Lionel Dahmer
{{Short description|American chemist and writer (1936–2023)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Lionel Dahmer
| image = Lionel Dahmer.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Dahmer in 1992{{cite web|last=Wilkinson|first=Joseph|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/2023/12/05/jeffrey-dahmer-father-lionel-dead/|title=Jeffrey Dahmer's father, Lionel, dead at 87: reports|website=Daily News|date=December 5, 2023|access-date=December 8, 2023}}
| birth_name = Lionel Herbert Dahmer
| birth_date = {{birth date|1936|7|29}}
| birth_place = West Allis, Wisconsin, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2023|12|5|1936|7|29}}
| death_place = Medina, Ohio, U.S.
| occupation = Chemist researcher
Author
| known_for = Being the father of Jeffrey Dahmer
| notable_works = A Father's Story
{{Infobox scientist
| embed = yes
| field = Analytical chemistry
| workplaces = {{ubl|University of Wisconsin–Madison (BA)|Marquette University (MA)|Iowa State University (PhD)}}
| thesis_title = Chromatographic separations of niobium, tantalum, molybdenum, and tungsten
| thesis_url = https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/entities/publication/52969696-63c5-4c0d-a938-adbd08512fbc
| thesis_year = 1966
| doctoral_advisor = James S. Fritz
}}
| spouse = {{plainlist|
- {{marriage|Joyce Flint|1959|1978|end=div}}
- {{marriage|Shari Jordan|1978|2023|end=died}}
}}
| children = 2, including Jeffrey
}}
Lionel Herbert Dahmer ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|d|ɑː|m|ər}}; July 29, 1936 – December 5, 2023) was an American chemist and author known as the father of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. In 1994, he wrote A Father's Story, a non-fictional account on his son's upbringing, subsequent progress to become a world-wide-known serial killer and its aftermath.{{Cite web|url=https://allthatsinteresting.com/lionel-dahmer|title=The Story Of Jeffrey Dahmer's Father, The Man Who Had No Idea He Was Raising A Monster|first=Kaleena|last=Fraga|date=April 19, 2023|website=All That's Interesting}} Lionel's figure has been controversial in the subsequent years since his son's crimes, as both he and his first wife were accused of neglecting Jeffrey during his childhood.{{cite news |last1=Breitowich |first1=Andi |title=Did Jeffrey Dahmer's Childhood Turn Him Into A Serial Killer? Psychologists Unpack His Traumas {{!}} It Was a Perfect Storm |url=https://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/a41559253/jeffrey-dahmer-childhood-create-serial-killer/ |access-date=27 March 2024 |work=Women's Health Magazine |date=7 October 2022}}
Early life and education
Lionel Herbert Dahmer was born in West Allis, Wisconsin, on July 29, 1936, to Herbert Walter Dahmer, a high-school math teacher and barber, whom Dahmer described as "a good father, as caring and concerned as any child would wish,"{{sfn|Dahmer|1994|p=50}} and Catherine Jemima Hughes, an elementary school history teacher.{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/12/us/lionel-dahmer-dead.html|title = Lionel Dahmer, Who Agonized About Raising a Serial Killer, Dies at 87|last = Traub|first = Alex|date = December 12, 2023|accessdate = December 12, 2023|newspaper = The New York Times|url-access = limited}} Dahmer was of German ancestry by father and Welsh ancestry by mother.{{sfn|Masters|2020|p=19}}
Dahmer received his primary education and secondary education at local Wisconsin schools and enjoyed a relatively good childhood.{{cn|date=February 2024}} Dahmer enrolled in the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1954 and obtained his BS in chemistry in 1959. Dahmer married later that year, on August 22,{{sfn|Masters|2020|p=24}} to a 23-year-old teletype instructor named Joyce Annette Flint (1936–2000).{{cite news |last1=Janz |first1=Bill |title=Upon her death, Jeffrey Dahmer's mother, Joyce Flint, was remembered as a woman of contrasts. This is her 2000 obituary. |url=https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2022/09/29/jeffrey-dahmers-mother-joyce-flint-remembered-woman-contrasts/10454514002/ |access-date=17 January 2025 |work=Milwaukee Journal Sentinel |date=29 September 2022}}
Family and career
