Editing Jeffrey Dahmer (section)

==Early life==
===Childhood===
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was born on May 21, 1960, in [[Milwaukee]], [[Wisconsin]],{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=26}} the first of two sons to [[Lionel Dahmer|Lionel Herbert Dahmer]], a [[Marquette University]] chemistry student and later a research chemist, and Joyce Annette Dahmer ({{née|Flint}}), a [[teletype machine]] instructor.{{sfn|Campbell|p=8}}{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=33}} Lionel was of German and Welsh ancestry, and Joyce was of Norwegian and Irish ancestry.{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=19}}<ref>{{cite book |first= Charles |last= Klotsche| title= The Silent Victims: The Aftermath of Failed Children on Their Mothers' Lives |publisher=Pan American Press |location=Los Angeles|year= 1995|isbn= 0-9673890-2-X |pages= 19–20}}</ref>

Some sources report Dahmer was deprived of attention as an infant.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Willem |last=Martens |title=Sadism Linked to Loneliness: Psychodynamic dimensions of the Sadistic Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer |journal=[[Psychoanalytic Review]] |publisher=[[Guilford Press]]|location=New York City|date=August 2011 |volume=98|issue=4|pages=493–514 |doi= 10.1521/prev.2011.98.4.493 |pmid=21864144 | issn=0033-2836 }}</ref> Other sources, however, suggest that Dahmer was generally doted upon as an infant and toddler by both parents, although his mother was known to be tense, greedy for both attention and pity, and argumentative with her husband and their neighbors.{{sfn|Campbell|p=11}}

As Dahmer entered first grade, Lionel's studies kept him away from home much of the time. When he was home, his wife—a [[hypochondriac]] who suffered from [[clinical depression|depression]]—demanded constant attention and spent an increasing amount of time in bed.{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=32}} On one occasion, she [[suicide attempt|attempted suicide]] using [[Meprobamate|Equanil]].{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=32}} Neither parent devoted much time to their son, who later recollected that, from an early age, he felt "unsure of the solidity of the family", recalling extreme tension and numerous arguments between his parents during his early years.{{sfn|Masters|1993|pp=32–39}}{{sfn|Norris|1992|pp=69–70}}

Dahmer had been an "energetic and happy child" but became notably subdued after undergoing [[Inguinal hernia surgery|double hernia]] surgery shortly before his fourth birthday.{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=30}}<ref>{{cite web|title=Jeffrey Dahmer|url=https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/jeffrey-dahmer|website=[[Biography.com]]|publisher=[[A&E Networks]]|access-date=June 14, 2017|archive-date=December 7, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201207151630/https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/jeffrey-dahmer|url-status=live}}</ref> At elementary school, Dahmer was regarded as quiet and timid. One teacher recollected she detected early signs of [[Abandonment (emotional)|abandonment]]{{sfn|Norris|1992|p=61}} due to his father's absence and mother's illnesses, the symptoms of which increased when she became pregnant with her second child.{{sfn|Norris|1992|pp=61–62}} In elementary school, Dahmer had a small number of friends.{{sfn|Masters|1993|pp=35–36}}

In October 1966, the family moved to [[Doylestown, Ohio]].{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=34}} When Joyce gave birth in December, Dahmer was allowed to choose the name of his new baby brother; he chose the name David.{{sfn|Dahmer|1994|p=61}} The same year, Lionel earned his degree and started work as an [[analytical chemistry|analytical chemist]] in nearby [[Akron, Ohio|Akron]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Jeffrey Dahmer's Biography: A Child Grows Up to Become a Killer |date=August 25, 1991 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79536696/the-bradenton-herald |newspaper=The Bradenton Herald |access-date=May 30, 2022 |archive-date=May 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220530020208/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79536696/the-bradenton-herald |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Davis|1991|p=20}}

From an early age, Dahmer manifested an interest in dead animals. His fascination with dead animals may have begun when, at the age of four, he saw his father removing animal bones from beneath the family home. According to Lionel, Dahmer was "oddly thrilled" by the sound the bones made, and became preoccupied with animal bones, which he initially called his "fiddlesticks". He occasionally searched beneath and around the family home for additional bones, and explored the bodies of live animals to discover where their bones were located.{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=32}}

