Just days after he killed Bradehoft, Dahmer lured 32-year-old Tracy Edwards to his apartment by offering to pay him for photos. This time, Edwards managed to escape and brought the police to Dahmer’s apartment. Needless to say, the police found more than enough evidence to see that Edwards was not the only victim of Jeffery Dahmer. Dahmer’s killing spree ended when he was arrested on July 22, 1991. The body parts found in Dahmer’s refrigerator and Polaroid photographs of his victims became indistinguishably associated with his notorious killing spree.
Suffice it to say the building where Dahmer killed so many of his victims is no longer there. According to Newsweek, the 49-unit complex was demolished some 15 months after his arrest at the request of the victim’s families. There were horrible blood stains in Jeffrey’s room, and a hideous smell permeated the building that The New York Times described as a “killing factory.” Indeed, this building was Dahmer’s personal slaughterhouse. For a time, the area where the slaughterhouse stood was almost converted into a children’s playground, but fortunately, that never came to fruition. All that remains is a square area of grass, undeveloped and unused.
Although Dahmer’s apartment building was demolished, a different apartment building, which was constructed in 1925, still stands just adjacent to the killing factory at 25th & State 936-944 N 25th Street. It has been said that Dahmer’s victims still cry from the ground, eternally tormented by the deeds done to them by this unassuming yet calculating predator. Consider the emotions that arose from that apartment, confusion, fear, pain, and sadness. All that suffering. Where did that energy go? It seeped into the land, becoming one with it. This empty plot is now the domain of shadowy figures seen in the night. This is the place where the grass screams and the dirt cries out. This is the place where the dead have no rest. They deserve far better than that. You have to wonder if the buildings around it have been affected as well.
The Fate of Jeffrey Dahmer
Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to 15 consecutive life terms in prison after being convicted of 15 murders. He was held at the Columbia Correctional Facility in Wisconsin, serving three years and four months in prison before he was killed on November 28, 1994, by his fellow prison inmate Christopher Scarver. 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 succumbed to his injuries days later.
Understandably, the Columbia Correctional Facility is not open to ghost hunts, but many inmates have experienced the hauntings of the cannibal himself! Lurking and leering, a shadowy figure has been seen in the area where Dahmer was killed and in the cell, the serial killer called home. It may be that even in the afterlife, Dahmer has to serve an eternal sentence without any hope of parole.
ATTACHMENT HAUNTINGS
Whenever a violent crime occurs, at times there can be an imprint left on an item or place, much like a film imprint or a residue left over. This may indeed be the case in Milwaukee and it seems as if the concerned citizens of Milwaukee wanted to exorcize the spirit of Dahmer permanently from their midst. Money was raised and all of Dahmer’s personal belongings were bought and promptly destroyed so no energy of Dahmer would linger within their community.
Even Club 219, the hunting ground of Dahmer and the first gay club in Milwaukee, closed down permanently in 2005, although it is still standing. The club is a mere eight-minute drive from Dahmer’s apartment.
Everyone thought the residual energy of Dahmer was gone but was it?
Alcatraz East, a museum devoted to crime in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, acquired the prescription glasses that Dahmer was known to wear. An iconic display, is it not? But shortly after obtaining these glasses and putting them on display, a quiet man was often seen around the exhibit well after the last visitor left for the night. When approached, the figure merely makes eye contact and dissolves into nothingness. A few witnesses have claimed the eyes they looked into were the eyes of Jeffrey Dahmer himself. What is even more terrifying, this ghost seems to be an intelligent haunting, meaning there is some remnant of Dahmer’s personality inherent within this spectral manifestation, and is able to interact with the living around him.
It seems as if there is still a little bit of Jeffrey still lingering out there in the night. And that is the stuff of nightmares.
If you want to recount the story of Jeffrey Dahmer, Netflix is currently running a new series on the Milwaukee cannibal called: Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, with Evan Peters as Dahmer himself. To really sink your teeth in, Netflix also has ‘Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes’, so sit back and relax and make an evening of it.
Sources:
Davis, Don. The Jeffrey Dahmer Story: An American Nightmare. Macmillan 1991.
Imrie, Robert (August 2, 1991). “Officers Were in Dahmer’s Apartment.” The
Times-News. Burlington, North Carolina: New Media Investment Group.
Associated Press.
“Jeffrey Dahmer’s Inferno.” Vanity Fair. November 1, 1991.
Schwartz, Anne E. The Man Who Could Not Kill Enough. Citadel, 1992.