"I Deserve Death": Jeffrey Dahmer's Inside Edition Interview, 1993 (Three-Night Broadcast)

Name: "I Deserve Death": Jeffrey Dahmer's Inside Edition Interview, 1993 (Three-Night Broadcast)
Uploaded: 2022-10-31
Duration: 36 min 53 s
Description: Over three nights in February 1993, Inside Edition broadcast Nancy Glass's prison interview with Jeffrey Dahmer, in which he said he deserved the death penalty, described hiding his crimes and spoke about his childhood, while victims' relatives answered him.

Over three nights in February 1993, Inside Edition broadcast Nancy Glass's prison interview with Jeffrey Dahmer, in which he said he deserved the death penalty, described hiding his crimes and spoke about his childhood, while victims' relatives answered him.

Subject: Jeffrey Dahmer
Recorded: February 4, 1993
Runtime: 36:53

Content warning: Dahmer describes murder, dismemberment, cannibalism, necrophilia and experiments on living victims; the report refers to the murder of a 14-year-old boy and the sexual assault of a 13-year-old; victims' relatives speak of their loss.

The Interview

In January 1993, about 18 months after his arrest, Jeffrey Dahmer was interviewed at Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin, by Nancy Glass of the syndicated newsmagazine Inside Edition. It was his first television interview. Inside Edition, then anchored by Bill O'Reilly, broadcast it over three consecutive nights from February 8, 1993. This 37-minute recording, uploaded by a private channel in 2022, carries all three installments largely as broadcast, though it begins mid-sentence. The first is also available, in a shorter edit, on Inside Edition's own channel. In the later installments Dahmer tells Glass that "there's no question, I, that I deserve the death penalty", describes how he hid his crimes, and talks about his childhood.

Historical Context

Between 1978 and 1991 Dahmer killed 17 men and boys, one in Ohio and the rest in Wisconsin, most of them in Milwaukee. He was arrested on July 22, 1991, after Tracy Edwards escaped from his apartment and stopped a police car. In February 1992 a Milwaukee jury found him sane, and he was sentenced to 15 consecutive life terms; Wisconsin had no death penalty. In May 1992 he pleaded guilty in Ohio to the 1978 killing of Steven Hicks and received a further life term. The case caused anger in Milwaukee because many of the victims were Black, gay or both, and because police officers had returned 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone to Dahmer in May 1991, shortly before he killed the boy.

Circumstances of the Interview

Each installment opens with O'Reilly in the studio and Glass reporting, with her narration laid over archive footage and clips of the prison interview. The first night adds a fragment of what appears to be police audio from the night Konerak Sinthasomphone was returned and short statements by two men who escaped from Dahmer, one of them Tracy Edwards. The third night adds the criminologist Jack Levin of Northeastern University, a statement apparently from Dahmer's father Lionel or stepmother Shari, and relatives of victims who watched the interview together. The recording also contains teasers, a promotion for an unrelated Inside Edition story, and, in the first night, the narration's error that Dahmer was serving "999 years"; Glass gives the correct 15 consecutive life terms on the second night.

What the Interview Covers

The first night covers Dahmer's motive ("to keep them with me"), the killings of Steven Hicks in 1978 and of Steven Tuomi at the Ambassador Hotel, the photographs and planned "altar", cannibalism, the "zombie" experiments, the head in his locker at work, his arrest, race and his statement that "the person to blame is sitting right across from you". The second night covers punishment, suicide and the future; the locks, alarms and camera he installed; how he hid remains from his father and stepmother; the police visit when officers were, he says, inside the apartment with a dead man in the bedroom; why he did not wear glasses at his trial; his message to the families; his faith; and his prison routine. The third night covers his drinking and isolation after high school, his statement that his childhood was normal and free of abuse, his interest in taxidermy, his double life, Levin's assessment of him, and the families' reaction.

What Makes the Recording Significant

This is a fuller copy of Dahmer's first television interview, recorded about a year after his trial, than Inside Edition's own upload. Roughly half of it, the second and third nights, is not in Inside Edition's own upload. It sets his own words beside the reactions of the families of the men he killed, who rejected his expressions of sorrow. He gave one other major television interview, to Stone Phillips of Dateline NBC in 1994.

