"THE MILWAUKEE CANNIBAL: DAHMER'S TRIAL, PRISON DEATH & LEGACY - PART 2"

0:03 Caalarogus Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Reed Carter, Sunday, October twenty sixth, twenty twenty five. Yesterday we covered Jeffrey Dahmer's thirteen year killing spree, seventeen victims, a criminal justice system that failed at every level, Tracy Edwards escape that finally ended the murders. Today what happened after the arrest July twenty second, nineteen ninety one, Jeffrey Dahmer was taken into custody at Milwaukee Police Headquarters. Began confessing immediately, matter of fact, no emotion, describing murders like he was discussing construction projects.

0:46 I killed thirty or thirty three, I don't remember exactly. Over the next two weeks, detectives Patrick Kennedy and Dennis Murphy interviewed Dahmer for more than sixty hours compiled a one hundred and seventy eight page confession. Dahmer waived his right to an attorney, said he wanted to confess everything. I created this horror, and it only makes sense I do everything to put an end to it. He described his methods in detail, the drugs he used, how he strangled victims, the dismemberment process, the cannibalism, which body parts he kept, and why where he disposed of remains, all described clinically without remorse. Investigators confirmed seventeen victims, Stephen Hicks in Ohio nineteen seventy eight, sixteen more in Wisconsin between nineteen eighty seven and nineteen ninety one. Dahmer couldn't remember exact numbers, said there might have been more. The victims blurred together in his memory. January thirteenth, nineteen ninety two, Dahmer appeared in Milwaukee County Circuit Court before Judge Lawrence Graham, charged with fifteen counts of first degree murder. Wisconsin couldn't charge him with Stephen Twomey's death no physical evidence. Dahmer claimed he didn't remember committing it. Dahmer changed his plea from not guilty to guilty but insane. That plea changed everything.

2:10 No criminal trial to determine guilt. Guilt was admitted. The only question was Jeffrey Dahmer legally sane when he committed these murders. January thirtieth, nineteen ninety two, the trial began not about whether Dahmer killed seventeen people, about whether he understood his actions were wrong, about whether he could control his impulses. About whether necrophilia, cannibalism, and creating zombies by drilling holes in skulls was insanity or evil. The jury would decide. Ten out of twelve jurors needed to agree. If they found him insane, Dahmer would go to a mental institution for treatment. If sane, prison for life. Wisconsin had no death penalty. February fifteenth, nineteen ninety two, after ten hours of deliberation, the jury returned with a verdict Jeffrey Dahmer was sane legally responsible for his actions, guilty of fifteen counts of murder. Judge Graham's scheduled sentencing for February seventeenth, fifteen consecutive life terms nine hundred and fifty seven years. Jeffrey Dahmer would die in prison, but he wouldn't serve even three years. November twenty eighth, nineteen ninety four, Dahmer was working a cleaning detail in the Columbia Correctional Institution Gymnasium. Left alone with two other inmates, Christopher Scarver and Jesse Anderson, twenty minutes unsupervised, Scarver picked up a

3:40 twenty inch metal bar from the weight room, cornered Dahmer in the staff locker room, crushed his skull, beat him until his head was unrecognizable, then killed Anderson two. When a guard asked Scarver why he was back in his cell early, he said, God told me to do it. You will hear about it on the six o'clock news. Jesse Anderson and Jeffrey Dahmer are dead. Jeffrey Dahmer died at the hospital an hour later. He was thirty four years old. I'm reed, Carter. This is celebrity trials today. The trial of Jeffrey Dahmer, The insanity defense that failed, Prison Christopher Scarver, and the Legacy of the Milwaukee Cannibal, Part two of two, January thirtieth, nineteen ninety two. Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Lawrence Graham, Presiding District Attorney Michael McCann and Assistant District Attorney E. Michael McCann. Prosecuting defense attorneys Gerald Boyle and Wendy patrickis representing Dahmer. The courtroom was packed families of victims, media from around the world, true crime observers. Everyone wanted to see the man who had shocked America with the most grotesque killing spree in modern history. And there sat Jeffrey Dahmer, thirty one years old, glasses, short brown hair, wearing a tan suit, expressionless, calm. He looked like an accountant, a librarian, a neighbor you'd wave

