Netflix's Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story got wrong true story

Everything Netflix’s ‘Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’ Got Wrong

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Without a doubt, Netflix’s Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is one of the most disturbing shows to ever hit the streaming service, but unfortunately, the limited series is getting called out for featuring historical inaccuracies.

In case you totally missed it, or you have no interest in putting yourself through it, Dahmer follows the depraved crimes committed by American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

Dahmer killed 17 men and boys in the most gruesome ways possible, including mutilating and dismembering their bodies, and engaging in horrendous acts like cannibalism and necrophilia that’s enough to makes our stomachs turn. The crimes committed by Dahmer led to him becoming known as the ‘Milwaukee Cannibal’.

The disturbing series only dropped in September, but it is already breaking records for Netflix, becoming the ninth most watched show on the streaming service. 

However, people who were involved in the actual case have found a few inconsistencies within the series.

Here are some of the things that Netflix’s Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story got wrong:

1. Dahmer’s neighbour actually lived in another building.

Glenda Cleveland, who is played by Niecy Nash, was a neighbour of Jeffrey’s in the series. According to Netflix’s Dahmer, Glenda lived in the same apartment complex as the killer, she often passed him in the corridors, and was extremely persistent in getting Dahmer locked up.

In one scene, Dahmer even visited Glenda in her home.

While it was true that Glenda was suspicious of Dahmer and consistently phoned the police, she was never Dahmer’s neighbour. Anne E. Schwartz, who was a crime reporter for the Milwaukee Journal when Jeffrey was caught, told The Independent that Glenda did not live next door to him. “In the first five minutes of the first episode you have Glenda Cleveland knocking on his door. None of that ever happened.”

According to USA Today, Glenda lived in a building adjacent to Dahmer.

2. Dahmer probably didn’t serve his neighbour a human sandwich.

In Netflix’s show, a scene shows Jeffrey rocking up to Glenda’s home, where he offers her a sandwich. As stated earlier, Glenda was not the real neighbour of Jeffrey Dahmer, so this never happened.

The suspenseful music and camera work in the scene hint that the food is human meat. Thankfully, Glenda never ate the mystery meat.

Although it was true that Dahmer once made a sandwich for his neighbour, it was never confirmed if it was human meat.

Dahmer’s real life neighbour, Pamela Bass, admitted that she did accept his sandwiches. In an interview found in the documentary The Jeffrey Dahmer Files, Pamela did ponder the idea that she might have eaten Jeffrey’s victims without knowing.

“You have people like me befriending you [Dahmer]. I have eaten a sandwich from you. I have probably eaten someone’s body part.”

3. Dahmer’s grandmother didn’t save Ron Flowers.

Ronald Flowers and Tracy Edwards were the only two victims to escape Dahmer. In Netflix’s Dahmer series, after Jeffrey drugged Ron, his grandmother intervened and ended up freeing him by putting him on a bus. However, in real life, it is unknown if Dahmer’s grandmother had anything to do with Ronald’s escape.

Although Dahmer’s grandmother was there at the time when Flower’s was drugged, according to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Dahmer confessed to not killing Ron due to his body size, and how it would present a challenge for him to move the body.

Flowers recounted his experience with Dahmer in an interview with Investigation Discovery, relaying the moment he knew that he was drugged.

4. Dahmer didn’t drink bags of blood.

One of the scariest things about the Dahmer case is the idea that he ate some of his victims. His cannibalistic tendencies were explored throughout the series, with one episode showing him stealing bags of blood from his job at the Milwaukee Blood Plasma Center and drinking it.

However, this wasn’t exactly the case. According to police files, Dahmer had told police that he tried to drink a vial of blood on the roof of his job, but he spat it out.

5. The police did not win the ‘Officer of the Year’ awards.

The police officers — John Balcerzak and Joseph Gabrish — who brought 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone back to Dahmer after he escaped were awarded ‘Officer of the Year’ at the end of the Dahmer series.

Konerak was killed by Dahmer, despite his neighbours pleading with the police that he needed assistance.

In real life, the cops did not win any awards, however, it was true that overall, their careers didn’t suffer too much. The pair were fired but eventually reinstated into the police force in 1994. Balcerzak actually went on to become the president of the Milwaukee police officer’s union. Yikes.

6. Dahmer didn’t wear his glasses in court.

Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story shows him in court wearing his glasses.

IRL, he didn’t have them in court. Jeffrey didn’t wear his glasses in order to avoid seeing his victim’s families. According to an interview with Inside Edition, Dahmer said “I felt uncomfortable looking anyone in the face, I didn’t want to see anyone’s face clearly, it helped me disassociate myself from what was happening.”