On July 22, 1991, authorities arrested Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer and began searching his Milwaukee apartment. What they discovered would soon shock the town of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as well as the rest of the world. Police found photo albums containing pictures of body parts as well as the skeletal and human remains of several bodies. For years, Jeff Dahmer’s killing spree had gone undetected until that faithful day when police arrested and charged him with multiple murders. Jeff Dahmer later earned the nicknames of the Milwaukee Cannibal or the Milwaukee Monster, and even over 30 years later, he remains one of the most infamous American serial killers.
On September 21, 2022, Netflix released its clumsily titled, semi-biographical crime drama, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, which hoped to shed light on this notorious figure and his horrible crimes. This show quickly took the number one watched place on Netflix’s list and became one of their most-watched original shows ever (recently reaching one billion hours viewed).
The Netflix original series is broken up into 10 episodes and is told mainly in chronological order (with a few flashbacks) and depicts the details of Dahmer’s (Evan Peters) story. Instead of the retelling happening from the title character’s point of view, the audience looks on from an outsider’s perspective. This perspective could be because Netflix wanted their show to be as unbiased as possible and simply wanted to lay out all the facts. However, as with any dramatized Hollywood show, Netflix made a few changes, thus making some major statements and judgments.
Inaccurate Television News Reports
Netflix
The entire series starts with the following news report:
There is no record of an event like that happening in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1991 leading up to the arrest of Jeff Dahmer. Instead, this description fits something that happened in Nashville, Tennessee, on December 14th, 1992. As reported by Nashville Scene: “Five white officers attack Black police Officer Reginald Miller after a traffic stop, claiming they mistook him for a “john” in a prostitution ring. Miller was beaten severely while working his first undercover sting. Two of the officers were fired.”
It seems Netflix wanted to make a political statement and highlight racial tensions during this time by adding this news report as well as several other embellishments throughout the series.
Dahmer Drinking Human Blood
Before being arrested, Dahmer had several jobs, one of which included him working at The Milwaukee Blood Plasma Center as a phlebotomist. This was shown in the series; however, Netflix decided to show Dahmer stealing a bag of blood and bringing it home to drink.
In reality, Dahmer told law enforcement that he took a vial of blood and tasted it on the roof of the center. Instead of drinking it as the show depicts, Dahmer said that he spat out the blood and didn’t swallow it. While this change is minor, Netflix paints a darker, more inhuman version of him in this scene by having him drink and swallow the human blood, perhaps emphasizing the “monster” angle.
Dahmer Didn’t Wear His Glasses During the Trial
At the end of the 10-part series, Dahmer finally goes on trial to face the consequences of his crimes. In the Netflix series, actor Evan Peters as Dahmer almost always wears the killer’s signature glasses while the real Dahmer didn’t wear them during the trial. Dahmer said in an interview that he didn’t consider himself to be accountable to anyone, and he didn’t feel the need to face what he had done.
Therefore, he didn’t wear his glasses because he didn’t want to look into the eyes of the victims’ families or the faces of the jury. While this is a minor change, the significance behind the change is big as it speaks to Dahmer’s character and state of mind.
Glenda Cleveland Didn’t Live in the Same Apartment Complex as Dahmer
In the show, Glenda Cleveland (Niecy Nash) lives in the Oxford Apartments living adjacent to Dahmer. She is seen multiple times throughout the show calling the police and making complaints about the strange sounds she hears coming through the vents as well as horrible smells.
However, Cleveland actually lived in the building next to Dahmer’s, and her character in the show is likely a combination of Glenda Cleveland and Pamela Bass, who was Dahmer’s real neighbor and was the one Dahmer gave a sandwich to, not Glenda. It is true that Glenda repeatedly called the police to follow up on a boy, Konerak Sinthasomphone, whom her daughter Sandra Smith and niece Nicole Childress had tried to help, but she was reassured that the 14-year-old boy was actually Dahmer’s 19-year-old lover who had consumed too much alcohol.
Officers John Balcerzak and Joseph Gabrish Didn’t Receive “Officer of the Year” Awards
As mentioned above, two police officers, John Balcerzak and Joseph Gabrish responded to a scene of a boy who bystanders believed to be in trouble. That boy, 14-year-old boy Konerak Sinthasomphone, was drugged and unresponsive to police questions. Because of that, Dahmer was able to convince police that Sinthasomphone was his 19-year-old drunk boyfriend. Police then returned Sinthasomphone to Dahmer’s apartment and joked about needing to get “deloused.” Later, the officers are suspended with pay, pending an investigation into their decision regarding the handling of Sinthasomphone and their failure to run a background check on Dahmer who was on probation for a child molestation charge.
This is all fact; however, in a later episode of the series, both police officers receive “Officer of the Year” awards after they have been reinstated. In reality, the officers got fired but appealed that decision and were reinstated with back pay. Although, while they both went on to have long and successful careers in law enforcement, they did not receive “Officer of the Year” awards following their reinstatement to the Milwaukee police force.
There Is No Documented Arrest for Sandra Smith
Sandra Smith, the daughter of Glenda Cleveland, neighbor to Dahmer in Netflix’s version, was present both in the show and in real life during the night that police returned Konerak Sinthasomphone to Dahmer, who would later murder him. Later in the show, Sandra Smith (Dia Nash, the daughter of Glenda Cleveland and daughter of Glenda Cleveland actress Niecy Nash) is arrested for attacking and shattering the camera of a gawker, who is fascinated with Dahmer’s crimes. Later, the police arrive at Glenda’s apartment and arrest Sandra for assault. However, such an arrest has never been documented, and it seems that Netflix may have added this element to embellish their story and further highlight racial tension.
Whatever the motivation, it’s clear that subtle changes in the historical accuracy of the narrative and the show’s perspective has resulted in a critically divisive but undeniably huge television show. Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is streaming on Netflix.
