Dahmer's Downtown Digs

 

The Serial Killer:  Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer (May 21, 1960-November 28, 1994).  After picking up young men in gay bars or off the streets, Dahmer would lure his victims back to his apartment with the promise of sex or money.  In doing so, he murdered, dismembered, and had sex with the corpuses of 17 men until his arrest in 1991.  On July 22, Dahmer lured another would-be victim to his home, and the two men struggled when Dahmer tried handcuffing him.  The young man escaped and flagged down a police car passing by Dahmer's complex.  He then led police back to the apartment, where one of the officers checked the bedroom.  Upon doing so, the officer found photographs of mangled bodies in an open dresser drawer, and he called for his partner to arrest Dahmer.  Upon further investigation of the apartment, the police found human body parts in the refrigerator and closet, more photographs of murdered victims, full and partial human skeletons, and bodily remains in a freezer.  The court found Dahmer guilty of 15 counts of murder and sentenced him to 15 life terms.  After serving three years in the Columbia Correctional Institute in Portage, Wisconsin, Dahmer was attacked by a fellow inmate while doing janitorial work in the prison gym.  As a result of the attack, he died of severe head trauma while on the way to the hospital.  Due to the fact that Dahmer ate parts of his victim's corpuses to ensure they would always be a part of him, he became known as "The Milwaukee Cannibal."

The Apartment:  Nestled within a 49-unit building, apartment #213 was a small, furnished one-bedroom, one-bath affair that included a single-sided Pullman kitchen and a combined living and dining area.  The complex was located in the Avenues West neighborhood, just west of downtown Milwaukee.  The building's location provided Dahmer with easy access to the city's gay "hot spots," as well as his job at the Milwaukee Ambrosia Chocolate Company.  Publicly described as a "killing factory," the apartment contained several polaroid pictures of deceased bodies, a bloodstained mattress, two bloodstained pillowcases, a large barrel filled with acid used to dissolve human remains, and a small chest freezer storing a human heart.  Fifteen months after Jeffrey Dahmer’s arrest, the apartment complex was destroyed at the request of the victims’ families.

The Floor Plan:  Based on pictures made available online, the floor plan below is a guesstimate of how it looked when Dahmer lived in apartment #213 during the early 1990s.  Based on my research, there are a few things to note:

1)  To murder his victims, Dahmer needed to be drunk.  As such, the apartment was littered with several empty Budweiser, Pabst Blue Ribbon, and Miller High Life beer cans.

2)  Found in the apartment was the drug Halcion, which Dahmer used for his victims.  It had been prescribed to him as a sleeping medication while he worked the graveyard shift at the chocolate factory.  Dahmer would pour the medication into his victims' drinks, and he would kill them once they were asleep.

3)  Movies found in Dahmer's bedroom included Blade Runner, Return of the Jedi, and The Exorcist III.  He also had several gay pornographic films, a taped episode of The Bill Cosby Show, and a recorded lecture on evolution.

4)  Several cleaning agents and chemicals were found in Dahmer's apartment.  Those present included bottles of bleach,  disinfectant, formaldehyde, chloroform, and ether.

5)   A total of 74 photos of victims' bodies in various stages of decomposition were littered throughout the apartment.  In addition, identification cards and driver’s licenses collected from various victims were present.

6)  Dahmer had phony surveillance cameras and alarms throughout his apartment.  He put them up so would-be robbers would think twice before breaking in and discovering his secret.

Sources:

Crick, Claire.  What to Watch.  Conversations with a Killer:  The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes — What Was Found in Jeffrey Dahmer's Apartment?, 7 Oct. 2022, www.whattowatch.com/features/conversations-with-a-killer-the-jeffrey-dahmer-tapes-what-was-found-in-jeffrey-dahmers-apartment.  Accessed 27 February 2024.

Crime Magazine.  Jeffrey Dahmer, 2022, www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/serial-killers/jeffrey-dahmer/.  Accessed 27 Feb. 2024.

Masters, Brian.  The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer.  London, England, Coronet, 1993.

McEvoy, Colin.  Biography.  Jeffrey Dahmer, 15 Sept. 2023, www.biography.com/crime/jeffrey-dahmer.  Accessed 27 Feb. 2024.

Norris, Joel.  Jeffrey Dahmer.  London, England, Constable and Robinson, 1992.

Oh, Hannah.  Seventeen.  What Happened to Jeffrey Dahmer’s Apartment Building?, 29 Sept. 2022, www.seventeen.com/celebrity/movies-tv/a41445876/jeffrey-dahmer-apartment-building-now-monster/.  Accessed 27 Feb. 2024.

Radcliffe, J.R.  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.  22 Oct. 2022, www.jsonline.com/story/news/2022/09/23/site-dahmers-murders-milwaukee-remains-vacant-lot-today/8092322001/.  Accessed 27 Feb. 2024.

Reddit.  List of Items Found in Jeffrey Dahmer’s Apartment, 2023, www.reddit.com/r/DahmerNetflix/comments/y3mzqv/list_of_items_found_in_jeffrey_dahmers_apartment/.  Accessed 27 Feb. 2024.