Getty/mugshot Jeffrey Dahmer
The new Netflix series on Jeffrey Dahmer has renewed interest in the serial killer’s stint in the U.S. Army.
Was Dahmer really in the military? Where was he stationed? Is it possible that he killed people in other countries? It’s true that Dahmer served in the U.S. Army, but he washed out because of alcohol abuse.
He was stationed in Germany, and he was investigated in unsolved murders that occurred during that time frame. However, he was never formally accused of committing any of them.
Here’s what you need to know:
Investigators Looked Into Whether Dahmer Might Be Connected of Five ‘Mutilation Murders’ Near an Army Base in Baumbolder, Germany
GettyJeffrey Dahmer.
A 1991 article in the Edmonton Journal, accessed via Newspapers.com, reported that police were looking into the possibility that Dahmer “was involved in five mutilation-murders near an Army base he served at in Baumbolder, Germany.”
However, Dahmer was never formally accused of those crimes.
The Associated Press also reported in 1991 that German police were investigating Dahmer in “five unsolved murders in central Germany during his time there.”
One of those deaths was of a 22-year-old hitchhiker named Erika Handschuh, who was strangled and stabbed in 1980. However, that death does not fit Dahmer’s victim profile, as he largely targeted gay men of color.
A 1991 series in the Akron Beacon Journal, also accessed through Newspapers.com, reported that Dahmer was discharged from the Army on March 26, 1981.
He was also in Florida for about six months working at a sandwich shop in Miami Beach. That article points out that Dahmer was in Florida when 6 year-old Adam Walsh was kidnapped from a Sears store and decapitated. Dahmer denied killing Walsh.
The book “Cannibal Killers” says that the Baumholder connection to unsolved murders was “abandoned as theoretically unlikely because there were females among the victims.”
Two Men Accused Dahmer of Raping Them in Germany
Mugshot/GettyWas Jeffrey Dahmer a cannibal?
According to the Independent, a fellow soldier named Preston Davis, who worked in a med unit with Dahmer in the Army, believes he was drugged and raped by Dahmer inside “an armored personnel vehicle.”
“I was raped by Jeffrey. I am just thankful to be alive to tell the story.”
Another man, Billy Joe Capshaw, told the Independent, that he was put in a room with Dahmer and he escaped from a window after being raped eight to 10 times.
“I had probably been raped eight to 10 times, I don’t know. He was tying me to the bunk with motor-pool rope. He took all my clothing from me. He would either beat me before he raped me or he would beat me after,” he said, according to the Independent.
Capshaw complained and was given a rape kit, but nothing was done. He was sent back to the room and was raped again by Dahmer, the article reports. Dahmer was ultimately given an honorable discharge, The Independent reported.
Dahmer Couldn’t Leave His Room on Base Without an Escort by the End of His Army Service
mugshotJeffrey Dahmer
A 1991 article by Knight-Ridder news service said that in the last two months of his time in the military, Dahmer was restricted to his room and “not allowed to leave without an escort.”
This was because of Dahmer’s “out-of-control alcoholism and his determination to get out of the Army,” the article reported.
The Army put him through an alcohol program but it didn’t work and he was discharged due to his alcohol use after 2 years and two months in the military, according to the story.
The story says that Dahmer finished basic training at Fort McClellan in Anniston, Alabama, before he was sent to Fort Sam Houston at San Antonio, Texas, training to be a medical specialist.
At first, he was described as average to slightly above average.
According to that article, Dahmer had already murdered. His first known victim was Steven Hicks, 18, a hitchhiker back in Ohio.
That article says other soldiers made fun of him because he was “drunk most of the time.” While in the Army “he spoke against the gay lifestyle.”
The article notes, “He frequently left base in a cab on Friday and disappeared until Sunday” and “he was a loner with no close friends.”
READ NEXT: Jeffrey Dahmer’s Cause of Death.