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Destructive Hostility: $e Je#rey Dahmer Case: A
Psychiatric and Forensic Study of a Serial Killer
Je#rey Jentzen
Medical College of Wisconsin
George Palermo
Medical College of Wisconsin
L. $omas Johnson
Marquee University3'., 2).'-2.-, 104$9$$#4
Khang-Cheng Ho
Medical College of Wisconsin
K. Alan Stormo
Medical College of Wisconsin
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NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be
accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page.
The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1994): pg. 283-294. DOI. This article is ©
Lippincott-Raven Publishers and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette.
Lippincott-Raven Publishers does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted
elsewhere without the express permission from Lippincott-Raven Publishers.
1
Destructive Hostility: The Jeffrey
Dahmer Case
A Psychiatric and Forensic Study of a
Serial Killer
Jeffrey Jentzen, M.D.
Office of the Medical Examiner, Milwaukee County
Medical College of Wisconsin
Milwaukee, WI
George Palermo, M.D.
Medical College of Wisconsin
Milwaukee, WI
L. Thomas Johnson, D.D.S., D.A.B.F.O.
School of Dentistry, Marquette University
Milwaukee, WI
Khang-Cheng Ho, M.D., Ph.D.
Medical College of Wisconsin
Milwaukee, WI
K. Alan Stormo, M.D.
Office of the Medical Examiner, Milwaukee County
Medical College of Wisconsin
Milwaukee, WI
John Teggatz, M.D.
Office of the Medical Examiner, Milwaukee County
Medical College of Wisconsin
Milwaukee, WI
NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be
accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page.
The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1994): pg. 283-294. DOI. This article is ©
Lippincott-Raven Publishers and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette.
Lippincott-Raven Publishers does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted
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2
Abstract:
We were involved as forensic experts in the case of the serial killer Jeffrey
Dahmer. We discuss the scene and victim autopsy findings, with a brief
consideration of the basic emotion of hostility. These findings support the
thesis that at the basis of this serial killer's behavior were primary
unconscious feelings of hate that he had channeled into a sadistic
programmed destruction of 17 young men. The interview of the serial killer,
the photographic scene documentation, and the autopsy findings stress the
ambivalent homosexuality of the killer, his sexual sadism, his obsessive
fetishism, and his possible cannibalism and necrophilia.
Keywords: Serial killers, Multiple homicides, Sadism, Homosexuality.
NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be
accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page.
The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1994): pg. 283-294. DOI. This article is ©
Lippincott-Raven Publishers and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette.
Lippincott-Raven Publishers does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted
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3
Psychiatric Reflection
Destructive Hostility
Hostility is the most common emotion behind any violent criminal act.
It leads to aggressivity when hostile thoughts and feelings are acted
upon. The shift is from an attitudinal type of thinking to a motor- or
action-oriented behavior. "Violence" refers to the quality and intensity
of the aggressive act. At the basis of hostility-aggressivity, one may
find feelings of dependence, passivity, helplessness, a need to be
loved frustrated in childhood, or a wish to control or dominate-a
reaction formation against dependency and passivity. At times,
because of fear of abandonment, such individuals tend to avoid a close
relationship and occasionally exhibit sudden, explosive, inexplicable,
threatening behavior toward the persons against whom they harbor
ambivalent feelings. The destructive acting out may conceal deeply
buried feelings of fear or frustration from which the hostile person tries
to defend him/herself. Ego-dystonic basic hate is felt to be dangerous
to the psychological homeostasis of the self.
Some hostile, aggressive people go through a life of neurotic,
repetitive, negative behavior, trying to avoid fantasized or real injuries
to the ego. At times, these people live in terror of being alone. Frieda
Fromm-Reichmann believed that humans usually repress their basic
hostility but that this repression is often unsuccessful and may
manifest itself in physical illness or disruptive conduct (1).
Psychoanalytic thought has repeatedly expressed the idea that
repressed hostility causes depression; however, manifest hostility is
also a part of a depressed mood.