Archival Importance

The recording preserves Dahmer's account of his motives and methods, his view of his own punishment, his account of concealing the crimes from his family and from the police who came to his door, and his claims about his childhood, together with contemporary responses from a criminologist, his family and the victims' relatives. Dahmer was killed by another inmate at Columbia Correctional Institution on November 28, 1994.

Important Caveats

Everything Dahmer says about his motives, his memory, race, his remorse, his faith and his childhood is his own account. Jack Levin's remarks are one expert's interpretation. The narration's "999 years" is wrong (see above). The 13-year-old boy whom Dahmer molested in 1988 is not named in the video and is not named here; one escaped victim, the relatives and a woman seen in courtroom footage are also not named. Two short passages are attributed by inference (see TRANSCRIPT). The upload is from a private channel and may not contain every minute of the broadcasts.

Inside Edition Announcer: [Video begins mid-sentence] ...of all time. Today, an Inside Edition world exclusive: Jeffrey Dahmer talks about his obsession to kill and why he got away with it for so long.

Inside Edition Announcer: The world watched in horror as the savagery of serial murderer Jeffrey Dahmer unfolded.

Jeffrey Dahmer: It was almost addictive. Almost a surge of energy.

Inside Edition Announcer: The nation was stunned by the magnitude of the crime.

Jeffrey Dahmer: No one, no one had a clue as to what was happening for, for over a decade.

Inside Edition Announcer: How could this shy child grow into a modern-day monster?

Jeffrey Dahmer: I started having these obsessive thoughts when I was about 15 and 16, and they got worse and worse.

Inside Edition Announcer: Today, another Inside Edition world exclusive: Nancy Glass talks to serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

Nancy Glass: If you were out on the street now, would you still be committing the crimes?

Jeffrey Dahmer: Probably. If this hadn't happened, there's no doubt, I probably would be.

Bill O'Reilly: Hello, I'm Bill O'Reilly. Thanks for watching this very special Inside Edition. How could a normal-looking man with normal parents and a normal job commit some of the most brutal crimes the world has ever seen? Jeffrey Dahmer has never talked publicly about killing 17 people, until now. Nancy Glass is here with a very chilling interview. Nancy, first set the scene for us. What impression does Dahmer give when you first meet him?

Nancy Glass: Well, Bill, surprisingly, he is very articulate, and when he is talking you can see how he was able to manipulate his victims and how he was able to get away with it for so long. He also talks about his horrendous crimes in great detail, but in a very clinical manner, and you realize that none of it has touched him. Cold, matter-of-fact. [unclear: "Yes" (captions only)]

Bill O'Reilly: And Nancy will be back in just a few moments with the first part of her interview.

Jeffrey Dahmer: It was almost addictive, a surge of energy. I wouldn't have to worry about any of their needs or anything. I just had complete control of the situation.

Bill O'Reilly: He is 32 years old, and he is pure evil. But you'd never know it by looking at him. But when you hear him, that's another story. His killing field was Milwaukee, and he got away with murder for more than a decade. But how could any of this happen? For the first time ever, Nancy Glass is here, inside the world of Jeffrey Dahmer.

Nancy Glass: Bill, when I sat down opposite Jeffrey Dahmer for this interview, I wondered what he would tell me, how hard it would be to get him to discuss his horrific crimes. What I found was that he was very forthcoming. He volunteered details that may be difficult to hear. I began by asking what he wanted from the men he picked up.

Jeffrey Dahmer: I had these obsessive desires and, and thoughts, wanting to control them, to, uh, I don't know how to put it, uh, possess them permanently.

Nancy Glass: And that's why you killed them?

Jeffrey Dahmer: Right, right. Not because I was angry with them, not because I hated them, but because I wanted to keep them with me. And as my obsession grew, I was saving body parts such as skulls and, uh, skeletons.

Nancy Glass: Jeffrey Dahmer is recalling his monstrous past. Almost two years ago, in this little apartment in Milwaukee, police discovered the grisly remnants of one of the most horrible crime sprees in American history. Jeffrey Dahmer, an unassuming chocolate factory worker, would eventually confess that he had seduced, murdered and dismembered 17 young men. He even ate some of his victims' body parts. He instantly became the center of worldwide media attention, a serial killer unmasked. There were protests and press conferences in Milwaukee as people tried to understand how this could have happened in their midst.