5:12 to while mowing your lawn, not a serial killer who murdered seventeen people and ate their flesh. The trial lasted two weeks, battle of the psychiatrists, defense experts versus prosecution experts, all trying to answer one question. Was Jeffrey Dahmer insane? Wisconsin law defined insanity narrowly. Did Dahmer lack substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct? Could he conform his behavior to the requirements of law? Not whether he was mentally ill? Everyone agreed he was mentally ill. But was he so mentally ill he didn't know right from wrong? The defense argued, yes, Dahmer suffered from necrophilia, sexual attraction to corpses. This wasn't a choice, This was a compulsion he couldn't control, a paraphilia so overwhelming it drove him to murder. Defense psychiatrist doctor Fred Berlin testified that Dahmer was unable to conform his conduct at the time he committed the crimes, that his necrophilia was a mental disease that overpowered his ability to make rational decisions. That he preferred unconscious or dead sexual partners because he wanted complete control, complete submission. Doctor Judith Becker, professor of psychiatry and psychology, diagnosed Dahmer as a necrophiliac. Testified that he told her he preferred comatose partners to dead ones seventy five percent of the time, that he killed because death was the

6:43 ultimate form of control and possession. Doctor Carl Walstrom, forensic psychiatrist, diagnosed Dahmer with necrophilia, borderline personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, alcohol dependence, and a psychotic disorder. Said all these conditions combined to make Dahmer unable to resist his impulses. Defense attorney Gerald Boyle described his client as a steamrolling killing machine and a runaway train on a track of madness. Said Dahmer got sicker as his killing spree. Continued that by July nineteen ninety one, he was completely out of control, killing every few days, couldn't stop, but the prosecution had a different story. They presented evidence of Dahmer's planning, his deliberate victim selection, his methods of avoiding detection, his clean up procedures, his explanations to neighbors about the smell, his lies to police, all evidence of a calculating mind, not insanity.

7:42 Doctor Frederic Faustall, prosecution witness, testified that Dahmer had told him I had choices to make. I made the wrong choices. That's not insanity. That's a man who knew exactly what he was doing and chose to do it anyway. Doctor park Elliott Deet, prosecution expert, said Dahmer's killings were well planned and deliberate. Pointed out that Dahmer used condoms because he feared contracting aids someone afraid of disease as someone making rational decisions about consequences. Someone insane doesn't care about getting sick. Doctor George Palermo, court appointed psychiatrist, diagnosed Dahmer with antisocial personality disorder, but didn't find he met the legal definition of insanity. Said Dahmer was in control of his behavior, knew right from wrong, chose to kill anyway.

8:33 The prosecution argued that Dahmer carefully selected vulnerable victims. Men without cars because missing persons could be traced through vehicles, runaways, minorities, men from poor neighborhoods, people who wouldn't be immediately missed. That's not insanity, that's strategy. Dahmer lured victims with specific stories, job offers, money for photographs, al alcohol, promises of companionship. Tailored his approach to what each victim wanted. That's manipulation, that's planning. He drugged them systematically, knew exactly how many sleeping pills to use, started with three, increased to seven, experimented to find the right dosage. That scientific method. That's calculation.

9:21 He cleaned up after murders, dismembered bodies in his bathtub to avoid mess, wrapped body parts, carefully disposed of remains, methodically kept his apartment organized despite having body parts stored throughout. That's not someone out of control. That's someone managing evidence. When police questioned him about missing persons, he had explanations ready. They ran away, they moved on, they were unreliable. He was calm, cooperative, plausible. That's not insanity, that's deception. Prosecution argued that Dahmer's real motive wasn't necrophilia, it was control possession. He wanted people who would never leave him. He killed to create permanent companions. That selfishness taken to its most extreme conclusion, not mental illness, pure evil. And here's the key evidence that destroyed the insanity defense. Dahmer functioned normally between murders, went to work, paid his bills, interacted with neighbors, performed as Pogo, the clown at children's hospitals, Wait wrong, serial killer. But the point stands, Dahmer maintained a normal facade.

10:31 If he was so insane he couldn't control his actions, how was he functional the rest of the time. The prosecution displayed photographs of all fifteen victims during closing arguments. Put their faces in front of the jury, made them real, made them human. These weren't abstract concepts. These were sons, brothers, fathers, people with families who loved them. Michael McCann's closing argument, Jeffrey Dahmer was a sane man, in full control of his actions, who simply strove to avoid detection. He killed to control his victims and retained their bodies merely to afford himself a prolonged period of sexual pleasure. By pleading guilty but insane, he seeking to escape responsibility for his crimes.

