'I don't deserve this': Jeffrey Dahmer victim's daughter can't sleep ever since Netflix show came out
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN: Jeffrey Dahmer scarred his victims' families for life. Now, the daughter of one of those victims has opened up about how she hasn't been able to sleep in weeks and has nightmares about the serial killer.
Tatiana Banks is the daughter of Errol Lindsey, a 19-year-old man who was murdered by Dahmer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1991. The youngest of six siblings, Lindsey met the killer in April of that year and was lured into his apartment, before being drugged and experimented on. Banks, 31, who lives in Arizona, was born six months after the death of her father.
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Speaking to Insider, Banks said that she learned bits and pieces about what happened to her father through family members and the media. She noted how it was hard to avoid stories about Dahmer, having grown up in Milwaukee, and said she was about five when her mother first told her of her father's death. "When I was young I was told that he was killed by a Milwaukee serial killer," she said. She remembers reading a newspaper article about the murders when she was around 12 and subsequently started looking for more information online. Her research led her to ask her mother more questions about what transpired.
Her brother, Errol Lindsey, was an expecting dad at the time — a fact that was never publicized.
— Entertainment Insider (@EntInsider) September 28, 2022
Isbell said that his daughter, Tatiana Banks, is 31 years old. Errol was murdered 31 years ago.https://t.co/xmj2Omq48X pic.twitter.com/98jRAhw8jU
"I still think about it to this day," Banks told Insider. She noted she was still learning new details about how her father crossed paths with one of history's most dreaded serial killers. Dahmer's killing spree has dominated headlines since the release of the Netflix series 'Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.' The show recreated an emotional victim impact statement by Banks' aunt, Rita Isbell, at Dahmer's sentencing about the loss of her beloved brother. Isbell told Insider that watching the scene renewed all of the emotions she experienced at the time. "Her hair was like mine, she had on the same clothes," Isbell said of the actress who played her. "That's why it felt like reliving it all over again."
Netflix Jeffrey Dahmer’s victim’s sister and the real Rita in 1992 #jeffreydahmer #serialkillers #truecrime #truecrimecommunity pic.twitter.com/t8fZe1S2oT
— Carol DaRonch (@CarolDaRonch) September 21, 2022
Banks said that she felt like her grief was different considering she never had the chance to meet her father and or get to know him. Nonetheless, she noted how the Netflix show brought back heartbreaking memories for her as well. "I feel like they should have reached out because it's people who are actually still grieving from that situation," she insisted, saying she was at a place where she had made peace with what happened to her father. "That chapter of my life was closed and they reopened it, basically," she added.
Banks said she avoided watching any shows or movies about Dahmer and watched just one episode of the Netflix series that depicted her aunt's victim impact statement in court. She described it as "heartbreaking" and said she "wished she could be there to take her pain away." Banks couldn't watch any other episode, saying it was too disturbing. However, she's been unable to sleep since the renewed interest in the Dahmer case. "Honestly ever since that show's been on I haven't been able to sleep. I see Jeffrey Dahmer in my sleep," she said.
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Insider noted how social media had made it worse for Banks, who has been bothered by people discussing her tragic father on social media and even victim blaming to an extent. She said some have even assumed her father was gay and dismissed what happened to him for that reason. That said, the embattled daughter still has questions about her father's fate, and some may never be answered. "He didn't deserve this. I don't deserve this. None of the victims deserve it," Banks added.