A new Jeffrey Dahmer docudrama was recently released on Netflix, created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan. I didn't plan on watching the series because I'm already on the fence when it comes to crime docudramas. I think the merging of fiction and real live events is always going to be problematic. We can see this with the American Crime Story series, including The People v. O.J. Simpson (2016) and The Assassination of Gianni Versace (2017-2018). I think before the trailer is played for a show like this, a proper disclaimer should be made. The families and friends of the victims and the survivors were not informed beforehand that this would be released. You could argue that I am adding to the problem by discussing it, but there's a few things I'd like to talk about.
Objectively speaking, Evan Peters did a good job portraying Dahmer. I found him genuinely frightening. I'm going to refer to him as Dahmer throughout, and not 'Jeff' because he's not my pal. I thought Richard Jenkins also played his father Lionel Dahmer very well, especially after watching this interview of him. Dahmer frequented gay bars during the late 80s and early 90s, which was where he met many of his victims. The first episode was incredibly tense. You could feel the silent terror from the actor playing Tracy Edwards. He knows from the second he arrives at Dahmer's apartment that something isn't right. As they enter, Dahmer locks the door, and there's an overpowering stench. He asks what the smell is, and Dahmer makes an excuse about expired meat. He tries to leave, but Dahmer won't let him and insists that he stays for a drink. Once Tracy escapes, it's unclear whether Dahmer is going to catch up with him. It was extremely unnerving to watch. I was on edge because I didn't know how the interaction between Tracy and the police would play out, whether they would class him as a "suspicious black male" or if they would actually try to help.
The time that is spent showing Dahmer's upbringing feels like an attempt to explain why he became a serial killer, but at times also feels like an attempt to humanise him which is morally questionable. Dahmer's mother Joyce is portrayed as a pill addict and conspiracy theorist. According to Dahmer's father Lionel, Joyce took 26 different medications while she was pregnant, including sedatives, sleeping pills and seizure medication. Lionel and Joyce argued a lot, and Dahmer appeared to have abandonment issues. This is worsened when Joyce leaves with his younger brother and never returns. His father comes back to the house with his new partner, and is shocked to find him living alone.
Real comments, censored.
I mentioned this briefly in my Dexter post which you can read here, but the fact that to this day, there are people who sympathise with killers like Dahmer is disturbing and delusional. He used his white privilege to his advantage, as well as the casual homophobia that was so common throughout the AIDS crisis. The police's incompetency and prejudice has led to people like Dahmer getting away with crimes time and time again. This can be seen with the Peter Sutcliffe (The Yorkshire Ripper) case.
In Episode 6, 'Silenced', Tony Hughes is introduced. So many of Dahmer's victims were already vulnerable because they were predominantly black, brown, and gay. Tony Hughes was also deaf and mute, and communicated using sign language or by writing things down with a pen and paper. As pointed out by the police officer in Blood On Their Hands, Dahmer purposefully moved into an under patrolled area with a majority black population. He targeted people who were less protected by police due to their race and social background. When Dahmer is caught driving under the influence, the officer lets him off with a warning and tells him: "You've got your whole life ahead of you". There are many more examples of this in the series but it became unclear to me which moments actually happened due to the blurring of the lines between reality and fiction. Dahmer was caught in February 1992, less than a year after Rodney King was beaten by LAPD officers, which sparked riots.
You can only imagine how traumatic it is for the families of the victims for all of this to be unearthed again. Survivor Tracy Edwards' lawyer said that he became like "Humpty Dumpty" after he had his encounter with Dahmer: "He was never able to put the pieces back together again." He was praised for his bravery speaking in court about his experience, but in the years that followed he became homeless and was charged with homocide in 2011. Rita Isbell, the sister of Errol Lindsay said: “When I saw some of the show, it bothered me, especially when I saw myself — when I saw my name come across the screen and this lady saying verbatim exactly what I said”. I watched some of the footage of the real family members reading their impact statements. It takes so much courage for someone to stand up in court and face the person who caused them so much devastation. You can feel the justified anger from Rita in the original clip. When this was reenacted on the show, it felt like pantomime acting. I found it cringey and disrespectful. This is what Rita had to say:
If I didn't know any better, I would've thought it was me. Her hair was like mine, she had on the same clothes. That's why it felt like reliving it all over again. It brought back all the emotions I was feeling back then.
