‘Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’: The Mystery Meat Sandwich Really Did Happen to Dahmer’s Real-Life Next-Door Neighbor
Since the release of Netflix‘s Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, audiences and news outlets have compared storyline details to actual crime documents and testimonies. The original crime reporter who broke the Dahmer case explains the series took too much artistic license. Some victim stories were tweaked to add more drama. But Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story included a minor scene involving a mystery meat sandwich that happened in real life.
Jeffrey Dahmer gives his next-door neighbor a peace offering after being evicted
In the seventh episode of the series, Dahmer has moved into his apartment, becoming his workshop to kill his victims. But the series makes it a point to explain how Dahmer’s activities have led to a foul odor coming from his apartment. The smell annoys and angers his next-door neighbor, Glenda Cleveland.
After multiple complaints, she convinces the landlord to evict Dahmer for good. But Dahmer is not having an easy time. He tries to appeal to Glenda and apologizes. But it is already too late. Dahmer asks to sit in her apartment under the lie that he has as a cleaning crew. Glenda agrees, and Dahmer gives her a plate covered in tinfoil.
Weary of Dahmer and his intentions, Glenda refuses to uncover the plate. Dahmer does it for her, and it is a white bread sandwich with some white meat inside. Glenda refuses to eat it, and Dahmer explains he made it himself.
The sandwich scene in Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story was not fabricated for an entertaining storyline. In reality, Dahmer’s real next-door neighbor Pamela Bass was given a mystery meat sandwich.
Pamela Bass says she will never know what meat Jeffrey Dahmer put in the sandwich
In 2012, the documentary movie The Jeffrey Dahmer Files told the killer’s story during the summer of his arrest. The movie also gave first-hand accounts from people involved in the case and Dahmer’s real-life next-door neighbor Pamela Bass.
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story may have warped and combined the story of Bass and Cleveland into one character, but the sandwich scene was real. According to the Daily Mail, Bass is haunted by the possibility of having eaten one of Dahmer’s victims.
“I have probably eaten someone’s body part,” Bass explained in the movie. She further explains that after knowing of Dahmer’s crimes, she feared what she ate from a man she thought was friendly. “Not a week goes by that [Ms Bass] doesn’t think about this,” she said.
But unlike in the series, Bass was not afraid of Dahmer or had ill thoughts toward him. It was likely the reason she found nothing peculiar about Dahmer giving her the sandwich. But Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story builds on the idea that Cleveland does not trust him, and by the sandwich scene, she and the audience know better.
The Milwaukee killer was a known cannibal
The Netflix series did not dive too heavily into the fact that Dahmer was also a suspected cannibal alongside his murders. A few scenes depicted Dahmer growing a more profound fascination than just killing and finding sexual pleasure in his victims.
During one instance, Dahmer began working for a medical facility and took home a few bags of blood. In one of the many grotesque scenes, audiences saw Dahmer digest a mouthful of human blood. Well into his murders, another scene showed Dahmer cooking a piece of meat. While the series does not show where it came from, it can be easily speculated the meat is human.
According to the Associated Press, Detective Dennis Murphy recounted the discussion with Dahmer after his arrest. More specifically, his desire to eat his victims. The detective explained how Dahmer once fried the bicep of one of his victims in oil. “It was big and he wanted to try it,” Murphy said. “He stated it tasted like beef.”
