Illustrated in 1950s vintage cookbook illustration style
Jeffrey's Dinner Parties
A Story About a Boy Who Wanted Friends to Stay
Jeffrey was a shy boy who found it very hard to make friends. While other children played together, Jeffrey played alone. He had an unusual hobby: he liked to collect animals he found by the roadside and take them apart to see how they worked. 'I just want to understand things,' Jeffrey said.
Dahmer was a loner from childhood who dissected roadkill and kept the bones.
When Jeffrey grew up, he still had trouble keeping friends. They always wanted to leave! 'Please don't go,' Jeffrey would say. 'I made dinner.' Jeffrey tried everything to make his friends stay. He tried giving them special drinks. He tried asking very nicely. He even tried drilling tiny holes. Nothing seemed to work quite right.
Dahmer drugged his victims and attempted crude lobotomies in an effort to create 'zombies' who wouldn't leave him.
Jeffrey's apartment at the Oxford was not a place you'd want to visit. The fridge had things in it that did not belong in a fridge. The blue barrel in the bedroom did not contain the things blue barrels usually contain. And the smell. Oh, the smell. 'I'm sorry about the mess,' Jeffrey told the neighbors.
Dahmer kept remains in his apartment, including in a barrel of acid and in his refrigerator.
One summer night, a young man escaped from Jeffrey's apartment wearing nothing but a pair of handcuffs. He ran straight to the police. 'You should see what's in that apartment,' the young man said. And when the police looked, they found Jeffrey's dinner party guests. All of them. What was left of them, anyway.
Tracy Edwards escaped in July 1991 and flagged down police, leading to the discovery of Dahmer's crimes.
Jeffrey finally got what he always wanted: people around him all the time. In prison, there was always someone nearby. 'I'm sorry for what I did,' Jeffrey said, and maybe he meant it. But sorry doesn't set the table back to the way it was. Some dinner parties can never be cleaned up.
Dahmer was sentenced to 15 consecutive life terms. He expressed remorse before being killed by a fellow inmate in 1994.