Nancy Glass: How did Jeffrey Dahmer get away with murder after murder for 13 years? How did a boy born into a hard-working, middle-class family turn into the worst kind of monster imaginable? In this exclusive interview, we put those questions to Jeffrey Dahmer himself. We met with him at the maximum-security prison where he is serving his sentence of 999 years. For the first time, he talks about his crimes and gives us a chilling look inside the mind of a serial killer.

Jeffrey Dahmer: It's a process that doesn't happen overnight, when you depersonalize another person and view them as just an object, an object for pleasure, instead of a living, breathing human being. It, it seems to make it easier to do things you shouldn't do.

Nancy Glass: The reason why Jeffrey Dahmer was able to get away with his crimes was because of just what you are seeing here. Jeffrey Dahmer is intelligent and articulate. That is what makes him so frightening. But if you listen carefully to his words throughout this interview, you realize it is a thin disguise.

Nancy Glass: You do sound, though, like the kind of person who could have said to himself, "This is wrong. I must stop."

Jeffrey Dahmer: I always knew that, that it was wrong, but, uh, after the, the first... The first, uh, killing was not planned. I was, uh, coming back from the shopping mall, back in '78. I had had, uh, fantasies about picking up a hitchhiker and, uh, taking him back to the house and having complete control and dominance over him.

Nancy Glass: The hitchhiker's name was Steven Hicks. He was just 18. Jeffrey Dahmer took him to his parents' house. There, he strangled him with a barbell. He dismembered the body and hid it in a drainpipe. It was Jeffrey Dahmer who gave those details to the police in his confession.

Jeffrey Dahmer: No one, no one had a clue as to what was happening for, for over a decade.

Nancy Glass: During that time, Jeffrey Dahmer joined the Army and was sent to Germany. He was eventually discharged for a drinking problem and returned to Ohio. Nine years after Steven Hicks's murder, the killing began again.

Nancy Glass: What happened to you in the nine years in between, that you were able to stop, that you were able to control yourself?

Jeffrey Dahmer: It just wasn't an opportunity to fully express what I wanted to, to do. There was just not the physical opportunity to do it then. And I started, when I moved to Milwaukee in '81, I started reading pornography, going to the bookstores. Um, eventually that led to frequenting the gay bars. And then I, one time I brought this young man back to the hotel room, the Ambassador Hotel. I was just planning on drugging him and spending the night with him. Had no intention of hurting him. When I woke up in the morning, he had a broken rib here. It was heavily bruised. Apparently I had beaten him to death with my fists.

Nancy Glass: And you have no memory?

Jeffrey Dahmer: No memory of it. But that's what started the whole spree all over again.

Nancy Glass: Dahmer says he snuck the corpse of his victim, Steven Tuomi, out of his hotel room in a suitcase. Then he took it to his grandmother's house, where he cut up the body and put it in plastic garbage bags.

Nancy Glass: When you killed these men, afterwards, were you repulsed? Were you upset?

Jeffrey Dahmer: No. At the time, uh, it was, it was almost addictive. It was almost, uh, a surge of energy. Uh, I wouldn't have to worry about, um, any of their needs or anything. I just had complete control of the situation.

Nancy Glass: But Jeffrey Dahmer was out of control. The urge to kill had overpowered him. As police later learned, he wasn't satisfied with his victims' death. He wanted more.

Nancy Glass: Why did you photograph them?

Jeffrey Dahmer: It was my way of remembering, uh, their appearance, their physical beauty. I also wanted to keep something. If I couldn't keep them there with me whole, I, at least I felt that I could keep their skeletons. And I even went so far as planning on setting up an altar with the, uh, 10 different skulls and skeletons.

Nancy Glass: And what was the purpose of the altar going to be?

Jeffrey Dahmer: Uh, as a sort of memorial. A point where I could, I don't know, it's, it's so bizarre and strange, it's hard to describe. A place where I could collect my thoughts and feed my obsession.

Nancy Glass: When the bodies were still in your apartment, there was no time when you would see them and say, "This is grotesque. What have I done?"

Jeffrey Dahmer: There were times. There were times, but the compulsive obsession with, uh, doing what I was doing overpowered any feelings of revulsion.

