This would a run-of-the-mill documentary about one of the most notorious monsters of our age but for some extraordinary home video footage of Dahmer from his childhood. We hear too extensively from his father, a professional person, who must have been extremely disappointed that his eldest son was unable to fill his shoes. Instead, he became a drunk, a drop-out, a homosexual, a drifter, and finally a totally depraved serial killer. The one spark of hope was that on joining the army at his father's suggestion, he might have made something of himself. That didn't last long.
The one thing that Dahmer did have was luck, but it was the sort of luck that was bad news for his victims. After committing his first murder at the age of 18, he was stopped by the police, who had they been as pushy as American traffic cops often are, would have looked in the rubbish bags wherein was what was left of Steven Hicks. Nine years later, Dahmer murdered one of his homosexual liaisons in a hotel room; he claimed to have no memory of this, but managed somehow to spirit the body away in a suitcase before disposing of it. Luckiest of all was when he lured a 14 year old boy back to his Milwaukie apartment. When Dahmer went out to buy some beer, the youth, who had been heavily drugged, wandered out into the street naked; a neighbour phoned the police, but when they turned up, Dahmer managed, incredibly, to convince them he was simply drunk and that the two were an item. If they had run a basic check, they would have realised he was a minor, Dahmer would have been arrested, his apartment would certainly have been searched, and four men would have had their lives spared.
Dahmer appears to have undergone some sort of spiritual transformation in prison, and was baptised. He won't have gone to Heaven, but after his unlamented murder in November 1994, he will certainly have discovered if there is a Hell.
