Lorynn Thompson

Ms. Rogers

U of U Writing

B2

Is the Milwaukee Cannibal innocent?

Some might ask who even is the Milwaukee Cannibal? And to the general empathetic

population not many people would say a cannibal, especially this one is innocent of their crimes.

But many people do argue and believe that this man, is innocent because of what his mental state

was being a sociopath and/or a psychopath which can can cause people to make unethical

decisions that can’t be controlled. So to answer the question “who is the Milwaukee Cannibal?”

Well it’s the one and only Jeffrey Dahmer, that name alone will send chills down your spine and

strike fear into your soul because of the absolutely demented things that this man would do to

people. It just makes you wonder why a man that seemed completely ordinary on the outside

would want to torture, kill, and eat men and children? At least that was what my question was,

because learning about him really moved me in the most uncomfortable state of being. I had to

learn more about him because his case is so interesting. Where it led me to wanting to know,

what was Dahmer getting out of his rituals? Why did he commit these unforgivable crimes. I just

felt so lost on how someone would want to hurt that many people, so based on this confusion I

had, I wanted to learn more about Jeffrey Dahmer and prove that even though Dahmer’s mental

disabilities may have made it harder for him to resist his urges that’s still no excuse for killing 17
innocent lives, Dahmer without a doubt is most certainly a guilty man of not only being a serial

killer but a necrophiliac, sex offender, and cannibal.

What I already knew about Dahmer was that he was one of the most well known serial

killers in the United States and he was also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal. But not many

people know this but when Jeffrey Dahmer was 6 years old he had surgery to fix a double hernia

that changed his personality from being a very energetic social kid to being withdrawn and much

more dejected so his parents and his biography says “He was described as an energetic and

happy child until the age of 4, when surgery to correct a double hernia seemed to effect a change

in the boy. Noticeably subdued, he became increasingly withdrawn following the birth of his

younger brother and the family's frequent moves.”​biography.com​. A lot of people use this for

evidence as to why Dahmer should be an innocent man because of his sudden change in

personality when he was a young child because it helps explain as to why he turned out the way

he did since the brain is such a complex organ and maybe there was a mistake during the surgery

that would affect Dahmer for the rest of his life. But as I said before Dahmer is definitely guilty

for what he has done regardless of the after affects from his surgery because in the society that

we live in today, we all know that the one thing that is truly unforgivable in this world is to take

another life. Another connection that was made in the Jeffrey Dahmer case was that he was a

homosexual and only killed men and young boys. The reasoning for this is because he only

wanted to kill his sexual partners, the only people he connected with on a more intimate level.

That’s probably why he never had a female victim because he was never “satisfied”. I got this

information from one of the documentaries that I watched ​Jeffrey ​Dahmer ​- Serial killer

documentary youtube.com. ​Another bone chilling thing about Dahmer, is one of the most
frightening things to me at least. Because he portrayed himself as an ordinary person to friends

and family so there were never any suspicions or speculations that he could commit such crimes.

He would walk around in the public eye as a completely normal human being, and no one would

speculate that he was one of the most terrifying serial killers in the world. See that is what is

most frightening to me because there are billions of people on this planet and someone could

appear to be a completely ordinary person but on the inside the commit the most unthinkable

things and their next victim might be you.

The information that I found wasn’t too difficult to find because there was so much

information already on Dahmer. I first researched about his back story before he had these

horrific urges. Where he was just a happy go lucky kid and he seemed like completely normal.

Then I read about what he was like socially as a young child, teenager, and a grown man. I also

watched some documentaries about Dahmer which really went in depth on Dahmer’s entire life

story. I watched some videos when Dahmer went to trial and the responses of the victims family

members, which was very emotional because you could really see the pain that the families were

going through. I also learned more about his psychological state and how researchers used his

case to better diagnose people with similar disorders. Since Dahmer’s state of mind was as you

could say “unique” according to Abigail Strubel “The American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was

afflicted with a unique constellation of psychological and personality disorders, as well as severe

social skill deficits.” ​Jeffrey Dahmer: His complicated, comorbid psychopathologies and

treatment implications​.With all of this information that I have gathered I know I can confidently

say that Jeffrey Dahmer is most certainly a guilty man that definitely deserved to be convicted

and to be put in jail.

 What I learned about Dahmer was that as a young child he was very interested in animal

carcasses and as he grew up he began experimenting by killing animals for pleasure. He was not

a regular child he was very emotionless, and he didn’t really interact with other children. Then

when he went into highschool he developed a serious drinking problem and still kept to himself.

Dahmer was also struggling with his homosexuality because normal relationship interactions

weren’t enough he had this urge to kill to be fully satisfied according to ​Charles Montaldo​.

Another thing that I learned was that Dahmer killed 17 men and during the timed he was killing

people he was convicted of being a sex offender and exposing himself in public but the cops

didn't suspect that he was a mass murderer. Dahmer also had various ways that he would dispose

of and operate on his victims, by dismembering them, putting their genitalia in jars, freezing their

heads, and eating their flesh then he would keep a polaroid collection of all of his victims, his

polaroid collection was like his very own personalized trophy case, according to biography.com.

But what not many people know as time went on Dahmer changed as a serial killer. For example

in the beginning of his killing spree he was a lot more detailed and he had a set plan on how to

lure his victims. Then as he became older he got a bit to comfortable with his deathly rituals

where he started to drink heavily which made very sloppy in his sacrifices where 2 of his victims

actually escaped because the alcohol took over. Which then led to him obviously getting caught

and thrown into jail.

Jeffrey Dahmer was a very deranged man and many wonder why he would commit such

unforgivable crimes. His goal was to be forever dominant by killing his victims and by eating

them so they would always be apart of him, yet be beneath him. He killed people because his

urges went hand in hand with his sexual desires that was too difficult to disregard. Also with him
being an alcoholic at such a young age it was very hard to decifine from what he felt was right

from wrong, so having that additional factor had a role on why he killed so many people. But all

in all he just wanted to feel as if he was in control and in power, and by taking another beings

lives gave him that satisfying power that he longed for.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Dahmer

https://www.thoughtco.com/profile-of-serial-killer-jeffrey-dahmer-973116

https://www.biography.com/people/jeffrey-dahmer-9264755

On this day: Jeffrey ​Dahmer ​sentenced to 15 life terms

Youtube.com

Jeffrey ​Dahmer ​- Serial killer documentary

youtube.com

Jeffrey Dahmer: His complicated, comorbid psychopathologies and treatment

implications-https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C45&q=jeffrey+dahmer+bio
graphy&oq=Jeffrey+dahm#d=gs_qabs&p=&u=%23p%3Ddo5c3gC7vjQJ