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Jeffrey Dahmer spent 10 months in prison for fondling a 13-year-old Laotian boy in 1988 and offering him $50 to pose nude for pictures. On his release, Dahmer was put on probation. Although he showed up at the probation office every month, his caseworker never visited Dahmer in his home, as is usually required. A state department of corrections spokesman said the requirement had been waived because the agent was overworked. Another serious lapse occurred in May, when police officers were called by two women who found a naked, bloodied Asian boy on the street. A man the women believe was Dahmer apparently convinced the police that the boy was his homosexual partner; the police declined to investigate. The 14-year-old boy, whose body has been identified amid the carnage in Dahmer's home, was the brother of the Laotian youth Dahmer molested in 1988. Three police officers were suspended last week pending an investigation into why they did not rescue the youth.
Dahmer's murderous rampage might have continued indefinitely had one of his victims not escaped last week. Running down a Milwaukee street with a pair of handcuffs dangling from one wrist, Tracy Edwards, 32, told police that Dahmer was trying to kill him. Dahmer was arrested without a struggle. He has since expressed remorse and briefed the authorities on his modus operandi: he usually lured men from shopping malls and bars by offering them money to pose for pictures; after drugging them, he would strangle his victims and dismember the bodies. Often he boiled their heads to remove the flesh, and in at least one case, say authorities, he had anal sex with a cadaver.
By week's end police had identified all 11 of the victims killed in Dahmer's apartment. Police are following leads to determine whether he was responsible for other unresolved slayings. At a hearing last week, Dahmer, who is being held on a $1 million bond, sat impassively in a Milwaukee courtroom as Judge Frank Crivello read out the charges on four counts of first-degree intentional homicide, each of which carries a mandatory life sentence. More charges are expected to follow soon.
"How do you handle something like this?" wondered Shari Dahmer. "I saw a woman crying on the news last night. She was crying for her missing son. My heart hurts for her. Jeff is wrong. Jeff is sick."