It has been argued that there are two types of hostility: hostility-in
and hostility-out. Apparently those who manifest hostility-out do not
have a deep-core depression but appear to be sad, which is a part of
their neurotic character or a reactive attitude. For them, hostility is a
“feeling state” (2).
Tension originates in children at the time of breast-feeding, when an
ambivalent attitude develops toward the mother's breast, their object
source of both nourishment and frustration. Tension brings on
irritability. The child develops early in life, strong love-emotional
NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be
accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page.
The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1994): pg. 283-294. DOI. This article is ©
Lippincott-Raven Publishers and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette.
Lippincott-Raven Publishers does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted
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4
feelings (3). The acting out of one's hostility is almost instinctual.
However, “hostile aggressiveness, distinguished from biologically
inherited aggressiveness, originates in the course of the infant's
incorporation of the total maternal attitude, which often includes the
mother's own hostility” (4).
The hostile, aggressive individual “part driven by [ambivalence], by
guilt feelings, partly by a sense of loneliness, and partly by infantile
striving towards fusion with the external world ... is likely to imitate
once more the kind of identification and incorporation process which
eventually will again threaten his ego strength” (5). Aggressive,
violent individuals may feel engulfed by a world that they sense to be
hostile. Therefore, their hostile conduct has a primary unconscious aim
the end of any possible fusion with the people around them and the
reaffirmation of a distinction between the self and others. Those
people who are hostile and aggressive tend to detach themselves from
the world and fall into a lonely state—a state that they hate to be in
but that unconsciously they maneuver to call upon themselves. Their
explosive or often programmed methodical, violent conduct could be
seen as a recurrent, neurotic, repetitive behavior that channeled into
what can be thought of as a primary instinct of aggression, and short
of incorporating and fusing with the loved person, destroys it on the
altar of ambivalence, driven by repressed hostility accumulated
through years of injury to the ego.
Freud, in his book Civilization and Its Discontents, wrote that “men are
not gentle creatures who want to be loved and how at the most can
defend themselves if they are attacked. They are, on the contrary,
creatures among whose instinctual endowments is to be reckoned a
powerful share of aggressiveness” (6). He thought that through
civilization human destructive hostility would be controlled and
channeled into acceptable constructive behavior. At times, however,
humans are either unwilling to exercise control over the destabilizing
force promoted by inner tensions, or inner conflicts are so powerful
and so disrupting that these conflicts overcome any willful self-control.
Then the T (tension) Force of Wilson takes over the C (control) Force
and the individual's behavior becomes impulsive and destructive. The
criminal fails to develop stress tolerance because “he habitually
releases his tensions instead of learning to control them” (4).
Aggressivity is so much a part of humans that Ardrey and Lorenz
NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be
accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page.
The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1994): pg. 283-294. DOI. This article is ©
Lippincott-Raven Publishers and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette.
Lippincott-Raven Publishers does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted
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5
argued that “man became man because of his aggression and that we
should not be surprised by … violent behaviors because they are part
of our very essence” (4:48).
Contrary to the above theories, Erich Fromm and Richard Leakey
believed that primitive people had lived at peace with the world and
their neighbors (4:49). Freud argued that civilization creates a sort of
frustration in people by holding down their hostile tension and
aggressive instincts and usually makes them neurotic (4:49). Be that
as it may, the fact remains that some individuals, under inner and
outer stress, release their destructive impulses toward other humans
and at times their aggressive violent behavior is mixed with sadistic
sexuality. Fromm, in discussing human destructiveness, thought that a
better term for it would be malignant aggression, alias sadism (4:65).
Sadists want to exercise absolute control over another human being's
life, at times not limiting themselves to inflicting pain or debasement,
but actually bringing about the death of the other, whose dead body
may then, in some instances, continue to be the object of sexual
perversion.
