Skip to content

featuring historical research, writing, and media at st. mary's university

  • World History

    World History

    Menu
    • World History
    • Pre-Classical History (to 600 BCE)
    • Classical History (600 BCE-600 CE)
    • Post-Classical History (600 CE-1492 CE)
    • Early Modern History (1492-1789)
    • Modern History (1789-1914)
    • Global History (1900-present)

    From the Ancient World

    The Battle of Zama: Rome's Vengeance

    Posted by Davis Nickle12/01/2020

    From the Modern World

    The Holy See Takes On The Fight Against Climate Change

    Posted by Victor Rodriguez11/30/2020

    Regional Histories

    Menu
    • African and African American Studies
    • Latin American Studies
  • US History

    Early America

    Menu
    • US-Three Worlds Meet (to 1620)
    • US-Colonization and Settlement (1585-1763)
    • US-Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1820s)
    • US-Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
    • US-Civil War & Reconstruction (1850-1877)

    La pérdida del español en el sistema educativo de los Estados Unidos.

    Posted by Sami Bouls11/25/2020

    Henry Lee Lucas: The Tellings of a Serial Confessor

    Posted by Mia Hernandez03/02/2020

    RuPaul's Influence On Drag: You Better Work!

    Posted by Nadia Carrasco04/07/2019

    Infamous story of the Beach Boys and Murderous Manic: Charles Manson

    Posted by Mauro Bustamante11/26/2019

    Untold Stories of Mexican-American Lynchings

    Posted by Paul Garza12/09/2019

    Metallica: The Tragedy Overseas

    Posted by Isaiah Torres05/08/2019

    Olvidar un Idioma: ¿Es posible?

    Posted by Edith Santos Sevilla11/22/2020

    The Central Park Five: How the Truth Set Them Free

    Posted by Nicole Ortiz11/08/2019

    Chadwick Boseman: A King On And Off The Throne

    Posted by Donte Joseph11/07/2020

    The 1917 Bath Riots: An Untold Story Of The Border

    Posted by Sofia Almanzan02/28/2020

    The One Device: Story of the First iPhone

    Posted by Bruno Lezama12/08/2019

    The Exorcism of Roland Doe

    Posted by Mitchell Yocham12/05/2019

    ¡Si, Se Puede! – Collective Organizing, Unions, and Non Violent Protests

    Posted by Eric Grant11/19/2020

    The Opiate Epidemic: The FDA's Struggle to Control Opiate Abuse

    Posted by Abigale Carney11/15/2019

    Adrian Vidal: A Tejano Caught Between Two Wars

    Posted by Paul Garza10/22/2019

    Segregation and Activism: Then and Now on the Eastside

    Posted by Shine Trabucco06/10/2019

    The Horse That Changed History: Secretariat’s Record-Breaking Triple Crown Victory

    Posted by Mason Kheiv04/02/2019

    “Find a miracle, hold onto it, and keep going.” The Story of Elizabeth Smart

    Posted by Mia Hernandez11/07/2020

    Deco Districts and Community Identity: Historic Designation and Preservation of Art Deco Architecture

    Posted by Edgar Velazquez Reynald05/31/2019

    Why We Should Defend Human Gene Editing

    Posted by Emily Velazquez04/07/2019

    The Lack of Latinx Access to Proper Mental Care in a Metropolitan County

    Posted by Ángel Velarde11/05/2020

    Dorothy Kamenshek: Playing ball during WW2

    Posted by Reba Reyes11/18/2020

    The Aaron Hernandez Story: Football is More Than Just a Game

    Posted by Luis Arroyos11/13/2019

    Big Nosed Kate - An Outlaw's Nightmare?

    Posted by Cameron Lopez04/04/2019

    How the Soviet Union Compelled the United States to Build the World's Fastest Jet: The Lockheed A-12 OXCART

    Posted by Nathaniel Bielawski05/07/2020

    Plague! Plague! Plague!

