A Complete Timeline of Jeffrey Dahmer's Victims Over the Years
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Warning: the following story contains extremely graphic depictions of the heinous and violent crimes committed by Jeffrey Dahmer, who is the subject of Netflix's series Dahmer—Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.
Ten hour-long episodes of Netflix's true crime drama Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story isn't nearly enough to truly capture all of the heinous murders and countless tears caused by serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (played in the series by Emmy-winning actor Evan Peters). Only a handful of Dahmer's 17 victims between 1978-1991 were highlighted in the series, and fewer than that were given three-dimensional depictions of the lives they lived and the people they were. The factual inaccuracies and disapproval from the victims' families make it pertinent that the world knows what actually happened to these unfortunate casualties of Dahmer's sadistic obsession with murder.
Starring Peters, the series was co-created by spectacle purveyors and Glee co-creators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, and traces Dahmer's life from childhood to prison death. Before the Netflix series, Dahmer had become a cultural avatar for sadism adopted colloquially (and distastefully) in songs by the likes of Katy Perry, Kesha, and Eminem. Since the series' release, fascination with Dahmer has only intensified, with rapper Rick Ross stupidly searching for a pair of "Dahmer shades" that no outfit ever needs. TikTok has been flooded with questionable memes centered around everything from Dahmer's attractiveness to the hypocrisy of people disliking Dahmer even after enjoying music that mentioned him in the past.
Dahmer's popularity is inextricable of the 17 lives he took from this world. So, whether you're planning to dress up as Dahmer for Halloween (please don't) or are boycotting Netflix's recent trauma porn series, those victims are invariably attached to your decision. Through archived 1991 articles from places like The Washington Post and The Seattle Times, along with FBI case files, we've created a detailed timeline of the 17 men Dahmer heinously murdered and the humans they were when they fatally encountered him.
What Was Dahmer Charged With?
Dahmer's streak of murders ended on July 22, 1991, when Tracy Edwards escaped his apartment and informed Milwaukee Police officers of the murderous acts Dahmer tried to subject him to hours earlier. He was charged with 15 counts of first-degree murder. After a two-week trial, Dahmer was sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences—a sentence of which he only served two years before being murdered in prison in 1994.
Who Were Jeffrey Dahmer's Victims?
Steven Hicks, 18 [June 18, 1978]
Dahmer's first victim came shortly after his high school graduation when he lured 18-year-old hitchhiker Steven Hicks into his family's home with the duplicitous promise of driving him to a concert. In Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, the pair work out before Dahmer bludgeons Hicks' head with a weight after Hicks rebuffs his kiss and hurls sexual epithets at him. In real life, it was much worse.
While the series only shows him sadistically kissing Hicks' corpse, the FBI's unsealed report on Dahmer says he told investigators he had sex with the dead body, fulfilling a fantasy that he'd held since he was 16. After chopping up Hicks' body, Dahmer buried them in a small grave before digging them back up to dissolve the skin in acid, crush the bones to dust, and scatter the remains in the woods.
Steven Toumi, 24 [November 20, 1987]
Dahmer says his second victim came nearly ten years after he killed Hicks because he was spooked by the police officers who stopped him on the road while traveling to dispose of Hicks' body. After taking Toumi from a Milwaukee bar to a room at the Ambassador Hotel, Dahmer says he awoke the following day to Toumi's lifeless body. Just like with Hicks, Dahmer claimed Toumi's death was unplanned.
Monster shows Dahmer trying to revive Toumi's dead body before stuffing it in a suitcase and heading to his grandmother's house where he was living. It doesn't show that Dahmer told investigators that he had an innocent taxi driver help him with the suitcase. When the pungent stench from the suitcase inspired the taxi driver to ask Dahmer what was in it, Dahmer remained silent and had him drive him to his grandmother's house, where he dismembered and dissected Toumi's body. Dahmer's recollection and the Netflix drama involve him keeping Toumi's severed head as a repugnant souvenir.