In A Father's Story, Dahmer related that, from the very beginning, their marriage struggled due to Joyce's poor mental health and irascible and tempestuous behavior and his own inability to fully keep up with it. Shortly after Joyce got pregnant, she began to suffer seizure episodes, apparently from their neighbor's kitchen's foul odors, which caused them to move out to Dahmer's parents' home, shortly before their firstborn's delivery in early 1960, to receive attention from his parents. During the latter months of the pregnancy, Joyce suffered from increased mental breakdowns and seizures, which, according to her doctor "were rooted in Joyce's mental, rather than physical state" and which aggravated her already severe prescription barbiturates and morphine addiction, to the point of taking as "many as twenty-six pills a day" and being constantly sedated to ease her pain. Decades after, he reflected about the long-lasting and eventual terminal effect in his marriage:
{{blockquote|text=In any event, we never really came to terms with the conflicts of that first year. Because of that, I think that this first troubled experience laid the foundation for a longer, and even more troubled, marriage. In some sense, our relationship never recovered from the damage done to it at this early stage, never really improved.{{sfn|Dahmer|1994|p=37}}}}
During the early years of Jeffrey's life, Dahmer's academic responsibilities and, later on, long work shifts prevented him from spending enough time with his wife and children. Shortly after Jeffrey's birth, Dahmer received a Master of Science degree from Marquette University in 1962.{{sfn|Dahmer|1994|p=35}} Later, he enrolled at Iowa State University, where he earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in October 1966.{{sfn|Dahmer|1994|p=61}} He described himself as average, even considered himself a mediocre student:
{{blockquote|text=I was never a great student. What others got quickly, took me much longer. I was a plodder, a plugger, a hard worker. For me, anything less than an all-out effort would mean failure. Others had flashes of creative brilliance, of sudden illumination, but I had only the power of my own will.}}
After divorcing Joyce in 1978, Dahmer married Shari Jordan, and moved to Granger, Ohio. In between his time at Marquette and Iowa Universities, Dahmer worked for PPG Industries.
Arrest of Jeffrey Dahmer and aftermath
Dahmer relates in his book how he struggled to comprehend the scope of his son's crimes.{{sfn|Dahmer|1994|pp=153-154}} Dahmer chronicles that the morning of July 23, 1991, he called Jeffrey's apartment to check on his son after he had missed a visit to his grandmother in West Allis. He was then informed by a detective that Jeffrey had been arrested.{{sfn|Dahmer|1994|pp=147-148}} The following months were difficult for Dahmer, as he and his family struggled with harassing phone calls{{sfn|Dahmer|1994|p=152}} and reporters.{{sfn|Dahmer|1994|pp=173-174}} Dahmer was particularly affected by his mother's (Jeffrey's grandmother) reaction to the news, especially after acts of vandalism against the elderly woman's house in West Allis, and further harassment.{{sfn|Dahmer|1994|pp=175-176}} Lionel Dahmer's mother died in December 1992 in a nursing home in Milwaukee.{{sfn|Dahmer|1994|p=250}}
Dahmer visited his son regularly while he was in prison. In February 1994, both appeared together on an NBC interview with Stone Phillips.{{cite news |last1=Teller |title=Acting Out His Darkest Dreams, He Had Nothing Left to Hide : Jeffrey Dahmer: He not only admits his crimes, he declines to shift the blame. |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-04-04-me-41974-story.html |access-date=17 January 2025 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=4 April 1994}}{{cite news |title=Confessions of a Serial Killer: Jeffrey Dahmer |url=https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/confessions-of-a-serial-killer/ |access-date=17 January 2025 |work=Top Documentary Films |date=1994}}
Later years and death
Dahmer appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1994, shortly after Jeffrey's murder. Dahmer told Oprah Winfrey that he still loved Jeffrey, and that he would always stand by him.{{cite news |last1=Coulter |first1=Christina |title=Jeffrey Dahmer's father dead at age 87 |url=https://www.fox9.com/news/jeffrey-dahmers-father-dead-at-age-87 |access-date=16 January 2025 |agency=FOX9 |date=8 December 2023}}
Dahmer was sued by the family of Steven Hicks—Jeffrey's first victim—along with his former wife Joyce and wife Shari, with the cause for the claim being negligence in raising Jeffrey.