    Posted by Jacqueline Mendez12/10/2019

    The Genesis Block of Bitcoin

    Posted by Pablo Ruiz12/08/2019

    ¿Es más difícil para un inmigrante adulto aprender inglés?

    Posted by Maria Obregón11/11/2020

    The Lone Star State: The Reality of Gun Legislation In Texas

    Posted by Sofia Almanzan03/30/2020

    The Artistic Duo: The Inspiring Story of Jean Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol

    Posted by Nelly Perez10/22/2019

    Contemporary America

    Menu
    • US-Industrial United States (1870-1900)
    • US-Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930)
    • US-Great Depression & WWII (1929-1945)
    • US-Postwar United States (1945-early 1970s)
    • US-Contemporary United States (1968-present)
  • Themes

    SPICE Categories

    Specialty Categories

    Special Themes

    Menu
    • Social History
    • Political History
    • Environmental History
    • Cultural History
    • Economic History
    Menu
    • Art History
    • Business
    • Crime
    • Gender Studies
    • Human Rights
    • Public Health and Medicine
    • International Relations
    • Linguistics
    Menu
    • Military History
    • Music
    • People
    • Psychology
    • Religion
    • Science & Technology
    • Sports
    Menu
    • Catholic Heritage
    • The Year 1968
    • COVID-19
    • Social Justice
    • Spanish Language
  • Showcase

    Showcase Editions

    • Vol 1 – 2016
      • Vol 1 No 1 Aug-Sep 2016
      • Vol 1 No 2 Oct-Nov 2016
    • Vol 2 – 2017
      • Vol 2 No 1 Jan-Feb 2017
      • Vol 2 No 2 Mar-Apr 2017
      • Vol 2 No 3 Aug-Sep 2017
      • Vol 2 No 4 Oct-Nov 2017
    • Vol 3 – 2018
      • Vol 3 No 1 Jan-Feb 2018
      • Vol 3 No 2 Mar-Apr 2018
      • Vol 3 No 3 Aug-Sep 2018
      • Vol 3 No 4 Oct-Nov 2018
    • Vol 4 – 2019
      • Vol 4 No 1 Jan-Feb 2019
      • Vol 4 No 2 Mar-Apr 2019
      • Vol 4 No 3 Aug-Sep 2019
      • Vol 4 No 4 Oct-Nov 2019
    • Vol 5 – 2020
      • Vol 5 No 1 Jan-Feb 2020
      • Vol 5 No 2 Mar-Apr 2020
      • Vol 5 No 3 Aug-Sep 2020
    Menu
    • Vol 1 – 2016
      • Vol 1 No 1 Aug-Sep 2016
      • Vol 1 No 2 Oct-Nov 2016
    • Vol 2 – 2017
      • Vol 2 No 1 Jan-Feb 2017
      • Vol 2 No 2 Mar-Apr 2017
      • Vol 2 No 3 Aug-Sep 2017
      • Vol 2 No 4 Oct-Nov 2017
    • Vol 3 – 2018
      • Vol 3 No 1 Jan-Feb 2018
      • Vol 3 No 2 Mar-Apr 2018
      • Vol 3 No 3 Aug-Sep 2018
      • Vol 3 No 4 Oct-Nov 2018
    • Vol 4 – 2019
      • Vol 4 No 1 Jan-Feb 2019
      • Vol 4 No 2 Mar-Apr 2019
      • Vol 4 No 3 Aug-Sep 2019
      • Vol 4 No 4 Oct-Nov 2019
    • Vol 5 – 2020
      • Vol 5 No 1 Jan-Feb 2020
      • Vol 5 No 2 Mar-Apr 2020
      • Vol 5 No 3 Aug-Sep 2020
  • About

    Course Readings

    Article Indexes

    About Us

    Menu
    • Course Readings – SC 3300 – Nash
    • Course Readings – SMC 1301 – Wieck
    • Course Readings – PO 4334 – Dr Celine
    • Course Readings _ PO 3365 – Dr Celine
    Menu
    • Course Readings – HS 2321 – Whitener
    • Course Readings – HS 2322 – Whitener
    • Course Readings – SMC 1301 – Whitener
    Menu
    • Our Article/Author Index
    • Award Winning Articles
    Menu
    • Our StMU History Media Project
    • Our Faculty Consultants
    • Our Writers
    • Contact Us
  • Crime, Descriptive Article, Political History, Psychology, United States History, US-Contemporary United States (1968-present)
  • October 25, 2020

