A chronology of the life of Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer — May 21, 1960 to November 28, 1994
1959 — 1960 · Origins
August 22, 1959 — Lionel Herbert Dahmer and Annette Joyce Flint marry in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Lionel is 23, studying for his BSc in Chemistry at Marquette University.
February – March 1960 — Joyce is bedridden throughout pregnancy with severe nausea. Her muscles tighten badly; Dr. Dean Spyres must inject her to relax. She is forced to give up her job.
May 21, 1960 — Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer is born at Evangelical Deaconess Hospital, Milwaukee, at 4:34 p.m. He weighs 6 lbs 15 oz, is 18½ inches long, with auburn hair and blue eyes.
1961 — 1966 · Early Childhood
November 25, 1961 — Jeffrey walks alone for the first time.
1962 — Lionel receives his M.Sc. and is accepted at Iowa State University for doctoral work. The family moves to Ames, Iowa. Jeffrey begins collecting animals and insects.
c. 1963 — Nursery school in Ames. Jeffrey is very shy, calls himself “new boy.” A teacher gives him a pet grey mouse. He plays in apple trees and coal piles; visits a nearby research facility to watch men work with barnyard animals.
March 19, 1964 — Double hernia surgery at age four. Jeffrey wakes in intense pain and fears his genitals have been removed. He asks his mother if he still has his private parts. He never forgets it.
c. 1964 – 1966 — Jeffrey discovers the crawlspace bones under the Ames house, calls them his “fiddlesticks.” The family raises a baby nighthawk named Dusty. Jeffrey asks his father what bleach would do to chicken bones — Lionel obliges the experiment.
1966 — Joyce’s health deteriorates severely; possible Seconal overdose. She finds the Church of Christ; she and Lionel are baptised. Lionel receives his doctorate and accepts a position in Ohio. David Dahmer born December 18 — Jeffrey, age six, chooses his brother’s name.
1967 — 1978 · Ohio
1967 – 1968 — Family lives briefly in Doylestown then Barberton, Ohio. Jeffrey is betrayed twice by people he trusts — a classmate reports him for a strangling game; a teacher gives away his tadpoles. He pours motor oil into the container and kills them.
1968 — Family moves to 4480 West Bath Road, Bath, Ohio — 1.7 wooded acres with a spring-fed pond. This is their home for ten years.
c. 1969 – 1970 — At Eastview Junior High, Jeffrey plays cornet in the school band. Friends include Bill Henry, Greg Rogerson, and David Borsvold. He and Borsvold share the private game “Infinity Land” — stick figures without flesh spiralling toward oblivion. It is the first time Jeffrey allows anyone into his fantasy world.
c. 1970 — Jeffrey starts drinking in his junior year at Revere High School. Teacher Mr. Smesko finds him with a twelve-pack outside the parking lot, notes he is “solemn and depressed.”
c. 1974 – 1975 — First dark fantasy, age 14 or 15. A jogger running past the house. Jeffrey imagines stopping him, having total control. For months he substitutes a hitchhiker. The fantasies are entirely self-generated — no books, no films. They come, he says, “like arrows, shooting into my mind from out of the blue.”
1974 – 1978 — Revere High School, Bath, Ohio. Grades: average C and B. Clarinet in the band (freshman year). Intramural tennis (sophomore – senior). School newspaper The Lantern (junior year).
June 1978 — Senior Prom. Jeffrey attends with Bridget Geiger, arranged by classmates. He disappears during the evening; arrives back having been drinking. Shakes her hand goodnight at her door.
July – August 1978 — The divorce of Lionel and Joyce is finalised. Joyce takes David to Wisconsin in defiance of the court order. Jeffrey is left entirely alone in the Bath Road house — no food, broken refrigerator. Lionel moves to the Ohio Motel, ten miles away.
1978 · First Murder
June 18, 1978 — Steven Mark Hicks, age 19, is hitchhiking home from a rock concert at Chippewa Lake Park when Jeffrey picks him up. After two hours of drinking and talking at the empty Bath Road house, Jeffrey strikes him twice with an eight-inch barbell and strangles him. He is 18 years old. The body is dismembered in the crawlspace and placed in garbage bags. At 3 a.m. a police officer stops Jeffrey for driving left of centre — the bags are in the back seat. He is given a ticket and released.
