Celebrity
This Happy Little Boy’s Face Hid A Darkness That Would Shock The World
The images of helpless kids are horrifying. and discover that some of them went on to commit horrific killings.
We are hardwired to believe that children are innocent, kind, and untouchable. That’s why it hurts so much to watch a happy baby and know that they went on to conduct unthinkable acts.
And one day, the innocent, seemingly charming child we are about to present will become one of the most dreadful murderers in American history.
A newborn boy was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on a warm May day in 1960. His parents, a 24-year-old teletype machine instructor and a 23-year-old chemistry student, welcomed their first child with aspirations for his future.
In his early years, he was a vibrant, happy youngster, full of potential and vitality, according to all accounts. However, something altered.
He had double hernia surgery just before turning four, and his family saw a change in his behavior right away. The once-bubbly toddler grew more reserved, quiet, and agitated.
Resentment toward his baby brother
The child apparently struggled with feelings of desertion and developed anger toward his younger brother by the time he entered school at age six. Teachers characterized him as shy and reserved, frequently feeling neglected because his mother struggled with depression and hypochondria, and his father was away studying.
The home was tense. His parents were often at odds, and his mother, who required daily care and was confined to bed most of the time, even tried suicide at least once. Later, the youngster acknowledged that he never felt secure in his family and was uncertain about the survival of his household.
But as a child, the slender, blond lad did have some friends.
“He was a fun kid to be around as a child,” said Ted Lee, who grew up in the same neighborhood.
However, as the young man grew, a sinister obsession surfaced. According to others, it began when he was four years old and observed his father unearthing animal bones beneath their home.
He developed an obsession with what he referred to as his “fiddlesticks” after hearing the sounds of the bones. Continuing his exploration, he looked for bones and even dissected live creatures to examine their skeletons.
His passion grew when the family relocated to Bath Township, Ohio. In a cottage next to their forested land, he started gathering big insects and tiny animal skeletons, some of which were preserved in formaldehyde jars.
His father, presuming it was scientific interest, showed him how to clean and preserve bones, skills the youngster immediately acquired.
Escalating obsession
The fascination quickly became more intense. He began collecting roadkill, preparing animals for burial, and dissecting them close to his hut. He occasionally positioned skulls on improvised crosses.
He began drinking excessively at the age of 14, concealing alcohol in his jacket and referring to it as “my medicine.” A bitter divorce resulted from the breakdown of his parents’ marriage. His mother and younger brother had left the family home by the time he graduated in May 1978, leaving the 18-year-old alone.
By age 15, he had decapitated a dog, fastened its body to a tree, and impaled its skull on a pole. He gained notoriety in high school for pulling odd practical jokes, bleating, and pretending to have seizures in order to attract attention.
He started imitating the halting speech and ungainly gestures of a man with cerebral palsy, for instance, who he said his mother had previously employed as an interior decorator. Some thought it was strange conduct, even cruelty, but others thought he was really humorous, especially his adolescent peers who didn’t notice the tastelessness. Their laughing seemed to fuel him.
He would make odd bleating noises just out of the teacher’s earshot, stare through windows from outside the building, or stutter past open classroom doors during class.
“He would bleat like a sheep,” recalled former friend and classmate John Backderf.
“Sometimes he did it loud. He knew it cracked us up.”
First victim
However, beneath the humor, more sinister urges were developing.
On June 18, 1978, three weeks later, the young guy picked up a hitchhiker and killed his first person.
He murdered 16 more young men over the course of the following 13 years, mutilating others and, in some horrible instances, eating parts of their bodies. Most of his victims were strangled to death after first being given sedatives.
Necrophilia, cannibalism, and attempts to produce obedient “zombies” by drilling holes in victims’ skulls and putting acid in their brains were among his other atrocities.
Caught in 1991
When one of his planned victims fled and led police to his apartment on July 22, 1991, he was apprehended. Inside, they found images of dismembered people, decapitated heads in the refrigerator, and a gruesome collection of human remains.
The youngster who used to play “fiddlesticks” naively had developed into one of America’s most notorious serial killers, Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer, the Milwaukee Cannibal, who was subsequently the subject of Netflix’s Monster.
On November 28, 1994, Jeffrey Dahmer, then 34 years old, was brutally murdered by a fellow prisoner.
Christopher Scarver, the prisoner who murdered Jeffrey Dahmer, said that he was commanded to do so by God.
When news of Dahmer’s death broke, his mother, Joyce, lashed out at the media, saying, “Now is everybody happy? Now that he’s bludgeoned to death, is that good enough for everyone?”
Reactions from the victims’ families were divided. Some expressed relief, while others said the news only deepened their pain. Catherine Lacy, the mother of victim Oliver Lacy, said, “The hurt is worse now, because he’s not suffering like we are.”
Reminding everyone that Dahmer’s murder was still murder, the district attorney who brought Dahmer’s case begged the public not to exalt Scarver.
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