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10 Weird Facts About Jeffrey Dahmer’s Childhood
This is the third article in a series about serial killer’s childhoods. Jeffrey Dahmer is notorious as a murderer, necrophiliac and cannibal. What kind of boy was he? What sort of experiences moulded him into the man he became and the monstrosities he committed? Here are ten little known facts of Jeffrey Dahmer’s childhood.
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was born on May 21, 1960 and killed in jail on November 28, 1994. He was in jail for fifteen life sentences delivered for the seventeen lives he had taken, being convicted of only fifteen of them. His crimes were gruesome and involved torture, rape, cannibalism, necrophilia and dismemberment. His arrest and the evidence against him shocked the world when he was arrested in Milwaukee in 1991. He wanted the men he killed to stay with him forever and was attempting to turn them into “zombies”. He had many different body parts, chemicals and organs scattered throughout his apartment. The building he lived in and killed in was eventually destroyed to pay respect for the victims and the victim’s families.
He was born to two parents who loved him. He was wanted, loved and cherished. How did this great start in life turn into the beginning of a story of one of America’s most notorious serial killers? Was Jeffrey Dahmer a “born killer” or did he become conditioned to become so awful? The famous “nature vs. nurture” debate rages on. The truth nearly always is some mixture of both — he was genetically predisposed to violence and the life he lead triggered these predispositions. It’s difficult to understand that serial killers are often more like us than not like us. They blend into crowds and disappear looking like any other ordinary person. In fact, Jeffrey Dahmer himself was once quoted as saying: “When I was a little kid, I was just like anybody else.” I don’t know about you but that scares the crap out of me. Here’s ten weird facts about Jeffrey Dahmer’s childhood.
Jeffrey Dahmer’s mother, Joyce, had a difficult time carrying him.
It’s been said that Joyce had a very difficult pregnancy and relied on many different medications to help with nausea and assorted pregnancy woes. It’s also been said that “every little thing seemed to annoy her” after the birth of Jeffrey. Perhaps she was suffering from post partum depression which can lead, in some instances, to a difficulty bonding to the baby. Difficult pregnancies and childbirths have also been associated with a difficult bonding process between new mothers and babies. Although it has also been reported that Joyce made an extensive scrapbook for her precious son Jeffrey including his first words, the first time he walked, many photos and even a description of his first scolding.
Jeffrey Dahmer was an animal lover.
He’s seen here with a photo of his dog. There have been many rumours that Dahmer tortured and killed animals. However, these rumours are untrue. He spoke of an incident of his friend trying to run dogs down in the road while they were driving to school and how disgusted he was by that. He seemed to genuinely feel badly about the animal’s deaths.
He may not have tortured and killed animals but he did like to examine their dead bodies.
He had a fascination with dead animal bones and dead animals. He stated once that he liked the sound of the bones clicking together in a bucket. He liked to dissect dead animals and bleach their bones. There is no evidence that he actually killed the animals that he sickeningly “played” with. Once upon finding a dead dog, he impaled it’s head upon a stick. This fascination seems to have started with his father finding a dead animal under the family home’s porch. This fascination with death and remains appears to have stayed with him until his death.
He underwent a double hernia surgery at the age of four.
He was not told, or perhaps didn’t understand, the details of the surgery. This event seemed to turn a happy, normal child into someone who is confused and withdrawn. He didn’t realize the reason for the surgery and was shocked when doctors and nurses were touching him and examining him without explanation. One source even states that Dahmer asked his mother if his genitals had been removed because he was in so much pain. This would be horribly traumatizing and confusing for a boy at such a young age.
His parents fought openly and constantly in front of him before their divorce.
It seems that the Dahmer’s marriage was strained from the very beginning. After Dahmer’s birth, their arguing began effecting someone besides themselves. Dahmer has been quoted as saying: “I decided I wasn’t ever going to get married because I never wanted to go through anything like that.” Research has shown that marital squabbles in front of children can deeply scar them and effectively, change who they become.
It has been reported that he was sexually molested at the age of 8.
The validity of these reports remains unproven although molestation would fit the profile of the childhood of a serial killer. These reports involve an older neighbour molesting Dahmer and having the assault go unreported. I doubt we’ll ever know whether this attack actually occurred or is one of the many rumors of Jeffrey Dahmer’s life.
