In July 1991, police in the American City of Milwaukee made what ranks as one of the most gruesome discoveries in the history of crime. In a stinking, fly-infested fiat they found the remains of at least 11 men, all of them black. They had been dismembered. Amid conditions which the police spokes-man, Phillip Arreola, said were "indescribable", police found four intact bodies, parts of seven others and 11 skulls. There were also five whole skeletons, a kettle containing human hands and a vat of acid believed to have been used to dissolve human remains.
One of the first policemen to enter the apartment opened the refrigerator to find the preserved heads of three men. Another found a drawer stuffed full of photographs showing dismembered bodies and men involved in homosexual acts. The apartment was the home of Jeffrey Dahmer, a 31-year-old chocolate-factory worker. In 1989 he was convicted of sexual assault for offering money to a 13-year-old boy to pose nude; he was released on probation. Earlier, in 1986, he had been convicted for indecent exposure. Neighbors had complained about a stench from Dahmer's flat on and off for about a year. Others reported hearing power-saws buzzing at odd hours; they had assumed that Dahmer was building something.
The fact that the saws were being used for a more sinister purpose emerged when a man in handcuffs escaped from the apartment and told police that Dahmer had tried to attack him with a butcher's knife. In police custody, the man described by neighbors as "such a meek guy" admitted killing 17 young men in a rampage of necrophilia, dismemberment and possible cannibalism. He pleaded insanity.
ABOVE
Milwaukee police officers
look over evidence
gathered at Dahmer's
apartment. Detectives
found body parts stored
in a Freezer as well as
in barrels.Clothing
belonging to the victims
was packed away in
cardboard boxes.
