I dubbed Jeffrey Dahmer — he told me how he ate the victim’s bicep, but here’s why I helped him and we became friends

THE minister who baptized Jeffrey Dahmer has recounted how the cannibal serial killer told him horrifying details about his crimes, but they became friends anyway.

Church leader Roy Ratcliff even admitted he felt “a sense of sadness” when Dahmer was brutally murdered with an iron bar by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver.

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His gruesome death came just days after Roy received a Thanksgiving card from him in which the killer spoke of their friendship.

The serial killer was serving a life sentence for the disturbing and gruesome murders of 17 boys and young men – but while he was behind bars he claimed to have found God.

In an exclusive interview, Roy told The Sun Online about his conversations with the man he calls “Jeff”.

And he revealed the gruesome details the killer shared about eating part of one of his victims.

Roy, now 75, worked at a church in Wisconsin where Dahmer committed his crimes and was imprisoned

He had been asked by another Oklahoma minister, to whom Dahmer had shared his desire to be baptized.

After some balked at the prospect of being in a room with the mass murderer dubbed the “Milwaukee Cannibal,” Roy finally agreed to perform the baptism

“I said ‘ok sure, what’s his name?’ and the guy who called me said, ‘You might want to sit down for that,’ then he said to me, ‘It’s Jeffrey Dahmer,'” Roy told The Sun Online.

Roy said he was “relatively ignorant” of the details of Dahmer’s crimes at the time, and it wasn’t until his wife said, “You should know more about him,” that he began reading about it.

“When I first saw him I didn’t know the grisly details and I think it was better not to know because it allowed me not to be prejudiced against him.”

Roy made his first visit to prison to meet Dahmer in April 1994 and was ushered through doors that slammed “a little bit disturbingly” into a room with an even table and chairs to await Dahmer.

He had been warned to remove his tie should it be used as a weapon, but he began to notice that he was sweating as the minutes ticked by while he waited.

“Then in a few minutes, Jeff comes in and closes the door and shakes my hand, then sits across from me,” he said.

“I was impressed by how polite he was and how willingly cooperative he was.

“He was considerate, which I found surprising. Given that he had killed people, I thought he was a rougher person, but from what I could see he was gentle.

“For a moment I think I’m all alone in a room with a man who has murdered so many people and I was a little worried. I thought ‘what’s going on here’.

He confessed to me that he ate a bicep of one of his victims

Roy Ratcliff

“Then we started talking about how he wanted to be baptized, and after that I forgot my concerns.”

In fact, Dahmer had been terrified of meeting Roy and “heaved a deep and unusual sigh” when agreeing to baptize him.

“I said, ‘Why did you make that noise?’ and he said, ‘I was afraid to meet you because I thought you would say I can’t baptize you because you were too angry.’

“But if someone is looking for atonement for their sins, then I should help them. That’s all I thought about.”

As they began to talk, Dahmer began to open up about the dark aspects of his crimes, particularly his cannibalism.

“He confessed to me that he ate a bicep of one of his victims. I knew there was cannibalism in its history.

“I didn’t think he was playing around and that it was a real confession. There was no question in my mind that he hadn’t done those things.

“In my opinion there was no one there to stop him and one thing led to another and to another.

“It’s like the quote from Shakespeare, it’s so deep in your blood you can’t get out.”

DEEP IN THE BLOOD

Roy says his “cannibal personality” was part of Dahmer’s identity and something he used to have a chilling effect on those around him.

“I was told by the prison guards that he would say ‘I bite’ to a guard standing in front of his cell. It was close enough for only a guard to hear, and the guard would be shaken by it.

“He also had a placard in his cell that read: Cannibals Anonymous Meeting Here Tonight.

“It was a way of getting attention and communicating, ‘Don’t get close to me, I might hurt you’.”

Dahmer was baptized May 10 in a hot tub where inmates were treated for back injuries.

In an eerie coincidence, it was the day Dahmer’s fellow serial killer John Wayne Gacy was executed in Illinois for the murder of 33 boys and men, and there was also an eclipse.

The two began meeting frequently to study the Bible, forming a friendship that Roy believed would last into old age.

“Some people are surprised by this, but we did it. I assumed we would be friends until we were old and needed walkers to get around.

“The last time we met for Thanksgiving, he gave me a card saying ‘thank you for being my friend’ and things like that.

“When I found out about his murder, I felt sad because I had lost a friend. We were able to talk about how he felt about his mother and father and a friendship developed.

“We think he’s a demented lunatic, a monster, but he was more human than we give him credit for.”

Dahmer’s Prison Bible is currently for sale by Cult Collectibles, who previously had the most terrifying items belonging to the cannibal.

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