The Jeffrey Dahmer Story: An American Nightmare (St. Martin's True Crime Library) (Mass Market Paperback)

~ Donald A. Davis (Author) "He was only fourteen years old and running for his life, trying to get away from the tall man..." (more)
Key Phrases: probation agent, intentional homicide, person contrary, Jeffrey Dahmer, Bath Township, Summit County (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

They smelled the foul odors. They heard the power saw buzzing in the dead of night but neighbors never imagined the horrors happening right next door.

The hot sultry night of July 22, 1991 was one the tenants of the Oxford Apartments would never forget. A panic stcricken young man--a pair of handcuffs still dangling from his wrists--ran out of Apartment 213 and told police an incredible tale of terror.

Shaking with fear, he led officers back to his captor's lair, where they made the gruesome discovery. Inside were the body parts of at least fifteen men--including torsos stuffed into a barrel, severed heads in a refrigerator, and skulls boiled clean and stashed in a filing cabinet. Tacked to the freezer were Poloroid photographs of mutilated corpses.

When investigators arrested 31-year-old Jeffrey Dahmer, they realized they had stumbled onto a "real-life Hannibal Lecter"--a sadistic murderer who told them he had saved a human heart "to eat later". What could turn a handsome, former tennis player, the son of middle-class parents, into a perverse serial killer whose unthinkable acts shocked the nation?

The Jeffrey Dahmer Story takes you into Jeffrey Dahmer's twisted world of bizarre sexual encounters, mutilation and cannibalism--in one of history's most appalling true crime cases.

With 8 pages of chilling photographs.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (November 15, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312928408
• ISBN-13: 978-0312928407
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #148,341 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unprofessional Work!, April 13, 2004

By	JMack (Chicago) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Don Davis wanted to cash in on the public's fascination with Jeffery Dahmer. He wrote the first and best selling book about the serial killer. Unfortunately, it reads as if it was written by a high school student.

The matter-of-fact language used by Davis tries to demonstrate that he knows more than we think. There really is nothing revolutionary about the book. It as if he took a timeline of Dahmer's life and expanded on it with cheap metaphors. It is cheaped further by the fact that the author keeps repeating himself each time he starts a new chapter.

The other reviews of this book are accurate. It is not well written. Many facts are present, but they are poorly presented and hidden by frivilous information. As a result, this book has nothing to say. There must be better works on Dahmer's life than this.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Cut and Dry, April 12, 2002

By	Mark A. Smiddy (Benton, Kentucky United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I don't know what I was expecting from yet another 'true crime' book on a notorious serial killer but I walked away knowing the story of the crimes but not nearly enough about the person who committed the crimes. If you want just the facts you'll be satisfied but if you're looking for either an edge-of-your-seat read or insight into the mind of Dahmer, you won't find it here.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars nothing new, December 30, 2006

By	Robbie De Clercq (Gent, Belgium) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you know nothing about Jeffrey Dahmer and want to know which crimes he commited and how he did it, this is the book for you. But if you have read other books about him, don't bother.

The facts presented in this book are accurate, but it's such a shame that you don't get to know who Jeffrey Dahmer really was, nothing new about why he did it, his psychology. Okay, maybe nobody knew who he really was, but the author could have at least tried to give us something new.

Although I believe that Milwaukee is interesting doesn't mean that I want to know its complete history! It just went on and on! After a while you know more about Milwaukee and Bath than Jeffrey Dahmer ever did.

I guess that books like this one are written because of the fascination for serial killers. Although nothing new is said, the author knows that people will buy his book. And that's a shame.