Editor’s note: The original October 2022 version of this article was lost. The Lee Daily Register rebuilt it in October 2026 from the sources cited below, and added what happened afterward. The original version included graphic descriptions and misstated parts of the case record; this version leaves them out, out of respect for the victims and their families.
Netflix released “Conversations With a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes” on Friday, Oct. 7. The three-episode docuseries is the latest chapter in Joe Berlinger’s true-crime anthology, Netflix’s Tudum site said. Berlinger’s earlier entries covered Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy, FOX 11 Los Angeles reported.
Dahmer killed 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991. He was convicted of 15 killings in Wisconsin, pleaded guilty to a 1978 killing in Ohio, and was serving 15 consecutive life sentences when another inmate killed him in 1994, FOX 11 noted. He was 34.
A junior lawyer’s tapes at the center
The series is built around audio that had never been released. According to Tudum, defense attorney Wendy Patrickus recorded more than 32 hours of conversations with Dahmer between July and October 1991 while his legal team prepared his defense.
Netflix lists the people interviewed on camera:
- Defense attorneys Gerald Boyle and Wendy Patrickus
- Dr. Park Dietz, the forensic psychiatrist who worked for the prosecution
- Dr. Kenneth Smail, a forensic psychologist retained by the defense
- Milwaukee police detective Dennis Murphy and Lt. Kenneth Meuler of the homicide division
Berlinger told Fox News Digital that he wanted to tell the story from Patrickus’s point of view. He said the young lawyer, who is little known today, got more information out of Dahmer than the police did. He also said he hoped the film would warn viewers not to trust people simply because they look and act ordinary.
Two weeks after “Monster”
The documentary arrived while Netflix’s scripted series “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” created by Ryan Murphy and starring Evan Peters, was still drawing huge audiences. That 10-episode drama premiered Sept. 21. Citing Deadline, FOX 11 reported that it was watched for nearly 300 million hours in its second week and reached 56 million households in under two weeks.
Some relatives of the victims have objected. Rita Isbell, whose brother Errol Lindsey was killed in 1991, told Insider that Netflix never contacted her, TODAY reported. She said she watched only the scene recreating her 1992 victim impact statement. “I lived it. I know exactly what happened,” she said.
Eric Perry, who said he is a relative of Lindsey’s, wrote online that each new Dahmer production retraumatizes the family. Peters has said Murphy set one rule for the drama: it would never be told from Dahmer’s point of view.
What happened next
On Oct. 10, Shirley Hughes, whose son Tony Hughes was killed in 1991, told The Guardian that the drama’s account of his death was not what happened, NBC Los Angeles reported. At a panel on Oct. 27, Murphy said his team had contacted about 20 victims’ families and friends over three to three and a half years of work, and that none of them responded.
In December 2022, Netflix said “Monster” had passed 1 billion hours viewed. It was only the third title to reach that mark within 60 days and the second English-language series. The company also said it had ordered two more installments of the anthology about other figures.
