THE TRIAL OF JEFFREY DAHMER

Article BY steph arena - Art by Shannon Riddle

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On January 30th 1992 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the murder trial of Milwaukee born serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer began. He was officially charged with 17 counts of murder – all of his victims being male, it later changed to 15 counts, however. His murders are known for being extremely grisly and macabre and they involved: rape, torture, dismemberment, necrophilia and cannabalism.

Many of Dahmer’s victims were African-American, so naturally there was a lot of racial tension surrounding it all. The security measures used were extraordinary. Especially, in the history of trials in Milwaukee.

In the courtroom, a barrier measuring eight feet in height was constructed from bullet proof glass, in order to protect Dahmer from the gallery.
The courtroom was swept for bombs, and anyone who was admitted inside was checked by means of a metal detector.

There were only one hundred seats available in the courtroom. Twenty three of those were for reporters. Thirty four were for the families of Dahmer’s victims and the forty three that remained were for spectators of the general public.

Judge Laurence S. Gram Jr. oversaw the trial. Dahmer’s defendant was Gerald Boyle, who had previously defended Dahmer in the past. And the district attorney, Michael McCann was also present. Dahmer’s father, Lionel and his second wife, Shari were present every day of the trial.

Dahmer ignored his lawyer’s advice and changed his plea to that of “guilty”, though based on the grounds of insanity. This apparently, “turned the case on it’s head”, according to Don Davis – author of : “The Jeffrey Dahmer Story: An American Nightmare.”

This changed Gerald Boyle’s task completely. Instead of having to prove that Jeffrey Dahmer was an innocent man, who had not committed some of the most gruesome murders ever, he now had to prove that Dahmer was, in actuality insane , as no sane person would be in any way capable of committing such crimes.

Mike McCann was on a mission to prove the complete opposite. That Dahmer was not in the least bit insane. That he had known exactly what he was doing as he was doing it, knew that it was most definitely wrong and derived pleasure from his acts. In short – that Dahmer was in fact an evil and psychopathic killer, who had committed the (premeditated) murders by luring his victims and then murdering them in absolute cold blood.

Prospective jurors were warned beforehand: “You’re going to hear things you probably didn’t know existed in the real world. In this case,” Boyle said, “You’re going to hear about sexual conduct before, during and after death. Will you be so disgusted you won’t be able to listen?” he asked them. Boyle, along with McCann then ruled out potential jurors who held prejudices against homosexuals and/or who claimed to have no use for psychiatrists.

Anne Schwartz, author of “The Man Who Could Not Kill Enough : The Secret Murders of Milwaukee’s Jeffrey Dahmer”, covered the story for “The Milwaukee Journal”. She remembers how on the second day of jury selection, before possible jurors were admitted into the room, Boyle held up a newspaper that read : “ MILWAUKEE CANNIBAL KILLER EATS HIS CELLMATE.”

“We all laughed,” she stated, “Especially Dahmer… He was an attractive man when he laughed… I could see how so many were taken in by him.”

The jury and two alternates were finally selected on January 29th 1992. There was only one black person selected. This caused a protest among the victims’ family members.
The whole case had been based upon racial lines, it seemed. Since the public had heard Glenda Cleveland’s story, up until it was revealed that most of Dahmer’s victims were indeed black.

It seemed that the jury, which consisted of seven white women and six white men was just another example of racial injustice.

Boyle’s defense was made up of forty five witnesses who would testify that Dahmer’s sexual and mental disorders meant that he could not fully understand the nature of his crimes and urges and that he truly was an insane person, as alleged.
Boyle also described every gruesome little detail of every murder Dahmer had committed, in great detail. In order to prove the point – Dahmer had be to be insane to have actually done such things.

During the trial, Boyle questioned the jury – “Was he evil or was he sick?”

It is thought that if the jury had taken a vote at that point, they may well have actually agreed that he was insane.

When the time came for Michael McCann to present his case, he told the courtroom that Jeffrey Dahmer was a “master manipulator and deceiver, who knew exactly what he was doing every step of the way, able to turn his urges on and off as easily as flipping on a light switch.” He then asked, “Did he attack other soldiers while he was in the army? Other students while at Ohio State University?” He stated, adamantly that the deaths were not the acts of an insane man. They were the acts that were results of meticulous planning and premeditation.

Jeffrey Dahmer’s one hundred and sixty page confession was read out by two detectives who took it in turns to read from it. It has been described as a “catalog of sexual perversion”.

According to Detective Dennis Murphy, Dahmer “felt a tremendous amount of guilt because of his actions. He felt thoroughly evil.”

He then quoted Dahmer’s own confession:

“It’s hard for me to believe that a human being could have done what I have done, but I know that I did it.”

He stated that the fear of being caught was overshadowed by his excitement of being completely and utterly in control.

This conflict between the psychiatrists, arguing over whether Dahmer was, in fact, legally responsible and able to control himself appeared to confused the jury even more so.

Boyle finally drew a wheel like chart for the jury. The middle part of the wheel represented Jeffrey Dahmer himself and the spokes eminating from the wheel represented the elements of Dahmer’s deviance. Boyle read them quickly:

"Skulls in locker, cannibalism, sexual urges, drilling, making zombies, necrophilia, drinking alcohol all the time, trying to create a shrine, lobotomies, defleshing, calling taxidermists, going to grave yards, masturbating.....This is Jeffrey Dahmer, a runaway train on a track of madness..." was his statement.

McCann quickly made a comeback, stating:

"He wasn't a runaway train, he was the engineer!" He was satisfying his extraordinary sexual cravings. "Ladies and gentlemen, he's fooled a lot of people. Please don't let this murderous killer fool you."

The jury wasn’t convinced that Dahmer was insane however and chose to believe Michael McCann – That Dahmer had known exactly what he was doing all along. That it was evil, but he had no qualms whatsoever about this and thus continued to commit them. On February 17th, 1992 it took them just five hours to find him guilty – but definitely sane, on all of the murder counts he was charged with.

Dahmer was given a sentence of fifteen consecutive life terms. Which totalled a minimum of nine hundred and thirty seven years.

Anne Schwartz, along with most everyone else was, "astonished at how normal this man looked and sounded.” She claimed, the day Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced, “I heard him read his statement to the court calmly and eloquently, and I wondered how easily I could have been conned.”

After reading his four page statement to the court, Dahmer then apologized for his crimes, ending with:

“I hated no one. I knew I was evil or sick. Or both. Now, I believe I was sick. The doctors have told me about my sickness, and now I have some peace. I know how much harm I have caused… Thank God there will be no more harm that I can do. I believe that only the Lord Jesus Christ can save me from my sins… I ask for no consideration.”