12. Jeffrey Dahmer murdered 17 people, consuming an unknown number of his victims, across a thirteen year period
Jeffrey Dahmer, also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal, was an American serial killer responsible for the murder, rape, dismemberment, and cannibalism of at least 17 victims between 1978 and 1991. Committing his first murder at the age of 18 in the summer of 1978, Dahmer picked up 19-year-old hitchhiker Steven Hicks and lured him home with the promise of alcohol. After several hours of drinking, Hicks wished to leave; in response, Dahmer beat his guest with a dumbbell and strangled him to death, before masturbating over the corpse, dissecting it, and burying it the following day in his backyard. In 1987, Dahmer would resume his murderous activities. His victims were commonly lured under the pretext of homosexual relations to a secluded location where Dahmer would brutally kill and dismember their bodies.
Beginning with Steven Tuomi on November 20, 1987, Dahmer would murder two men, James Doxtator and Richard Guerrero, in 1988, Antony Sears in 1989 – the first victim from which Dahmer collected a trophy: his preserved skull – four in 1990: Raymond Smith, Edward Smith, Ernest Miller, and David Thomas, before murdering eight in the first seven months of 1991: Curtis Straughter, Errol Lindsey, Tony Hughes, Konerak Sinthasomphone, Matt Turner, Jeremiah Weinberger, Oliver Lacy, and Joseph Bradehoft. The youngest of his victims, Doxtator and Sinthasomphone, were just fourteen years old. Arrested following the failed murder and cannibalism of Tracy Edwards on July 22, 1991, Dahmer waived his right to counsel and confessed his crimes, stating that he had “created this horror and it only makes sense I do everything to put an end to it”. Determined to be legally sane, despite being diagnosed with mental health problems, Dahmer was convicted on 16 counts of murder and sentenced to consecutive life sentences On November 28, 1994, Dahmer was himself murdered at Columbia Correctional Institution by a fellow inmate Christopher Scarver.