When I was a little kid I was just like anybody else. Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer came into the world at 4.34pm on the 21st of May at the Evangelical Deaconess Hospital in Milwaukee 1960. Little did his parents know at the time of his birth that there son would become one of America’s most famous serial killers not only for the amount of victims which he had killed but also for dismembering them and his necrophilic tendencies.
Jeffrey’s childhood started like any other he had two parents who loved and adored there son dearly giving him what ever his heart desired. Joyce Dahmer started a scrap book on her son recording events that happened in his life, his first step, his first accident, his first tooth, his first haircut and even his first scolding. While Jeffrey was still very young his father worked long hours in his laboratory and his mother worked as a teletype machine instructor. But the carrying of Jeffrey had been hard on Joyce Dahmer and every little thing seemed to annoy her. So Lionel being the the husband that he was and wanting the best for his wife they moved to his mothers house in West Allis, but the crack’s in the marriage started to show early.
There were constant fights between Joyce and Lionel Dahmer and Jeffrey took each of these fights to heart. Little did they realise that there constant fighting would be the one of the reasons for Jeffrey’s downfall. I decided I wasn’t ever going to get married because I never wanted to go through anything like that A short time before Jeffrey’s fourth birthday, Jeffrey was diagnosed with a double hernia that needed to be operated on. This operation left Jeffrey feeling open and exposed nobody explained to Dahmer what was going on. He felt scared by the operation, complete strangers coming up to him and exploring his body. This experience is said to have marked his subconscious forever.
But like every little boy of Jeffrey’s age he was just like anybody else climbing apple trees, riding his bike and playing in coal dust and coming home dirty. Though he was painfully shy while growing up he over came this in time. By the time Jeffrey turned six his mother gave birth to a second son who she called David. Though this did not have a dramatic effect on Dahmer’s life he stayed pretty much neutral to his brothers existence and they never became close. By the time of his second son’s birth Lionel Dahmer and his family moved into there own house at 4480 West Bath Road, surrounded by open forest where Jeffrey could lose himself in a world of make believe.
As Jeffrey grew towards puberty, his sinking isolation and shyness was confirmed once again. An early sexual experiment with a another boy proved to be disappointing and joyless. Jeffery should have come to a time in his life where he wanted to experience the joys of life and the companionship of friends, but Jeffrey withdrew into himself and kept his life somewhat of a secret. Jeffrey’s Dahmer’s life conditioned him for the hard struggle that lay ahead, little did he know that in just over 16 years he would become one of America’s most famous serial killers having murdered 17 people, dismembering them and sleeping with there corpses and keeping parts of his victims for trophy’s.
This is the grand finale of a life poorly spent and the end result is just overwhelmingly depressing… a sick pathetic, miserable life story, that’s all it is The Baptism of Jeffrey Dahmer (Reprinted from the Christian Woman May/April 1995) by Roy Ratcliff Convicted serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was beaten and killed Nov. 28, 1994, by a fellow inmate at the Colombia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wis. The attack occurred while Dahmer and another inmate were cleansing a bathroom in the prison gymnasium.
The minister who baptized Dahmer shares his story and tells about a courageous woman who thought Dahmer was worth saving. I first heard about Jeffrey Dahmer’s desire for baptism through Roy McRay, a preacher in Milwaukee. He had received a phone call from Curtis Booth of Crescent, Okla., who had sent a Bible correspondence course to Jeffrey. Just a couple of weeks later, Mary Mott of Arlington, Va., had done the same; and at the end of the course, Jeffrey had requested baptism.
After making the necessary arrangements with the prison chaplain to meet Jeffrey and to confirm his understanding, I learned about Mary. She had sent Jeffrey a World Bible School correspondence course after seeing a TV report about the book written by Lionel Dahmer, Jeffrey’s father. Mary felt a deep conviction that this young man needed to hear the Gospel. She sent him a letter that said essentially, I don’t know if you want to do this, but I believe it would help you if you studied the Bible. In the New Testament, Paul wrote about Timothy’s sincere faith, which first came from the women in his life, his grandmother and his mother.
Paul then added these words: For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self discipline (2 Timothy 1:7). Mary is to be commended for the faithful spirit of power and love that drove her to reach out, even against the advice of other people, and try to save the soul of someone so commonly despised. Mary did not know whether her efforts would be well received. She simply acted on faith. To her delight and surprise, Jeffrey answered positively. At the end of the Bible study course, he wrote both Mary and Curtis requesting baptism.
Mary didn’t know whom to call, but she tried the best she could to tell others that Jeffrey wanted to be baptized. When I first was informed of this request, I contacted the prison chaplain. I told him that the congregation in Baraboo, Wis., was closer than mine. I said that I would contact the minister and that we would make arrangements to meet with Jeffrey.