Dahmer was extremely shy and introverted through his childhood and teenage years.
He went from being a shy little boy to being an extremely introverted teenager who had difficulty connecting with the world around him. He was widely praised by adults for being very obedient when in reality he just didn’t care what was happening. He withdrew into his fantasies and spent a lot of time collecting, dissecting and examining road kill.
Dahmer rarely smiled.
His father said that Dahmer rarely smiled. This can be readily seen in his high school graduation photo shown below. Some sources said that his double hernia surgery at the age of four confused Dahmer so much that he became quite sullen. His smiles were extremely infrequent and rarely evident in pictures. This is his high school graduation photo.
Here’s one of the infamous photos of Dahmer during his court case. He looks quite ordinary, even mildly handsome but the mouth looks extremely flat. As if it has never smiled at all.
When his parent’s marriage finally deteriorated to the point of separation, Dahmer was left to fend for himself.
In his senior year, Dahmer’s parents split up. His father left alone and his mother left with his younger brother Daniel. Dahmer seized this opportunity of living alone to commit his first murder just a few days after his high school graduation. By this time Dahmer was a very heavy drinker. He picked up a nineteen year old hitch hiker named Steven Hicks and invited him back home for a few drinks. The two drank and had sex. When Hicks went to leave, Dahmer killed him and cut him up into several pieces. He bagged the pieces and buried them in several areas in the woods behind his home. This murder seemed to shock him and he tried to “clean up his act” for the next several years.
Dahmer joined the Army at the insistance of his father who wanted him to get a job or enlist.
Dahmer tried college for two terms and then dropped out. His father then forced Dahmer to enlist in the army hoping that it would clean him up. Dahmer enlisted for six years but was discharged after two for his heavy drinking. It was later investigated whether Dahmer was connected to a series of killings in Germany during his service there. There was no official link between Dahmer and the killings but suspicions remain.
In one of Dahmer’s quotes he says exactly what I’ve been thinking, “It’s hard for me to believe that a human being could have done what I’ve done, but I know that I did it.” Perhaps by profiling commonalities in serial killer’s childhoods and lives, we can pinpoint what to watch out for and more importantly, what to avoid when dealing with children. If Jeffrey Dahmer had been stopped after his first murder, sixteen lives would have been saved. Maybe Dahmer’s life itself would have been saved too.
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41 Comments
This is a very good review. One of the best one’s that I have read on Jeffrey Dahmer. It was also very helpful.
I love Jeffrey Dahmer
Jeffrey Dahmer is the beast of all beasts =D
leave my man alone
hes a sickkk guy. he deserved to diee.
I love jeffrey, he is my fav killer and always will be. He was so cute
I love him!!! i am doing a documentary on him right now he is the best serial killer ever.
jeffrey dahmer was a sick and cruel man , his parents can take a little bit of the blame too. He got what he deserved in jail.
Im doing a report on Jeffrey Dahmer he fascinates me in a weird kind of way..he was a madman and a freak but he is very intresting..
jeffrey was the weirdest person of many honestly who like to have sex withs corpse’s hello get someone alive then do what you got to do!!
After reading all these facts, one can’t stop thinking how “normal” a serial killer childhood can be. There are many people who have undergone some of these ordeals and turned out to be normal people, who knows, maybe it’s nature, too.
Has anyone ever considered Jeffrey (and others like him) may have had a mental disorder? If depression can drive ‘normal’ people with ‘normal’ childhoods to suicidal or self-harming behaviour, and when treated correctly (meds/CBT, etc), no longer have a hold on them – then it stands to reason that this could apply in the case of homocidal or other masocistic or sadistic behaviour.
It’s scary because of his behaviour, but he, himself is only scary because we don’t understand him.
