My second source, a secondary source, is from the book Serial Killer Timelines: Illustrated Accounts of the World’s Most Gruesome Murders. It covers many different serial killers, but one in specific, Jeffrey Dahmer. It takes an in-depth look at the timeline of events of the time frame that Dahmer killed his victims. I chose this source because it offers some help with the specifics of the case that other sources are vague on. It takes readers step-by-step through the events that occurred when Jeffrey was killing his victims. This source is for anyone looking into serial killers and their timelines. Dr. Chris McNab wrote this to give information on the rare, dysfunctional people in the world that are nothing but dangerous.

From the beginning when I started reading, I could tell that this source would be beneficial to me for my research. This source gives a look into Jeffrey’s background and how his family was nothing but dysfunctional. That dysfunction, for the most part, pushed everyone away from each other. It then takes a look into the full life history of the Dahmer family and  Jeffrey’s parents divorce. Next, a full look into the timeline of events gives readers a sense of when Jeffery killed and who he killed. It just goes to show how unnoticed this killing spree went until it was finally halted.

After taking a look into Jeffrey Dahmer’s background and case history, readers get a sense of what the court proceedings were like. Jeffrey demonstrated undeniable guilt and regret for the actions he committed, but everyone really wondered if he truly did feel regret and sadness towards what he did. People can wonder and wonder forever about whether Jeffrey felt anything, but everyone can agree on the fact that he was a mentally ill individual who needed help. A picture is on the left side of one of the pages of the reading; it shows a poster, that hung in the courtroom, with a list of several of the victims and when they were murdered. More killings occurred in 1991 than any other year, 8 total. I took everything from this source in because it helped piece together a timeline of the time period when everything occurred. Although it did help piece together the timeline for me, it was very vague on certain aspects of the crime. It never covered whether he was deemed sane or not for trial and whether he was sane or not his entire life. All in all though, a very valuable source.

There were many things that I learned from this source. I learned how long Jeffrey Dahmer’s entire sentence was; his jail sentence would last 941 years, although he would never make it that long. I also learned who ended up taking Jeffrey’s life. Christopher Scarver, a convicted murderer beat Jeffrey to death in November of 1994. This source holds value for helping to fill in some of the cracks in the background of Jeffery Dahmer and his jail sentence. Again, missing from this source is a look at Jeffrey’s sanity throughout his life and during the killings. From this source, I intend to look into more about his sanity level. Taking a look at many different sources gives you many different perspectives, some have information that others don’t and others have small details that the larger sources don’t include. As a result many sources help to make a great representation of one event that caused so much uproar in a state and community.

Works Cited