Who was Jeffrey Dahmer’s father, Lionel?
LIONEL Dahmer learned his son was a murderer, necrophiliac, rapist, and cannibal when Jeffrey was finally brought to justice on July 23, 1991.
Jeffrey Dahmer committed some of the most heinous crimes on record in the US, including the murders of 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991.
Who was Lionel Dahmer?
Lionel Dahmer was the father of Milwaukee serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.
He also has a younger son - David Dahmer - both sons whom he shared with his first wife, Joyce Dahmer.
In 1978, he married his second wife, Shari Jordan - who became a stepmother to both Jeffery and David.
During his career, Lionel mainly worked as a writer after graduating from the University of Wisconsin in 1959 and Marquette University, receiving a Master of Science in 1962.
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In 1966 he became a graduate of Iowa State University, obtaining a Doctorate in Philosophy.
He then served as a senior research chemist at PPG Industries in Barberton from 1960-1962 and as a research supervisor in analytical chemistry from 1968.
But his name became known worldwide when his son, Jeffrey Dahmer, was convicted in the early 1990s of murdering 17 men and boys.
His horrific crimes shocked the world when it came to light that the killer had also eaten some of the body parts of his victims, earning him the nickname The Milwaukee Cannibal.
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What did Lionel Dahmer say about his son Jeffrey?
After discovering his son was a serial killer, Lionel did not shy away from discussing his thoughts and feelings.
In 1994, he wrote an entire book called “A Father’s Story” about being the father of the infamous Jeffrey, where he expresses the complicated and often contradictory feelings he has about his son.
In the book, he suggests the prescription drugs Jeffery’s mother was on while pregnant could have negatively affected his brain.
He also questioned if his son’s shyness as a child was a red flag of future murderous tendencies.
It is clear in his writing that Lionel is confused about what may have caused his son to kill, while also often blaming himself for Jeffrey’s monstrous flaws.
Lionel said he was negligent and probably didn’t give enough of himself to Jeffrey emotionally.
The distraught father even blamed his chemistry background.
He wrote: ''As a scientist, I wonder if the potential for great evil resides deep in the blood that some of us may pass on to our children at birth.''
Despite the confusion around what caused Jeffrey to commit such crimes, one thing is clear from Lionel's work — he loved his son.
He stayed in regular contact with Jeffrey and visited him in prison regularly, alongside his wife Shari.
Lionel and Shari both expressed that they feared for Jeffrey’s safety during his time in prison with their worries eventually being proven valid.
Jeffrey was beaten to death by a fellow inmate Christopher Scarver at Wisconsin's Columbia Correctional Institution in 1994.
After the death of his son, Lionel was involved with several TV shows and documentaries, including Biography, Dateline NBC, Dahmer on Dahmer: A Serial Killer Speaks, Mind of a Monster, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Dr. Phil, Netflix's Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes, and the upcoming four-part Fox Nation docuseries My Son Jeffrey: The Dahmer Family Tapes, which starts streaming on the platform on September 18.
Where is Lionel Dahmer now?
Lionel Dahmer resided in Ohio, where he lived for most of his life, with his wife Shari.
Since 2020, Lionel embraced a life of privacy, tending to shy away from the public eye.
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On December 5, 2023, Lionel passed away in hospice care, an employee at the Medina County Health Department confirmed to The U.S. Sun.
Jeffrey's mother Joyce died in November 2000 from breast cancer.