11:17 Gerald Boyle's closing argument, he was so impaired as he went along this killing spree that he could not stop. He was a runaway train on a track of madness. February fifteenth, nineteen ninety two, the jury deliberated ten hours longer than expected. Families waited, media waited. Everyone wondered which way they'd go. The verdict came back. Ten out of twelve jurors found that Jeffrey Dahmer did not suffer from a mental disease or defect that prevented him from appreciating the wrongfulness of his conduct. Two jurors dissented, but ten was enough. Guilty but sane on all fifteen counts of murder. The courtroom was silent. Then the families began crying, some from relief, others from grief. The verdict brought back everything they'd lost. Shirley Hughes, mother of victim Anthony Hughes, said, I had my faith in God, and I believed, and I know this man was not insane. Juror Carl Stahl later told reporters he was a con artist. His whole conduct showed that he was a con artist. He had planned well, and he is above average intelligence. He had plans, and he had just one thing on his mind, to satisfy his ego and to satisfy himself, and he didn't even think of anybody else. February seventeenth, nineteen ninety two, sentencing day, Dahmer asked to address the court, first time

12:48 most people heard him speak. His voice was soft, flat, emotionless. He said, I wanted to find out just what it was that caused me to be so bad and evil. I know my time in prison will be terrible, but I deserve it. I created this horror, and it only makes sense I do everything to put an end to it. Judge Graham sentenced him to fifteen consecutive life terms, nine hundred and fifty seven years in prison, no possibility of parole. Dahmer would die in prison May one, nineteen ninety two. Three months later, Dahmer was extradited to Ohio to face charges for Stephen Hicks's murder. The hearing lasted forty five minutes.

13:32 Dahmer pleaded guilty, received a sixteenth consecutive life term, sixteen life sentences for seventeen confirmed murders. The numbers don't even add up to the horror. Make it make sense. We'll be right back with Jeffrey Dahmer in prison, his interviews, his zero Remorse, and November twenty eighth, nineteen ninety four, the day Christopher Scarver crushed his skull with a metal bar. February nineteen ninety two, Jeffrey Dahmer arrived at Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin, maximum security prison, home for the rest of his life. For the first year, Dahmer was held in solitary confinement, his choice. Prison officials were concerned for his safety. Child killers rank at the bottom of the prison hierarchy, below rapists, below cops, below snitches, and Dahmer wasn't just a child killer. He was the child killing cannibal. In solitary, Dahmer had minimal contact with other inmates, received mail, bought cigarettes and magazines with money sent by supporters. Yes, he had supporters. People who wrote to him, sent him money, defended him Welcome to America. He gave interviews, told reporters he'd become a born again Christian, was baptized in May nineteen ninety four, said he was remorseful, said he wanted

15:03 to be studied so science could understand what created him. Said he deserved to die. But in private, according to inmates, Dahmer showed no remorse. He made jokes, taunted other prisoners, fashioned food into severed limbs, drizzled ketch up on them to look like blood, left them where inmates would find them, dark sense of humor, testing boundaries, seeing how far he could push before someone snapped. July nineteen ninety one, while Dahmer was still in jail awaiting trial, inmate Osvaldo de Ruthi tried to slash his throat with a razor in front of guards. Didn't succeed. Dahmer wasn't seriously hurt, but it was a warning, a preview of what was coming.

15:46 After a year in solitary, Dahmer requested transfer to general population. Said he was ready, didn't care what happened to him, told family members he was prepared to repent and meet his maker. Prison officials approved the trend. NSFER assigned him a two hour daily work detail cleaning the toilet block. Easy job, low interaction with other inmates. Should be safe, but nothing is safe when you're a child killing cannibal in prison. Enter Christopher Scarver, thirty five years old in nineteen ninety four from Milwaukee, same city where Dahmer killed, serving life without parole for murdering his boss during a robbery in nineteen ninety shot Stephen Lohman three times. After receiving only fifteen dollars, said he heard voices calling him the chosen one. Scarver arrived at Columbia Correctional Institution around the same time as Dahmer. Knew exactly who Dahmer was, kept a newspaper clipping about Dahmer's crimes in his pocket, read it constantly. Felt fiercely disgusted by what Dahmer had done.