I think it’s so sad, and that people with these complulsions (as with something like OCD) can be helped.
what the hell is wrong with you sick twisted freaks? you love Jeffrey Dahmer? admit it, your just trying to get people to think your cool. and honestly you are probably not. none of you. just so you know, idolizing a serial killer is not cool. its ridiculous. your not cool stop trying. i dont know if you realized and i dont know how old any of you are but jeffrey would have killed all of you if he could get us alone. its not a joke, its serious. he killed konerak synthasomphone who was a fourteen year old laeocean boy. he almost escaped dahmer but the cops sent him back into dahmers apartment. he died twenty minuts later.
i agree with the guy above me… “i love jeffrey dahmer” SHUT UP!! U IDIOTS ARE RETARDED BECAUSE YOU THINK HE IS A COOL GUY! HE IS A FREAKING LUNATIC
i agree with the 2 above me… YA SOME SICK BASTERDS FOR SAYING HE’S THE COOLEST I THINK YALLS MOMS DRANKED WHEN SHE WAS PREGNANT SICK LITTLE KIDS! MAY ALL THE VICTIMS REST IN PEACE..
Duh?
Deeper Meaning wrote: “Has anyone ever considered Jeffrey (and others like him) may have had a mental disorder?”
Duh?
Okay so I agree that he was sick, and that he was a monster, and trust me I get that he killed a lot of people. I’m doing a report on him. But I do think he was a genius. Think about it, he went all that time and even convinced police on the drop of a dime that everything was normal. THAT’S GENIUS. So you ignorant people should really shut up, maybe they really do idolize him, get over it. It doesn’t- or shouldn’t matter to you how those people feel about him. I do believe he got killed for good reasons, but I do think he was a fantastic serial killer. My opinion, not yours.
This review is by far the best I’ve ever read on Jeffrey Dahmer. I, personally, think his story is amazing. The fact that a normal, loving child, could turn out just as bad as anyone else just amazes me. His story proves many psychs wrong, and I think it’s cool, because you don’t have to have a horrible life to turn into something you hate.
Society is rolling down hill when its PC acceptable to “love” or idolize animals like Dahmer. More PC liberal talk about “murders have their rights and they have their reasons, we’re wrong for not understanding them”. No, we already understand “murders are different” eh, they murder people, were as you and i law abiding citizens do not. All people are born with dispositions, that is inherited, SELF CONTROL is not inherited, that is a result of your enviroment. The reason for so much of the crime today is lack of SELF CONTROL, teaching it, and the addition of more minimal consequences for committing crime. Something is broken in a society that, upon confession of taking lives, and knowing this person would continue to take lives, that person, the said murderer, is not quickly put to death.
Dahmer number 1! He good man, we love you Mr. Dahmer!
Seriously u ppl are all sick in the head u should go see a mental heath theripist. Damn u ppl are sick and twisted did u see what he did how could u like or love a freak like that unless u want to be like him and if u are u should go shoot ur self now b4 some one else does!!! I tjink he should have gotten killed earlier than when he did, because hes a freak.
He was a sick ass person and he deserved everything that happened to him in jail. He is rounting in HELL
These people who say they love him are either joking or are sick and twisted and extremely immature in their thinking. There is nothing funny about what he did when he was alive and free, running loose on killing sprees.
Jeffrey is amazing. Not in a loving way, but in a fascinating way. I’ve read so many biographies on him and basically can sum up his life story. Obviously what he did was not right, but what you need to understand about serial killers is that they don’t really understand right from wrong. Jeffrey doesn’t fully understand that what he did was wrong, most serial killers don’t. He was lonely and obviously different then most of us. Of course no serial killer can be fully understand by anyone like you or I, but I do believe that they should be given the benefit of the doubt. Including Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer, who was trully a genius. Just because he committed brutal murders doesn’t mean he wasn’t intelligent. Research more about him as a human being, take the idea of him being a serial killer out of your mind and really get to know him and his intelligence. He’s fascinating.
I think this guy is facinating…. he done incredibly violent and sick things to his victims and yet in every other acspect of his life he seemed shy, polite and even attractive. I think he seems so calm and placid that i find it hard to believe he was a vicous killer who ate his victims bodies. Check out the documentary on youtube about him, his dad is in it and is really facinating to watch. Jeffrey is lso interviewed in it and he talks about the killings like he is telling a story about someone else.