From Curiosity to an Obsession: The Sinister Evolution of the Milwaukee Cannibal

Normal Brain vs. Psychopath’s Brain | Courtesy of Dorine Walter
Normal Brain vs. Psychopath’s Brain | Courtesy of Dorine Walter
Justine Ruiz

Justine Ruiz

“To this day, I don’t know what started the killings. The person to blame is sitting right across from you. It’s the only person. Not parents, not society, not pornography. I mean, those are just excuses.”1 Jeffrey Dahmer was a serial killer known for cannibalism and the dismemberment of his victims. He specifically targeted men. However, all the men were of various ages and races. There are many psychological factors that led to the lifestyle of this “Milwaukee Cannibal.”2 

Jeffrey Dahmer at age 17 | Courtesy of Wikipedia

On May 21, 1960 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin the infamous Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was born. From a very young age, he held a fascination with dead animals.3 His father, Lionel, was a research chemist who practiced bone bleaching on the remains of animals that Jeffrey and he found underneath their home. Jeffrey was “oddly thrilled” by the sound the bones would make. Dahmer was curious as to what would happen if chicken bones were placed in bleach. Lionel was very pleased by Jeffrey’s curiosity, so he demonstrated how to safely bleach and preserve animal remains. As a father-son activity, they would both bleach the connective tissue and hair off animal corpses. Jeffrey was showing signs of observational learning—observing and modeling another individual’s behavior, attitudes, or emotional expressions—because he wanted to do what his father did. He began collecting butterflies and dragonflies. Then, he went on to collecting the carcasses of animals that he found along road sides. Jeffrey would dismember these animals and store their parts in a jar located in the family’s toolshed. He was curious as to how animals fitted together.4 Jeffrey decapitated the carcass of a dog while nailing its body to a tree and impaling its skull on a stake with a wooden cross. With that being said, many would think that Dahmer had some sort of psychological disorder, and they would be correct.5

Typically, when undergoing the process of puberty, boys transitioning into young men tend to go out of their comfort zone and become more socially engaged with their peers and community. This was not the case for the notorious Milwaukee Cannibal. Dahmer was unfortunately part of the small percentage of people who suffered from psychopathy, scientifically known as antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). Those diagnosed with ASPD tend to lie, break the law, act impulsively, and lack regard for their own safety or the safety of others. There is a chromosome abnormality that is primarily discovered in men. It fosters a strong inclination to kill during puberty. Psychopaths never fully develop the sense of attachment or belonging to the world. This leads psychopaths to kill without being able to understand or share the feelings of another human being.6 “I don’t even know if I have the capacity for normal emotions or not because I haven’t cried for a long time. You just stifle them for so long that maybe you lose them, partially at least. I don’t know.”7 There are two areas of a psychopath’s brain that are both less responsive as well as smaller than the normal, every day human being’s brains. These two areas of the brain are called the orbitofrontal cortex and the amygdala. When there is low activity in the orbitofrontal cortex, there are fewer usual or typical behaviors, some of which would involve consuming alcohol, an increase in engagement with sexual intercourse or activities, and heightened state of aggression. The amygdala is primarily involved with the emotions of fear and deep regret.8 “Yes, I do have remorse, but I’m not even sure whether it is as profound as it should be. I’ve always wondered why I don’t feel more remorse.”9