16:50 Scarver watched Dahmer from a distance, like a wolf watching prey. Never approached him. Didn't want to be part of his sick games. But he saw the food limb with ketchup routine, saw Dahmer taunting other inmates, saw him showing no remorse. Some people who are in prison are repentant, Scarver later said, but he was not one of them. November twenty eighth, nineteen ninety four, Monday morning, eight am Three inmates were assigned to clean the prison gymnasium, Jeffrey Dahmer, Jesse Anderson, serving life for murdering his wife in nineteen ninety two, and Christopher Scarver. Correction officers led the three men to the gym unshackled them standard procedure for work details, then the officers left. Twenty minutes unsupervised, three convicted murderers alone in a gymnasium with access to weight room equipment. Scarver was filling a mop bucket with water when he felt something poke him in the back. Turned around. Dahmer and Anderson were laughing under their breath, smirking. Scarver looked at both of them. Couldn't tell which one had poked him, didn't matter. They were both laughing at him, both treating this like a joke. Scarver said nothing, walked to the weight room, picked up a twenty inch metal bar from exercise equipment, heavy solid a weapon. He followed Dahmer into the staff locker room, pulled out the newspaper clipping he'd been carrying the detailed account of Dahmer's crimes, the murders,

18:20 the dismemberment, the cannibalism, the drilling holes and skulls to create zombies. Scarver held up the article. I asked him if he did those things because I was fiercely disgusted. Dahmer was shocked, didn't expect confrontation. Started looking for the door, trying to leave. Scarver blocked him. He started looking for the door pretty quick. I blocked him. Then Scarver swung the metal bar, hit Dahmer in the head hard. Dahmer's skull cracked. He fell. Scarver hit him again and again, crushing his skull, beating him against the floor, against the wall until Jeffrey Dahmer stopped moving. He ended up dead.

19:03 I put his head down. Then Scarver went to find Jesse Anderson found him in another locker room. Anderson looked around looking for guards, saw none. Scarver beat Anderson with the metal bar two same method, head trauma, skull crushed. At approximately eight ten am, correction officers found Dahmer on the bathroom floor with extreme head wounds. He was still alive, barely rushed to the hospital, pronounced dead one hour later. Jesse Anderson died two days later from his injuries. Christopher Scarver walked back to his cell when a guard asked why he was back early, Scarver said, God told me to do it. You will hear about it on the six o'clock news. Jesse Anderson and Jeffrey Dahmer are dead.

19:48 Scarver was convicted of two additional murders received two more life sentences. Claimed prison officials wanted Dahmer dead and deliberately left the three inmates unsupervised. But it was no accident. Officials knew Scarver, hated Dahmer, knew what would happen. Prison officials never commented on the allegation. Scarver spent sixteen years in solitary confinement for the murders, still serving three life sentences at Centennial Correctional Facility in Colorado. November twenty eighth, nineteen ninety four. Jeffrey Dahmer was thirty four years old, served less than three years of his nine hundred and fifty seven year sentence, beat to death by a fellow inmate who thought he wasn't repentant enough. Sometimes justice comes from a jury, Sometimes it comes from a metal bar.

20:35 Prison hierarchy is real. Child killers are at the bottom, and prisoners handle it their own way, not celebrating it, just explaining it. That's the reality of prison culture. Dahmer knew it. He chose to taunt inmates anyway, and Christopher Scarver made him pay. When Jeffrey Dahmer's mother, Joyce, learned of his death, she responded angrily, Now is everybody happy now that he's bludgeoned to day death? Is that good enough for everyone? But the families of victims had mixed reactions. Catherine Lacey, mother of Oliver Lacey, said the hurt is worse now because he's not suffering like we are. Some families celebrated, some were saddened, Some felt robbed of the chance to see Dahmer serve his full sentence, but all agreed on one thing. Jeffrey Dahmer got what he deserved.

21:26 Dahmer's body was cremated, his ashes divided between his parents. His brain was initially retained for medical research. Both parents fought over whether it should be studied. Eventually cremated in December nineteen ninety five. No services, no ceremony, no memorial. Jeffrey Dahmer simply ceased to exist. Why do we keep talking about Jeffrey Dahmer? Thirty one years since his arrest seventeen confirmed victims. Yet we're still making documentaries, Netflix series, movies, podcasts about the Milwaukee cannibal Part of it is the sheer horror, the worst aspects of human nature, cannibalism, necrophilia, drilling holes and skulls, keeping body parts as trophies, creating a shrine of skeletons. It's incomprehensible. We study it, trying to understand it. Part of it is the system failures.

