The new Netflix show based around the life and crimes of infamous serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who killed 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991, has caused quite a stir. Viewers of Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story have complained of the gruesomeness of the show, and some have questioned just how real and based on a true story it really is. Was Dahmer really so brutal? Was he really a cannibal? And did he really wear yellow contact lenses?

We dive into some of the most intriguing and shocking parts of the already shocking show, and compare them to the real-life events they were based on. Anyone not versed in the real-life story of Jeffrey Dahmer may be shocked at just how closely the show sticks to the reality.

The Cannibalism And Fridge Full Of Body Parts

Viewers may think that the decapitated head in the fridge, the organs and genitalia in the freezer, and other grisly discoveries in the show sound a bit like a bad horror movie, and they wouldn’t be wrong. All those things actually happened, and the reality of Dahmer’s crimes would serve as a basis for many horror movies since then.

When police searched Dahmer’s apartment in real life, they found a photo albums full of dismembered bodies and parts. They also discovered bleached skulls, several heads in the fridge and freezer, barrels of hydrochloric acid which Dahmer used to dissolve the bodies, and evidence that he had been eating the body parts.

Dahmer himself admitted to the cannibalism in an interview after his conviction. He said:

“I was branching out, that's where the cannibalism started - eating of the heart and the arm muscle, it was a way of making me feel that they were a part of me.”

Tracy, The Man Who Escaped DahmerMonster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story - Dahmer watching a movie with Tracy Edwards

In the very first episode of the show, we get a little insight into Dahmer’s method for picking up victims. He would get heavily drunk, haunt local gay clubs, then invite someone back to his house - usually with the temptation of money and booze.

The first person we see go into Dahmer’s apartment (though the last chronologically) is Tracy Edwards, a gay African-American man. Tracy was indeed a real person, and was hailed a “hero” for escaping Dahmer’s clutches, reporting him to the police, and getting him arrested.

Intriguingly, Edwards said during Dahmer’s trial that once he was in his apartment, Dahmer’s demeanour and very appearance shifted. “His face structure seemed different,” said Edwards. “It was like, it wasn’t him anymore.”

Dahmer’s First Kill

In Episode 3 of the show, we see Dahmer kill his first victim, hitchhiker Steven Hicks. Offering to drop Hicks off at a concert, Dahmer convinces Hicks to first hang out with him at his parents’ house, where they drink and smoke weed. When Dahmer tries to kiss Hicks, Hicks recoils and tries to leave, at which point Dahmer hits him with a barbell then finishes him by strangling him. He then disposes of the body by cutting it up, dissolving it in acid, pulverising the bones with a hammer, and throwing the ashes in his parents’ backyard.

The exact details of what led Dahmer to kill Hicks aren’t known, and it’s not known if Dahmer actually tried to kiss Hicks (though Dahmer did later say that killing was unplanned), but the broad strokes are all accurate. The show did skip a step however, because after dismembering the body, Dahmer in fact left it buried in the backyard for several weeks before digging it up again to dissolve it.

‘Doing A Dahmer’My Friend Dahmer - Dahmer and friends get ready to Do a Dahmer

In Episode 3, we get a glimpse of what Dahmer was like at high school (the answer is ‘weird,’ as you can imagine). A couple of times, a group of jocks get Dahmer to do an impression of “the decorator,” at which point Dahmer seizes up his hands and does an obnoxious disabled impression for the ages.

This is very accurate. Dahmer was known for acting up and ‘Doing a Dahmer’ at school as a way of getting attention (the impressions stemmed from an interior decorator who worked on Dahmer’s parents’ house for a while and suffered from cerebral palsy). Struggling socially, fellow students would say that Dahmer often played the class clown to get recognition.

This whole period of Dahmer’s life is explored more in-depth in the 2017 film My Friend Dahmer, which is based on a graphic novel written by John Backderf, who knew Dahmer personally at high school and was even involved in some of his acting-up.

Police Returning The Boy To DahmerMonster: A Jeffrey Dahmer Story - Dahmer victim Konerak Sinthasomphone

In the show, 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone manages to escape Dahmer’s apartment despite being heavily sedated. Three women find Konerak in the street, disoriented and unable to speak, and call 911. When the police show up, Dahmer crossed paths with them on his way back from the liquor store, convinces them that the boy is of legal age and his boyfriend, and is allowed to take the boy back to his apartment, where he later murders and dismembers him.