Orbitofrontal-Cortex | Courtesy of Voxpol

As children, serial killers are known to have had encounters with some forms of abuse. In Dahmer’s case, the form of his abuse was molestation, which was executed by a neighborhood boy.10 However, Jeffrey consistently denied that this horrific encounter ever occurred. There is a high probability that the reason why young Jeffrey would consistently deny these allegations was due to embarrassment or stored up trauma. This may have sparked the Milwaukee Cannibal’s reasoning for targeting homosexual males. A serial killer typically has some form of motivation for murdering.11 A few of these motivations may include thrill seeking, money, a sense of power or domination, and the desire to rid the world of evil.12

Dahmer had started daydreaming about controlling and subjugating a conforming male partner. “It’s a process, it doesn’t happen overnight when you depersonalize another person and view them as just an object. An object for pleasure and not a living breathing human being. It seems to make it easier to do things you shouldn’t do,” Jeffrey stated.13 He had become completely overwhelmed with strong sexual desires for a neighborhood male jogger. Jeffrey would hide himself alongside the route of the male jogger in hope of making his first kill. Unfortunately for the Milwaukee Cannibal, the male jogger did not run on his normal route, forcing Dahmer to move on.14

It was not until a handful of weeks after his graduation in 1978, that Dahmer resurfaced and committed his first murder. Dahmer’s first victim, a hitchhiker, was an eighteen-year-old young male named Steven Mark Hicks. Jeffrey enticed Hicks through his clever charm, giving Hicks the impression that the two of them would share a few alcoholic beverages together. After much drinking at Dahmer’s house, Hicks felt the urge to go home before becoming unaware of the actions that were soon to occur. However, Dahmer was opposed to Hicks going home. In response to that thought, Jeffrey violently and aggressively knocked Hicks over the head twice with a ten-pound dumbbell. Once Hicks fell unconscious, the Milwaukee Cannibal strangled him to death and stripped him of his clothing. He then began to masturbate to the cold corpse on the floor as he wickedly stood right above it. The following day, Dahmer dragged the chilling corpse down to his basement, where he dismembered the body. He pared the flesh from the bones, dissolved the flesh in acid and proceeded to flush it down the toilet. Lastly, before scattering the bones in the woods behind his house, he took a sledgehammer and crushed them into small shards.15

Dahmer’s Victims | Courtesy of ihwink

Following the murder of his first victim, Steven Mark Hicks, Dahmer continued on to become a serial killer with a strong manipulating skill. “I made my fantasy life more powerful than my real one.”16 After discovering several Polaroid photos—there were a total of 74—of Dahmer’s victims taken over the years, he was arrested on July 22, 1991. Thereafter, a more thorough search was conducted by the police. They confiscated several body parts of various deceased male human beings, some of which included severed heads, skulls, human hearts, arm muscle, torsos, organs and flesh, skeletons, hands, genitals, and mummified scalp.17 During an interview with Inside Edition, Dahmer stated, “I probably would still be committing these crimes if this hadn’t happened, there’s no doubt I probably would be, I can’t think of anything that would have stopped me.”18

