Mugshot/YouTube Jeffrey Dahmer and Rita Isbell in a scene from the court video.
Rita Isbell was the victim’s sister whose angry and emotional eruption against serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in court has gone viral.
The dramatic moment at Dahmer’s sentencing hearing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was replicated in the new Netflix series on his crimes. Isbell is the sister of Dahmer’s victim Errol Lindsey, 19.
Dahmer’s killings between 1978 and 1991 are getting renewed attention as a result of a new Netflix docudrama series. “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” started streaming on September 21, 2022. “Across more than a decade, 17 teen boys and young men were murdered by convicted killer Jeffrey Dahmer. How did he evade arrest for so long?” the Netflix site for the show asks. In the Netflix show, Isbell is played by actress DaShawn Barnes.
You can watch video of the real Isbell courtroom scene below, but be aware that it’s very emotional.
Here’s what you need to know:
Isbell Charged Toward Dahmer & Said, ‘Whatever Your Name Is Satan’
The courtroom scene starts with Isbell giving a victim impact statement in court as Dahmer sits quietly at the defense table.
However, she lost control as she began shouting at the serial killer.
“My name is Rita Isbell and I’m the oldest sister of Errol Lindsey. Whatever your name is Satan. I’m mad,” Isbell said at Dahmer’s sentencing.
“This is how you act when you are out of control. I don’t ever want to see my mother have to go through this again. Never Jeffrey. Jeffrey. I hate you mother f*****. I hate you…”
An Associated Press article from 1992 quoted Isbell about the moment. That article says she also shouted, “I hate you, 3/8.”
“They all had to just sit there and hold it in,″ Isbell told AP of her other family members. ″What he saw out of me … is what Errol would have done. The only difference is, Errol would have leaped over that table.″
She told AP she wanted Dahmer ″to see what out of control is.″
According to a 1992 Associated Press article accessed through Newspapers.com, Dahmer said at the sentencing hearing, “I believe that only the Lord Jesus Christ can save me from my sins. I know that I will have to turn to God to help me get through each day.”
Lindsey Vanished From a Downtown Milwaukee Mall
1991 19-year-old Errol Lindsey is murdered by Jeffrey Dahmer #OnThisDay the first victim he used his “drilling technique” on. Dahmer flayed Lindsey’s body & retained the skull @CI @MinnieAlford16
According to a 1991 article in the Wisconsin State Journal Lindsey vanished “after a visit to the Grand Avenue Mall, a downtown shopping center.” He was identified by dental records. “I’m bitter. I’m angry and I’m scarred for life,” Lindsey’s brother Michael Eckwood told the State Journal.
Time explained how Dahmer encountered Lindsey, a heterosexual, and “lured Lindsey to his apartment, where he drugged him, drilled a hole in his skull and poured hydrochloric acid into it.”
According to Dahmer, “Lindsey awoke after this experiment (which Dahmer had conceived in the hope of inducing a permanent, unresistant, submissive state), saying: ‘I have a headache. What time is it?'” Time reported.
“In response to this, Dahmer again drugged Lindsey, then strangled him. He decapitated Lindsey and retained his skull; he then flayed Lindsey’s body, placing the skin in a solution of cold water and salt for several weeks in the hope of permanently retaining it. Reluctantly, Dahmer disposed of Lindsey’s skin when he noted it had become too frayed and brittle.”
A Family Member Says the Isbells Are Upset by the Netflix Show
I’m not telling anyone what to watch, I know true crime media is huge rn, but if you’re actually curious about the victims, my family (the Isbell’s) are pissed about this show. It’s retraumatizing over and over again, and for what? How many movies/shows/documentaries do we need?
However, a member of her family wrote on Twitter that the renewed attention from the Netflix show has caused the family trauma.
“I’m not telling anyone what to watch, I know true crime media is huge rn, but if you’re actually curious about the victims, my family (the Isbell’s) are p***** about this show,” wrote
“It’s retraumatizing over and over again, and for what? How many movies/shows/documentaries do we need?”
READ NEXT: Jeffrey Dahmer’s Cause of Death.