Autopsies on some of the victims of confessed serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer revealed small holes were found in at least three skulls, backing up earlier claims Dahmer may have tried to perform lobotomies on some of the victims, a published report said Wednesday.
Holes 3 to 4 millimeters in diameter were found on the top of the skulls of at least three of the victims, the report in the Milwaukee Journal said. One skull had one hole, one had two, and another had three, the report said.However, the newspaper conceded autopsy reports on two of those victims said there was no evidence to indicate the holes were made just before the victims died.
The report said 11 autopsy reports were given to a Journal reporter to review Tuesday, but only seven were actually read because Milwaukee County Medical Examiner Jeffrey M. Jentzen took them back. Jentzen said the district attorney's office asked the autopsy reports be withheld until a trial to determine Dahmer's sanity, the report said.
Jentzen would not comment on the autopsy reports.
The Wisconsin State Journal ran a copyright story Sunday quoting forensic psychiatrist Frederick Fosdal as saying Dahmer claimed he tried to gain control over some of his victims by putting an unknown liquid in their brains. When the experiments failed, Dahmer strangled the drugged and unconscious victims, the report said.
Fosdal, who was hired by the prosecution to examine Dahmer, was quoted in the State Journal article as saying Dahmer wanted to make his victims "zombielike." However, Fosdal later denied ever describing the alleged lobotomy attempts to the reporter and even denied using the word "zombie."
An order by Judge Laurence C. Gram Jr. bars psychiatric evidence in the case to be made public before Dahmer's trial, which begins Jan. 27.
Dahmer, 31, who was charged with homicide last summer in the deaths of 15 men and boys, pleaded guilty to those charges at a pretrial hearing Jan. 13. However, he retained an earlier plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. His trial will focus on whether or not he was sane at the time of the killings.