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Jeffrey Dahmer

Also known as: Milwaukee Cannibal

Active
1978–1991
Region
Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Bath Township, Ohio, USA
Status
Convicted
Victims
17

Jeffrey Dahmer killed 17 young men and boys between 1978 and 1991, one in Ohio and the rest in Milwaukee and its suburb West Allis. He was caught on July 22, 1991, when Tracy Edwards escaped from his Milwaukee apartment and flagged down police. He pleaded guilty but insane; in February 1992 a Milwaukee jury found him sane and he received 15 consecutive life terms, plus a 16th after pleading guilty in Ohio, before being killed by a fellow inmate at Columbia Correctional Institution in 1994.

Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

Timeline of locations

  1. June 18, 1978
    Dahmer family home, Bath Township (Crime scene, approximate area)

    Dahmer grew up in Bath Township, Ohio, where his family lived from 1968 to 1978. Steven Hicks, an 18-year-old hitchhiker, was killed at the family home; bone fragments recovered from the woods behind it were identified as his in September 1991.

  2. December 1981
    Grandmother's home, West Allis (Killer's residence, approximate area)

    Dahmer lived with his grandmother in the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis from December 1981 to September 1988. James Doxtator, Richard Guerrero and Anthony Sears were killed there.

  3. January 1985
    Ambrosia Chocolate factory (since razed) (Workplace, approximate area)

    Dahmer worked overnight shifts as a mixer at Ambrosia's downtown Milwaukee plant on North Fifth Street from January 1985 until he was dismissed in July 1991. The plant closed in 1992 and was later demolished.

  4. November 1987
    Ambassador Hotel (Crime scene)

    Steven Tuomi, whom Dahmer had met at a bar, died in a room Dahmer rented at the Ambassador Hotel.

  5. September 25, 1988
    First Milwaukee apartment (Killer's residence, approximate area)

    Dahmer moved into an apartment on Milwaukee's west side in September 1988. Two days later he was arrested for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy he had lured there; he was convicted in 1989 and given probation and a year in the House of Correction with work release.

  6. May 14, 1990
    Oxford Apartments (demolished 1992) (Crime scene, approximate area)

    Dahmer lived in an apartment in this building on Milwaukee's near west side from May 1990 until his arrest. Twelve victims were killed here. In May 1991 Konerak Sinthasomphone escaped onto the street, but police returned him to the apartment. The building was torn down in November 1992.

  7. September 1990
    North 27th Street and Kilbourn Avenue area (Abduction, approximate area)

    Dahmer encountered Ernest Miller outside a bookstore on North 27th Street in September 1990, and Oliver Lacy at the corner of 27th and Kilbourn in July 1991.

  8. September 24, 1990
    Grand Avenue Mall (Abduction)

    Dahmer met David Thomas at the Grand Avenue Mall in downtown Milwaukee.

  9. February 1991
    Bus stop near Marquette University (Abduction, approximate area)

    Curtis Straughter was last seen at a bus stop near Marquette University.

  10. June 30, 1991
    Chicago (Abduction, approximate area)

    Dahmer met Matt Turner at a Chicago bus station and Jeremiah Weinberger at a Chicago bar, and brought each of them back to Milwaukee.

  11. July 22, 1991
    Arrest at the Oxford Apartments (Arrest, approximate area)

    Tracy Edwards escaped from Dahmer's apartment and flagged down two Milwaukee police officers at about 11:30 p.m. The officers went to the apartment, found evidence of the killings, and arrested Dahmer.

  12. January 13, 1992
    Milwaukee County Courthouse (Court / trial)

    Dahmer pleaded guilty but insane to 15 counts of murder on January 13, 1992. At trial before Judge Laurence Gram, the jury found him sane on February 15, and on February 17 he received 15 consecutive life terms.

  13. February 1992
    Columbia Correctional Institution (Prison)

    Dahmer served his sentence at this maximum-security prison in Portage, Wisconsin. On November 28, 1994, he was killed there by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver.

  14. May 1, 1992
    Summit County court, Akron (Court / trial, approximate area)

    Extradited to Ohio, Dahmer pleaded guilty in a Summit County court to the murder of Steven Hicks and received a 16th life term.

Sources

Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.