1978 — 1981 · Ohio State, Army, Florida
Autumn 1978 — Enrols at Ohio State University, Ross House Room 541. Drinks two bottles of whiskey a day. GPA 0.45 for his first semester. Drops out at Christmas.
December 29, 1978 — Enlists in the US Army. Posted to Fort McClellan, Alabama for basic training. Put on a diet of five hard-boiled eggs a day and a five-mile walk for being overweight.
May 11, 1979 — Completes six-week combat medic course at Army Hospital School, San Antonio, Texas.
June 1979 — Posted to Baumholder, West Germany, 2nd Battalion, 68th Armour Division. Discovers homosexual pornography in Frankfurt — the first material he has ever found for his orientation.
Thanksgiving 1979 — After an argument at a colleague’s dinner, Jeffrey walks out alone at 10:30 p.m. into heavy snow. Missing for four hours. Returns confused, glasses missing, jacket insufficiently cold. A colleague notices possible blood on his clothing. Days later Jeffrey says: “Sometimes the best thing for the soul is to confess.”
March 24, 1981 — Honourably discharged early from the army for alcohol-related misconduct. Given a travel voucher to any US destination. Flies to Miami rather than return home.
Spring – Autumn 1981 — Miami Beach. Sleeps under mangroves on the beach for one to two months. Works at Sunshine Subs. Gets mugged. Stays up drinking until 3 a.m. to avoid returning to the beach. Eventually calls Lionel for bus fare.
September 1981 — Returns to Bath Road. Retrieves Steven Hicks’s remains from the drainage pipe. Smashes the bones to splinters with a rock and scatters them in the woods.
1981 — 1990 · West Allis
October 7, 1981 — Arrested at the Ramada Inn, Bath, Ohio, for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
December 1981 — Moves in with grandmother Catherine Dahmer, 2357 South 57th Street, West Allis, Wisconsin. He is genuinely fond of her. “Very kind, goes to church every Sunday, easy to get along with, very supportive, loving, just a very sweet lady.”
c. 1982 – 1984 — Works at Milwaukee Blood Plasma Center as a phlebotomist. Fired after ten months. Reads the Bible with his grandmother; sends money to missionaries. Describes this as a period of genuine effort to control his urges.
August 8, 1982 — Arrested at the Wisconsin State Fair for indecent exposure in front of approximately 25 people. Fined $50.
January 1983 — Purchases a .357 Magnum. After a family conference, hands it over to Lionel without argument.
1984 — Steals a male mannequin from the Boston Store at Southridge Mall, concealing himself until closing. Keeps it two weeks. Also: brother David visits; Jeffrey touches him while he sleeps. David confronts him in the morning. Jeffrey apologises.
January 14, 1985 — Starts work as a mixer at Ambrosia Chocolate Factory, Milwaukee, third shift: 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.
1985 — A stranger drops a note in his lap at West Allis Public Library. He does not go. Two months later his control breaks down; he begins visiting gay bookshops and bathhouses in Milwaukee.
September 8, 1986 — Arrested for lewd and lascivious behaviour, Kinnickinnic River. One year probation.
November 1987 — Steven Tuomi, second victim, Ambassador Hotel, Milwaukee. Jeffrey wakes to find him dead. He has no memory of the killing.
January 17, 1988 — James Doxtator, age approximately 14. Third victim.
March 27, 1988 — Richard Guerrero, age 23. Fourth victim.
September 26, 1988 — Moves out of Catherine’s house to 808 North 24th Street, Apartment 204. Within days: drugs and fondles 13-year-old Somsack Sinthasomphone. Arrested at Ambrosia. Charged with second-degree sexual assault.
January 1989 — Sentenced by Judge William Gardner: five years probation, one year work-release. Returns to live with Catherine.
March 25, 1989 — Anthony Sears, age 24. Fifth victim. Last murder at Catherine’s house.