Medical Examiner Investigation
The Scene
On July 23, 1991, personnel from the Milwaukee County Medical
Examiner's Office responded to a call regarding 924 North 25th Street,
apartment 213, in Milwaukee, where the partially skeletonized remains
of numerous individuals had been detected. Law enforcement officers
had initiated an investigation of the premises after responding to a
naked black man, who while handcuffed, was running down the middle
of a city street. The individual returned with police officers to the
residence, whereupon they obtained entrance into the apartment and
took the assailant, Jeffrey L. Dahmer, into custody. Dahmer freely
discussed his role in the killings with investigators, against the advice
of his legal counsel. He continued to be a valuable resource for
corroboration and verification of information for the pathologists and
law enforcement officials during the investigation of this case.
Medical examiner personnel initiated a scene investigation with
recovery of numerous body parts, including seven human skulls, three
of which were painted; four human heads, and one dissected
NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be
accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page.
The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1994): pg. 283-294. DOI. This article is ©
Lippincott-Raven Publishers and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette.
Lippincott-Raven Publishers does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted
elsewhere without the express permission from Lippincott-Raven Publishers.
6
postcranial skeleton from a portable freezer; and three skeletonized
bodies from a 55-gallon (209-L) plastic storage drum.
Dahmer lived in a small, cramped, sparsely furnished single-bedroom
apartment consisting of a living room and combination dining and
kitchen area, a small closet, a bathroom, and a single small bedroom
(Fig. 1). On initial inspection, in the living room were four large
cardboard containers of muriatic acid (HCl), numerous boxes of a
Soilex type of cleaning agent, a bleach bottle, and newly purchased
hardware implements (Fig. 2). Numerous Polaroid photographs of the
victims in various stages of dissection and dismemberment were
present about the house and most prominently contained within a
drawer in the bedroom. These victims had also been photographed,
both alive and in various poses after they had been killed. The
refrigerator contained a cardboard box with the head of a victim in a
state of early decomposition. The apartment itself was clean, well
maintained, and relatively odorless. A new carpet that had been
recently purchased, but not yet installed, was in the living room.
Numerous locks secured the door. Surveillance equipment, although
nonfunctioning, had been installed in a living-room wall. On the floor
of the living room area were numerous newly purchased hardware
implements, including electric wire, tape, saws, and a hammer (Fig.
3). Various graphic portraits and art depicting nude males in poses
decorated the entire apartment. A large fish tank was located on a
black art-deco style table upon which many of the victims had been
photographed and dissected (Fig. 4). A small electric drill and a
container of bleach were also present at the scene. A portable chest
freezer contained multiple plastic bags concealing three decapitated
heads and a disarticulated, dissected, partially skeletonized torso with
attached extremities. Further examination revealed a plastic bag
containing 31 sections of skin and soft tissue consisting of fatty tissue,
skeletal muscle, and facial and fibrous tissue having a total weight of
3,480g. Skin pieces were irregular, but somewhat square, the largest
measuring 15 X 7cm and the smallest measuring 2.5 X 1.5cm.
The kitchen area was void of food products. A can of Crisco grease was
the only food item present. The freezer portion of the refrigerator
contained a human heart sectioned in three pieces and a large muscle
mass contained in a ziplock plastic bag.
NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be
accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page.
The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1994): pg. 283-294. DOI. This article is ©
Lippincott-Raven Publishers and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette.
Lippincott-Raven Publishers does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted
elsewhere without the express permission from Lippincott-Raven Publishers.
7
Within the closet were containers of chloroform and formaldehyde, in
addition to two cleaned human skulls (Fig. 5). A large stainless-steel
cooking-style pot contained the desiccated hands and genitalia of one
victim. In the bedroom was a bloodied mattress and a bloodstained
Polaroid camera. A knife was concealed under the bed. A two-drawer
file cabinet contained three skulls that had been spray painted with a
gray “granite-like texture” paint (Fig. 6). In addition, a cleaned
skeleton was in the lower drawer, along with intact scalp and hair and
desiccated genitalia that bad been painted a Caucasian flesh tone. In a
small adjacent cardboard computer box were two additional skulls that
had been cleaned and preserved. This box also contained a photo
album “photographic diary,” with numerous photographs of the
multiple victims neatly displayed and cataloged. The contents of the
apartment, including the portable freezer, skulls, and skeleton
material, were transported to the Medical Examiner's Office located 15
blocks from the scene.
