SECRETS OF THE CITY A KILLER GOES TO COLLEGE

↓ Dahmer in a Milwaukee courtoom

Local university dorm housed future

Serial Killer

By John M. Clark Story Design by Bryce Patterson

In September 1978, a tall, muscular high school graduate from Bath, Ohio, enrolled at Ohio State University. His longish blond hair and wireframe glasses did little to distinguish him from the thousands of other first-time enrollees, most of whom were assigned rooms in Morrill Tower, one of the university’s two high-rise, freshman dormitories. There, the typical arrangement was for four students of the same gender to share a common living space but have separate bedrooms.

It didn’t take long for the 18-year-old’s roommates in their fifth-floor “quad” to become tired of his antics. The quiet, young man showed little interest in either his classes or social activities, preferring, instead, to drink beer or hard liquor hours on end and then pass out in his bed. One roommate was so unnerved by his behavior that he soon moved out.

The story of Jeffrey Dahmer, serial killer and cannibal, is well-known to millions of Americans. It has been told in countless newspapers and magazines, along with multiple movies and TV series, and even an award-winning graphic novel by his high school friend and classmate, John “Derf” Backderf. Most of the stories about Dahmer center on Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he was born and where he returned in the 1980s to carry out all but one of his grisly acts. →

But for much of his young life, Dahmer lived with his mother, father and little brother in a suburban, ranch-style house, a few miles northwest of Akron. Father Lionel, a research chemist, appeared to be the closest thing to a stabilizing force in the home. Mother Joyce was prone to depression and outbursts of anger, often fighting with her husband in front of their children.

Backderf, the high school classmate, told (614) that Dahmer decided during his senior year of high school to attend OSU in the coming fall and major in business. But he doesn’t remember seeing or speaking to his old friend past their graduation ceremonies on June 4, 1978. In fact, he said, by their senior year, Dahmer “was pretty far gone.”

Dahmer’s parents divorced that summer. His father moved to a nearby motel. And his mother, defying court orders, took little brother Dave to Minnesota, to be closer to her relatives. When Lionel discovered his older son living in squalor in the family home and deserted by his mother, he wasted no time in helping Dahmer enroll at OSU. In 1978, the university had no admissions requirements other than to be an Ohio resident with a high school diploma, and Dahmer met both – albeit the latter by the skin of his teeth.

As for that fall quarter at Ohio State, little is known about Dahmer’s activities beyond his heavy drinking and skipping classes. One former high school classmate who also attended OSU told friends she once saw Dahmer passed out on the sidewalk, just outside a campus bar on North High Street. He sold blood to buy alcohol so often at campus-area blood centers that employees were under strict orders to not allow him to “donate” a single drop more than was allowed by law.

Michael Prochaska, a Cleveland landscape architect who was one of Dahmer’s OSU roommates, once told the Ohio State Lantern that Dahmer would take bottles of beer or liquor with him to class and come back to his room drunk. Prochaska added he couldn’t remember Dahmer ever getting any mail or having any friends.

According to the Lantern, OSU police questioned Dahmer in mid-September about a watch, radio and cash that were reported missing from a nearby dorm room. Dahmer denied any involvement in the alleged theft, and no charges were filed. Prochaska said when he and the other roommates complained to dorm officials about Dahmer, they were simply told they would have to work their problems out among themselves.

Dahmer performed decently in a firearms class, earning a “B-“ at the end of the quarter. But his grades in other subjects were so low that his cumulative grade-point average at Christmas amounted to an abysmal 0.45. OSU told Dahmer he would not be invited back for the spring quarter. And when Lionel found out, the next stop for the future serial killer was the army.

Dahmer spent a little over two years in the military, mostly in Germany, before being forced out for excessive drinking and refusing to seek help for it. About a year after his honorable discharge, in March 1981, Dahmer moved to his native Milwaukee – living for a time with his grandmother, working menial jobs, hanging out at gay bars and drinking to excess.

His string of 16 murders in 13 years would begin in September 1987, nine years after flunking out of Ohio State University … and, thankfully, more than 400 miles from Columbus. ♦

← Morril Tower