1990 — 1991 · Oxford Apartments, Apartment 213
May 1990 — Moves to 924 North 25th Street, Apartment 213, Milwaukee. The apartment is neat and tidy: oriental rug, aquarium, Bible, Creation Science cassettes.
May 20, 1990 — Raymond Smith (‘Cash’), age 33. Sixth victim. First murder at Apartment 213.
June 24, 1990 — Edward Smith, age 27. Seventh victim.
September 1990 — Ernest Miller, age 23. Eighth victim. His entire skeleton is kept and painted.
September 24, 1990 — David Thomas, age 22. Ninth victim. Identified from photographs by his sister.
February 17, 1991 — Curtis Straughter, age 17. Tenth victim.
April 7, 1991 — Errol Lindsey, age 19. Eleventh victim.
May 24, 1991 — Tony Hughes, age 32. Deaf and mute. They communicated in writing. Twelfth victim.
May 27, 1991 — Konerak Sinthasomphone, age 14. Thirteenth victim. A 911 call is made about the distressed boy; police return him to Jeffrey’s custody after Jeffrey convinces them it is a domestic dispute between lovers.
June 30, 1991 — Matt Turner, age 20. Fourteenth victim. Met at Chicago Gay Pride bus station.
July 5, 1991 — Jeremiah Weinberger, age 23. Fifteenth victim. Stays two days alive in the apartment. Dies with his eyes wide open — the only victim to do so.
July 15, 1991 — Oliver Lacy, age 24. Sixteenth victim. Head found in the refrigerator.
July 19, 1991 — Joseph Bradehoft, age 25. Seventeenth and final victim.
1991 · Arrest
July 22, 1991, 11:30 p.m. — Tracy Edwards escapes Apartment 213 and flags down Officers Mueller and Rauth. They return to the apartment. Officer Mueller opens the refrigerator and finds a severed head. Jeffrey is handcuffed on the floor. He mutters: “For what I did I should be dead.”
July 23, 1991 — Detective Dennis Murphy begins sixty hours of confession interviews. Jeffrey cooperates fully, anxious to name every victim and relieve the minds of their families.
1992 · Trial and Sentencing
January 30, 1992 — Trial begins before Judge Laurence Gram, Milwaukee. Defence attorney Gerald Boyle argues mental disease; DA Michael McCann opposes. Eight psychiatric experts evaluate Jeffrey.
February 15, 1992 — Guilty on all fifteen counts. Found fully criminally responsible.
February 17, 1992 — Sentenced to fifteen consecutive life sentences — 936 years, without possibility of parole. Before sentencing Jeffrey addresses the court, quoting 1 Timothy: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners — of whom I am the worst.” He is transported to Columbia Correctional Institution, Portage, Wisconsin.
1992 — 1994 · Prison
August 13, 1992 — Interviewed at Columbia by FBI Special Agents and Hollywood, Florida Police Department regarding the 1981 disappearance of Adam Walsh. Jeffrey denies any involvement. The detective reports he was “totally cooperative” and believed to be telling the truth. The investigation of Jeffrey is closed.
May 10, 1994 — Baptised by Reverend Roy Ratcliff, Madison Church of Christ, inside Columbia Correctional Institution. Ratcliff visits weekly thereafter. The two discuss death, redemption, and whether Jeffrey is sinning against God by continuing to live.
July 3, 1994 — Fellow inmate Osvaldo Durruthy attempts to slash Jeffrey’s throat with a razor embedded in a toothbrush in the prison chapel. Jeffrey receives only superficial wounds.
1994 · Death
November 28, 1994, approximately 8:10 a.m. — Jeffrey Dahmer is assigned to a work detail in the gymnasium of Columbia Correctional Institution with fellow inmates Jesse Anderson and Christopher Scarver. The three are left unsupervised for approximately twenty minutes. Scarver beats Jeffrey and Anderson with a 20-inch metal bar from a weight machine. Jeffrey is found on the floor with extreme head wounds. He dies en route to hospital.
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was 34 years old. He had been in prison for two years and nine months.
For the full account of Jeffrey’s life, read the comprehensive biography.
Jeffrey Dahmer Memorial 