Nancy Glass: This man, with a quiet, almost shy demeanor, became a master manipulator who was able to lure strangers he met at gay bars to his apartment. He was even able to con the police into returning a 14-year-old boy to him after neighbors called 911, upset that the child was in the street, naked and bleeding. Dahmer convinced the police that he and the boy were simply having a lovers' quarrel.

Police Audio: It was the intoxicated boyfriend of another boyfriend. How old was the child? It wasn't a child, it was an adult.

Nancy Glass: After the police left, Jeffrey Dahmer murdered that boy, Konerak Sinthasomphone. This man says he had a near-fatal encounter with Jeffrey Dahmer.

Survivor: He wanted to take some [unclear: "pictures" / "picture"] of my back. He hit me with a rubber hammer on my neck.

Nancy Glass: He was lucky to escape, because by then the killing had become almost routine.

Nancy Glass: Before you went out to pick up a man, was there any kind of ritual you went through?

Jeffrey Dahmer: I'd go to the nightclubs, drink, watch the, uh, the striptease shows, and if I didn't meet anyone at the bars, I'd go to the bath clubs and meet, meet someone there, offer them money, and we'd go back to the apartment, have a few drinks. I'd have the, uh, the sleeping pill mixture already prepared. Person would drink it, fall asleep, and, uh, that's when they would be strangled.

Nancy Glass: Watching the movie Exorcist III was also part of his ritual. It put him in the mood for murder.

Jeffrey Dahmer: I felt so hopelessly evil and perverted that, uh, that I, I actually [unclear: "derived" / "derives"] a sort of pleasure from watching that tape.

Nancy Glass: Did you like feeling evil?

Jeffrey Dahmer: No. No, I didn't, but, uh, I tried to overcome the thoughts, and it worked for a while, but eventually I gave in.

Nancy Glass: While Jeffrey Dahmer may say things today that make it seem like he understands what went on in his mind, he does not. All he can do is tell you what happened, but he cannot stop whatever it is that drove him to kill in the first place.

Nancy Glass: Do you still feel those same urges? Do you still feel that compulsion, that obsession?

Jeffrey Dahmer: Uh, I wish I could say that it just left completely, but no, there are times when I still do, still do have the old compulsions.

Bill O'Reilly: And coming next, as we continue, Dahmer talks about how his obsessions became more and more out of control.

Jeffrey Dahmer: I was dead set on, on going with this compulsion. It was the only thing that gave me any, uh, any satisfaction.

Bill O'Reilly: [Fragment] ...to [unclear: "interview" / "the interview"].

Nancy Glass: Bill, Jeffrey Dahmer says as time went on, his mind became more and more warped, and yet he was clever enough to continue to elude police and lure young men to his apartment. We should warn you, the details are very graphic.

Jeffrey Dahmer: I started having these obsessive thoughts when I was about 15 and 16, and they got worse and worse.

Nancy Glass: What were your fantasies about?

Jeffrey Dahmer: They were sexual fantasies of control, power, of complete dominance. They became reality.

Nancy Glass: Was there pleasure in that fantasy?

Jeffrey Dahmer: There was excitement, uh, fear, pleasure, all mixed together.

Nancy Glass: Jeffrey Dahmer fulfilled his fantasies by murdering and dismembering 17 young men. In time, his desires became more extreme, his deeds more grotesque. Listen to him talk about the most unnatural things in the most matter-of-fact of ways. That's when you realize that none of it has touched him.

Jeffrey Dahmer: I was branching out. That's when 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. At first it was just curiosity, and then it became compulsive. Then I tried to keep the person alive by inducing a zombie-like state, by injecting, uh, first dilute acid solution into their brain, or hot water. And it never did completely work.

Nancy Glass: Could someone like you be stopped? Could you be helped?

Jeffrey Dahmer: No, I, I was, I was dead set on, on going with this compulsion. It was the only thing that gave me any, uh, any satisfaction.

Nancy Glass: He became so warped by his evil impulses that he even took a victim's head with him to work at the Ambrosia Chocolate Factory.

Jeffrey Dahmer: I kept the, uh, the mummified head and skull of one of the victims in a carrying case in my locker at work.

Nancy Glass: Were you almost flaunting it?

Jeffrey Dahmer: Yes, but that's how strong the compulsion was. That's how bizarre the desire was. I wanted to keep something of, of the person with me.

