What Is a Serial Killer? Who Were Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy?

What is a serial killer? Who were Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy? How were they

different and how were they similar? Why did they kill? No one really knows what makes serial

killers tick; however some people believe that it could be something that had happened to them

at an early age. Some of them could have been molested, or had seen a person being killed in

front of them. There could be many things that could have affected them that led them into

killing other people. I believe John Wayne Gacy and Jeffery Dahmer were affected by something

in their childhood that led them to become America's most famous serial killers. A serial killer is

someone who kills at least three victims one by one in a series of sequential murders. Two

examples of serial killers would be Jeffrey Dalmer (May 21, 1960 - November 28, 1994) who

was an American serial killer and sex offender. A another serial killer is John Wayne Gacy

(March 17, 1942 - May 10, 1944) who also was an American serial killer and rapist who

sexually assaulted and murdered at 33 teenaged boys and young men between 1972 and 1978.

Dalmer and Gacy are not as different as people may think they are. They both murdered and

sexually assaulted young men and teenaged boys; they also both had disturbing childhoods.

Dalmer only killed because he felt that he was born with a "part" of him missing. Gacy murdered

the young men and boys because he felt that the victims deserved to die. Why? No body Knows.

Jeffrey Dahmer was born in West Allis, Wisconsin on May 21, 1960 to Joyce Annette

and Lionel Herbert Dahmer. (Dahmer, 1994, p. 61) When Dahmer was a young child he seemed

normal; however, between the ages 10-15 he grew withdrawn and uncommunicative. He showed

little interest in any activities, hobbies or school interactions.(Dahmer, 1994, pp. 76-79) His

behavior later became weird, when he would ride his bike around his neighborhood looking for

dead animals and bringing them home or in the woods where he would dissect them. "He went

so far as to put a dog's head on a stake."(Dahmer, 1994, p. 84) Dahmer at an early age became an

alcoholic, which caused him to fail most of his classes in both high school and college. His

father later forced his son to go into the Army. Dahmer did well at first, but was later discharged

two years later because of his alcoholism. With the plane ticket the army provided him with,

Dahmer chose to go to Miami Beach, Florida because he could not go home and face his father

and because he was "tired of the color" Of Milwaukee. (Milwaukee News, 2007)

In 1982, Dahmer decided to move in with his grandmother Catherine Dahmer in West

Allis, Milwaukee. During the time Dahmer was living with his grandmother, his behavior grew

increasingly strange. His grandmother found a fully dressed mannequin in his room. She also

found a .357 Magnum under his bed. The grandmother also claimed that there were "terrible

smells coming from the basement." (Dahmer, 1994, pp. 124-126) The summer of 1988,

Dahmer's grandmother asked her grandson to leave because of his late nights and strange

behavior, and the foul smells coming from the basement. Dahmer then moved into an apartment

which was closer to his job at the Ambrosia Chocolate factory on the west side of Milwaukee.

(Dahmer, 1994, p. 132) A day after moving into his apartment, Dahmer was arrested for

drugging and sexually assaulting a 13 year old boy. He was sentenced to five years probations

and one year work release camp. He was also required to register as a sex offender.

In the summer of 1978, when Dahmer was 18 years old he committed his first murder.

Steven Hicks who was hitchhiking was picked up by Dahmer and offered to drink a beer with

him. Hicks agreed and went into Dahmer's, home. There Dahmer planned to have sex with

Hicks, but when Hicks tried to leave, he was bludgeoned to death with a 10 lb dumbbell and

Dahmer buried his body in his father's back yard. (Dahmer, 1994, p. 241) Dahmer's murders did

not stop there. Nine years later Dahmer picked up a 26 year old named Steven Tuomi at a bar

and killed him on impulse. In 1988 and 1989 he had killed two more people, by picking up his

victims in gay bars and having sex with them before killing them. Picking up his pace Dahmer

had killed four more men before the end of 1990 and two more in February and April 1991 and

another in May 1991.

In the morning of May 27, 1991, a 14 year old boy named Konerak Sinthasomphone,

who by coincidence was the younger brother of the boy who Dahmer had molested years ago

(Davis, 1991, p. 7) was seen by two women walking around the streets naked and heavily under

the influence of drugs. (Jacobson, 2002) The two women called the police and when they

questioned Dahmer, he told them that Sinthasomphone was his 19 year old boyfriend and they

had gotten into an argument while drinking. When the police took Dahmer and the victim home