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Jeffrey Dahmer killed 17 people from 1978 until 1991 until in a shocking true crime twist, his last victim, Tracy Edwards, escaped. After Edwards broke free from Dahmer’s apartment, he found the police and had the serial killer arrested. Ironically, 20 years later, Edwards was under arrest himself. Find out why. 

[SPOILER ALERT: Spoilers ahead regarding DAHMER — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.]

Tracy Edwards (Shaun Brown) and Jeffrey Dahmer (Evan Peters) in Ryan Murphy's Netflix series 'DAHMER — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story'
Shaun Brown as Tracy Edwards and Evan Peters as Jeffrey Dahmer | Netflix

Tracy Edwards’ story is explored in Ryan Murphy’s Jeffrey Dahmer series 

Shaun Brown (Hulu’s The Dropout, FX’s Dave) plays Tracy Edwards, the real-life victim who got away from Dahmer in Ryan Murphy’s DAHMER — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. In the first episode of the limited series, Jeffrey Dahmer (Evan Peters) meets Tracy at a local bar. He agrees to go back to Jeff’s apartment and take photos. However, Tracy quickly realizes something’s amiss when he steps into Dahmer’s rank-smelling domicile. 

Just when it seems like Tracy will become another one of Dahmer’s victims, he attacks Jeff as The Exorcist III plays in the background. Tracy narrowly escapes the apartment and runs through the streets screaming for help with handcuffs dangling from his wrists. Eventually, he finds the police and takes them to Jeff’s apartment, where they find polaroids and various body parts of Dahmer’s previous victims. 

Tracy Edwards’ 2011 arrest for homicide 

According to ABC, Edwards was arrested for homicide in July 2011 after he was seen standing on a Milwaukee bridge with two other homeless men, Timothy Carr and Jonny Jordan. “A witness at a gas station across the street saw Edwards and Carr push Jordan some 20 feet into the river below and called the cops,” the outlet reported. “By the time cops arrived, Jordan had drowned.”

“It’s like Humpty Dumpty,” Edwards’ defense attorney Paul Ksicinski said at the time. “It’s like he was never able to put the pieces back together again [after Dahmer].” After becoming the hero who helped put Dahmer behind bars, Edwards had a few run-ins with the police for drug possession, theft, property damage, failure to pay child support, and bail jumping. In 2012, Edwards was sentenced to one and a half years in prison and two years of extended supervision after pleading guilty to aiding a felon (via National Post). 

Survivor of Jeffrey Dahmer and other victims are the focus of Ryan Murphy’s Netflix series

Unlike previous documentaries, movies, and TV shows about Dahmer, Murphy’s Netflix series puts the focus on his victims. This includes Edwards and Dahmer’s former neighbor Glenda Cleveland, as well as: 

  • Stephen Hicks
  • Steven Tuomi
  • James “Jamie” Doxtator
  • Richard Guerrero
  • Anthony Sears
  • Eddie Smith
  • Ricky Beeks 
  • Ernest Miller
  • David Thomas
  • Curtis Straughter
  • Errol Lindsey
  • Tony Hughes
  • Konerak Sinthasomphone
  • Matt Turner
  • Jeremiah Weinberger
  • Oliver Lacy
  • Joseph Bradehoft
Related

Police Officers John Balcerzak and Joseph Gabrish Escorted One of Jeffrey Dahmer’s Victims Back Into His Apartment

“Yes, it is a story about Dahmer, but it’s also a story about the victims,” Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change and a consultant on the series, told Netflix Queue. “It is a story not just about the victims who were murdered, but about the community, about the chilling impact of not just what Jeffrey Dahmer was able to do in all the harm, but all the ways in which the police, the larger leadership in Milwaukee, the media and so many others in society were complicit.”

Watch DAHMER — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story exclusively on Netflix. 

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