Autopsy Findings
Of the seven recovered skulls, three were painted with the gray
textured paint. Three of the recovered, non-painted, preserved skulls
and one of the frozen skulls contained small 0.2- to 0.5-cm
perforations. None of the painted skulls had these perforations, which
were later recognized to decrease in number from four to one on the
victims temporally related to the order of the victims' documented
dates of death (Fig. 7).
The recovered skeletons were easily approximated due to the various
levels of dissection; for instance, case 91-1501 was dissected at the
C6-C7 level as well as at the L3-L4 level; case 91-1502 at the C5-C6
and Ll-L2 levels; case 91-1503 at the C6-C7 and L2-L3 levels; and
case 91-1512 at the C5-C6 and L2-L3 levels, with disarticulated hands.
The skulls were also easily stripped of the gray spray-paint-like
material by using commercial paint thinner. Additional autopsy findings
indicated a sharp, clean dissection and dismemberment of the bodies
through articular joint spaces with a minimum of unnecessary incision
cuts. The sternum was intact in all cases.
In case 91-1503, a single wound track was present in the right frontal
lobe of the brain (Fig. 8). Microscopic sections of this wound track
revealed an acute and chronic inflammatory reaction as well as
NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be
accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page.
The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1994): pg. 283-294. DOI. This article is ©
Lippincott-Raven Publishers and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette.
Lippincott-Raven Publishers does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted
elsewhere without the express permission from Lippincott-Raven Publishers.
8
accumulated fibrinoid material. There was a diffuse endothelial
swelling and necrosis of cells and inflammation consistent with
vasculitis (Fig. 9). This reaction was located distant to the wound tract,
confirming the injection of the substances prior to death (Fig. 10).
Examination of one of the victims revealed a suspected stab wound to
the neck area. Since this was contiguous to level of dismemberment,
Dahmer was consulted, and indicated that this victim had awoke from
medication too early and became aggressive, and this resulted in an
altercation and stabbing. Forensic pathologists used the Polaroid
photographs of the victims to assist in determining the cause and
manner of death. Two of the victims had ligature marks about the
neck that were identifiable on these Polaroid photographs. These
photographs were essential in investigation of the deaths.
Identification of Remains
Of the 11 victims recovered from the scene, all were identified on the
basis of antemortem comparison with their dental records by a
forensic odontologist (L.T.J.). Of the five partially or totally
skeletonized remains, identification of four was confirmed by
fingerprints (Table 1). The skeletons were generally easily
approximated and identified due to the characteristic dissection levels
of the torso and extremities (Fig. 11). The cleaned postcranial skeleton
was correctly identified by duplicated superior articular surface of the
atlas. Within the limits of this case, craniometric measurements
suggested a similar craniofacial morphology of the victims (8).
Dahmer, himself, greatly facilitated the rapid identification of his
victims by providing names, and by his tedious method of processing
the skeletal remains. An Asian skull (91-1504) was identified on the
basis of shoveled central and lateral incisions. The skull also contained
a completely opened sphenoccipital synchondrosis indicative of an
estimated age of 12-17 years.
Special Problems
Over the course of the ensuing weeks, personnel from the Medical
Examiner's Office responded to numerous complaints by local citizenry
of recovery of small bone fragments, including large bags of bones
obviously from local restaurants within the area as well as what
appeared to be intentionally discarded bones left at the Dahmer
apartment. A total of 42 additional case investigations were necessary
NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be
accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page.
The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1994): pg. 283-294. DOI. This article is ©
Lippincott-Raven Publishers and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette.
Lippincott-Raven Publishers does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted
elsewhere without the express permission from Lippincott-Raven Publishers.
9
to accommodate these reports. The dissection of the victims as well as
the paucity of tissue made toxicology testing demanding. The
Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's toxicology laboratory
determined the presence of the sedative “hypnotic” Triazolam in two
victims, as well as a cocaine metabolite in one victim. Dahmer had
indicated to law enforcement officers on interrogation that he would
typically grind up the medication and place it in a glass prior to leaving
his apartment in search of potential victims (9).