Nancy Glass: Jeffrey Dahmer exhibited some disturbing behavior early on. He began drinking heavily as a teenager, dropped out of college, was arrested for indecent exposure, disorderly conduct, and fondling a 13-year-old boy. Tragically, one of his murder victims would be that boy's brother.

Nancy Glass: Do you know what started it? Was there any kind of incident that you can remember?

Jeffrey Dahmer: To this day, I don't know what started it, and, uh, the person to blame is sitting right across from you. That's the only person. Not parents, not society, not pornography. I mean, those are just excuses.

Nancy Glass: His macabre 13-year crime spree finally ended when this man, Tracy Edwards, brought the police to the infamous apartment. Like the others, he had gone there with the promise of money.

Tracy Edwards: He was listening to my heart, because at a point he told me he was gonna eat my heart. At that point, I hit him, I, and I ran.

Nancy Glass: What was the turning point for you that made you suddenly realize that you had done something terribly wrong, something you should be sorry for?

Jeffrey Dahmer: It was the night of the arrest. [unclear: "I have" / "They have"] no memory of what happened, uh, during the six hours before, uh, the last victim ran out of the apartment. I heard a knock on the door, and the police were there with, with the last victim. They asked me where the key was to the handcuffs. I was, my mind was in a haze. I sort of pointed to the bedroom, and that's where they found the pictures, and they, they yelled, "Cuff [unclear: "them" / "him"]." I was handcuffed. And it was just the realization that there was no point in trying to hide, hide my actions anymore. The best route was to help, help the police identify all the victims and just make a complete confession.

Nancy Glass: When it was revealed that most of the victims were Black or homosexual, people in Milwaukee were incensed. Many felt that was why he went after them, and why the police didn't seem to care when their families reported them missing.

Nancy Glass: Ten of your 17 victims were Black. Were they racially motivated?

Jeffrey Dahmer: It was not racially motivated. It was not a sexual preference. It was just to find, an obsession with the best-looking young man I could find.

Nancy Glass: While you just heard him say that his sexual preference had nothing to do with the killings, he has not come to terms with his homosexuality.

Jeffrey Dahmer: Never understood it. There was no use trying to fight it, because I, I couldn't rid myself of it. It was, it was too powerful and persistent.

Nancy Glass: Do you dislike it?

Jeffrey Dahmer: Yes. It's caused a lot of problems for me. A lot of conflicts and unanswered questions.

Nancy Glass: The conflicts remain with him, and so do his compulsions. But in prison, he finally cannot act on his savage desires.

Nancy Glass: If you were out on the street now, would you still be committing the crimes?

Jeffrey Dahmer: Probably. If this hadn't happened, there's no doubt, I probably would be. I can't think of anything that would have stopped me.

Bill O'Reilly: Boy, does he come across as cold-blooded. Did you see any remorse?

Nancy Glass: Well, he says he's sorry, Bill, but I'm not sure he knows what that means. Tomorrow he talks about how he disassociated himself from his crimes and what lengths he went to to hide them.

Bill O'Reilly: We will see you tomorrow, Nancy. Thanks for that report. [unclear: "And" / "On"] Inside Edition, we'll be right back.

Inside Edition Announcer: Tomorrow, more of Nancy Glass's interview with Jeffrey Dahmer.

Nancy Glass: What do you want to say to the families of the victims?

Jeffrey Dahmer: I had no intention of, of hurting them. I was extremely selfish. I was only thinking of myself.

Inside Edition Announcer: It's the interview the nation is talking about. Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, speaking for the first time.

Nancy Glass: Why is it so easy, though, for you to hide it all?

Jeffrey Dahmer: I bought security systems, uh, installed them myself in the apartment. I had a video camera in the corner of the room.

Inside Edition Announcer: Today, Nancy Glass continues her remarkable interview with serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

Promotion For Another Inside Edition Story: She was home alone when an intruder turned her evening into a night of terror. She reached for the phone in a desperate call for help. But it was too late. Or was it? The phone was off the hook. We were able to record almost the entire conversation. [Recorded call audio:] Let's go! [inaudible] [unclear: "Oh, baby, it's Colton" (small.en; not captioned)]

Inside Edition Announcer: Inside Edition today: what would you do if a thug broke into your house? Could you hold [unclear: "wide" (both machine texts)]?

