Netflix released "Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story" on September 21.
Netflix and Eugene Garcia/Getty Images
Netflix's new series about Jeffrey Dahmer has become hugely popular.
On TikTok, clips sharing facts and old interviews with people involved in the case keep going viral.
Many are learning about his crimes for the first time, and expressing shock at what they see.
Netflix's series about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer has caused a stir on social media.Even Peters stars as Jeffrey Dahmer in the Netflix series.
Netflix.
Jeffrey Dahmer became a household name in 1992 when he was found guilty of 15 counts of murder and sentenced to 957 years in prison.
Dahmer murdered and dismembered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991 and died in prison in 1994.
The serial killer's life has beendramatized many times in the past, but the latest iteration is a Netflix series titled "Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story," released on September 21, with "American Horror Story" actor Evan Peters playing Dahmer.
The series became the second-most viewed show on Netflix within a week of its release, behind the fourth series of "Stranger Things," according to Deadline.
Many TikTok users, some of whom may not be old enough to remember Dahmer's trial, appear to be learning about the details of his life and crimes for the first time. Many are sharing old footage and facts about him that are going viral on the platform.
Footage of testimony from Dahmer's 1992 trial is going viral on the app.
One of the most viral clips from the 1992 trial of Jeffrey Dahmer on TikTok is of Rita Isbell, the daughter of Errol Lindsey, who was one of Dahmer's victims.
Isbell's victim impact statement, which she gave at the trial, including the moment where she famously yelled, "Jeffrey I hate you!" was recreated on the Netflix show. Isbell told Insider she was bothered by the scene, and said Netflix did not contact her prior to the show.
TikTokers have been showing footage from the actual trial side-by-side with footage from the show, to suggest that actor DaShawn Barnes did a good job at reenacting the emotional testimony. One such TikTok clip has been viewed 11 million times.
"Amazing acting," said one top comment with 957 likes, while another commenter wrote, "this scene gave me chills..and how true to real life was just so raw. can't imagine the pain of the families."
Other viral clips from the trial included testimony from Tracy Edwards, the only victim who escaped from Dahmer and survived, and Dahmer's own final statement in court, in which he said, "I didn't ever want freedom," and, "Frankly I wanted death for myself. This was a case to tell the world that I did what I did not for reasons of hate. I hated no one. I knew I was sick or evil, or both. Now I believe I was sick," as reported by CBS.
TikTokers are reacting to interview clips of Dahmer describing how he killed his victims.
While serving out his prison term, Dahmer took part in an interview with the investigative TV show "Inside Edition" in 1993, and host Deborah Norville asked him about his crimes.
Clips from the interview are now circulating on TikTok. One snippet, with 1.1 million views, shows Dahmer claiming he had "no memory" of killing a man in the Ambassador Hotel, Milwaukee, saying, "Apparently I had beaten him to death with my fists."
TikTokers have been reacting to the way Dahmer spoke about his crimes in the clips, with many pointing out how calm he appeared while speaking.
"THIS IS WHY HE'S SO DANGEROUS !! LOOK HOW CALM HE IS," one top comment with 75,000 likes said. "He's so calm it's terrifying bro," another person wrote.
Other commenters said they were in disbelief about how horrifying the crimes described in the interview were. "I constantly have to remind myself that this actually happened," one comment with 773 likes said.
Viewers were fascinated by an inside look into Dahmer's life in prison.
In the 1993 "Inside Edition" interview, Dahmer also described his daily routine in prison, where he said he sleeps in "until noon" after eating breakfast, and then spends "the greater portion of the night watching TV." The clip has been reuploaded to TikTok where it has received over 15 million views.
Viewers reacted to Dahmer's description by saying they thought his life in prison was not harsh enough. "So he was literally chilling," wrote one person. "Describe his routine like he's in a summer camp not prison," another person said.
Dahmer was incarcerated for three years and four months before he was beaten to death by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver while performing cleaning duty in a bathroom at the Columbia Correctional Institute gymnasium in Portage, Wisconsin.
TikTokers are resurfacing interview footage with Dahmer's father to gain further insights into the killer's life.
In 2020, Lionel Dahmer, Jeffrey's father, appeared on the Investigation Discovery documentary series "Mind of a Monster" to talk about his experience raising his son.
In a clip from the interview which was reuploaded to TikTok and currently has 2.5 million views, Lionel said he was "dumbfounded" to learn about Jeffrey's crimes, saying his son had a "happy" childhood and that the pair had a "very close relationship." Old home movies provided by the Dahmer family, showing a Dahmer as a child and his father playing together, were also included in the episode.
Lionel spoke out about his relationship with Dahmer several times following his son's conviction. In 1994, he released a memoir about his family's life, and a decade after Dahmer was killed in prison, he appeared on CNN's "Larry King Live" saying he wanted to "tell parents about what I think they should look for in rearing their children."
TikTokers said they were intrigued to learn what Lionel had to say about Dahmer's childhood, with many expressing sympathy towards the father.
"The mercy for this man. you can feel his pain and guilt for all that his son did," one commenter wrote.
"My heart breaks for this man so torn it's his son at the end of the day none of us know how people will turn out," another person wrote.
People are only now realizing what songs lyrics about Jeffrey Dahmer mean.
Some TikTokers are making videos that show them listening to various songs that reference Dahmer, such as Katy Perry's "Dark Horse" featuring rapper Juicy J, Kesha's "Cannibal," and three Eminem songs: "Brainless," "Must Be The Ganja," and "Bagpipes from Baghdad."
Other songs TikTokers have highlighted include "Bandit" by Juice WRLD ft. NBA YoungBoy, "Jeffrey" by Juice WRLD, "I'm On It" by J. Cole, "Pretty Boy Swag" by Tyga, and "Transformer" by Future ft. Nicki Minaj.
Many TikTokers expressed surprise at realizing what the lyrics referred to, while on Twitter someuserssuggested the songs were insensitive.
Kesha's mother, songwriter Pebe Sebert, posted a TikTok video to explain the reasoning behind the lyric in "Cannibal." Sebert said, "That was my line that I wrote in 'Cannibal.' At the time, Kesha and the other writer were too young to even know who Jeffrey Dahmer was."
She explained that the lyric came from a rhyming program called Master Writer, which suggested the lyric to rhyme with the word "goner." Sebert also apologized to the families of Dahmer's victims.
It follows other recent cases of TikTokers resurfacing historical information.
—Taylor Emrey Glascock (haunted version) (@tayloremrey) October 3, 2022
A number of Twitter users seemedsurprisedthat TikTokers were just recently learning about Dahmer and his crimes, but historical clips frequently resurface on the app when the topic re-enters public consciousness, reaching a whole new audience.
Most recently, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, TikTokers resurfaced old footage of the Royal family, as well as clips of the Queen's funny moments throughout her life, expressing shock at many of the clips they uncovered which they had never seen before.