Dahmer the Man
Sexual immaturity, perverse sexuality, frustration, passivity,
loneliness, fear of non-acceptance by a hostile world, and a mixture of
emotional detachment and aggressive hostile behavior are
encountered in the psychopathology of the personality of a serial killer.
Often, as in the case of Jeffrey Dahmer, his ambivalence about his own
confused sexuality and his feelings of anticipated rejection by others
bring about sadistic sexual behavior, compulsive and destructive of the
object of his pseudosexual attention, the hateful source of his
attraction and of his need for power and control. Jeffrey Dahmer is a
young serial killer who, at the age of 31, made local and national
news. He was a loner as a child, growing up in a “dysfunctional” family
due to frequent quarrels between his mother and father leading to
hostile feelings toward his parents. A neurotic, depressed mother and
a frequently absent father, absorbed in his career, did not allow him a
complete masculine identification. Since adolescence, he had
medicated his anger and frustration with alcohol. He was greatly
ambivalent about his homosexual tendency, felt frequently frustrated
by it, and eventually channeled his hostility into sadistic behavior
against people who accepted his homosexual advances. Attraction and
rejection exploded in his first murder at age 18 while he was alone in
his parents’ home. After strangling his first, young victim (someone
met casually who was not a homosexual himself) in a fit of rage, he
destroyed the body by cutting it into pieces that he buried in his
backyard. After a hiatus of several years, during which he was briefly
in college and then in the United States Army for 2 years, he returned
to his parents’ home. Eventually he moved to Milwaukee, where,
between 1988 and 1990, he actuated a methodical program of enticing
to his home 15 young victims, mostly in their 20s, who were attracted
by his promises of money for posing for photographs, and an
NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be
accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page.
The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1994): pg. 283-294. DOI. This article is ©
Lippincott-Raven Publishers and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette.
Lippincott-Raven Publishers does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted
elsewhere without the express permission from Lippincott-Raven Publishers.
10
unspoken exchange of sexuality. He had sex with them, usually
sodomizing them, and killed them afterward while they were under the
effect of a soporific “potion.” Later he dismembered them. The
survivor of his last encounter stated that Dahmer had been charming
and calm in his behavior, like “the boy next door.” The opposite of the
person who later dismembered his victims’ bodies; boiled the body
parts to destroy the flesh and to keep the bones and skulls as fetishes;
and photographed symbolic body parts and whole naked bodies in
sexually suggestive positions because, he later said, he wanted to
keep them as mementos-to keep him company (7).
His destructive behavior and his fetishistic memorabilia are an obvious
expression of his deep ambivalence about his own homosexual
behavior, and his profound mixed hostility and love toward the objects
of his interest. Regardless of his expressed loving feelings for them,
his victims were not treated as persons but as objects that he disposed
of as a child does with his toys, taking them apart to see what makes
them the way they are, taking them apart to show who was in power
and in control, and possibly showing unconsciously that he was not
always the passive, dependent individual he feared himself to be. An
ultimate act of destructive assertion!
Collaborating Conclusions
On the basis of the autopsy and scene evidence, the following
conclusions are confirmed:
1. That the defendant strangled the victims following "chemical
restraint."
2. That acid or some caustic-like material had been injected into
the victims' brains prior to death.
3. That the defendant most probably was experimenting on
decreasing the number of holes drilled as an attempt to render
the victims helpless and use them as involuntary "zombies," as
was elicited and supported by psychiatric examination (9).
4. The method of dissection and disposing of the victims was
determined on the basis of postmortem examination and
observation of photographs.
5. Anthropological analysis suggested that the defendant was
attracted to a certain body type and selected the victims by
similarity of craniofacial features.
NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be
accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page.
The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1994): pg. 283-294. DOI. This article is ©
Lippincott-Raven Publishers and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette.
Lippincott-Raven Publishers does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted
elsewhere without the express permission from Lippincott-Raven Publishers.
