‘I wanted to control them’: Chilling interview with Dahmer resurfaces after Netflix series

Right now, everyone is talking about the Jeffrey Dahmer case. Netflix has released a drama where Evan Peters plays the serial killer, and has also announced a true crime documentary series about his crimes is coming next month too. Following the release of the new Netflix true crime drama, people have been finding old clips and interviews with the serial killer. One interview in particular is with Jeffrey Dahmer in prison, and he spoke in depth about what he did.

Jeffrey Dahmer killed 17 young men and boys between 1978 and 1991, making him one of the most notorious serial killers in history. He would often lure his victims back to his apartment, drug them and murder them. He was a cannibal, and ate a number of body parts from his victims. In an interview he broke down why he believed he committed the crimes and the ritual behind his murders.

CW: Contains details of crimes which may be upsetting. 

‘I desensitised myself from it’

In 1993, the man known as “the Milwaukee Cannibal” granted Inside Edition a prison interview with him, and spoke openly about his crimes. The clip on YouTube has had nearly 20million hits and parts have been posted on TikTok, also with millions of views. In the interview with journalist Nancy Glass, Dahmer described how he “desensitised” himself from his crimes and had “obsessive desires” towards his victims. He said he started having fantasies about dominance aged just 15.

When asked what he wanted from his victims, Dahmer said he wanted to “control them” and “possess them permanently”. He said he didn’t kill people because he was “angry” or “hated them”, but instead because he wanted to “keep them with me”. “As my obsession grew, I was saving body parts,” Jeffrey Dahmer explained. “It’s a process, it doesn’t happen over night. When you depersonalise another person and just view them as an object, it seems to make it easier to do things you shouldn’t do.”

The interview described Dahmer as “articulate and intelligent” which is what made him even more frightening, and able to get away with his crimes for so long. “I always knew that it was wrong,” he said. “But, the first killing was not planned. I had fantasies about picking up a hitchhiker and having complete control and dominance.”

He went on to describe how “nobody had a clue what was going on for over a decade” and explained why there was a nine-year gap between his first murder, and the rest. His first murder took place in 1978, and the next was in 1987. “There just wasn’t an opportunity to fully express what I wanted to do,” he said. “When I moved to Milwaukee in ’81, I started reading pornography. Eventually that lead to frequenting the gay bars.”

Jeffrey Dahmer visited bar Club 219, picking up victims before bringing them back to his apartment. He offered men money to come back to his place and have their photos taken.

He continued : “One time I brought this one guy back to a hotel, I was just planning on drugging him and spending the night with him, I had no intention of hurting him. When I woke up in the morning, apparently I had beaten him to death with my fists. I have no memory of it, but that’s what started the whole spree.”

‘If I couldn’t keep them with me whole, at least I could keep their skeletons’

Later in the interview, Jeffrey Dahmer told journalist Nancy Glass he was not repulsed or upset following each of his crimes, and said instead it was “almost addictive” and “a surge of energy”. He said he photographed victims to remember their appearances and “physical beauty”. “If I couldn’t keep them with me whole, at least I could keep their skeletons,” he said and described his initial plans to set up an altar with the skulls of his victims “as a memorial”. He described doing this as “so bizarre and strange” but “a place where I could collect my thoughts and feed my obsession.”

He did admit there were times he would look and think ‘what have I done’ and think his crimes were grotesque, but still said it was all an “obsession”. He described his “ritual” for carrying out a murder, including have his sleeping pill mixture “already prepared” and always watching The Exorcist 3 movie with his victims, as it “put him in the mood for murder”.

He later described cannibalism and eating the hearts of his victims as “branching out” and “a way of making me feel they were part of me”. He said he once took the head of one of his victims to work with him.

‘I wish I could say that it just left completely’

When asked if, at the time, he still felt the urges to kill people, Dahmer replied saying he wished he “could say that it just left completely but no, there are times when I still do have the old compulsions.” He said that if he hadn’t been caught and had still been a free man, he would still be committing further murders. “I can’t think of anything that would have stopped me,” he said.

Watch the full interview with Jeffrey Dahmer here:

Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is available now on Netflix. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• A true crime documentary series about Jeffrey Dahmer is coming to Netflix next month too

• All the previous convictions Jeffrey Dahmer had before he was arrested for his murders

• Inside the real life apartment once owned by Jeffrey Dahmer – and if it’s still there now