‘Dahmer’ receives even more criticism from relatives of the victims: “It didn’t happen like that”

From its premiere on September 21, the series “DAHMER – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” has not stopped receiving criticism. The Netflix miniseries, created by Ryan Murphy and starring Evan Peters, is based on the true story of the serial killer nicknamed “The Monster of Milwaukee” which claimed the lives of 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991.

Shirley Hughes, mother of Tony Hughes, whose murder is narrated in the sixth chapter, admits to The Guardian newspaper that she has not finished the series, but that the events did not occur as described. His son, an aspiring deaf model, was 31 when Dahmer took his own life in 1991. “I don’t understand how they can do it”Shirley says in the phone interview, “I don’t understand how they can use our names and put those things”.

Both Tony and his mother Shirley appear as characters in the episode “Muted”, the highest rated by IMDb users with a score of 9 out of 10, where they are played by Rodney Burford and Karen Malina White. Spectators participate at the beginning of the relationship between Tony and Dahmer who, after meeting in a bar, continues through handwritten notes, but still has its fateful end. The episode also includes a sequence where mother and son chat while having dinner together. Shirley Hughes spoke about the episode, stating the facts“they didn’t happen like that”but without going into details.

It is far from the only relative of a victim who has spoken out against the series. “The Story of Jeffrey Dahmer” includes a controversial scene that recreated the emotional outburst of Rita Isbell, sister of Errol Lindsey, one of the victims, in front of the serial killer on a jury. Isbell states in an interview for Insider that the manufacturer “never contacted her” to inform her of the series about it or ask her permission. Eric Perry, her cousin, claimed on Twitter that the family was “very upset” for the miniseries, and so on he did not understand the need for rehabilitation, as it forced those affected to do so “relive the trauma over and over again”.

morbidity sells

Real crime is pretty much just another genre of film. There is no shortage of podcasts, video channels or documentaries based on morbid and violent stories. Proof of this is that The miniseries ‘Dahmer’ is among the five most previewed series on Netflix, despite having no commercials, and whose audience continues to grow despite constant criticism from the families of the victims. In response to its success, the streaming content platform also premiered the docuseries “Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes” on October 7.