22:28 Nineteen eighty eight, convicted of molesting a thirteen year old, released after ten months, immediately killed again. May nineteen ninety one, three police officers returned a naked, bleeding fourteen year old to Dahmer's apartment. The boy was murdered thirty minutes later. These aren't unfortunate coincidences. These are catastrophic failures that cost lives. Part of it is the warning signs we missed. Dahmer tortured animals as a child, collected roadkill, dissected them. His father noticed but didn't intervene. Dahmer had violent fantasies about unconscious men, said he thought about it constantly. Nobody connected the dots, But mostly we keep talking about Jeffrey Dahmer because he forces us to confront uncomfortable questions. How does someone become capable of this nature or nurture? Was Dahmer born broken or did something break him his parents divorce, his father's absence, his mother's mental health issues, or was he simply evil from the start? How did he get away with it for thirteen years? Stephen Hicks murdered in nineteen seventy eight, body started piling up in nineteen eighty seven, didn't get caught until nineteen ninety one. Multiple police interactions, multiple complaints from neighbors about smell, multiple missing persons reports?

23:50 How did nobody stop him? How many victims would there have been if Tracy Edwards hadn't escaped. Dahmer said he wanted to build a shrine surrounded by ten skeletons. He had two when he was arrested. Would he have kept going until he had his ten or more? No ceiling, no endpoint, just constant killing and the uncomfortable truth. The system failed because Dahmer's victims were marginalized, young gay men, many of them minorities, many from poor neighborhoods, runaways, people's society tends to ignore when they went missing investigations were minimal. When neighbors complained about smell and screams, police believed Dahmer over them. Would the response have been different if Dahmer had been targeting college students from wealthy families, Absolutely, the amount of police attention would have been immediate and overwhelming.

24:43 But because his victims were black, Latino Asian, gay, poor, they were treated as less important. Glenda Cleveland, Dahmer's neighbor, called police multiple times, reported suspicious activity, said something was seriously wrong in apartment two one three. Nobody listened to it. She was black, lived in a poor neighborhood. Her concerns were dismissed. When Conrad cinth thesomphone was returned to Dahmer. The three women who called nine one one protested, said the boy was injured, said something was wrong. Officers told them to shut the hell up and leave. The women were black, Their concerns didn't matter. The Milwaukee police department failed, the probation department failed, the child welfare system failed, the mental health system failed, all because the people dying weren't considered important enough to protect. That's Jeffrey Dahmer's real legacy, not the cannibalism. Not the body parts and the refrigerator, but the systematic failure to protect vulnerable people, and the question we still haven't answered how many Jeffrey Dahmers are operating right now because we're still ignoring the same populations.

25:51 Netflix made Monster the Jeffrey Dahmer story in twenty twenty two. Families of victims criticized it. Said it was real living trauma without their permission, said Netflix was profiting off their pain. Rita Ibel, sister of Errol Lindsay, said her famous courtroom outburst was recreated without consent. She's right, we keep telling Dahmer's story. We don't tell the victims' stories. We know everything about Jeffrey Dahmer, his childhood, his fantasies, his methods, his trial, his death. But do we know Stephen Hicks loved rock concerts, that Ernest Miller wanted to dance on stage, that Conorac Synthasomphone was just a kid trying to earn money.

26:35 We remember the monster, we forget the people he destroyed. That's part two of our Jeffrey Dahmer Special. Seventeen Victims, thirteen years of Murder, A trial that asked whether evil is the same as insanity, A jury that said no, nine hundred and fifty seven years in prison, and Christopher Scarver with a metal bar who Decidedeffrey Dahmer had lived long enough. Seventeen names, seventeen futures destroyed, seventeen families that never recovered. Someone has to say their names. Someone has to remember they were people, not just victims of Jeffrey Dahmer. They had dreams, aspirations, people who loved them, futures that should have happened. The Milwaukee cannibal is dead, beaten to death by a fellow inmate who thought he wasn't repentant enough, But the damage he caused lives on in the families who lost sons, in the community that failed to protect vulnerable people, in the questions we still haven't answered about how someone like Jeffrey Dahmer exists. Make it make sense.

27:41 Seventeen people murdered, multiple opportunities to stop him, a system that failed at every level, and thirty one years later, we're still talking about the monster instead of the people he destroyed. I'm read Carter, this is celebrity trials. We covered Jeffrey Dahmer because sometimes you need to remember how catastrophically the system can fail, and how many lives could have been saved if people in power had just done their jobs. Rest in peace to all seventeen victims. Your names, your lives, your futures mattered. This is celebrity trials.