Jeffrey Dahmer's Dad Implied That A Childhood Surgery Triggered His Violent Acts
When thinking about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, it’s hard not to look for a reason to explain his evil behavior.
It seems too frightening that a person could be capable of murder, never mind the cannibalism and necrophilia charges Dahmer was convicted of in the 1990s.
With the new Netflix limited series Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story on screens, it is reviving all sorts of theories for Dahmer’s behavior. But perhaps none stranger than Dahmer’s own father’s theory that Dahmer's double hernia surgery at the age of four forever changed him.
Who is Jeffrey Dahmer?
If you are unfamiliar with the story, American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer lured young men back to his various homes and even a hotel room before murdering and dismembering them.
Jeffrey would often engage in sexual acts with his victims’ bodies before the dismemberment began, according to Biography.com, and he would keep souvenirs from his crimes—skulls, genitalia, and more—in his home.
In total, Jeffrey Dahmer killed 17 victims—usually young, gay men—between 1978 and 1991 by luring them to his home and then drugging them. He also is believed to have eaten the body parts of some of his victims.
Why did Jeffrey Dahmer have hernia surgery?
When Jeffrey was four, he had a double hernia operation that his father Lionel detailed on Good Morning America in the 1990's. Jeffrey had several ear and throat infections that led doctors to diagnose the double hernia in his scrotum, according to Entertainment Daily.
“I think there were several events in his life starting with the hernia operation,” his father said, adding that his son was apparently concerned about having his penis cut off during the procedure. He was also hit in the back of the head as a kid, his father said.
“The operation may have been necessary to cure a birth defect, but the experience was so painful for the child that he ‘asked Joyce [his mother] if the doctors had cut off his penis,’” the authors of the book Mythologies of Violence in Postmodern Media wrote.
Jeffrey's father claims that the hernia surgery changed him.
Lionel Dahmer reports a flattening in Jeffrey’s moods after the procedure.
“All these things came to a cumulative ending, and it hooked on, I firmly believe it hooked into his sexuality at age 14 or 15," he said. "There really were no overt signs. He wasn't foaming at the mouth or talking to himself in his sleep, or acting in a weird fashion.
Did this show up in any of Jeffrey’s crimes?
The authors of the book point to one souvenir, a penis found in a file drawer, as evidence of the trauma of the hernia surgery.
“This was clearly a dramatic twist in the serial killer’s earliest memories, given a particular prop found 25 years later at the crime scene.”
Is there any science to back up this theory?
There is absolutely no evidence to imply that a double hernia surgery would lead to the kind of disgusting crimes Dahmer was convicted of committing. But it is a bizarre theory!
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