I think that Jeffery L. Dahmer is extremly interesting to research about and I believe what he did was wrong but he is still a person. I have been studying him for a while and that is something all of you should try doing instead of knowing the one fact that he killed, don’t be quick to judge someone. I don’t care what any of you say but he did not deserve to die but he also shouldn’t have killed but then again it wasn’t completely his fault, to some degree he had a mental ilness. For all the haters of Dahmer try researching and learning about him try to get to know what his personality was like and for all the ppl obsessing on him, it is great that you don’t hate him and you see him as a person but in my personal opinion you should not love him just because he killed it is not something that is right, it is wrong to kill and to think that it is right to kill, even Dahmer himself wished that he didn’t have the obsession of killing another human being. To all the ppl that commented just try to take my opion into consideration he is still a human he should not be hated but what he did was wrong, it was good that he was in jail but it wasn’t good that he was murdered. this is only my opinion, im only one person but it is still an opinion and it should be taken into consideration like how I took consideration in all of your opinion and not to be totally judge mental but the opinion I like the most was from cnarv they said a really true and great comment.
at first,i was really f*cking annoyed at all these ppl claiming to love this guy,then i read the last comment.I have 2 admit he’s right,if u consider that dahmer had an obsession,couldn’t control it and regrets he had it.but,for Christ’s sake,if u really love this guy because he’s a killer,i’m serious,you shouldn’t be around your families or childrn because you will probably harm them.think about that.
Im glad that you agree with what I wrote the whole point of me writting that is because I hate when people argue over something they know very little about so just try to learn about many serial killers that is what im doing and it now made me want to become a forensic psychiatrist it is really interesting. Also if you love Dahmer so much and love him because he murdered then I suggest you talk to a shrink to see if it is normal to love a serial killer for murdering people because you can end up being a harm to society. (to alex u said in your comment “he’s right” I just want to correct you its “she’s right” not that its your fault u had no way of knowing)
these comments were very entertaining to read
I am doing a term paper on Jeffrey Dahmer. I was wondering what opinions were about nature vs. nurture in the instance of these crimes?
kool huy dont u fink !!!!
i probably have very little knowledge compared to everyone else who has commented on this subject, but one thing i was taught was that all killers have a pattern in what they do. that\’s why forensics have a pretty good idea of who\’s behind a crime if they have seen the killer\’s work before. not to put you out there on something you said Cnarv, but as i was reading your comment, one line in particular jumped out at me and made me wonder if you were thinking things over as you typed it. if indeed you have read many biography\’s on Dahmer, then you will realize his pattern of killing.in one line that you wrote, you commented that, and correct me if i\’m wrong, that we must understand that serial killers do not really understand right from wrong. the reason this line jumped out at me is because every human was designed to know right from wrong. now you can correct this if you like, but at least take the moment to read and make sense of what i am about to say. no one was made with a normal life. But as many traumatic experiences we may face, one thing that never has been affected is the knowledge of what is right and what is wrong. if a killer can kill or have an obsession with killing, they also are aware of who or what can or will stop them, and then they try to plan around the obstacles. weather it be killing them, tricking them, or taking very cautious steps to avoid suspicion, they still realize what the normal right decision is. in this particular passage, it states that Dahmer did not commit his first killing until his senior year of high school and shortly along after seemed taken aback by the reality of what he had done. as i was reading, i realized that the negative experiences had begun long before his senior year. that made me wonder if he knew right from wrong in that time period. and, of course i believed he did. He trusted the Detective with his deep dark obsessions. Obviously, he knew self control or he would have acted on those obsession\’s. Self control would have told him it was not right therefore he should not go through with it. So yes, i believe serial killers do know right from wrong. if they did not, they would not be taken aback at what they have just achieved because it is normal, it was right that they did it. my last comment on this subject is if they knew that it was right, they would not attempt to cover it up what so ever.
I completely agree with what you just said, I believe you are 100% correct on your theory if they didn’t know it was wrong they wouldn’t try and cover themselves up at all. Even Dahmer himself said that he knew it was wrong and it wasn’t normal to most people but that it felt normal to him. through out Dahmer’s life many tramatic thing happened but I believe that was not what trigard it I think it was a choice he made by himself to kill others and if you read or watch biographys on him he will even say that it was no ones fault but his own, there is no one to blam because he is the guilty one not his family not no one but himself and that it was something he suffered with and could not help it. Many of you guys/girls should try and read about him you will find it very fasinating. I have been studying him for about half a year now and if you were to study and serial killer I would say Jeffrey is the most interesting to learn about.