In 2004, Dahmer appeared on Larry King Live along with his second wife, Shari. During the interview, Dahmer told Larry King that parents should not disregard shyness in their children, while commenting on his family's new life, including his grandchildren and his other son's life in anonymity. Dahmer and Shari also reaffirmed King that they were proud of the surname Dahmer, and they did not intend to change their names.{{cite news |last1=Piccotti |first1=Tyler |title=Lionel Dahmer Stood by His Son Jeffrey, Even After the Serial Killer's Death |url=https://www.biography.com/crime/a46053168/jeffrey-dahmer-dad-lionel-dahmer-relationship |access-date=15 January 2025 |work=Biography.com |date=7 December 2023}}{{cite news |title=Jeffrey Dahmer's parents on Larry King Live |url=https://edition.cnn.com/videos/tv/2017/03/28/jeffredy-dahmer-parents-on-larry-king-live.cnn |access-date=15 January 2025 |work=CNN |agency=Cable News Network (CNN) Archives |date=2004}}
In 2020, Dahmer appeared in Jeffrey Dahmer: Mind of a Monster.{{Cite web |last=Kaplan|first=Anna|date=October 6, 2022 |title=Where is Lionel Dahmer, Jeffrey Dahmer's father, now? |url=https://www.today.com/popculture/tv/lionel-dahmer-jeffrey-dahmer-father-now-rcna51056 |access-date=September 19, 2023 |website=TODAY.com |language=en}} In 2022, Dahmer considered suing Netflix over the series Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.{{Cite web |date=October 24, 2022 |last1=Miller|first1=Korin|last2=Spanfeller|first2=Jamie|title=Jeffrey Dahmer's Dad Is Reportedly Not Pleased With The Netflix Show |url=https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a41445099/jeffrey-dahmer-father-lionel-now/ |access-date=September 19, 2023 |website=Women's Health |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Prance|first=Sam|title=Jeffrey Dahmer's dad is considering suing Netflix for "glamorising" his son's murders |url=https://www.popbuzz.com/tv-film/news/jeffrey-dahmer-dad-lionel-dahmer-sue-netflix/ |access-date=September 19, 2023 |date=October 24, 2022|website=PopBuzz |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Dick |first=Jeremy |date=October 22, 2022 |title=Lionel Dahmer Considers Suing Netflix for Dahmer Series Portrayal |url=https://movieweb.com/lionel-dahmer-netflix-lawsuit/ |access-date=September 19, 2023 |website=MovieWeb |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Lennon |first=Mads |date=October 25, 2022 |title=Jeffrey Dahmer's father Lionel is reportedly considering suing Netflix (here's why) |url=https://netflixlife.com/2022/10/25/jeffrey-dahmer-father-lionel-reportedly-considering-suing-netflix-monster/ |access-date=September 19, 2023 |website=Netflix Life |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Robinson|first=Breanna|date=October 21, 2022|title=Jeffrey Dahmer's dad is thinking about suing Netflix for glamorising his son's grisly murders {{!}} indy100 |url=https://www.indy100.com/viral/jeffrey-dahmers-dad-considers-netflix-lawsuit |access-date=September 19, 2023 |website=www.indy100.com |language=en}}
Dahmer lived in Seville, Ohio, in his later years. His second wife, Shari, died in January 2023, and he died from a heart attack eleven months later, at a hospice in Medina, Ohio, on December 5, at the age of 87.{{cite news |last1=Price |first1=Mark J. |title=Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer's father, Lionel, dies at 87 |url=https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/2023/12/05/jeffrey-dahmer-father-lionel-dahmer-dies-at-87-in-medina-county-hospice/71818993007/ |access-date=December 7, 2023 |work=Akron Beacon Journal |date=December 5, 2023}}{{cite news |title=Lionel Dahmer obituary |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/lionel-dahmer-obituary-37mpz73rw |access-date=14 December 2023 |work=The Times |date=14 December 2023|url-access = limited}}
Cited works
- {{cite book |last1=Dahmer |first1=Lionel Herbert |title=A Father's Story |date=1994 |publisher=William and Morrow Company Inc. |isbn=978-0688121563}}
- {{cite book |last1=Masters |first1=Brian |title=The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer |author-link=Brian Masters |date=2020 |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |isbn=978-1529338935}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|1406332}}
{{Jeffrey Dahmer}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dahmer, Lionel}}
Category:20th-century American memoirists
Category:American people of German descent
Category:American people of Welsh descent
Category:Chemists from Wisconsin
Category:Iowa State University alumni
Category:Marquette University alumni
Category:People from Seville, Ohio
Category:People from West Allis, Wisconsin