Was Jeffrey Dahmer inspired by the crimes of the Butcher of Plainfield (Ed Gein)?

Evan Peters plays infamous serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer on Netflix Monsters: The Story of Jeffrey Dahmer. If you’re anything like us, you’re probably getting through the 10-episode season quickly. However, another notorious serial killer is mentioned once you’ve made it to Episode 8. We’re talking about Ed Gein, also known as the Butcher of Plainfield.

spoilers off Monsters: The Story of Jeffrey Dahmer ahead!

Lionel Dahmer visits Jeffrey Dahmer with a lawyer in prison to discuss next steps for his trial and he brings up the idea of ​​Jeffrey pleading not guilty to insanity. Lionel explains to Jeffrey that if he pleads insanity, he doesn’t have to spend the rest of his life in prison. Instead, he was committed to a psychiatric hospital. Lionel goes on to discuss a case similar to Jeffrey’s in 1957. Ed Gein is mentioned here.

Lionel tells the story of Ed Gein and the murders he committed. He explains how Ed kept the human remains of his victims as souvenirs and often visited graves to exhume bodies. After Ed was arrested, he was found to be mentally ill, resulting in his being sent straight to a psychiatric facility. Since Jeffrey’s and Ed’s cases were similar, Lionel believed that Jeffrey would be considered non-custodial and sent to a psychiatric hospital. But Jeffrey didn’t think he was crazy. Instead, he viewed what he was doing as a compulsion.

But was Jeffrey inspired by Ed’s crimes? Here’s what we know.

Did Ed Gein’s crimes inspire Jeffrey Dahmer?

It seems that Ed did not inspire Jeffrey. Although they both killed many people, mutilated their bodies, and preserved human remains, there is no known information that Jeffrey was inspired by Ed. On the contrary, everything Jeffrey did to his victims was his own idea. Even the one time Jeffrey visited a burial site to try and dig up a body was his idea.

However, according to the show, Jeffrey knew who Ed was. He tells Lionel and his lawyer that he read about him in a comic. So maybe Jeffrey was somewhat inspired by Ed’s crimes. But we’ll never really know since Jeffrey is no longer alive.

Monsters: The Story of Jeffrey Dahmer only streams on Netflix now.