In May 1968, the family moved to [[Bath Township, Summit County, Ohio]].<ref>{{cite news |last=O'Connor |first=William |title=And So We Ask: Who - and Why - is This Man? |date=July 28, 1991 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8299634/dahmer-akron-beacon-journal-sun/ |newspaper=[[Akron Beacon Journal]] |access-date=November 14, 2022 |archive-date=November 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221114023059/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8299634/dahmer-akron-beacon-journal-sun/ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{refn|group=n|Several media accounts published following Dahmer's arrest reference claims purportedly made by Dahmer's father to a parole officer in April 1990 that his older son had been molested by a neighbor at age eight. Lionel would later deny having made such claims, and Dahmer would deny having been subjected to any form of [[child sexual abuse|sexual abuse]].{{sfn|Schwartz|1992|p=38}}}} This address was their third in two years, and the Dahmers' sixth address since marriage.{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=36}}{{refn|group=n|The family had relocated to a rented property in [[Barberton, Ohio]], prior to moving to Bath Township.{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=34}}}} The home stood in one and a half acres of woodland, with a small hut a short walk from the house where Dahmer began collecting large insects and the skeletons of small animals, such as chipmunks and squirrels.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29376222/quad-city-times|title='He Killed Them So They Wouldn't Leave'|access-date=November 5, 2021|newspaper=[[Quad City Times]]|date=August 11, 1991|archive-date=November 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211105045311/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29376222/quad-city-times|url-status=live}}</ref> Some of these remains were preserved in jars of [[formaldehyde]] and stored within the hut.{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=45}}

Two years later, during a chicken dinner, Dahmer asked Lionel what would happen if the chicken bones were placed in bleach.{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=39}} Lionel, pleased by what he believed to be his son's scientific curiosity, demonstrated how to safely bleach and preserve animal bones. Dahmer incorporated these preserving techniques into his bone collecting. He also began collecting dead animals—including roadkill—which he would [[dissection|dissect]] and bury beside the hut, with the skulls occasionally placed atop makeshift crosses.<ref name="Biographics">{{cite web|url=https://biographics.org/jeffrey-dahmer-biography-the-cannibal-killer|work=biographics.org|title=Jeffrey Dahmer Biography: The Cannibal Killer|access-date=January 22, 2021|date=July 13, 2018|archive-date=March 4, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304101211/https://biographics.org/jeffrey-dahmer-biography-the-cannibal-killer|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=46}}

According to one friend, Dahmer explained that he was curious as to how animals "fit together".{{sfn|Norris|1992|p=63}} In one instance in 1975, Dahmer [[decapitation|decapitated]] the carcass of a dog before nailing the body to a tree and impaling the skull upon a stick in the woodland behind his house.{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=47}} As a "prank", he later invited a friend to view the display, claiming he had discovered the remains by chance.{{sfn|Ressler|1997|p=101}} The same year Lionel taught his son how to preserve animal bones, Joyce began increasing her daily consumption of Equanil, [[Laxative|laxatives]] and [[hypnotic|sleeping pills]], further increasing her emotional distance from her husband and children.{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=39}}

===Adolescence and high school===
[[File:Jeffrey Dahmer HS Yearbook.jpg|170px|thumb|Dahmer, pictured in the 1978 [[Revere High School (Ohio)|Revere High School]] yearbook, ''Reverie'']]
From his freshman year at [[Revere High School (Ohio)|Revere High School]], Dahmer was seen as an outcast.{{refn|group=n|In a 2002 paper published in the ''[[Journal of Forensic Sciences]]'', it has been suggested that Dahmer may have had [[Asperger syndrome]].{{sfn|Aggrawal|2016|p=127}}}} By age 14, he had begun drinking beer and hard alcohol in the daylight hours,{{sfn|Norris|1992|p=74}} frequently concealing his liquor inside the jacket he wore to school.<ref name="Biographics"/>{{sfn|Dvorchak|Holewa|1992|p=35}} When a classmate asked why he was drinking [[Scotch whisky|Scotch]] in a morning history class, Dahmer shrugged and said the alcohol was "my medicine".<ref>{{cite news|first1=James|last1=Barron|first2=Mary B. W.|last2=Tabor|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=JTUdAAAAIBAJ&pg=6988,582043|title=Dahmer Spent Years Crying Out For Attention|newspaper=[[Tuscaloosa News]]|date=August 3, 1991|access-date=August 24, 2017|pages=1A, 6A|archive-date=January 22, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122014323/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=JTUdAAAAIBAJ&pg=6988,582043|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Medicine">{{cite news|first1=James|last1=Barron|first2=Mary B.W.|last2=Tabor|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/04/us/17-killed-and-a-life-is-searched-for-clues.html|title=17 Killed, and a Life Is Searched for Clues|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=August 4, 1991|access-date=April 30, 2018|archive-date=June 15, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180615120402/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/04/us/17-killed-and-a-life-is-searched-for-clues.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Although largely uncommunicative, in his freshman year Dahmer was seen by staff as polite and highly intelligent, but earned only average grades.{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=45}} He was a competitive tennis player<ref>{{cite news |last1=Dyer |first1=Robert |title=Playing Tennis with Jeffrey Dahmer |url=https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/columns/2016/04/30/bob-dyer-playing-tennis-with/10703729007/ |access-date=November 19, 2022 |newspaper=[[Akron Beacon Journal]] |date=April 30, 2016 |archive-date=January 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230127175229/https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/columns/2016/04/30/bob-dyer-playing-tennis-with/10703729007/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and played briefly in the high school band.{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=42}}

