My second source that I decided to use was a Memorandum that came from the Kettle Moraine Correctional Institution from June 20, 1995. I used this particular source because after finding out about more about Dahmer, I realized there was no correlation on why he was killing African American men. I thought it would be interesting to find out on how he died in the cell and then research how the prison changed its policies after the death of Jeffrey Dahmer.

This memorandum was written from Marianne A. Cooke, Warden of Kettle Moraine Correctional Institution. This source came from the institutions’ committee, which makes it reliable because they only wrote down the facts of what happened on the day of November 28, 1994 when Dahmer was killed. The audience for this document is for people who want to know exactly how Dahmer was killed and for workers who can use the information to help make the prison safer for inmates. The purpose of this memorandum is to talk about the facts and circumstances about murder that happened.

The death of Dahmer was on November 28,1994 on a Monday morning in the locker room of the prison around 8:10am (3).  Donovan Dittberner and Robert Theiler, gym officers, along with recreation director Jim Spangberg, were leading Dahmer to the gym so he can do his work tasks (3). The officers took personal calls between 7:58am and 8:13am (4), which left the inmates all alone with no one to watch them. Murderer Christopher Scarver thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to strike at Dahmer. Scarver spontaneously grabbed a tool from the weight room, hid it in his winter coat, walked over to Dahmer, and banged him numerous times to his head (4). Scarver after that actually killed another inmate, Jesse Anderson. After those two killings, he put the weapon back in his coat, walked back over to the gym where he got the tool and placed it back where he got it (4). During this happening, two other inmates were in the gym, which caused suspicion if they knew what Scarvers plan was. Later throughout the investigation, Scarver confessed that no one knew of his plan and he actually did it randomly and did not plan the whole thing only because he wanted to kill them because he believed they weren’t worthy of a life (4).  Ambulances came to try and help inmates, but as Dahmer was being taken to the hospital he died right as they got there (5).  This raised many questions on department policies, on whether they were allowed to be in the same room, and if these deaths would’ve happened if the officers were doing their job and watching over their men. As I kept on reading I found out that this was the first murder at the institution. Not only that, but the officers were violating the rules of watching over them, which makes them responsible. They knew what they were doing, and they knew that when they left the room, they should’ve called another worker to watch over the inmates. In the end, they still concluded that these killings still could’ve happened even if they were doing their tasks.

Reading this memorandum, it helped me know exactly what happened when Dahmer was killed. I believe what they were telling their readers because when you’re in that position of having to talk about what occurred, you don’t have the option of saying anything you want to say. Something that I not doubt but question is how the security guards didn’t hear anything or slightly see anything happen even when they were out for personal reasons.  By reading this source, it led me to finding out how he was killed without anyone being able to stop it and the many other questions that were brought up regarding the murder. This source has a lot of value to me because now I know how some of the policies were before they changed them and it will help me understand why they changed the things they did because I know what went wrong in the prison. This source is missing how they changed their policies after this event, but it only wants me to research more and find out about the before and after regulations in Colombia Correctional Institution.

Reading all these different documents are shaping my thinking because it’s making me want to find out more about his death, as in finding pictures that show me where this took place and about the policies that were changed. When I first started this project, I never thought that I would be researching on what policies were changed because of this event.