Netflix True Crime Docuseries Brings You Into A Serial Killer’s Life

The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes opens with the Milwaukee Cannibal’s incarceration, and through the use of archival footage, walks us through his apartment-turned-crime scene as the narrator sets the scene. We’re introduced to Wendy Patrickus, who recalls taking on the role of Dahmer’s defense attorney at just 25 years old. Having just moved to the area, she was assigned to the case, not knowing what she was about to get into.

Knowing that he was dead to rights since there was more than enough disturbing evidence found in his apartment to have him locked up for multiple life-sentences, Dahmer was surprisingly open about his crimes, which are all laid out in great detail in The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes.

Though it’s natural for news media outlets to run with the premise (which they did at the time of Dahmer’s incarceration) when a man is found to have murdered and cannibalized 17 victims from 1978 to 1991, The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes do an excellent job giving you the facts that Patrickus, news reporters, psychologists, officers involved with the case, and even some of Dahmer’s childhood friends are willing to offer.

Cooperating fully with law enforcement, Dahmer says in his own words “I created this horror and it only makes sense I do everything to put an end to it.”

The human side of Jeffrey Dahmer that’s exposed in The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes isn’t to make him out to be a sympathetic character, however, but rather to show viewers that he genuinely hoped that his confessions would lead to a proper psychological evaluation and explanation for why he did the things he did.

As The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes explore his lonely childhood, and the fantasy world he created for himself, it’s not as a means to justify his behavior. It’s to lay out the groundwork that illustrates how unchecked psychiatric issues compounded by overpowering fantasies of dominance and violence can, and in this case, will lead to a horrifying outcome. As Wendy Patrickus said herself, her job as a defense attorney wasn’t to get him off the hook, but instead to evaluate his mental state to see if he was fit for trial and execution because he had already confessed to everything.

We also learn from forensic Psychiatrist Dr. Fred Berlin, who worked with Dahmer’s defense council, that the killer made concerted efforts to squash his sadistic urges earlier in his life, but didn’t have the means or wherewithal to keep his impulses at bay.

As somebody who has always had an interest in abnormal psychology, I have always gravitated to true crime because it’s a subject that truly fascinates me. While I was reluctant to watch The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes after The Ted Bundy Tapes left a bad taste in my mouth, I was pleased to find out that there’s not a single moment in the docuseries that ever paints Jeffrey Dahmer in a positive light.

What truly fascinates me about his case in particular is that he was willing to tell his entire story, which was documented across dozens of hours of interviews. Though there’s no way for him to undo what he did, his interviews at the very least clued investigators into some of the identifying factors that may trigger somebody who has a similar mental disposition to himself to follow in his footsteps.

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The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes are not easy to watch, but they’re worth your time if you want a healthy dose of true crime that lays out the disturbing facts as objectively as possible while asking all of the necessary “what ifs.” But most importantly, you don’t walk away from this Netflix series thinking anything other than “I’m glad he was stopped, but I also wonder if things would have turned out differently if he got the help he needed earlier in life.”

You can experience Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes for yourself by streaming them on Netflix today.