His victims were mostly young and gay, and often men of color. 17 Young Men – Who Were Dahmer's Victims?ĭahmer eventually confessed to murdering 17 men between 1978 to 1991. He then entered the Army, though was discharged in 1981 because of his excessive drinking, according to The Los Angeles Times.īut by that time, Dahmer wasn't just a college and military dropout - he was a murderer.
After high school, he went on to Ohio State University but soon dropped out. While his peers remember him as a shy, odd loner, some noted he was also a bit of a prankster, who relished in faking seizures and other attention-grabbing outbursts. And even before starting high school, fellow students said they noticed Dahmer drinking, the outlet reported. His father later claimed a neighborhood kid in Bath Township, Ohio sexually abused Dahmer when he was a boy. His parents had a rocky marriage - police were called to their home multiple times, and the couple finally split in 1978, according to the LA Times. He sometimes preserved their bodies in formaldehyde and hunted the area for roadkill to keep. Described as cripplingly shy, he collected bones of animals like cats, dogs, groundhogs, and others, then kept them in jars, as the Los Angeles Times reported in 1991. He displayed unsettling behavior from an early age. Dahmer was born in Milwaukee on May 21, 1960 to affluent parents.
