30 years ago, on Nov. 28, Jeffrey Dahmer died in prison while serving 16 consecutive life sentences…
Jeffrey Dahmer’s death bore an eerie similarity to the first murder he committed.
On Nov. 28, 1994, the serial killer—who bludgeoned a hitchhiker named Steven Hicks to death in 1978—suffered the same fate at the hands of fellow inmate Christopher Scarver while serving 16 consecutive life sentences at a correctional facility in Wisconsin. Dahmer had raped, murdered, and dismembered at least 17 boys and young men in Milwaukee and engaged in cannibalism and necrophilia with some of their bodies before getting caught in 1991.
The gruesome details of Dahmer’s slayings, as well as the tragic failed attempts to report his murders sooner, shocked and captivated the world when his crimes were finally discovered. He was eventually convicted of 15 murders in Wisconsin and sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences in prison in February 1992, with the 16th conviction and life sentence coming later. He was not convicted of one of his 17 confessed killings due to a lack of evidence, though he didn’t live long enough to serve much time.
Here’s what to know about Jeffrey Dahmer’s death in prison 30 years ago.
How did Jeffrey Dahmer die?
Fellow inmate Christopher Scarver beat Dahmer and a second inmate, Jesse Anderson, to death at Columbia Correctional Institution.
Scarver, who is serving a life sentence for murder, told the New York Post in 2015 that Dahmer would sculpt human limbs from food and use ketchup for blood, unsettling other prisoners. Scarver kept his distance from Dahmer, who typically had a guard with him at all times because of his conflicts with other inmates.
On Nov. 28, 1994, Scarver, Anderson, and Dahmer were left unattended and unshackled to clean the gym bathroom. While Scarver was filling his mop and bucket, one of the men poked him in the back, but he didn’t know who it was.
“I turned around, and [Dahmer] and Jesse were kind of laughing under their breath,” Scarver recalled. “I looked right into their eyes, and I couldn’t tell which had done it.” The men then split up, and Scarver, who had reportedly kept a newspaper clipping about Dahmer’s crimes in his pocket, grabbed a 20-inch, 5-pound metal bar from the gym.
Scarver followed Dahmer into a staff locker room and confronted him about the crimes outlined in the newspaper clipping. “I asked him if he did those things because I was fiercely disgusted,” Scarver told the New York Post, adding that Dahmer was “shocked.”
He described what happened next: “He started looking for the door pretty quick. I blocked him. He ended up dead. I put his head down.” Scarver said he then quickly went to another locker room where Anderson was working and did the same to him.
Guards found Dahmer on the bathroom floor with severe head wounds from being hit with the bar and from his head being slammed into the wall. He was hospitalized and pronounced dead an hour later.
Scarver committed both murders within about 20 minutes. As for why he did it, Scarver said his motivation went beyond Dahmer’s behavior behind bars. “He crossed the line with some people—prisoners, prison staff,” Scarver claimed. “Some people who are in prison are repentant—but he was not one of them.
When did Jeffrey Dahmer die?
Carver murdered Dahmer on the morning of Nov. 28, 1994. Prison guards found him on the bathroom floor at around 8:10 a.m., and he was pronounced dead at a hospital about an hour later.
Where did Jeffrey Dahmer die?
Scarver bludgeoned Dahmer to death at Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisc.
How old was Jeffrey Dahmer when he died?
Born on May 21, 1960, Dahmer was 34 years old when he died.
What were Jeffrey Dahmer’s last words?
Dahmer’s last words aren’t publicly known. At his sentencing, he expressed remorse for his crimes and said he took “full responsibility” for the rapes and murders of his victims.
“I hope God has forgiven me,” Dahmer said, according to The Washington Post. “I know society will never be able to forgive me. I know the families of the victims will never be able to forgive me for what I have done.”
Dahmer said he had turned to his faith after the killings, telling the court he “created a holocaust” when he strayed from a higher power. “I should have stayed with God. I tried and I failed,” he said. He also addressed the multitude of statements from the families and loved ones of his victims.
“I feel so bad for what I did to those poor families, and I understand their rightful hate,” Dahmer said. “I have seen their tears and if I could give my life right now to bring their loved ones back, I would do it.”
How did the public react to Jeffrey Dahmer’s death?
Dahmer’s murders traumatized the families of his victims and many others in the Milwaukee community, but the public reaction to Dahmer’s death was divisive. While many were happy to know that Dahmer’s reign of terror came to a definitive end, others were upset that he wasn’t alive to suffer in prison for the atrocities he’d committed.
“Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann told The New York Times after Dahmer’s death: “This is the last sad chapter in a very sad life. Tragically, his parents will have to experience the same loss the families of his victims have experienced.” Regarding Scarver, he added, “I hope there will be no economic returns or celebration as a folk hero for the man that killed Jeffrey Dahmer.”
Dahmer’s own parents were even split in their response to his death. According to The Washington Post, Dahmer’s mother, Joyce, wanted to preserve her son’s brain for scientific studies into his behavior, while his father, Lionel, wanted it cremated with the rest of his body. In the end, both Dahmer’s body and his brain were cremated, per the Los Angeles Times.
Many believed that the Milwaukee police failed the gay and Black communities by not catching Dahmer sooner despite warnings from the killer’s Black neighbors. Glenda Cleveland, Dahmer’s former neighbor, reported him to the police several times to no avail. In May 1991, Cleveland’s daughter, Sandra Smith, and niece, Nicole Childress, called 911 for 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone after spotting him naked, bleeding and barely conscious in the street.
Dahmer convinced the responding police officers that Sinthasomphone was his boyfriend who had had too much to drink. He killed the boy after the officers left. If police had conducted a background check on Dahmer at the time, they would have learned that Dahmer was actually on probation for sexually assaulting Sinthasomphone’s older brother three years earlier.
How have Jeffrey Dahmer’s crimes been portrayed in the media?
Dahmer’s combination of serial killing, necrophilia and cannibalism has fascinated true crime fans for decades, inspiring the graphic novel and film My Friend Dahmer starring Ross Lynch and Ryan Murphy’s series Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story starring Evan Peters.
Family and friends of Dahmer’s victims have spoken out about how the multiple TV and film portrayals of the killer and his slayings were “retraumatizing” them.
