Jeffrey Dahmer and His Polaroid Photos

When Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested in July 1991, police found that he had led an almost normal life for a serial killer. His apartment was cluttered with plants and art and even contained a fish tank.

But when they entered the apartment, officers found 84 disturbing Polaroid photos of his victims and severed body parts.

Why Did Dahmer Take Them?

When police went to arrest Milwaukee serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in 1991, they were greeted with an overwhelming stench and the discovery of over 80 Polaroid photos. The photos revealed naked dismembered bodies posed in different ways. They also showed Dahmer eating the victims’ hearts, eyes, and tongues. According to The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Dahmer took these polaroids because he “wanted mementos to keep him company.”

Dahmer lured his victims to his apartment by paying for their Greyhound bus tickets, then murdered them and began dismembering them while posing for the photos. He kept the polaroids in an open drawer next to his bed. Upon his arrest, officers discovered the drawer and were able to identify some of the victims from the photos.

Besides the polaroids, police found several empty bottles of liquor, a vat of acid measuring 57 gallons, and prepackaged body parts to eat in his fridge. He had also boiled road-kill to make skeletons for the photos, and he had a fetish for the inside of dead animals.

The Polaroid photos helped lead to the capture of Dahmer, who murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991. He was sentenced to 16 life sentences and died in 1994. He was known as the Milwaukee Cannibal. Now, the hit Netflix series Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story starring American Horror Story and Mare of Easttown actor Evan Peters is retelling his shocking story.

Why Did He Kill His Victims?

During his killing spree, Dahmer developed rituals, such as consuming victims’ flesh or drilling into their skulls while they were still alive and injecting them with muriatic acid. He even attempted crude lobotomies. “He said he wanted to put them in a permanent submissive state by drilling into the brain and injecting acid,” according to Brian Masters.

The Polaroid photos that came out of Dahmer’s apartment after his arrest revealed the extent of his crimes. The gruesome images showed severed heads, preserved sexual organs and skeletons. They also depicted the bodies of his victims in suggestive poses. The photos also led police to discover a number of other disturbing items, including the refrigerator and freezer of Dahmer’s apartment. They found two complete human torsos in the fridge, and seven skulls along with an entire skeleton in the freezer.

The discovery of the Polaroid photos and other grisly items helped lead to the arrest of Dahmer. He was eventually sentenced to 16 life sentences and died in prison on November 28, 1994.

Dahmer’s last victim, a man named Tracy Edwards, flagged down Milwaukee police in July 1991. When officers escorted Edwards back to Dahmer’s apartment, they were met with an overwhelmingly foul odor. The officers then discovered boxes of hydrochloric acid strewn around the apartment, and 84 Polaroid photos.

What Happened After His Arrest?

After he was released from the half way house he rented an apartment in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There he met a man named Ray Smith at a local gay bar. They both got drunk and hung out together. Eventually, Dahmer invited him back to his apartment and offered him more alcohol. Ray accepted and soon he was unconscious.

Once he was asleep Dahmer drugged him with a combination of Irish cream and crushed sleeping pills. He then began to snap photos of him. He also asked him to unzip his fly so he could fondle him. When the effects of the medication began to wear off, he realized he had made a mistake and stopped. The next day he went to a gas station and bought more Irish cream and sleeping pills. He gave the second dose to Ray and this time the drugs took effect faster. Ray passed out within an hour and soon he was dead.

Upon his arrest, police found over 80 Polaroid photos of victims in various poses including some that showed him having necrophelic sex with the dismembered bodies. The photos helped them to identify him as the killer even though he initially claimed to be innocent.

In addition to the Polaroid photos, police found several boxes of human organs and a freezer full of severed heads. Almost all of these items were in the bedroom, which is where Dahmer kept them.

What Was He Trying To Do?

Jeffery Dahmer was a controlled, organized serial killer. He selected his victims by trolling local bars, posed them before and after death, retained souvenirs of their body parts in the form of photos, and disposed of each victim according to a carefully planned schedule. However, as the killings accelerated and his collection of body parts grew, he became increasingly disorganized psychologically and in his methods of killing and disposal.

Despite the fact that he was arrested and put on trial for the killings, Dahmer continued to kill and take pictures of the bodies. Eventually Milwaukee police officers flagged down a handcuffed Tracy Edwards who led them to Dahmer’s apartment and the discovery of around 80 horrifying Polaroids in his bedside drawer.

The photos showed him posing the body parts of his latest victims in various positions. Some of the pictures had been painted to preserve them. The Polaroid of the severed head of his first victim Steven Toumi was particularly disturbing.

Unlike his other victims, Toumi had been drugged. This was the only victim that Dahmer did not have necrophelic sex with. Instead he strangled the corpse, stripped it and dissolved all but the skull in acid. He kept the skull and later painted it to preserve it. In total, Dahmer killed a dozen men and boys and kept the heads, hands, and genitals of seven of them in his fridge.