  1. Inside Edition, “Inside the Mind of Jeffrey Dahmer: Serial Killer’s Chilling Jailhouse Interview,” YouTube video, November 27, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWjYsxaBjBI. ↵
  2. Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia, 2019, s.v. “Jeffrey Dahmer,” by Jenephyr James. ↵
  3. Lorna Benson, “Animal Cruelty may be Sign of Deeper Human Problems,” MPRnews (website), July 6,2006, https://www.mprnews.org/story/2006/07/06/animalkillers. ↵
  4. The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, 128-130. Vol. 4: 1994-1996, 2001, s.v. “Dahmer, Jeffrey Lionel.” ↵
  5. Nathan Carlin, “Confessions and Forgiveness: A Pastoral Reading of a Father’s Son by Lionel Dahmer,” Pastoral Psychology, vol. 60. no. 3 (2011): 382. ↵
  6. Allen A. Bartolomew, “Psychopathy, Sex, Chromosome Abnormality, and the Criminal Law,” Adelaide Law Review (1972): 275-276. https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AdelLawRw/1972/2.pdf. ↵
  7. Tom Philbin, I, Monster: Serial Killers in Their Own Chilling Words (Prometheus Books, 2011): 36. ↵
  8. Luiz Pessoa, The Cognitive-Emotional Brain: From Interactions to Integration (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2013): 10-11. ↵
  9. Inside Edition, “Inside the Mind of Jeffrey Dahmer: Serial Killer’s Chilling Jailhouse Interview,” YouTube video, November 27, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWjYsxaBjBI. ↵
  10. Richard Tithecott, Of Men and Monsters: Jeffrey Dahmer and the Construction of the Serial Killer (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1997), 80-81. ↵
  11. St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, 499-502. Vol. 4. second ed., 2013, s.v. “Serial Killers,” by Phillip L. Simpson. ↵
  12. Dara C. Drawbridge, “Serial Killers: The Psychosocial Development of Humanity’s Worst Offenders,” Homicide Studies, vol. 20. no. 4 (2016): 339-341. ↵
  13. Inside Edition, “Inside the Mind of Jeffrey Dahmer: Serial Killer’s Chilling Jailhouse Interview,” YouTube video, November 27, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWjYsxaBjBI. ↵
  14. Inside Edition, “Inside the Mind of Jeffrey Dahmer: Serial Killer’s Chilling Jailhouse Interview,” YouTube video, November 27, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWjYsxaBjBI. ↵
  15. Catherine Purcell and Bruce A. Arrigo, The Psychology of Lust Murder: Paraphilia, Sexual Killing, and Serial Homicide (Amsterdam: Academic Press, 2006), 76-77. ↵
  16. Inside Edition, “Inside the Mind of Jeffrey Dahmer: Serial Killer’s Chilling Jailhouse Interview,” YouTube video, November 27, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWjYsxaBjBI. ↵
  17. Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer,” https://vault.fbi.gov/jeffrey-lionel-dahmer/jeffrey-lionel-dahmer-part-01-of-19/view (accessed September 17, 2020). ↵
  18. Inside Edition, “Inside the Mind of Jeffrey Dahmer: Serial Killer’s Chilling Jailhouse Interview,” YouTube video, November 27, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWjYsxaBjBI. ↵

Tags from the story

  • Jeffrey Dahmer, Serial Killers

Share this post

Share on facebook
Share on google
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on pinterest
Share on print
Share on email
Justine Ruiz

Justine Ruiz

I am a Criminology major at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. My passion is to help others be the best versions of themselves that they can be. I love to meet new people, help my community, and constantly remain positive! I enjoy spending my free time with those I gladly call my family and friends.
Author Portfolio Page

This Post Has 42 Comments

  1. Avatar
    Eva Lizarraga 23 Feb 2021 Reply

    These kinds of stories are often more disturbing than spooky or scary stories—getting inside the mind of a psychopath and knowing that we could encounter someone like that at any point in our lives is terrifying! It’s interesting how both our nature, like our biological brains, and nurture, like childhood experiences, have an effect on the way we think, behave, and act for the rest of our lives.

  2. Avatar
    Adam Alviar 20 Feb 2021 Reply

    I like the approach you took of displaying the acts of crime of the killer, while also showing his side and listing the causes that could have caused these tragedies. Although it is both scary and gruesome to think of how long he got away both the murders of these innocent people, while eating their bodies. It’s interesting to see how the brain scan can reveal both a normal brain, or those with ASPD brains. Although I wish he got help when he was a kid to have helped prevent all of these tragedies performed by him.

Comments navigation

Previous commentPrevious

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

StMU History Media

A Student Organization of St. Mary's University of San Antonio Texas

Sponsors

  • College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, St. Mary's University
  • Department of History, St. Mary's University
  • Department of Political Science, St. Mary's University
  • Center for Catholic Studies, St. Mary's University

Support Services

  • The Learning Assistance Center, St. Mary's University
  • Louis J. Blume Library Services, St. Mary's University
  • STRIVE Career Center, St. Mary's University
  • Academic Technology Services, St. Mary's University

About

  • About Us
  • Our Authors
  • Our Archive
  • Contacts

© All rights reserved

Twitter
Facebook
Pinterest