Bill O'Reilly: It is one thing to read about his crimes, quite another to hear how dispassionately this killer talks about his grisly deeds. Nancy Glass joins us now to continue her exclusive interview with Dahmer. Nancy?

Nancy Glass: [unclear: "So" (small.en; possibly "Bill")], Jeffrey Dahmer is now in jail serving 15 consecutive life terms for his terrible crimes. Wisconsin does not have the death penalty. In prison, he is getting therapy, but he says it hasn't helped him. He spends his time reading the Bible and volumes of mail. I asked him if he was afraid of what might happen in prison, and he said no, what difference does it make if someone comes after him, because he doesn't care if he lives or dies.

Nancy Glass: He prowled gay bars, picking up men to seduce and murder. Jeffrey Dahmer says his desire to control and possess his victims drove him to inhuman acts on the living and the dead. He was a killing machine out of control.

Nancy Glass: How should you be punished?

Jeffrey Dahmer: Well, there's no question, I, that I deserve the death penalty. If, I've wondered myself why I, I don't have the death penalty. That, that's what I deserve. I deserve death.

Nancy Glass: What do you think happens after you die?

Jeffrey Dahmer: Right, that's the big unknown. I've thought of, uh, I've had thoughts of, of suicide, uh, but I just, uh, haven't been able to, uh, carry them through. So I don't know what the future will hold.

Nancy Glass: In the past, Jeffrey Dahmer was very sure of what he wanted and how to get it. Seventeen young men would die at his hands. Later, when he made this confession to the police, he included crimes too grotesque to repeat on television, too gruesome to be believed: dismemberment, cannibalism and worse. And he was cunning enough to get away with it for 13 years.

Nancy Glass: Why was it so easy, though, for you to hide it all?

Jeffrey Dahmer: I desensitized myself to it. I, I, uh, I don't know, I went to great lengths. I, I bought security systems, uh, installed them myself in the apartment. I had a video camera in the corner of the room, uh, installed locks on the doors, sirens and stuff in case anyone broke into the apartment.

Nancy Glass: And although his victims' body parts were in the apartment, when his father and stepmother came to visit, they detected nothing.

Nancy Glass: They said it was absolutely clean, perfect.

Jeffrey Dahmer: Right.

Nancy Glass: [unclear: "How'd you hide" / "Had to hide"] from them?

Jeffrey Dahmer: Everything was locked up either in the freezer or in the file chest. And so there was no evidence laying in the, in the open. There was nothing abnormal about the look of the apartment.

Nancy Glass: And he almost got caught after a 14-year-old victim escaped into the street, naked and bleeding. When neighbors called 911, Dahmer managed to talk his way out of trouble.

Nancy Glass: During the incident where the police were called and the young boy was returned to you, that didn't wake you up at all? The police on your doorstep?

Jeffrey Dahmer: They were, they were in the apartment. They were actually in the apartment, and there was a, a dead young man in the bedroom on the floor. I couldn't believe it when, when it turned out that they, they didn't see anything. I just, I couldn't believe it. And yes, it did shock me, but not enough to quit. That's how strong the compulsion was.

Nancy Glass: Jeffrey Dahmer describes the unspeakable with no emotion. It is as if he sees his victims as objects, not people. In fact, when he confessed, he remembered every horrific detail of what he did to them, but he couldn't remember their names.

Nancy Glass: Do you ever think about your victims?

Jeffrey Dahmer: Uh, I've often wondered why I haven't had, uh, more, more dreams or nightmares about what I've done. For some reason, it's like it's, it's blocked off from part of my mind. If I dwelled on the subject all the time, I would, I wouldn't be able to function.

Nancy Glass: Jeffrey Dahmer prefers to hide from the difficult truth about himself. That has always been his pattern. Even during his trial, he found a way to tune out.

Nancy Glass: You're in glasses now.

Jeffrey Dahmer: Right.

Nancy Glass: You didn't during the trial. Why not?

Jeffrey Dahmer: I, I didn't want to, I felt uncomfortable looking anyone in the face. I didn't want to see anyone's face clearly. It helped me disassociate myself from what was happening.

Woman In Court: [unclear: "Don't worry, I do! I do!" (small.en; not captioned)]

Nancy Glass: One woman in particular really got angry. What did you think when she was doing that?

Jeffrey Dahmer: I couldn't blame her a bit. I'm surprised there wasn't more of that.