James Doxtator, 14 [January 18, 1987]
One of Dahmer's youngest victims was James Doxtator, a 14-year-old who ran away from home to escape an abusive stepfather, according to his mother Debbie Vega's 1991 account told to Tampa Bay Times. Dahmer told detectives he came across Doxtator at a bus stop outside of former nightclub 219 Club. He offered the young man cash to coax him into coming to his grandmother's home, where he drugged Doxtator with sleeping pills before having sex with his unconscious body and killing him.
Richard Guerrero, 25 [March 24, 1988]
Guerro fell victim to Dahmer's wicked ways after the serial killer offered him $50 to spend the night with him at his grandmother's home. Dahmer subdued Guerrero with sleeping pills as he did with other victims and proceeded to strangle and dismember the young Mexican man. Dahmer disposed of his remains and was only tied to his death after he identified him through a family photograph. In Monster, Guerrero is not mentioned by name but is featured in a montage of men Dahmer victimized at his grandmother's home as he explained his disturbingly methodical routine of taking their lives.
Anthony Sears, 26 [March 25, 1989]
Sears was an aspiring model who had his life cut short after crossing paths with Dahmer, who kept his genitalia and skull in his apartment after killing him. Dahmer was only able to kill Sears because Judge William Gardner decided to give Dahmer work release as part of his one-year jail sentence for second-degree sexual assault on 13-year-old Somsack Sinthasomphone two months prior.
Raymond Smith (aka Ricky Beeks) [May 20, 1990]
Smith was the first victim Dahmer killed in his apartment at 924 North 25th Street in Milwaukee. Smith was a sex worker whose services Dahmer procured with the promise of $50. After killing him through strangulation, Dahmer took sexually suggestive photos of Smith's corpse. He also boiled Smith's dismembered remains before dissolving them in acid, except for his skull, which he kept in a cabinet.
Eddie Smith, 28 [June 1990]
Smith's remains were never found, but Dahmer confessed to the murder after being questioned by authorities. In a sick twist recreated in Monster, Eddie's sister Carolyn Smith recalls receiving a call in April 1991 from someone who told her, "don't bother looking for your brother; he's dead."
Ernest Miller, 22 [September 1990]
Miller visited his aunt in Milwaukee over the Labor Day weekend in 1990 when he encountered Dahmer outside a bookstore. Dahmer seduced Miller back to his apartment by offering him money, and the pair had sex before Dahmer drugged the unsuspecting college student and sliced his throat. Dahmer kept Miller's biceps in the freezer for twisted reasons, painted his skull, and bleached his skeleton. Similar to Eddie Smith's sister, Corrine Miller, Ernest's grandmother, recalls receiving a phone call two weeks after their family reported Ernest missing from a strange groaning voice faintly saying, "Help, help, help.'"
David C. Thomas, 23 [September 24, 1990]
Thomas was a joyous father of a two-year-old girl when Dahmer murdered him after leading him back to his apartment following a chance meeting at The Grand Avenue Mall.
Curtis Straughter, 17 [February 18, 1991]
Dahmer confessed to seeing Straughter waiting for the bus near Marquette University and offering the young man money in exchange for taking naked photos. Dahmer took pictures of each step of Straughter's dismemberment after killing him, before keeping his skull.
Errol Lindsey, 19 [April 7, 1991]
Lindsey's death is when Dahmer's already torturous compulsion grew darker. Errol's brother Michael Lindsey told the Associated Press in July 1991 that his brother could have possibly run across Dahmer on his way to the key shop he was heading to around the time of his disappearance. After encountering the teenager, Dahmer drugged him and then poured hydrochloric acid into a hole in his head he drilled to put him into a zombie-like state. Improbably, Lindsey awoke before Dahmer strangled and dismembered him while keeping his skull.