11
6. The material present at the scene was consistent with the
“dismemberment and souvenir taking” that has been described
as enhancing the sexual pleasure of a serial killer.
Comments
The destructive hostility of this serial killer needs no comment. It was
a heinous repetitive behavior, programmed and methodically carried
out by a person who was suffering from a deep disturbance of his
inner persona, without the overt manifestations of a distorted
psychotic mind: a man who was found to be legally sane. One
explanation for his abhorrent conduct is that he was driven by a
compulsive hostile aggressivity and that his violence was so profound
as to cause him to kill, cut, dismember, and dissect in an obsessive,
sadistic way, the body that attracted and repelled him at the same
time-a body that he wanted to torture and destroy because he felt that
by doing so he would be able to get rid of his inner emotional torture
and unwanted attraction; a body that he really did not love contrary to
what he wanted to believe, since he had ample opportunity to continue
a living relationship with it; a body, parts of which he claimed to have
eaten, probably as an expression of his biting hostility or his desire to
incorporate and make his own its attractive qualities (part of the
superstitious, atavistic belief at the basis of tribal anthropophagy). His
hostility-out was the counterpart of his hostility-in. His actions may
have, in some way, saved him from committing suicide. His sadism
could be viewed as the exercising of power and violence upon another
for self-assertion and self-preservation. He joins a long list of sexual
murderers previously reported, with whom he shares not only a deep
violent destructive hostility, but also boredom, loneliness, fear of
rejection, and an ambivalent craving for human closeness.
He was diagnosed and reported to the court by one of us (G.P.) (7) as
having a mixed personality disorder with sadistic, obsessive,
fetishistic, antisocial, necrophilic features, typical of what has been
called the organized, nonsocial, lust murderer (10). He entered a plea
of not guilty by reason of insanity. The verdict of the jury found him
legally sane on all 15 murder counts, and the court sentenced him to
15 consecutive terms of life in prison—one for each count of murder
that he had been charged with—without the possibility of parole.
NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be
accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page.
The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1994): pg. 283-294. DOI. This article is ©
Lippincott-Raven Publishers and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette.
Lippincott-Raven Publishers does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted
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12
Acknowledgment: we acknowledge the contributions of Ms. Doreen
Owens in the preparation of the manuscript.
NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be
accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page.
The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1994): pg. 283-294. DOI. This article is ©
Lippincott-Raven Publishers and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette.
Lippincott-Raven Publishers does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted
elsewhere without the express permission from Lippincott-Raven Publishers.
13
Figures
FIG. 1. A schematic depiction of the floor plan of Jeffrey Dahmer's
apartment emphasizes the closeness of the environment and the
relationship of the body-storage containers.
Photo redacted: copyrighted
material.
FIG. 2. View of the kitchen with
the portable freezer in the
foreground. Four large containers
of muriatic acid are present on
the floor.
Photo redacted: copyrighted
material.
FIG. 3. A close-up view of the
hardware implements located on
the floor of the closet. The items
appear to have been unused and
recently purchased.
NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be
accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page.
The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1994): pg. 283-294. DOI. This article is ©
Lippincott-Raven Publishers and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette.
Lippincott-Raven Publishers does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted
elsewhere without the express permission from Lippincott-Raven Publishers.
14
Photo redacted: copyrighted
material.
FIG. 4. The living-room
contained the plastic art-deco
style table with the filled fish
tank. The photograph located
above the fish tank depicts the
individual pose similar to that of
many of the victims when
photographed following death.
Photo redacted: copyrighted
material.
FIG. 5. The closet contained the
skulls of two victims. The
formaldehyde (large container)
and chloroform are visible on the
shelves. The large cooking pot
contained the desiccated hands
and genitalia of a victim.
Photo redacted: copyrighted
material.
FIG. 6. Within the two-drawer file
cabinet in the bedroom were
three texture-painted skulls.
FIG. 7. The chronological relationship of the victims. (Left, 1990.
Right, February-July, 1991.)
Photo redacted: copyrighted
material.
FIG. 8. Microscopic section of the
trephine perforation of the frontal
lobe. The defect contains fibrin
material with an inflammatory
response. The clear areas of
tissue cleavage represent
freezing artifact. X30.
NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be
accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page.
The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1994): pg. 283-294. DOI. This article is ©
Lippincott-Raven Publishers and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette.
Lippincott-Raven Publishers does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted
elsewhere without the express permission from Lippincott-Raven Publishers.
15
Photo redacted: copyrighted
material.
FIG. 9. A large-caliber vessel
demonstrating intraluminal fibrin
material with intense
inflammatory response and
endothelial necrosis. X 75.
Photo redacted: copyrighted
material.
FIG. 10. A low-power view of
brain tissue demonstrating the
diffuse pattern of vascular
involvement located well away
from the initial area of injection.
X 19.
FIG. 11. A schematic representation of the pattern of
dismemberment of the four final victims recovered from the scene.
The asterisks refer to the areas of attempted defleshing of the
plantar aspects of the feet.
NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be
accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page.
The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1994): pg. 283-294. DOI. This article is ©
Lippincott-Raven Publishers and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette.
Lippincott-Raven Publishers does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted
elsewhere without the express permission from Lippincott-Raven Publishers.
16
Table 1.
NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be
accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page.
The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1994): pg. 283-294. DOI. This article is ©
Lippincott-Raven Publishers and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette.
Lippincott-Raven Publishers does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted
elsewhere without the express permission from Lippincott-Raven Publishers.
17
References
1. Fromm-Reichmann, F. Psychoanalytic remarks on the clinical
significance of hostility. In: Bullard D, ed. Psychotherapy: selected
papers of Frieda Fromm -Reichmann. Chicago: Chicago University
Press (1959): 277—282.
2. Gershon, E.S., Cromer, M., Klerman, G.L. Hostility and depression.
Psychiatry, Vol. 31 (1968):223-235.
3. Johnson, A.M.C.F. Some etiological aspects of repression, guilt and
hostility. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, Vol. 20 (1951):511-527.
4. Wilson, Colin. A criminal history of mankind. New York: Carroll and
Graff, 1984:48-49, 63.
5. Fried, E. Ego strengthening aspects of hostility. American Journal of
Orthopsychiatry, Vol. 26 (1956):179-187.
6. Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and its discontents, Strachey J, trans.
New York: W.E. Norton, 1961.
7. State of Wisconsin vs Jeffrey Dahmer, case F-912542. 1992, trial
testimony. G.B. Palermo, MD.
8. Bennett, K. Victim selection in the Jeffrey Dahmer slayings:
registration in the paraphilias? Journal of Forensic Science, Vol. 38
(1993): 1227-1232.
9. Dodge, D. The confessions of Jeffrey Dahmer. Milwaukee Sentinel Feb
1, 1992.
10. Hazelwood, R.R., Douglas J.E. The lust murder. In: U.S. Department of
Justice. Criminal Investigative analysis. Quantico, VA: NCAVC FBI,
1990.
NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be
accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page.
The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1994): pg. 283-294. DOI. This article is ©
Lippincott-Raven Publishers and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette.
Lippincott-Raven Publishers does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted
elsewhere without the express permission from Lippincott-Raven Publishers.
18
About the Authors
Jeffrey Jentzen, MD: Medical Examiner, Office of the Medical Examiner,
Milwaukee County; Associate Professor, Medical College of Wisconsin
George Palermo, MD: Director of Criminological Psychiatry and Clinical
Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology, Medical College of Wisconsin
L. Thomas Johnson, DDS, DABFO: Professor of Forensic Dentistry, Marquette
University School of Dentistry
Khang-Cheng Ho, MD, PhD: Associate Professor, Department of Pathology,
Neuropathology, Medical College of Wisconsin.
K. Alan Stormo, MD: Assistant Medical Examiner, Office of the Medical
Examiner, Milwaukee County; Assistant Clinical Professor, Medical College of
Wisconsin
John Teggatz, MD: Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, Office of the Medical
Examiner, Milwaukee County; Assistant Clinical Professor, Medical College of
Wisconsin
