Jeffrey Dahmer's late mom Joyce claimed the serial killer was a 'fantastic young man'
The newly released Netflix series 'Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story' has reignited fans’ interest in the Milwaukee serial killer and those related to him. Although Dahmer's father Lionel is still alive, his mother Joyce died in 2000.
The docu-series is based on the serial killer, who murdered 17 victims and ate their flesh. the documentary also sheds light on his upbringing. His parents Joyce and Lionel were married for 19 years before divorcing in 1978. They had had two sons, Dahmer and David.
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After the divorce, Joyce moved to Fresno while Lionel remarried. Both of them came to know about their son's horrific crimes after he was arrested in 1991. As per a report from LA Times Archive, Joyce, whose maiden name was Flint, died from breast cancer in November 2000. She was a Columbus Wisconsin native and was born on February 7, 1936. According to the LA Times, the mother-of-two had a master’s degree in counselling and found employment as a central California AIDS worker during her last days.
As per the outlet, Joyce was a case manager for the Central Valley AIDS Team. She also founded The Living Room, an HIV community centre in Fresno, in 1996. She had previously tried to end her life in 1994. Julio Mastro, executive director of the Living Room, said, “Everybody loved her. She would do anything for her clients and for anybody really. She was just this wonderful person.”
In an interview with MSNBC, according to The Sun, Joyce said that growing up, Dahmer was a “perfectly normal young boy” and a “fantastic young man”. In a 1993 interview, Joyce said, as per Desert News, “I wake up every morning and for a split second I don’t know I’m Jeffrey Dahmer’s mother, and then it all floods in.”
Meanwhile, Lionel believed he knew what made his son the way he was. In one of the episodes of the Netflix series, Lionel opens up on what he believes "started this whole thing." Joyce's life had an impact on Dahmer, according to Lionel.
Lionel thinks that there was a link between his behaviour and the medication Joyce took before he was born. He said, "You do know that pills are what started this whole thing. How many pills you think she was on when she was pregnant with him? Thousands. She was on sleeping pills, sedatives, seizure medication."
Lionel also blamed his ex-wife for not being present in Dahmer's life. He said, "She never even held him. She scared the s**t out of him. And then she just left. She got in her car, and she drove away, and she left that kid in that house all summer."