‘Conversations with a Killer’: Jeffrey Dahmer’s Grandmother House Was the Site of Multiple Murders

Jeffrey Dahmer lived with his paternal grandmother, Catherine, for approximately seven years, beginning in 1981. He intermittently lived with her again in 1989 until moving into the Oxford apartments in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. With the release of Netflix‘s Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes, many have a renewed interest in Dahmer’s story. Find out what remains of Dahmer’s grandmother’s house and the apartment where he was arrested. 

‘Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes’ highlights the serial killer’s personal life

Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes dropped on Netflix on Oct. 7, 2022. It comes on the heels of Ryan Murphy’s DAHMER — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. The 10-episode drama was released at the end of September 2022.

From director Joe Berlinger, who brought us The Ted Bundy Tapes and The John Wayne Gacy Tapes, the latest docuseries features never-before-heard audio interviews between Dahmer and his defense team. It also touches on aspects of Dahmer’s personal life. This in includes the house he lived in with his grandmother before moving into the Oxford Apartments. 

Jeffrey Dahmer’s grandmother’s house is still standing 

After getting discharged from the military for excessive drinking, Dahmer’s father Lionel sent him to live with his grandmother at 2357 South 57th St. in West Allis, Wisconsin. Her three-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bathroom single-family home was built in 1939. 

Wisconsin History confirms that her husband, Herbert Dahmer, owned the house. Herbert died in 1971 at age 67 when Jeffrey was 11-years-old. Catherine remained in the home until she died in 1992.

Jeffrey Dahmer killed multiple victims at his grandmother’s house 

Dahmer’s fantasies of killing people, which began when he was 17 years old, started occurring more frequently when he moved into his grandmother’s house. He murdered some of his victims there. One man was someone Dahmer met at the 219 Club, drugged with sleeping pills, and then strangled.

Another one of Dahmer’s victims from the 219 Club, Steven Tuomi, ended up back at his grandmother’s house, though he wasn’t killed there. Instead, they went to the Ambassador Hotel, got drunk, and passed out. “When he woke up, the guy was dead and had blood coming from his mouth,” the report said (via New York Times).

As depicted in The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and recounted in Conversations with a Killer, Dahmer left the hotel room to purchase luggage big enough to fit the body. He then put Tuomi into the suitcase and drove him back to his grandmother’s house. There, he dismembered Tuomi and disposed of the remains. 

Jeffrey Dahmer’s Oxford Apartment has been torn down 

Eventually, after growing tired of his drinking habits and the strange smells coming from the basement, Dahmer’s grandmother asked him to move out. He moved in to the Oxford Apartments in May 1990. 

Dahmer was arrested in July 1991. More than a year later in August 1992, only 15 of the 49 apartments had residents. The owners of the building, Campus Circle Project, had the building demolished on Nov. 16, 1992, the same year Dahmer received 16 terms of life imprisonment for his crimes. 

“It has been a symbol of anger, pain, violence and death,” Project President Patrick LeSage told The Bulletin in 1992. “It needs to be replaced with a sign of our commitment to support the healing process and to work together as a community of people who care.”

After the demolition, the Project had plans to plant “grass and flowers” on the site. However, based on the image above, it looks like the property that was once Dahmer’s home is now grass and a few trees. 

Watch Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes on Netflix.