Nancy Glass: What do you want to say to the families of the victims?

Jeffrey Dahmer: I had no intention of hurting them. I was, I, I was extremely selfish. I was only thinking of myself, my own pleasure, my own perverted desires.

Nancy Glass: You know the families of the victims don't believe in your conversion or your sorrow.

Jeffrey Dahmer: Oh, right. And, uh, if, if I, if I was on the, on their end of the table, I wouldn't either. Ultimately, I am accountable to the Lord Jesus Christ. He, he'll be my final judge.

Nancy Glass: Can your sins be forgiven?

Jeffrey Dahmer: The Lord Jesus Christ's shed blood is powerful enough to wipe out even my sins.

Nancy Glass: When he had to deal with some of the terrible realities of his life, Jeffrey Dahmer's conversation would veer off into scripture. Like many other criminals, he claims he has found God in prison, and his daily routine reflects his need to shut out the world.

Jeffrey Dahmer: I usually wake up at 6:30 in the morning, go eat breakfast, and then sleep until noon, wake up for lunch, and sleep until about four o'clock in the afternoon, eat dinner, and then spend the greater portion of the night watching TV.

Nancy Glass: He is up all night because he cannot face the daylight and the monstrous crimes that put him behind bars.

Jeffrey Dahmer: I try not to think too, too deeply about anything, because then I get depressed. Uh, I try to figure out why this happened, what, what started these thoughts in my head at such a young age, whether this has any, any meaning to it, or whether this is all just a horrible coincidence, you know, all the events in my life. I feel that I'm better off here than I, than, than I was on the outside doing what I was doing.

Nancy Glass: You're glad you're in prison?

Jeffrey Dahmer: I think it's best for everyone, right.

Nancy Glass: And you heard Jeffrey Dahmer say he wants to be punished. The victims' families agree. They voice their opinions tomorrow. And Jeffrey Dahmer talks about his early years and his family life. And finally, an expert on serial killers will tell us how this could have happened.

Bill O'Reilly: [unclear: "Still" (captions only)] Good report, Nancy. Thank you, and we'll see you tomorrow.

Inside Edition Announcer: [unclear: "It's their reaction" / "Their reaction"] on Inside Edition. A unique insight into the mind of a monster.

Relative Of A Victim: I'm against capital punishment, but I still think that he's not suffering enough.

Inside Edition Announcer: Today, the victims' relatives speak out.

Relative Of A Victim: I would like to ask him why.

Relative Of A Victim: He's on a suicide watch, and from day one, he's never tried to commit suicide. So, I mean, you know, get a clue. He likes living, just like my brother [unclear: "did" / "did like" / "didn't like him"].

Relative Of A Victim: That's right.

Bill O'Reilly: For the past two nights, we have heard serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer explain why he did what he did. Dahmer makes no excuses. He feels he should be executed. But what about the families of his victims? What are they going through? And what is their reaction to the words of Dahmer? Nancy Glass continues her exclusive interview. Nancy?

Nancy Glass: Bill, the building where Jeffrey Dahmer's crimes were discovered has been torn down. The grisly details of his killing spree have been revealed. He will be in prison for the rest of his life. All that remains is the question: why did this happen?

Jeffrey Dahmer: I had normal friendships in high school, but after that, I started in with the alcohol, drinking, a lot of solitary drinking. And really never had any close friendships after that, after high school. Just sort of lived in my own thought life, fantasy world.

Nancy Glass: What created those twisted fantasies is a question many are asking. According to some experts, Jeffrey Dahmer does not fit the profile of a ritual murderer.

Jack Levin: The typical serial killer kills for the thrill, for the excitement. He wants to hear the victim scream and shout and try to get away.

Nancy Glass: Northeastern University Professor Jack Levin is a sociologist and criminologist who has studied hundreds of serial killers. He says what he saw in our interview surprised him.

Jack Levin: I think the very fact that he sedated his victims before he strangled them, which is the last thing that most serial killers would do, gives us an indication that he may actually have felt guilty and that he did care, at least to some extent, about his victims. He's a little bit different in a number of ways. And the very fact that he necrophiled his victims is, is a clue that he felt extremely rejected, abandoned. And he couldn't even have sex with his victims while they were alive. In most cases, he had to kill them first.

Nancy Glass: Were you molested?

