Jeffrey Dahmer and Me

 

Ryan Murphy's #Dahmer series saddened, outraged, and depressed me, but also uplifted me and in awe of the reverence and respect with which it treated the families of the victims and the ineptitude of law enforcement (who could have prevented some of these deaths had they not been blatantly racist and homophobic).

I agree that no one needs to watch stuff like this if it disturbs them or simply isn't their cup of tea. But I believe there are benefits to understanding the human condition, both light and dark, and media that allows us a glimpse into the shadows can help us understand ourselves and each other better, because we're all composed of both darkness and light.

For me, it's an aid in my writing about real people in my work (who sometimes happen to be killers).

Overall, I thought the series was, in the end, a testimony to love, redemption, and perseverance.

For more about the case--and my spin on it--check out THE MAN FROM MILWAUKEE, my award-winning take on how a closeted young man, filled with self-loathing, becomes obsessed with the killer at the time of his arrest in the summer of 1991: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08C26Z5TM (also available in audiobook, paperback, and an Italian edition).

ABOUT THE BOOK

2021 Rainbow Awards Winner
* Best Gay Book of the Year
* Best Gay Mystery/Thriller

It's the summer of 1991 and serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer has been arrested. His monstrous crimes inspire dread around the globe. But not so much for Emory Hughes, a closeted young man in Chicago who sees in the cannibal killer a kindred spirit, someone who fights against the dark side of his own nature, as Emory does. He reaches out to Dahmer in prison via letters.

The letters become an escape—from Emory's mother dying from AIDS, from his uncaring sister, from his dead-end job in downtown Chicago, but most of all, from his own self-hatred.

Dahmer isn't Emory's only lifeline as he begins a tentative relationship with Tyler Kay. He falls for him and, just like Dahmer, wonders how he can get Tyler to stay. Emory's desire for love leads him to confront his own grip on reality. For Tyler, the threat of the mild-mannered Emory seems inconsequential, but not taking the threat seriously is at his own peril.

Can Emory discover the roots of his own madness before it's too late and he finds himself following in the footsteps of the man from Milwaukee?