Jeffrey Dahmer’s dad Lionel has died, aged 87

Jeffrey Dahmer’s dad Lionel has died in hospice care at the age of 87.

Lionel Dahmer, the father of the notorious serial killer, was receiving hospice care in Medina County, Ohio before his death.

An employee at Medina County Health Department was notified of his death on Tuesday (December 5), before the news was confirmed to the New York Post.

His cause of death and the exact date of his passing has not yet been revealed.

Lionel was a chemist analyst, and infamously always stuck by his son Jeffrey after his crimes – the murder of 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991 – became revealed to the world.

Jeffrey was named the Milwaukee Cannibal, with chilling details of his crimes ranging from dismemberment to cannibalism.

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“We’ve gotten very close since his … arrest,” Lionel told Oprah Winfrey in 1994 (per Today). “I still love my son. I’ll always stick by him — I always have.”

He also said that he visited his son in prison at least once a month and spoke on the phone at least once a week.

Lionel appeared on Oprah’s show to promote his memoir, A Father’s Story, which he said he wrote to raise awareness for other parents to spot warning signs in their children, along with treatment options for those who have gone through something similar to what his son did.

“I considered all kinds of things. Was it environmental, genetic? Was it, perhaps, medications that were taken at the time of — you know, in the first trimester? Was it the effect of, you know, the popular subject now, media violence?” he said.

Lionel’s death comes almost a year after his wife Shari died in January. Jeffrey died in November 1994 after being beaten to death by a fellow inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin.

The recent new documentary series My Son Jeffrey: The Dahmer Family Tapes shared never-before-heard conversations between the notorious serial killer and his father.

Earlier this year, meanwhile, Evan Peters’ win at the Golden Globes 2023 for the controversial Netflix hit series, Dahmer, was criticised by victims’ families.

It was later revealed that scenes in the series were edited to avoid creating sympathy for the serial killer.