When he reached puberty, Dahmer discovered he was gay;{{sfn|Masters|1993|pp=43–44}} he did not tell his parents. In his early teens, he had a brief relationship with another teenage boy, although they never had [[sexual intercourse|intercourse]].{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=43}} By Dahmer's admission, he began [[Sexual fantasy|fantasizing]] about dominating and controlling a completely submissive male partner in his early to mid-teens, and his masturbatory fantasies gradually evolved to his focusing on chests and torsos. These fantasies gradually became intertwined with dissection.{{sfn|Masters|1993|pp=51–52}}

When he was about 16, Dahmer conceived a fantasy of rendering unconscious a particular male jogger he found attractive, and then making sexual use of his body. On one occasion, Dahmer concealed himself in bushes with a baseball bat to lie in wait for this man. However, the jogger did not pass by on that particular day. Dahmer later admitted this was his first attempt to attack and render an individual submissive to him.{{sfn|Masters|1993|pp=51–52}}

Dahmer was known to his high school peers as a class clown who often staged pranks,{{sfn|Norris|1992|p=76}} which became known as "Doing a Dahmer"; these included bleating and simulating [[epileptic seizure]]s or [[cerebral palsy]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oxygen.com/dahmer-on-dahmer-a-serial-killer-speaks/blogs/everything-you-need-to-know-about-jeffrey-dahmer|last=Tron|first=Gina|title=Everything You Need to Know About Jeffrey Dahmer|website=[[Oxygen.com]]|date=October 27, 2017|access-date=September 28, 2022|archive-date=September 28, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220928011405/https://www.oxygen.com/dahmer-on-dahmer-a-serial-killer-speaks/blogs/everything-you-need-to-know-about-jeffrey-dahmer|url-status=live}}</ref> at school and local stores.{{sfn|Norris|1992|p=77}} Occasionally, Dahmer would perform these antics for money to purchase alcohol.{{sfn|Dvorchak|Holewa|1992|p=37}}

By 1977, Dahmer's grades had declined.{{sfn|Dahmer|1994|pp=76–79}} His parents hired a private tutor, with limited success. The same year, in an attempt to save their marriage, his parents attended [[couples therapy|counseling sessions]]. They continued to quarrel frequently. When Lionel discovered Joyce had engaged in a brief affair in September 1977, they decided to divorce, telling their sons they wished to do so amicably. The process of their divorce soon became increasingly bitter and acrimonious, and Lionel moved out of the house in early 1978,<ref name="Acrimony">{{cite news |title=Distress Signals from a Disturbed Life: Abundant Clues, but No Simple Answers |date=August 12, 1991 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43653/dahmer |newspaper=[[The Galveston Daily News]] |access-date=January 23, 2023 |archive-date=October 31, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211031233700/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43653/dahmer |url-status=live}}</ref> temporarily residing in a motel on North Cleveland Massillon Road.{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=56}}<ref>{{cite news|first=Mary B.W.|last=Taylor|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/04/us/17-killed-and-a-life-is-searched-for-clues.html|title=Seventeen Killed, and a Life Is Searched For Clues|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=August 4, 1991|access-date=March 25, 2021|archive-date=July 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709150754/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/04/us/17-killed-and-a-life-is-searched-for-clues.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In May 1978, Dahmer graduated from high school. A few weeks before his graduation, one of his teachers observed Dahmer sitting close to the school parking lot, drinking several cans of beer.{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=57}} When the teacher threatened to report the matter, Dahmer informed him he was experiencing "a lot of problems" at home and that the school's guidance counselor was aware of them. That spring, Joyce—contrary to a court order and without informing Lionel—moved out of the family home with David to live with relatives in [[Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin]].{{sfn|Norris|1992|p=100}}{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=62}} Dahmer had just turned 18 and remained in the family home.{{sfn|Norris|1992|p=83}} Dahmer's parents' divorce was finalized on July 24, 1978. Joyce was awarded custody of their younger son and alimony payments.{{sfn|Masters|1993|p=61}}