With his confession to the rape and murder of 17 young men and boys between 1978 and 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer, also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal, is undoubtedly one of the most frightening murders in American history, if not all of human history. Of which he ate some. We have to question why Jeffrey Dahmer wanted to devour his victims, which is a mystery to forensic psychiatrists as well as true crime aficionados.
Jeffrey claims that, in contrast to many other murderers, he did not have a “profoundly unpleasant” childhood. Although his parents Lionel and Joyce are alleged to have been neglectful, he told NBC in 1994 that his upbringing was “pretty normal.” In a 1994 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Lionel revealed that he had been primarily absent during his son’s formative years and that he had been a “emotionally distant” father, but that his method of demonstrating his love for the family was by working hard and providing for them. Jeffrey had a double hernia removed when he was four years old, and Lionel claims that after the procedure, his little son was never the same. According to reports, Jeffrey started to retreat and acquired a fascination with animal carcasses, which his father at first encouraged because, being a scientist himself, he believed it demonstrated his son had a scientific mind. How did Jeffrey Dahmer develop the obsession to kill, dismember, and consume some of his victims’ body parts from being a fairly normal little boy?