This Little Boy Grew Up To Be One
Early Life
Born in May 1960 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was described as an “energetic and happy child,” full of promise.
But after double hernia surgery before his fourth birthday, his parents noticed a dramatic change — he became “subdued and withdrawn.”
Troubled Youth
Teachers described Dahmer as “quiet and timid.” His mother’s depression and his father’s absence left him emotionally isolated.
He began collecting roadkill and dissecting animals.
At 15, he “decapitated a dog’s carcass, nailed the body to a tree, and impaled the skull on a stick.”
By high school, he was drinking heavily, calling alcohol “my medicine,” according to The New York Times.
Dark Descent
After his parents’ divorce, Dahmer was left alone.
Just weeks after graduating in 1978, he picked up a hitchhiker — and killed him. Over the next 13 years, he murdered 16 more young men.
