His surname is now synonymous with "monster." Yet at least 17 times, Jeffrey Dahmer was able to get young men and boys to come home with him. In one incident, on the night of May 27, 1991 in Milwaukee, a 14-year-old managed to escape and wandered into the streets with Dahmer in pursuit. When the cops started asking questions, Dahmer was able to convince the police that it was merely a lovers' quarrel. The police conclusion: "Intoxicated Asian, naked male. Was returned to his sober boyfriend." Like the dozen before him and four after, the young man was eventually strangled and dismembered. Dahmer kept his skull as a souvenir. He stored parts of his victims in vats. He ate them. Dahmer's crimes raised several inchoate fears and revulsions: cannibalism, sexuality, class and race -- most of his victims were poor, African-American, Asian or Latino, while Dahmer was white. After his arrest on July 22, 1991, Dahmer was sentenced to nearly a thousand years in jail. He was killed by an inmate in November 1994.

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Little Flat of Horrors