Milwaukee reeling in wake of killings; see A7.MILWAUKEE (AP) - An intense fear of loneliness that goes back to his parents' divorce led Jeffrey Dahmer to kill homosexual men he lured to his apartment and keep their dismembered remains, a police investigator said Saturday.
That intense fear of being alone apparently surfaced each time one of the men wanted to leave his apartment, causing Dahmer to kill and dismember the victim, the investigator told The Associated Press."He didn't want anybody else to leave him," said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. "His childhood situation contributed a lot."
Police allege Dahmer, a 31-year-old Army veteran and former chocolate factory worker, has admitted killing 17 people over 13 years, including one in Ohio and three at his grandmother's apartment in suburban Milwaukee.
Dahmer, who records show told his probation agent he felt guilty about being homosexual, did not hate the gay men he killed, as some people have suggested, the source said.
"They were the easiest to get into his apartment," the officer said.
Since the bodies were found in Dahmer's apartment two weeks ago, little has been released to explain Dahmer's motive in the killings.
Acquaintances said Dahmer exhibited hatred toward black and gay people, and probation records indicate Dahmer's father reported last year that his son had been abused by a neighbor boy at age 8. The incident, however, was never reported to police in 1968.