Is it a coincidence or that Milwaukee breeds serial killers?, by Onyinyechi Iheanacho

Is it a coincidence or that Milwaukee breeds serial killers?, by Onyinyechi Iheanacho

Milwaukee a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin on Lake Michigan’s western shore is known for its breweries, many of which offer tours chronicling its role in the beer industry and cultural diversity to their amazing coffee and booming restaurant business.

As much as this all sounds so delightful and pleasant, there’s a dark side to Milwaukee. It has harboured most of the worst serial killers of all time.

I was reading a story recently of how a 10-year-old boy in Milwaukee killed his mum because she didn’t buy him an Oculus Virtual Reality headset that he saw on Amazon saying he didn’t want to shoot her but eventually did because he heard voices in his head.

A headset made him kill his own mother. I imagine him growing up to kill people that don’t meet up to his expectations.

Sometimes I wonder, is it the environment? Being brought up in a strict African home, I probably would lose my hearing capability by a bunch of slaps or being beaten with belts so hard, it’ll end up tearing my skin because I was making a fuss about something.

This made me think of Jeffrey Dahmer or as they call him, the ‘Milwaukee Cannibal’. Jeffrey who once said that he heard voices in his head at a younger age was a sex offender and a brutal serial killer.

Jeffrey not only had sex with his victims, but he also killed them, kept some of their body parts and preserved them like trophies, boiled some of them and ate them saying he thought he’d be more connected to them after eating them.

I keep thinking to myself what makes one a serial killer?

I mean take a look at Jeffrey Dahmer, he used his looks and the fact that he was gay and probably ‘White Privilege’ to fool the police several times that complaints were laid against him. According to a neighbour of his, though not too friendly, he was a good guy.

I’m using Jeffrey Dahmer here as a major case topic because I watched the Netflix documentary on him ‘Conversations with Jeffrey Dahmer’ and also the movie representation ‘Dahmer’.

Jeffrey said he didn’t feel like he belonged and didn’t have emotions for people. He would cut open dead animals as a fantasy, and nobody saw it as weird that a 6-year-old child who should be scared of animals loved to cut open dead animals. In fact, his father even taught him taxidermy and they did it for years as father and son bonding because he didn’t know how to relate to his son who wasn’t exhibiting any social skills.

The kid I talked about before at the age of four swung his puppy by the tail. Something a kid wouldn’t do given the fact that kids that age adore pets. So why throw it hard like that?

Other major serial killers Milwaukee had are Walter Ellis, Ed Gein, David Spanbauer, etc. These people all felt they didn’t belong and were different from others in so many ways.

Is this a coincidence or does Milwaukee breed serial killers?

This brings me to the question, could it be from poor parenting or are people born with that mindset to kill people? Could people who act indifferent to others have the tendency to kill?

A lot of people in the 21st century think that zodiac signs might also be a factor and this scared me given the fact that Jeffrey Dahmer and I share the same birthday, just the year is different. Our zodiac sign is Gemini which they say is a mixture of good and evil but I know that’s not going to happen with me though given the fact that I’m scared of cockroaches hahaha.

For someone who loves watching horror movies and serial killer movies, I keep thinking, what goes through their mind, what makes these monsters tick? As much as I think about it, the answer is always far from me and I don’t think anybody would ever have a definite answer as to why people become serial killers. Your best bet is to pray your neighbour doesn’t crave human flesh.

Onyinyechi Iheanacho is an Assistant Editor and Reporter at Neptune Prime and writes from Abuja.