Episode 7, 'Cassandra' focuses on Glenda Cleveland, played by Niecy Nash. Glenda Cleveland is a real woman, but it has been suggested that the character in the show is an amalgamation of the real Glenda who lived in the apartment building next to Dahmer's, and Pamela Bass who lived across the hall from him. In 1991, Dahmer abducted and drugged 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone. Konerak managed to escape, but was found by Dahmer and escorted back to his apartment by two police officers after he convinced them that he was his boyfriend. Glenda's 17-year-old niece Nicole Childress was in a car on her way to her cousin's house when she saw Konerak: "I was looking out the window. I saw someone that appeared to [be] naked. It was a young boy. They were kind of just staggering and falling and staying down for a little bit." She jumped out the car and ran over to him. She was concerned for his safety and called 911. She described a "white, tall nice looking man" approaching them who tried to yank Konerak away. She sensed something was wrong and told Dahmer there was no way he was leaving with him. She said when the police arrived Dahmer was calm while talking to them but when he spoke about her he became noticeably angry and called her "another crazy black bitch". This particular interaction was not included on the show.
The police told her they would speak to her but they completely dismissed her. She went to her aunty's house which was nearby, and when she returned the police had left. Glenda later called 911 to ask what the outcome was, and if the police needed Nicole and the other witnesses' names. The show reenacted real audio from a phone call Glenda made to police asking if they had verified Konerak's age. Officer John Balcerzack tells her: "It was an intoxicated boyfriend of another boyfriend". She asks "Well how old was this child?" and the officer responds "It wasn't a child, it was an adult" despite them never getting ID verification to support this. In the series, Dahmer showed them photographs he took of Konerak to use as false evidence of their relationship. The officers' ignorance, stupidity and homophobia meant that they led him back to where he was later killed. It's absolutely devastating. This is what one of the officers said in a real phone call after taking Konerak back to Dahmer's apartment: "My partner is going to get deloused at the station". Clearly they found it disgusting being in an apartment of a gay person, and it made them feel dirty. Their negligence led to many more murders.
The real Glenda Cleveland
It's important to tell certain stories but there is a fine line between respectful reporting of real life events on the news, and docudramas which dramatise real, harrowing events and present it to millions of viewers for entertainment. I think the question we all need to ask ourselves is, if something were to happen to our family member or friend, would we want it to be turned into a 10-part series about how their life was ended, glorifying the person that was responsible for their death? It's clear that shows like this are intended for entertainment, not for educational purposes.
In Episode 9, 'The Bogeyman', we see how unpopular Dahmer is amongst his inmates. His ego becomes increasingly inflated when he receives fan mail and money from admirers. Meanwhile, the Sinthasomphone family receive racist anonymous calls from people telling them to get back on a boat and go back to where they came from. The nightmare sequence that follows feels like it could be extremely triggering to many victims. I felt relieved when it was mentioned in the series that the council decided to demolish the Oxford apartment building where many of Dahmer's crimes took place. Too often, locations where high profile criminal cases took place become tourist attractions, like The Cecil Hotel.
The real Christopher Scarver
Bizarrely, in the final episode, serial killer John Wayne Gacy is featured. The purpose of this was supposedly to show the contrast between Gacy's execution and Dahmer's baptism which took place on the same day. It was an interesting observation, but I would argue that it was unnecessary to include. The reenactment of one of Gacy's murders was incredibly disturbing. It made it feel even more like a horror movie made for people's entertainment. This isn't an episode of American Horror Story. According to a New York Post interview, fellow inmate Chistopher Scarver killed Dahmer because he would taunt other inmates, using ketchup packets to mimic blood and shaped prison food into body parts. In response to Dahmer claiming to have found God while in prison, Scarver had this to say: "Some people who are in prison are repentant, but he was not one of them."
The problem with Netflix releasing a series like this, is that it becomes a massive point of discussion on social media. It creates a domino effect and you start seeing more documentaries about Dahmer, more video essays about it, more discussion on podcasts, and so on. The 17 men and young boys who were unfortunate enough to cross paths with Dahmer cannot be brought back, but we should remember their names and who they were as people, instead of their identities being watered down to "Jeffrey Dahmer's victims".
Steven Hicks
Steven Toumi
James Doxtator
Richard Guerrero
Anthony Sears
Raymond Smith
Eddie Smith
David C. Thomas
Curtis Straughter
Errol Lindsey
Ernest Miller
Anthony Hughes
Konerak Sinthasomphone
Matt Turner
Jeremiah Weinberger
Oliver Lacy
Joseph Bradehoft
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