Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (Netflix)

[The2Omicronnies]

Has anyone started watching this? I’ve just watched the first episode and found it utterly chilling. It’s been a long time since a TV show has impacted me so much; I felt myself physically recoiling. Excellent acting from both the chap playing Dahmer, and his victim, Tracey.

I watched the opening scene and turned it off. It was on for no longer than 20 seconds! Like a pp, I just don't really have the appetite any more for gruesome stuff. The blurred image of the man in the background, seated with a bag over his head just really wasn't for me.

Ahaha see that didn't bother me so much!

I've been sleeping on sofa bed in living room as adult son home for a while and I have Covid.
I think god help anyone that walks in my front door to see me raise looking like one of the undead 🤣

Off to double check door 😉

Richard Ramirez makes me feel physically sick 🤮

How some women swoon over me is absolutely unbelievable to me.

Sorry I was watching at the same time! I thought from this thread that she did eat it but it seems she ordered him out!

How that strong resilient woman would have ever eaten a sandwich prepared by him!! Thank goodness it seems she didn't.

So so many men where going missing!

What where the police doing to look for them?

Men are going missing and one lady is calling repeatedly about smell's and drilling and screams?

Isn't it amazing that even today with all our technology, killer's get away with it because we can't join up the dots?

I do wonder if he would have got away with it so long if his time happened now. There is less homophobia, yes of course it still exists but people aren’t so quick to turn their backs on gay people in their families, people don’t have to live separate, secret lives like so many of the young men who went missing. And of course we have smart phones that we practically live through, with all sorts of tracking and social media. Much easier to find people - or less likely to lose someone.

I do wonder (horrible thought) if there’s another serial killer out there just waiting to be found. Dahmer seems to be one of the last really infamous ones. I wonder if the world has just changed so much it’s harder for them to hide.

The 70s and 80s were rife with serial killers.

Semms much rarer now. Is that just because of DNA testing?

I know this sounds really stupid and naive, but I really hoped Dahmer might be different with Tony, the lovely deaf bloke.

That's a massive part of it, I reckon.

Did anybody see Mindhunter, about the early days of DNA profiling in the FBI? One of the best series I've ever watched on Netflix.

I’ve just finished episode 8

its very tense, i think very well acted and directed. Don’t want to add any spoilers but one episode is very good in the way it’s filmed

filming reminds my of se7en at times

I have read conflicting accounts on his personality and how he was viewed. I think always an outsider but maybe not quite a strange as in this series

There was an article a couple of years ago with theories on this. Partly down to dna testing and much better technology in police departments and forensics. Its also thought people are less vulnerable these days, we're more aware of safety, don't hitchhike or go off with strangers, everyone has phones and there are cameras everywhere. Also, children aren't left to their own devices as much as they were back in the 70s and 80s, when parents sometimes had no idea where their children were all day. So less available victims means less serial killers. (I think the article was in something like Discover magazine.)

@mycatisannoying oh my I was the same as you ... I hoped he had found that being liked and wanted by someone would change the need to kill ... I thought he would really be happy with Tony ...
I wasn't wanting to forgive what he's done previous but I thought this was the changing curve maybe

This made me think of Diane Downs, who is in prison for murdering her daughter. Diane was very pretty and had a lot of men writing to her in prison. A serial killer called Randy Woodfield, also in prison, actually started writing to her and they ended up having some kind of 'relationship' for a while. You couldn't make it up really!

Ooh, interesting to know that there are crazy men who write as well. And what a match made I heaven for them

I know plenty of people who had a worse childhood.

I never really understand comments like these. That's like saying 'well I know men who don't murder' yeah but the majority of murders are men. And many serial killers experienced trauma in their childhood.

Here is an excerpt from an article on a study done on 50 serial killers:

'Our data showed that a much higher percentage of serial killers were abused as children than the population in general. It certainly makes sense that the type of abuse received as a child — physical, sexual, or psychological — could influence a serial killer’s behavior and choice of victim.” While it is safe to recognize abuse as a factor contributing to the making of a serial killer, most people who face abuse do not become serial killers. In this study, 32% of all serial killers had no history of abuse'

www.psychiatryadvisor.com/home/topics/violence-and-aggression/from-abused-child-to-serial-killer-investigating-nature-vs-nurture-in-methods-of-murder/

Except in this case, no was was even looking at the dots. These men were poor, gay ethnic minorities.

