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'It didn't happen like that': Mother of one of Jeffrey Dahmer's victims joins outrage at hit Netflix show

Shirley Hughes, the mother of one of the victims named Tony Hughes, criticized 'Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story', stating, 'It [events] didn't happen like that'

'Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story' has garnered a lot of attention and has broken multiple records. The story portrays the events of serial murders and cannibalism that were committed by Jeffrey Dahmer. Critics also claimed that the story was the most accurate portrayal of the infamous serial killer's deeds. However, the Netflix series did not receive a very good response from the relatives and loved ones of the victims. Shirley Hughes, the mother of one of the victims named Tony Hughes, expressed her condemnation and she said that she doesn't see the reason why Netflix would portray the events differently.

According to The Guardian, Shirley had not seen all ten episodes of the show, however, she concluded that "it didn't happen like that." She along with other grieving relatives of the victims criticized the show and Netflix for using their names and dramatizing the events which are not shown how they happened. “I don’t see how they can do that,” she said, before adding that it was not easy to talk about her son's murder and ending the call. “I don’t see how they can use our names and put stuff out like that out there,” she said.

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The show is facing criticism as the creators did not contact the families of the victims to get the details since the information used in the show was on public records. However, Eric Perry, a cousin of Dahmer's other victim Errol Lindsey, said that the show retraumatized the loved ones of the victims. He said in one of his tweets, "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?"

The people behind the show, including Evan Peters and Ryan Murphy, have stated in the past that they tried to create a show that focuses on the victims' stories and their family's trauma and their intent was not for people to sympathize with Dahmer. However, the relatives are enraged because they had no idea about the series being made on the incident.

Eric Perry tweeted, "Ok, I did not expect that tweet to get this much attention. To answer the main question, no, they don’t notify families when they do this. It’s all public record, so they don’t have to notify (or pay!) anyone. My family found out when everyone else did."

He added to the thread, "So when they say they’re doing this “with respect to the victims” or “honoring the dignity of the families”, no one contacts them. My cousins wake up every few months at this point with a bunch of calls and messages and they know there’s another Dahmer show. It’s cruel."

The sixth episode of the show titled "Silenced" is where the slaying of Tony Hughes is shown which is portrayed by the deaf actor Rodney Burford as he shows how Tony lost his hearing in infancy because of misprescriptions by the doctors. It was the day when Tony went to a club with his two friends who were also deaf and gay. 

Even though Shirley hasn't spoken much about the incident and found out about her son's murder after the police found his skull in Dahmer's house, she did talk about how much pain she was in. She said, "It hurts, I shed tears. They’re not tears of sorrow, and it’s not disbelief in the Lord. The tears [are] tears of hurt because it hurts. It hurts real bad. But you have to trust and pray and just keep going day by day."