Anthony "Tony" Hughes, 31 [May 24, 1991]
Of the deaths highlighted in Monster, the murder of deaf and mute man Anthony "Tony" Hughes was arguably the most heartbreaking. In the show, Dahmer encounters Hughes dancing at a gay club and attempts to persuade him to come to his home, but Hughes initially declines to make Dahmer put in more effort for his affection. The pair form a romantic relationship involving Dahmer learning sign language to communicate better with him and the two seemingly having consensual sex on the day of Hughes's death. Dahmer even resists the urge to drug Hughes in favor of a natural connection.
No reports from the time of Dahmer's arrest indicate the pair had any relationship. Instead, it's been reported Hughes was convinced to go to Dahmer's home after a night out at the club by the prospect of being paid to pose for photographs. Dahmer left his body on his floor for three days before dismembering it and photographing it. FBI records state Hughes's vertebrae and skull were recovered from Dahmer's apartment.
Konerak Sinthasomphone, 14 [May 27, 1991]
We're introduced to Konerak Sinthasomphone early in Monster as the brother of Somsack, one of Dahmer's victims who escaped. In the show, Konerak acknowledges he knows what Dahmer did to his brother but still goes to Dahmer's apartment in a desperate attempt to bring money back to his family by posing for Dahmer's photos. As he did with Hughes days earlier, Dahmer attempted to lobotomize Konerak by drilling a hole in his skull while Konerak's body lay lifeless on the ground of his bedroom. He was able to flee Dahmer's captivity, only to be returned to his apartment after Dahmer convinced police officers that Konerak was his lover having a drunken episode.
The reported facts of Konerak's death don't differ much from Netflix's dramatization outside of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporting in 1991 that a source close to the investigation claims Dahmer was shocked to learn Konerak was related to Somsack. However, Dahmer was a pathological liar, which could be another one of the threads of the deceptive web he weaved to entrap his victims and evade detection. The show doesn't depict Dahmer dismembering Konerak and keeping his skull but does end with the ominous whirring of a power drill that leaves little to the imagination.
Matt Turner, 20 [June 30, 1991]
Turner met Dahmer at a bus stop following the Chicago Pride Parade, where Dahmer convinced the man to travel to Milwaukee to pose for photos. Once at his apartment, Dahmer proceeded to drug, strangle and dismember the young man who ran away from home to a Chicago halfway house a year before his death. Dahmer kept his head in the freezer and his torso in an acid-filled 57-gallon drum.
Jeremiah Weinberger, 23 [July 5, 1991]
Dahmer also placed Weinberger's torso in the 57-gallon drum and his head in the freezer after drilling a hole in his skull and pouring hot water in it. Weinberger's fatal encounter with Dahmer occurred in Chicago, where people saw Weinberger leave the gay bar Carol's Speakeasy with an unidentified man believed to be Dahmer. The killer told authorities the pair took a Greyhound bus from Chicago to Milwaukee to spend the weekend together at Dahmer's apartment, where they had oral sex on the first night. After Weinberger wanted to leave on the second day, Dahmer killed him.
Oliver Lacy, 23 [July 15, 1991]
Lacy was an engaged father of a two-year-old boy when Dahmer brought the man back to his apartment with the proposition of being paid to take photographs. After Lacy was drugged and strangled, Dahmer had anal sex with the man's lifeless body before keeping the heart in his freezer to eat later, shown in Monster. Dahmer also kept Lacy's head in his freezer. FBI documents show Lacy was identified by severed hands the Milwaukee Police Department retrieved from Dahmer's apartment. Dahmer also gave police officers the identification from Lacy he kept.
Joseph Bradehoft, 25 [July 19, 1991]
Dahmer's 17th and final victim was 25-year-old Joseph Bradehoft, a father of three who had the unfortunate luck of waiting for the same bus Dahmer got off of before the deranged killer invited him back to his apartment. As a result, the last time Bradehoft was seen alive was on his way to a job interview on July 16, 1991. After engaging in oral sex with him, Dahmer drugged Bradehoft and strangled him with a strap before placing his torso in the drum and head in the freezer, as had been his pattern of disposal until his eventual arrest three days later.
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