Jeffrey Dahmer enters the court room for his murder trial, which reporter Anne Schwartz wrote a book about

Jeffrey Dahmer Once Called a Journalist From Prison to Critique Their Book

Jeffrey Dahmer called a reporter who wrote a book about his murders to complain — find out what he didn't like.

by Lauren Anderson

Published on October 9, 2022

2 min read

Reporter wrote a book detailing the Jeffrey Dahmer case

Originally published in 1991, Schwartz’s book The Man Who Could Not Kill Enough: The Secret Murders of Milwaukee’s Jeffrey Dahmer details her experience covering the Dahmer killings. From “Life at Grandma’s House” to “Deloused and Unemployed” and “A Human Jigsaw Puzzle,” Schwartz takes readers through Dahmer’s mind using a forensic lens and the personal stories of the victims’ families.

Jeffrey Dahmer read Anne E. Schwartz’s book and didn’t like it

According to The Independent, Schwartz received a phone call from Dahmer while she was working in the newsroom of a TV station. He called to complain about her book, which cited several psychiatrists who interviewed Dahmer and determined his behavior could be attributed to how his parents raised him.

“He hated that,” Schwartz told the outlet. “For someone who didn’t show any emotion or seem to care about anything, he was very protective about his parents, especially his mother.”

Lionel Dahmer outside of the Columbia Correctional Institute

Lionel Dahmer | Steve Kagan/Getty Images

Dahmer didn’t keep Schwartz long. She said the call was “very quick and very to the point.” She concluded: “He had no inflection in his voice. He was so vanilla, he was so flat. There was nothing. He just said no one was responsible for what I did expect me.”

Jeffrey Dahmer’s motivation for murder remains unclear

Despite what psychiatrists said about him, Dahmer’s motivation for killing 17 people was never clear. His mother Joyce Flint wanted his brain studied after Dahmer was killed in prison in 1994, but his father Lionel Dahmer wanted otherwise. The brain was later cremated.

Some think Dahmer’s mother is to blame for his behavior based on the tranquilizers she took during her pregnancy. Others believe his behavior was linked to the lack of attention his father provided. Lionel, a chemist, worked long hours during Dahmer’s childhood. Still, others blame Lionel and Joyce’s failed marriage.

According to Lionel’s autobiography A Father’s Story, his son’s demeanor radically changed after he underwent a hernia operation at the age of four — another factor that could have altered Dahmer’s way of thinking. Regardless, there is no hard and fast answer to why Dahmer did the things he did.

Ryan Murphy’s Jeffrey Dahmer series is inaccurate, says reporter

Schwartz watched DAHMER — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story in its entirety. In her opinion, the 10-episode Netflix series is inaccurate. Having previously worked in communications for the Milwaukee police and the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Schwartz says, “the depiction of city police officers as racist and homophobic was incorrect.”

“Again, this is a dramatization, but at a time when it is not exactly easy for law enforcement to get trust and buy-in from the community,” Schwartz added. “It’s not a very helpful representation.”