Meet Lionel Dahmer: The Man Who Raised A Monster
As the father of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, Lionel Dahmer wrestled with guilt and sadness for decades. Could his son’s life have turned out differently? Was there more that could have been done while Jeffrey was growing up? Why did his child turn out this way? The questions never stopped swirling around his head, and it isn’t hard to understand why. But while so much is known about the man who committed the horrific crimes, what do we know about the man who raised him? This is Lionel’s story.
Lionel’s early years
Lionel was welcomed into the world in the summer of 1936. Growing up in West Allis, Wisconsin, it’s fair to say that he lived a pretty quiet life. Soon, he was focusing on becoming a professional chemist: Lionel also had aspirations of earning a master’s degree and then a Ph.D., ambitions which he pursued many years later. And away from his academic interests, his personal life changed forever when he was introduced to a woman named Joyce Flint.
Marriage and pregnancy
The pair fell in love, getting hitched in August 1959. Then, in a whirlwind period, Joyce discovered that she and Lionel would soon become parents. And in May 1960 the expectant mom gave birth to their son, Jeffrey. Yet neither of them could have foreseen the horrors that awaited them when they cradled their first-born during those initial weeks and months of parenthood.
Years of soul-searching
Now, that’s not to say that Lionel didn’t think about it in the years since. And you can hardly blame the guy for that. He did a lot of soul-searching in the aftermath of Jeffrey’s nightmarish crimes, speculating why it had all happened. The dad sat down for countless interviews in the media discussing it, having spoken to the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Larry King. In 1994 Lionel also penned a book on the subject, titled A Father’s Story.
Potential factors
So the impact on Lionel was clear for all to see. His life was seemingly consumed by the need to find answers after everything had come to light. Across a grisly 13-year period, Jeffrey took the lives of 17 men and young boys, ahead of his eventual arrest in 1991. Could his upbringing have led to this? As it turns out, Lionel believed there were a few potential factors during those early years that might’ve sparked something in his son.