Tragically, this is entirely true, and there was major media fallout over the two officers’ handling of the situation. The officers in question, John Balcerzak and Joseph Gabrish, were eventually suspended and fired from the police force for their negligence.

The police officers’ negligence was, if anything, underplayed in the show. In reality, the officers dismissed the ambulance crew who wanted to check on Konerak, made homophobic jokes, and failed to ID Dahmer. If they had ID’ed him, they would’ve discovered that Dahmer in fact had a child molestation charge from 1988 for abusing Konerak’s brother, who was 13 at the time (which is also referenced in the show).

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The Yellow EyesMonster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story - netflix show

The Netflix promotional material for the show makes a strong first impression as it shows a face-on shot of Dahmer staring at the camera with demonic yellow eyes. This isn’t just for show, however, as we see in Episode 2 of the show that Dahmer does indeed like to wear yellow contact lenses.

In the show, it’s suggested that he wears them because he’s a bit of a movie fan and likes how they look on Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. In real life, Dahmer’s lawyer did in fact say that Dahmer liked to wear yellow contacts to emulate ‘Satan-like’ figures such as the Emperor and the demon from The Exorcist 3.

You can find all the gory details in our explainer on Dahmer’s yellow eyes.

The Satanic Bible In Dahmer's Apartment

When Tracy Edwards enters Dahmer’s apartment for the first time, there are a ton of red flags right away: the bad smell, the dead fish in the aquarium, a drill on the side, and also a Satanic Bible. The latter got viewers of the show wondering whether Dahmer was some kind of Satanic worshipper.

There is in fact no connection between Dahmer and Satanism. Certainly, there was an element of the occult to Dahmer’s crimes, as one of his goals was to build an altar in his apartment made of the bones of his victims, but that wasn’t specifically linked to Satanism at any point. The Satanic Bible may have just been a flourish for the TV show, and inspired to an extent by Dahmer’s lawyer saying that he identified with figures like Palpatine and the demon from the Exorcist for their ‘Satan-like’ qualities.

Heroic Neighbour, Glenda ClevelandMonster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story - concerned neighbour Glenda Cleveland

In the show, Dahmer’s neighbour Glenda Cleveland is deeply suspicious of Dahmer from early on. From the smells coming from his apartment to the sounds of drilling she’d hear through the walls, she’s depicted as someone who was harrowingly close to all the crimes taking place.

In reality, Cleveland did not live next door to Dahmer at the Oxford Apartments, but nearby, and first crossed paths with him when her daughter and niece found Konerak in the street (who the police eventually returned to Dahmer). Deeply troubled by what she saw, she later called the police again to question the boy’s age and why he was returned to Dahmer. Her actual conversation with the police is played at the end of Episode 2, and their dismissal of her concerns is probably one of the most disturbing elements of the show.

According to the Milwaukee Journal, just a few days later Cleveland contacted the police again after seeing a photo of Konerak as a ‘missing person’ in a newspaper. She never received a response. She even tried contacting the FBI, but never heard back.

The ‘Meat Sandwich’Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story - Dahmer hands meat sandwich to Glenda Cleveland

In the show, we see Dahmer offer a “meat sandwich” to his neighbour Glenda. Already highly suspicious of Dahmer, she rejects the sandwich and asks what’s in it, to which he replies “like pulled pork” (never accept a sandwich from someone when the meat inside is like a meat that you know).

Dahmer’s real neighbour was a woman called Pamela Bass, who like most of his other neighbours didn’t seem suspicious of the serial killer (which would suggest the smell coming from his apartment didn’t permeate through to their homes like it did in the show). Bass in fact said that Dahmer was polite and had a tendency to make sandwiches for his neighbours.

Unsettlingly, Bass said in the 2013 documentary, The Jeffrey Dahmer Files, that Dahmer did offer her a sandwich but unlike Glenda in the show, she accepted and ate it. While she didn’t comment on how it tasted, Bass did say “I have probably eaten someone’s body part.”

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