MILWAUKEE -- Jeffrey Dahmer, who police say could be involved in up to 17 homicides, was charged Thursday with strangling four men he lured to his apartment, dismembering them and saving the heart of one to eat later.
Asked by Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Frank Crivello if he understood the charges, Dahmer, 31, responded in a soft but firm voice, 'I understand, your honor.'
Police found the body parts of 11 men in Dahmer's apartment, and in a court affidavit filed Wednesday police said Dahmer told them he killed the 11. Four identities were released Thursday -- the men Dahmer was charged with killing.
The four were Matt Turner, 21, Chicago, who police said also was known as Donald Montrell; Joseph Bradehoft, 25, Greenville, Ill., who had been living in Milwaukee; Jeremiah Weinberger, 23, Chicago; and Oliver Lacy, 23, a Chicago native who had been living in Milwaukee.
All were lured to Dahmer's apartment by requests to pose for pictures and watch videotapes, the complaint said.
Police Thursday night released the identity of a fifth victim -- Anthony Hughes, 31, Madison, Wis. Hughes, a deaf-mute, disappeared May 24 after leaving a Milwaukee nightclub with a man fitting Dahmer's description. No charges were immediately filed in Hughes' death.
Police also identified a sixth victim, 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone, the brother of the 13-year-old boy sexually assaulted by Dahmer in 1988. Dahmer was convicted of two charges related to that case. The boys lived about one block away from Dahmer.
Dahmer's father, Lionel, told the Milwaukee Journal, 'There's no doubt he's insane. I feel like I should wake up any moment. I don't think I knew him at all.'
Lionel Dahmer, 57, a chemist, said the feeling he has for the victims is very deep and he prays for them a lot.
The criminal complaint said Dahmer met Lacy July 15 in Milwaukee on a street near Dahmer's apartment and invited him to pose for photos. When they got to Dahmer's apartment, they removed their clothing, did body rubs, and Dahmer gave Lacy a drugged drink that knocked him out. The complaint said Dahmer strangled him and had anal sex with the dead body.
'He dismembered him and placed the man's head in the bottom of the refrigerator in a box and kept the man's heart in the freezer to eat later,' the complaint said. It said he also kept the man's body in a freezer.
According to the complaint, Dahmer met Bradehoft July 19 in Milwaukee while Bradehoft was waiting for a bus. After going to Dahmer's apartment, the complaint said, they had oral sex and Dahmer gave Bradehoft a sleeping potion, strangled him with a strap, dismembered him and put his head in a freezer and his body in a 57-gallon barrel.
The complaint said Dahmer on June 30 offered Turner money to pose nude and view videos at his apartment. They had met at the Gay Pride parade in Chicago. At the apartment Dahmer gave Turner a drugged drink, used a strap to strangle him, dismembered him and put his head into a freezer. The body was placed into the 57-gallon barrel and Dahmer took a photo, the complaint said.
Dahmer met Weinberger July 6 at a Chicago gay bar and asked him to come to Milwaukee to pose for pictures and view videos, the complaint said. It said Weinberger stayed with Dahmer for two days and on the first day they had oral sex. On the second day Weinberger said he wanted to leave and Dahmer wanted him to stay, 'so he gave him a drink with a sleeping potion in it and strangled him manually and then took photos of him and dismembered him and then took more photos and kept the man's head in the freezer and the body in the 57-gallon drum,' the complaint said.NEWLN: more
