Jeffrey Dahmer, known as the “Milwaukee Cannibal,” was arrested in the summer of 1991 and went on trial in early 1992. Investigators concluded that he had killed 17 people, while the court convicted him of 15 murders in Wisconsin; he later received one more life sentence in Ohio.
Dahmer was born on May 21, 1960, in Milwaukee. After his arrest, former classmate Derf Backderf recalled that he had been withdrawn since childhood and collected dead animals from roadsides. His family was marked by constant conflict, and after his parents divorced in 1978, Dahmer, according to the investigation, committed his first murder: on June 18, 1978, he killed Steven Hicks and then dismembered the body.
After a short time at Ohio State University, Dahmer joined the army and served as a medic at a NATO base in West Germany. He was discharged for alcoholism in 1981. Back in the United States, he lived with his grandmother, worked at a chocolate factory, and in 1986 was arrested for indecent behavior in front of two boys.
A new series of killings began on September 15, 1987, when Steven Tuomi died. Dahmer later rented his own place and then apartment 213 on North 24th Street in Milwaukee, where over the next year he killed 11 more people. He kept body parts, used acid to dispose of remains, and neighbors complained of smells and screams, but police did not carry out a search.
The case broke open on July 22, 1991, when Tracy Edwards managed to escape and alert officers. In the apartment, police found photographs of dismembered bodies and human remains. At trial, defense lawyer Gerald Boyle argued that Dahmer was legally insane, but failed.
“I ask that no leniency be shown to me,” Dahmer wrote to the judge before sentencing.
The court imposed 15 life terms, and Ohio added one more. On November 28, 1994, Dahmer was killed in prison by inmate Christopher Scarver. The building that housed apartment 213 was later demolished, and items confiscated from Dahmer were bought at auction at the request of Milwaukee residents and destroyed.