Acclaimed director Joe Berlinger delivers another entry in his "Conversations with a Killer" series. This time, the audio tapes covered are interviews conducted between lawyer Wendy Patrickus and murderer Jeffrey Dahmer. Patrickus is interviewed in the present, talking about her reactions to being a very young, female lawyer interviewing one of the most notorious serial killers in this country's history- it's a sad commentary on today's society to type a statement like "...one of the most notorious serial killers in this country's history," and I am writing this review a few days after the arrest of Rex Heuermann for the Gilgo Beach killings.
Berlinger jumps back and forth in time, covering Dahmer's upbringing and then skipping forward to his arrest and incarceration. The usual lawyers, reporters, and psychiatrists are trotted out, with the most effective interviews being with Patrickus, friends of some of the victims (one of whom was a suspect in his friend's killing), a neighbor, and a childhood friend of Dahmer. There is a ton of news footage of the aftermath, and hearing Dahmer's monotone voice on the audio tape is chilling.
Once again, this effort seems a little stagnant, a special effect shot of the inner workings of a miniature tape recorder is trotted out way too many times, but the many failures by "the system" to catch Dahmer makes for compelling viewing. Dahmer's murderous timing is also highlighted, as he killed within a homosexual community already being decimated by AIDS, and the vanishing of friends was a fact of life. I agree wholeheartedly with Patrickus- Dahmer should not have been released into the general prison population, and should have been watched much more closely before his own murder. We shouldn't be celebrating the person and his crimes, I'll never understand the underground murderabilia industry, but we should be studying these people to try and make sure it won't happen again, and in some cases, to bring closure to families. Dahmer's first victim was "missing" for thirteen years before his family found out what happened to him. Dahmer was arrested for sexually assaulting one teenage boy, and then purely by chance, ended up killing that victim's brother years later in the now infamous situation where the police returned the escaped murder victim to Dahmer's apartment.
I don't know how many more "...Tapes" true crime documentaries we're going to get, but I'm sure there's more out there. They suffer from the same complaint I have for most of them- skip interviewing the reporters on the story, and track down the victims' families. It's terrible that names like Gacy, Manson, and Dahmer are household names, but naming more than a handful of non-famous victims is difficult. I realize that people like Gacy's and Manson's children probably don't want the notoriety, but even if it isn't wrapped up in a streaming documentary series, we could learn so much from those who were closest to the murderers and their victims. We've seen books from Dahmer's father, Gacy's sister, and Dennis Rader's daughter, among others, and this is important material to learn from. Also, although not in Dahmer's case, there are literally hundreds of unknown victims out there, and talking to these murderers should bring closure to families and friends as well. Over four decades after they were killed, FIVE of Gacy's victims haven't been identified. Serial killers Rodney Alcala and William Richard Bradford took tons of photographs of people (Dahmer used to pay men to photograph them before he killed them) who have never been identified and may or may not have been victims. Alcala and Bradford are long dead, their true number of victims never known.
I do appreciate these documentaries being unsalacious as opposed to some basic cable television shows and YouTube true crime videos. It's ironic that we think of ourselves as a technologically advanced, highbrow society, and then wallow in lowbrow, exploitative material about serial killers. We need to learn from this, not enjoy it. (* * * 1/2) out of five stars.
*Get a physical copy of A Father's Story by Lionel Dahmer on Amazon here*
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