100%
He acted it amazingly to the point of being repugnant, it must have been a challenging act.
He didn’t take this job for the glamour ( there is none) there are no accolades, it’s just absolutely gritty acting.
I think he will get the Emmy

Totally agree. Imagine if it had been YOUR child or sibling or parent that had been murdered...and their murder had been turned into 'entertainment' for the masses to 'enjoy'. That the scenes of their murder and torture were depicted in graphic detail and broadcast into people's homes for their Friday night entertainment? Or imagine that you had been the one killed? Your life stolen prematurely in the most horrific manner. Is that how you would like to be remembered? Your memory defiled by some made for TV production designed to make money for the TV stations and for 'enjoyment'? (I know - you're dead, does it matter, but it does) That their killer was a celebrity. That's what I don't like about true crime. It IS immoral. It glorifies the killers and minimises the victims and their feelings.

@BertaHoon do you not normally lock your doors? 😬

I do wonder if he would have got away with it so long if his time happened now. There is less homophobia, yes of course it still exists but people aren’t so quick to turn their backs on gay people in their families, people don’t have to live separate, secret lives like so many of the young men who went missing. And of course we have smart phones that we practically live through, with all sorts of tracking and social media. Much easier to find people - or less likely to lose someone.

I do wonder (horrible thought) if there’s another serial killer out there just waiting to be found. Dahmer seems to be one of the last really infamous ones. I wonder if the world has just changed so much it’s harder for them to hide.

@Afterfire have you seen Four Lives? About Stephen Port, who lured young men back to his flat, drugged and raped them, with a fatal overdose and dumped them right outside his flat? That happened in 2016. The police dismissed it as chem sex related, all those gay boys just going crazy on drugs. 2 of the victims were disposed of in the same church yard (or park I can't remember) and they still didn't think there was a connection. There was an inquest into the murders in 2021 that looked at the failings of the Met police.

And Dennis Nilsen is another who is eerily similar to Dahmer that happened in London, during a similar time frame, although he was captured before Dahmer. He killed 12 men and boys, also practiced necrophilia, and kept their bodies around for a while before dismembering them and flushing them down the toilet. There's a small series on him as well, with David Tennant.

Both series were excellent but I've read there won't be any more. I made the mistake of googling some of the killers they interviewed. Gawd.

I usually love anything true crime related but we started this tonight and switched it off half way through episode 1, just too tense and dark for me. I might give another go another day but we ended up with a cheesy rom-com to take the 'taste' of it away.

@starray @whythou111 I feel very similar & struggle with the idea of my loved ones torture & murder being entertainment fodder. Some shows focus more on the victim but many do glorify the killers & the victims are often the background which I think is wrong.

I agree, nothing has changed.
Serial killers largely target communities few people care about. It is how they get away with it long enough to kill many people.
The 70s and 80s though were a time when you started to get many more people travel and live away from their extended families. So a serial killer was less easily detected by neighbours. And at the same time you do not have the technology you have now. DNA, CCTV, mobile phones. In the Dahmer series some of those men could have ring friends if mobile phones had existed.

I think it was done very well. First episode is intense but SPOILER he’s the one that manages to escape. I don’t think it glorifies the murders in anyway. It flips back and fourth and is cleverly done. You get to know snippets of the victims, their families, the neighbour and the injustice they all suffered. We also get to see snippets of Jeffrey’s childhood and family dynamics. His dad did not sexually abuse him, was he neglected? yes by both parents. It wasn’t the best childhood but also not the worst.

I'm surprised that so many people start watching and then "have to turn it off". I'm not sure what people are expecting when they turn into a drama called "Dahmer"?

Personally, I didn't think it was too gratuitous. They told the story of the victims more from the perspective of what the neighbour heard, rather than showing what he did. We knew what was happening, of course, because we know the story, but I think it was well told.

The racism in the justice system was shocking. Not just the police, but the judge too, who complained that he couldn't understand what the Laotian man was saying at Dahmer's hearing for the sexual assault. It was all about not ruining the chances for Dahmer, a young white man. He was allowed to get away with things over and over again. Also with the drink driving (and no exploration of what was on the bags). There were so many missed opportunities.

It's interesting to see how he got away with it for so long.