For Some Who Survived Jeffrey Dahmer's Attacks, New Netflix Series About the Serial Killer Resurfaces Trauma

Jeffrey Dahmer lured unsuspecting young men to his Milwaukee apartment, where he drugged and strangled them, dismembered his victims and ate their body parts. He admitted to 17 killings after he was arrested.

Though some may watch a show based on a serial killer with cautious curiosity, those who survived that person’s reign of terror find such retellings far less entertaining. Such is the case where Netflix’s limited-run series “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” is concerned, as those who survived the cannibal have found the show, and actor Evan Peters’ portrayal of their tormenter, to be the latest instance of torture.   

Dahmer, a chocolate factory worker, went on to lure unsuspecting young men to his Milwaukee apartment, where he drugged and strangled them. He dismembered his victims and ate their body parts.   

Dahmer's bloody reign of terror finally came to an end when a young man he had targeted for death escaped the killer's apartment and alerted cops. Dahmer was arrested and confessed to 17 killings. 

“I was saving body parts, such as skulls and skeletons,” he told Inside Edition in a 1993 world exclusive interview at the maximum-security prison where he was serving 999 years. 

“I have been through hell in my life because of this one ... person. I’m going to keep the language clean,” Billy Joe Capshaw told Inside Edition. 

Capshaw’s sexual assault at the hands of Dahmer while they were in the U.S. Army is portrayed in the Netflix drama.  

When asked if the new show has brought back the horror he went through because of Dahmer, Capshaw said, “yes, it does.” 

Preston Davis narrowly escaped death at Dahmer’s hands when they were in the army together and Dahmer sexually assaulted him.  

Davis, now 63, has watched the Netflix series. 

“I think they did a good job,” he said of the adaptation. “It didn't trigger me. I’ve got better through therapy. I felt more sympathy or empathy for the victims' families.” 

At his sentencing, the disgust he inspired in one victim's sister erupted. “Jeffrey, I hate you! I hate you!” she cried. That, too, was recreated in the Netflix show.   

The woman who vented her anger on Dahmer viewed Netflix’s recreation of that moment, and said, "it felt like reliving it all over again. it brought back all the emotions I was feeling back then." 

In our 1993 interview, Dahmer said “there's no question that I deserve the death penalty.” 

In a sense, he got his way. He was bludgeoned to death by another prison inmate in 1994. 

But in the Netflix series, he lives again.

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