What Is a Serial Killer? Who Were Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy?
Essay by Greek • January 31, 2012 • Research Paper • 3,212 Words (13 Pages) • 2,025 Views
Essay Preview: What Is a Serial Killer? Who Were Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy?
What is a serial killer? Who were Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy? How were they
different and how were they similar? Why did they kill? No one really knows what makes serial
killers tick; however some people believe that it could be something that had happened to them
at an early age. Some of them could have been molested, or had seen a person being killed in
front of them. There could be many things that could have affected them that led them into
killing other people. I believe John Wayne Gacy and Jeffery Dahmer were affected by something
in their childhood that led them to become America's most famous serial killers. A serial killer is
someone who kills at least three victims one by one in a series of sequential murders. Two
examples of serial killers would be Jeffrey Dalmer (May 21, 1960 - November 28, 1994) who
was an American serial killer and sex offender. A another serial killer is John Wayne Gacy
(March 17, 1942 - May 10, 1944) who also was an American serial killer and rapist who
sexually assaulted and murdered at 33 teenaged boys and young men between 1972 and 1978.
Dalmer and Gacy are not as different as people may think they are. They both murdered and
sexually assaulted young men and teenaged boys; they also both had disturbing childhoods.
Dalmer only killed because he felt that he was born with a "part" of him missing. Gacy murdered
the young men and boys because he felt that the victims deserved to die. Why? No body Knows.
Jeffrey Dahmer was born in West Allis, Wisconsin on May 21, 1960 to Joyce Annette
and Lionel Herbert Dahmer. (Dahmer, 1994, p. 61) When Dahmer was a young child he seemed
normal; however, between the ages 10-15 he grew withdrawn and uncommunicative. He showed
little interest in any activities, hobbies or school interactions.(Dahmer, 1994, pp. 76-79) His
behavior later became weird, when he would ride his bike around his neighborhood looking for
dead animals and bringing them home or in the woods where he would dissect them. "He went
so far as to put a dog's head on a stake."(Dahmer, 1994, p. 84) Dahmer at an early age became an
alcoholic, which caused him to fail most of his classes in both high school and college. His
father later forced his son to go into the Army. Dahmer did well at first, but was later discharged
two years later because of his alcoholism. With the plane ticket the army provided him with,
Dahmer chose to go to Miami Beach, Florida because he could not go home and face his father
and because he was "tired of the color" Of Milwaukee. (Milwaukee News, 2007)
In 1982, Dahmer decided to move in with his grandmother Catherine Dahmer in West
Allis, Milwaukee. During the time Dahmer was living with his grandmother, his behavior grew
increasingly strange. His grandmother found a fully dressed mannequin in his room. She also
found a .357 Magnum under his bed. The grandmother also claimed that there were "terrible
smells coming from the basement." (Dahmer, 1994, pp. 124-126) The summer of 1988,
Dahmer's grandmother asked her grandson to leave because of his late nights and strange
behavior, and the foul smells coming from the basement. Dahmer then moved into an apartment
which was closer to his job at the Ambrosia Chocolate factory on the west side of Milwaukee.
(Dahmer, 1994, p. 132) A day after moving into his apartment, Dahmer was arrested for
drugging and sexually assaulting a 13 year old boy. He was sentenced to five years probations
and one year work release camp. He was also required to register as a sex offender.
In the summer of 1978, when Dahmer was 18 years old he committed his first murder.
Steven Hicks who was hitchhiking was picked up by Dahmer and offered to drink a beer with
him. Hicks agreed and went into Dahmer's, home. There Dahmer planned to have sex with
Hicks, but when Hicks tried to leave, he was bludgeoned to death with a 10 lb dumbbell and
Dahmer buried his body in his father's back yard. (Dahmer, 1994, p. 241) Dahmer's murders did
not stop there. Nine years later Dahmer picked up a 26 year old named Steven Tuomi at a bar
and killed him on impulse. In 1988 and 1989 he had killed two more people, by picking up his
victims in gay bars and having sex with them before killing them. Picking up his pace Dahmer
had killed four more men before the end of 1990 and two more in February and April 1991 and
another in May 1991.
In the morning of May 27, 1991, a 14 year old boy named Konerak Sinthasomphone,
who by coincidence was the younger brother of the boy who Dahmer had molested years ago
(Davis, 1991, p. 7) was seen by two women walking around the streets naked and heavily under
the influence of drugs. (Jacobson, 2002) The two women called the police and when they
questioned Dahmer, he told them that Sinthasomphone was his 19 year old boyfriend and they
had gotten into an argument while drinking. When the police took Dahmer and the victim home
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