Jeffrey Dahmer: Never, [unclear: "never" / "ever"].

Nancy Glass: In your childhood, do you have any memories of anything that you would associate with what you became?

Jeffrey Dahmer: No, that's the, that's the strange thing. I can't pinpoint any, anything.

Nancy Glass: So there was nothing in your childhood?

Jeffrey Dahmer: No. No abuse, no physical abuse, no verbal abuse. It was a normal childhood in a good home. Something went awry in my thought life. I, I don't know why.

Nancy Glass: He grew up on this quiet, tree-lined street in Bath, Ohio. Friends say the young Jeffrey Dahmer exhibited some unusual interests.

Nancy Glass: Were you obsessed with dead animals? Is that true?

Jeffrey Dahmer: I was interested in taxidermy in high school and experimented with preserving the bones of dogs and things like that. And whether that had anything to do with, with the escalation of the crimes, I don't know.

Nancy Glass: But by all accounts, his terrible crimes are far removed from his ordinary beginnings. His father, Lionel, is a chemist who taught his son how to play tennis. His mother, Joyce, was a housewife. The family split apart when Jeffrey Dahmer turned 18. A court order kept his father away from the house. His mother, who had been hospitalized for mental problems, left too. It was when he was alone in the house that Jeffrey Dahmer committed his first murder.

Jack Levin: Let me put this in perspective. There are millions of people who get divorced. There are millions of people who have stepparents. And what does it do to them? Well, it doesn't make them kill. It doesn't make them cannibalize. Um, I think we've got to understand that we might be able to explain part of this, but we're not able to predict who's going to turn out to be a serial killer.

Nancy Glass: Jeffrey Dahmer's father and stepmother, Shari, say when he was in trouble in the past, they tried to get him help. They were as shocked as everyone else to hear about his secret life.

Lionel Or Shari Dahmer: The [unclear: "pain" / "king"] is watching the families have to sit there and listen to the gory details. And yet, what do we say to these families out there who don't even have a child to bury, in many cases? It's such a tragic waste, and we can't do anything about it.

Nancy Glass: They say around them, Jeffrey Dahmer acted as if nothing was wrong.

Nancy Glass: How did you live that double life? How did you go to work? How did you have a normal relationship with your family?

Jeffrey Dahmer: When you try to keep a terrible secret like I was, it warps every other aspect of your life. But I managed to, uh, I managed to go to work, conduct myself just like anyone else would.

Nancy Glass: Jeffrey Dahmer is determined to try to explain his hideous crimes. But why would he take the mask off now? Jack Levin says he thinks he knows.

Jack Levin: You know, it's very hard to feel sympathy for someone who has killed 17 people and has cannibalized their remains. I think he wanted a chance to let people know that he did care, that he was a remorseful human being. Now, I'm not sure that came through, but I think that was his intention.

Nancy Glass: The families of his victims disagreed. They gathered to watch what Jeffrey Dahmer had to say. They sat in stunned silence as they heard him describe the terrible end to the lives of their sons and brothers.

Relative Of A Victim: He says he deserves [unclear: "a night" (small.en; not captioned)]. He's on a suicide watch, and from day one, he's never tried to commit suicide. So, I mean, you know, get a clue. He likes living, just like my brother did.

Relative Of A Victim: That's right. Him saying he's sorry to me does not bring back my [unclear: "brother" / "brothers"]. He does not bring back 17 men.

Relative Of A Victim: I'm against capital punishment, but I still think that he's not suffering enough.

Nancy Glass: We may never know what demons drove this maniacal killer. Jeffrey Dahmer himself talks about the need to overpower and possess his victims, but Jack Levin says the serial murderer cannot face his own rage.

Jack Levin: There was this side where he actually wanted to possess his victims, but the other side was that he hated them. He was very angry with humanity, and this is kind of his way of getting even.

Nancy Glass: It would be easier to understand what happened if he came across as the glassy-eyed monster we expect him to be. Instead, he's able to appear normal, which is what once made him so dangerous. Most serial killers know the difference between right and wrong. They know what they do is wrong, and they simply don't care. Jeffrey Dahmer cared, perhaps, but not enough to stop himself.

Nancy Glass: And finally, I've been covering this story since it first broke. It has been very difficult at times to deal with the gruesome details, a lot of which we chose not to put on television. But I thought this was an important story to tell.