Did Jeffrey Dahmer really keep polaroids of his victims?
Jeffrey Dahmer was one of the most notorious serial killers in U.S. history, with a body count of seventeen people across fourteen years. His horrific crimes first came to light in 1991 and he was ultimately convicted of murder, necrophilia, dismemberment, and cannibalism. But what exactly was it about his case that made it so shocking?
In this article, we will explore how the disturbing Polaroids left behind by Jeffrey Dahmer served as a crucial piece of evidence in the case against him.
Who was Dahmer?
Jeffrey Dahmer was an American serial killer and sex offender who committed the rape, murder, and dismemberment of seventeen men and boys between 1978 and 1991. Dahmer targeted mostly African-American men, whom he drugged, sexually assaulted, strangled, or bludgeoned to death before performing necrophilia and dismembering their bodies.
In 1992, he was convicted of fifteen of the sixteen murders he had committed in Wisconsin and sentenced to fifteen terms of life imprisonment. He was later sentenced to an additional life sentence for an earlier murder in Ohio. Dahmer died in a county jail while awaiting trial in 1994 after a fellow inmate beat him to death.
Polaroids
Jeffery Dahmer’s trial began on January 30th, 1993 and prosecutors were quick to point out all aspects that made him especially depraved & deviant; including drugging victims before killing them, mangling corpses in acid baths, or displaying limbs ’round apartments. What shocked the court most, however, wasn’t just the terrible nature of these crimes but the actual images involved.
These photographs – taken by himself – had been discovered inside his apartment during the investigation; providing a grisly reminder of brutality enacted upon unsuspecting victims at the hands of Jeffrey. Many cases were presented throughout the trial which illustrated how they were taken post-mortem as a part perverse ritual after death.
Most notably, some pictures included posing or kneeling down next to dead bodies as witnesses reported grizzly images seeing Dahmer being “extremely calm” while wearing only underwear & covered with blood handprints whilst holding the camera itself . . . all rather collected way seemingly taking snaps of those he no longer deemed human!
It was also pointed out how important documents such as medical certificates, police reports & testimonies were enormously helpful in corroborating ideas put forth prosecution – something abundantly clear jury throughout hearings since could not deny the evidence presented to them either.
This further reinforced the notion that Jeffrey Dahmer had conscious intentions of making sure corpses were preserved certain state (via refrigeration) so photos could be taken afterward in order to create permanent designs of victims’ faces & torsos; effectively desecrating their lifeless forms.
All combined proved an invaluable piece of the puzzle demonstrating just the sickening lengths Jeffrey went to in order to achieve sadistic sexual fantasies. This ultimately concluded their true criminal intent present from the very beginning; lending theory more lenient punishment may have been a viable case if weren’t for the sheer terror behind those Polaroid snapshots.
