This behavior became known as “doing the Dahmer”. Socially awkward, sure, but he gained the attention and appreciation of some of his classmates with his odd sense of humor, often staging pranks and imitating epileptic seizures and cerebral palsy to entertain himself and others. He was deemed as a class clown in high school by some classmates. Dahmer at age 17, photographed for the 1977 Revere High School yearbook ( Wikipedia) When classmates asked him why he was drinking Gin in class, he called it his “medicine”. His classmates, however, were a bit disturbed by the way he would smuggle alcohol into the building from the age of 14, inside his jacket and would keep it in his locker to drink before, during, and after school. His teachers observed him to be polite and highly intelligent. He attended Rivere High School in Richfield, Ohio, where he participated in extracurricular activities, such as tennis and band. The drinking was out of control.”ĭahmer struggled with alcoholism from a very young age. In an interview about growing up with Dahmer, he stated, “He got darker and darker. John “Derf Backderf was a schoolmate and friend who knew Dahmer from 7th grade to graduation, is now a comic writer, and even wrote a comic called My Friend Dahmer, recently turned in to a motion picture, recounting their friendship and his impressions of Dahmer growing up. There was a comic book written after him. Due to these characteristics, some professionals thought he might have Aspergers.
According to Listland, Dahmer was socially awkward, had a limited spectrum of facial expressions, had obsessive interests, and appeared stiff and mechanical in the way he carried himself. He may have fallen somewhere on the autistic spectrum. His father was unaware of what he started, or that that the methods he taught Jeff would be used for much more sinister purposes in Dahmer’s future.
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So, he showed him how to safely bleach and later preserve the bones. His father, being a chemist, was proud of his son’s scientific curiosity. At 8 years old, during a chicken dinner with family, Dahmer expressed a curiosity to his father of how to bleach the bones of the chicken. His father unknowingly taught him how to preserve his victims. Dahmer started collecting insects and butterflies as a kid, then moved on to collecting road kill, always keeping carcasses in jars after dismembering them, out of the fascination with how the pieces fit together.
He was always fascinated with dead things. She even wrote a note on his report card, stating that he was a “Reserved child who she felt was neglected.” ( Personal Photos)ĭahmer’s First Grade teacher noticed something was off about him. Jeffrey Dahmer on the right with childhood friend Lee. Due to constant fighting with one another, Jeff and his younger brother, David, were often neglected. She became addicted to Enaquil pills and even attempted suicide by overdose. His father was always away from home, either studying or working, his mother was attention deprived in the marriage, and became depressed. He was the son of a Teletype Machine Instructor (his mother), and a Chemist (his father). Many believe that the negligence of his parents is partially to blame for Jeff’s disturbing behavior from a young age. After, he would often search beneath and around the family home for additional bones. His father said he had a strange fascination with the sound bones made, and believed he developed his fixation of collecting and playing with bones after his father found and removed the bones of a dead animal out from under the family home when Jeff was 4 years old. Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was born May 21st, 1960, confirming yet again, that Geminis are some scary motherfuckers.