Viewers are curious about what happened to many of the people who played the roles in the dramatized series on the legendary serial killer’s life, “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” which continues to be the most watched program on Netflix.
Several members of Dahmer’s family are featured in the series; however, while Dahmer’s brother David changed his name and vanished from the public eye, his father Lionel authored a book about his experience raising a murderer and appeared in a documentary about his son in 2020.
Since his passing in 1994 and a dispute with his father over what to do with their son’s remains in 1995, Dahmer’s mother Joyce, who held a master’s degree in counseling, has generally avoided the spotlight. What is known about Joyce Dahmer is listed below.
In 1959, Joyce Flint Wed Lionel Dahmer
According to Brian Masters’ 1993 biography “The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer,” Joyce, also known as “Rocky,” married Lionel Herbert Dahmer on August 22, 1959. Joyce was born Annette Joyce Flint and went by the alias “Rocky.” After their marriage, she fell pregnant quite soon and, according to the biography, experienced nausea and muscle stiffness throughout her pregnancy.
In his autobiography, “A Father’s Story,” Lionel also included a list of his wife’s symptoms. Lionel claimed that she got phenobarbital and morphine injections for the tight muscles, and he wondered if the treatments would have had an impact on Dahmer’s behavioral problems.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, psychiatric professionals informed Joyce that she was not to blame for her son’s actions but that she “always worried.”
On May 21, 1960, Joyce gave birth to Jeffrey, and in his book, Masters noted that “Lionel and Joyce were entranced by him.” After the birth of their second child, David, Joyce was identified as having postpartum psychosis, according to Lionel’s account in “A Father’s Story.”
In their divorce decree from 1978, the Dahmers accused one another of “gross dereliction of duty and excessive cruelty.” After a custody dispute, Joyce was granted custody of David, but Jeffrey, who was almost 18 at the time and was practically done with high school, stayed with Lionel and his stepmother Shari.
Joyce Communicated with Jeffrey While He Was Incarcerated
In 1992, Dahmer was found guilty of killing 15 boys and men between 1978 and 1991; he later acknowledged killing an additional two victims. In August 1995, she admitted to columnist Bill Janz at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “When I think of what Jeff did, I stop breathing.”
The Journal Sentinel said that Joyce spoke with her son on the phone roughly once a week while he was incarcerated.
She told the Journal Sentinel, “I said to him, I asked him, ‘Do you still have these urges?'” “Yes, Mom, I’m so glad I’m locked up, he said. If I weren’t in jail, I’d be worried about what I may do.”
When her older son was arrested, Joyce said she intended to move in with her younger son, David, who had since changed his identity and relocated to a different city. However, things didn’t work out, and she ended up relocating to Fresno, California, as reported by the Journal Sentinel.
Joyce Described Her Kid as The “Victim of An Obligation”
Joyce described her son as the “Victim of a habit, an obsession,” in an interview with Hard Copy from 1993.
Despite being held accountable for what her kid has become, Joyce claims she doesn’t accept blame. “I am aware, intellectually, that I was a good father. I was aware that Jeff couldn’t be the source of this; mothers are still to blame “She spoke.
She believed that Jeffrey’s story should be studied by society and that her kid could benefit from therapy. “He is not a horror. He is an individual. And I believe he deserves assistance “She spoke.
She claimed the actions of her son caused her to feel “Guilt” and “Torment.” According to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Janz, Joyce allegedly threatened him during a phone call that he would be tortured in anguish for all of eternity, exactly like the living family of his son’s victims.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, she stated, “I want something useful to come out of this nightmare.” I haven’t noticed a single speck of brightness in the midst of everyone’s horror. For Jeff, it’s the last and only thing I can do.
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After Jeffrey’s Passing, Joyce and Lionel Got Into a Fight Over His Brain
In 1994, Jeffrey was attacked and died in a Wisconsin jail by Christopher Scarver, which sparked a conflict between Lionel and Joyce about what to do with his remains. When Dahmer passed away, his corpse was cremated, but his brain was preserved in formaldehyde.
Although Lionel wanted his brain to be cremated because that is what Dahmer desired, Joyce stated to the Journal Sentinel in 1995 that she wanted medical personnel to analyze his brain to determine whether any biological reasons had contributed to his killings.
According to the Times, a judge ordered that Dahmer’s brain be burned in 1995.
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In 2000, Joyce Passed Away
Joyce established “The Living Room,” an HIV community center, in Fresno in 1996 while continuing to reside there, according to Reuters. Until her death from breast cancer in 2000, she served as a case manager at the Central Valley AIDS Center.
Julio Mastro, executive director of the Living Room, was described by the Times as saying, “She was enthused, empathetic, and she translated her own misfortune into being able to have a tremendous level of empathy for people with HIV.”