I completely agree with what you just said, I believe you are 100% correct on your theory if they didn\’t know it was wrong they wouldn\’t try and cover themselves up at all. Even Dahmer himself said that he knew it was wrong and it wasn\’t normal to most people but that it felt normal to him. through out Dahmer\’s life many tramatic thing happened but I believe that was not what trigard it I think it was a choice he made by himself to kill others and if you read or watch biographys on him he will even say that it was no ones fault but his own, there is no one to blam because he is the guilty one not his family not no one but himself and that it was something he suffered with and could not help it. Many of you guys/girls should try and read about him you will find it very fasinating. I have been studying him for about half a year now and if you were to study and serial killer I would say Jeffrey is the most interesting to learn about.
I think that Dahmer was very disturbed and he lived in his own world where there was no God or beliefs, only evolution. Thats all he was ever told about and so he involved into this world he lived in his head where there was no one else. That went on for years until he was finally caught and the world he created in his head, came to an end. In which he woke up and people explained to him all the real beliefs that all children should be explained to while growing into an adult. Which is about God and the Bible and Jesus is Lord and Savior. I really don’t think that he would have Evolved into the man he did and do those horrifying crimes. If you have ever seen the footage of Jeff and the person he was after the crimes, you would probably be able to understand him better as a person and also understand why the people who find him interestng, do.
jeffery dahmer was a very ill man, and his parents are to blame his father could have came to visit and could see what his beloved son was up to and put a stop to it. dahmer death was not fair to the victims he should have been tortured for a very long time in a debt to the victims. he is in the best place know for a man like dahmer, i am sure that the lord above has sentenced him to eternidy of flames in pain for the rest of his souls little being….
jeffery dahmer was so sick my sisters friends had a nightmare of him eating her!!!!!xD
jeff’s little brothers name was DAVID not DANIEL.He named him himself.And he did NOT have sex with Steven Hicks as Steven Hicks was NOT GAY.
I have a few things to say about a few comments that people have left, first of all I will leave a comment to “mrsdahmer8″, You are right Jeffrey did not have sex with Steven Hicks dead body, Stephen Hicks was Jeffrey’s first victom, he was a hitch hiker that Jeffrey picked up and took to his house, and got him drunk, but he did NOT have sex with Stephen Hicks, at all, when he was alive, or dead.
My second comment goes out to, “the judge of life”, you have no right to blam Jeffrey’s parents, it was not their fault, nore was it his own, it was a sickness that he couldn’t over come. Maybe if you study him and learn some good facts to back up your theory of it being his parents fault, then try to say that. I havn’t been studying him for very long, only for about 8-9 months, but I still know more about him, and his problems more then you do, try and learn about Jeffrey Dahmer, watch biographys on him, he even says that there is no one to blam but himself and no one has the right to blam his parents, they did nothing wrong.
If you believe in God then you would know that he changed and he apoligized and picked up a religious believe, so wouldn’t of God forgivein him, isn’t that one of the rules in the bible, that God will always forgive your sins. I don’t believe in God personaly, but every one has their own believes; even though I don’t believe in God, doesn’t mean I don’t know about other believes and tell me if im wrong but God forgives everyone, and all sins, so I doubt that he would send him to suffer in flames for all of eternity. I don’t care if you believe anything I just said but try to keep an open mind, and think about it.
I understand that people might think he is interesting. But its interesting to you because YOU WERE NOT THERE! I dont think any of his victims can look back and go, oh hey, that sure was interesting, Jeff! You know why? because they’re DEAD. and cut up, zombified, and melted into other unrecognizable gunk. Its the same with watching a movie about war. Its interesting to watch, but horrible to live. So please, if you’re saying you love him for attention, stop. If you feel the same way about the things he did, GET HELP. the world needs less serial killers.
And im not completely hating on him. I know its very possible that he had a mental illness that prevented him from seeing that what he was doing was wrong. But he did commit those murders, multiple times, got caught, did it again, lied about them, and followed up on certain people. It broke my heart to read the story of how that one boy had escaped but then due to all these weird circumstances, Jeffrey was able to get him back and then kill him. What im trying to say is, yes, he is a person who committed mistakes and he should have gotten help. But at the same time its hard for me to say that i cant judge him. And it is equally hard for me to see that people actually look up to him. It is sick and worrying.