Wendy Patrickus went through what she called “a baptism of fire” in her relationship with notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.
Patrickus was not one of Dahmer’s 17 victims, but a young defense attorney on her first big case.
Now that a wildly popular Nexflix miniseries has catapulted Dahmer back into the news, Patrickus has been pulled back into the limelight as well.
She is featured in yet another new Netflix series on Dahmer — the second one in as many months featuring the same horrific crimes.
This time, the series is a documentary, rather than a dramatization. It’s titled “Conversations With a Killer: The Unheard Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes,” and it was scheduled to debut Oct. 7 on the streaming service.
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The series delves into 32 hours of interviews that Patrickus recorded with Dahmer — an experience that left her feeling a lot “like Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs,” according to The Sun.
The “baptism by fire” remark was in reference to her visit to Dahmer’s apartment, the scene of many of his bloody crimes.
“I don’t think there is anything that can prepare anybody for that kind of carnage,” she said.
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“The mattress was still there, sopping with blood. The odor in there was a combination of death, humidity and blood.
“It was awful. I made it to the fire exit and the gagging turned to vomiting, ” she continued.
Dahmer was convicted of 17 murders and was known as the “Milwaukee Cannibal.”
His known crimes span from 1978 to 1991.
His parents had separated when he was 18, leaving him alone in the family’s Wisconsin house, according to the Sun.
“No one was at home, I saw this guy hitchhiking and I thought it would be nice to have to have someone around to talk with and someone I wanted to be with for sex.”
That is when Steven Hicks became his first victim.
“I desensitized myself to it,” Dahmer said.
“I had these obsessive desires and the thoughts, wanting to control them,” he elaborated.
Dahmer admitted that he “always knew that it was wrong,” and claimed, “the first killing was not planned.”
After Dahmer was convicted, he had an interview with his father and journalist Stone Phillips that aired on television. One of the topics of conversation was his fascination with cutting up animals.
“[There was] no sexual pleasure, but … it’s hard to describe,” Dahmer said.
During the interview, his father added, “I can sort of see a fascination for wanting to see — for looking at the insides of animals, say for the first time.” But, he asked his son, after seeing the insides of one animal, what made him want to continue seeing more?
His son answered, “It became a compulsion, and it switched from animals to humans.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVHHs-xllqo
A dramatized version of Dahmer’s deeds, “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” premiered on Nextflix in September and has gone on to become one of the most-watched shows on the streaming platform.
Rita Isbell is the sister of one of Dahmer’s victims, Errol Lindsey. She gave a testimony at the sentencing and spoke about the recent series, Insider reported.
“When I saw some of the show, it bothered me, especially when I saw myself — when I saw my name come across the screen and this lady saying verbatim exactly what I said,” she wrote.
Isbell continued, “I was never contacted about the show. I feel like Netflix should’ve asked if we mind or how we felt about making it. They didn’t ask me anything. They just did it.”
