Serial Killer's Soul

S
ERIAL
K
ILLER’S
S
OUL

Jeffrey Dahmer’s Cell Block Confidante Reveals All

By Herman Lee Martin

As told to Patricia Lorenz

Copyright ©2010 Herman Lee Martin and Patricia Lorenz All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part, by any means whatsoever, except for passages excerpted for the purposes of review, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information, or to order additional copies, please contact: TitleTown Publishing, LLC

P.O. Box 12093 Green Bay, WI 54307-12093

920.737.8051 | titletownpublishing.com Scripture quotations marked (TLB) are taken from THE WAY, The Living Bible, copyright ©1976. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.

Cover design by Mike Stromberg Interior layout and design by Erika L. Block Edited by Julie Rogers

PUBLISHER’S CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA: Martin, Herman Lee.
Serial Killer’s Soul : Jeffrey Dahmer’s Cell Block Confidante Reveals All
by Herman Lee Martin ; as told to Patricia Lorenz. -- 1st ed.
Green Bay, WI : TitleTown Pub., c2010.

p.; cm.

ISBN: 978-0-98230089-3
1. Dahmer, Jeffrey.
2. Serial murderers--Wisconsin--Milwaukee--Biography.
3. Prisoners--Wisconsin--Biography. I. Lorenz, Patricia. II. Title.

HV6534.M65 M37 2010 2010934527
364.152/320977595--dc22 1009

Printed in the USA by Thomson-Shore first edition
printed on recycled paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand safe against all strategies and tricks of Satan. For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against persons without bodies—the evil rulers of the unseen world, those mighty satanic beings and great evil princes of darkness who rule this world; and against huge numbers of wicked spirits in the spirit world. So use every piece of God’s armor to resist the enemy whenever he attacks, and when it is all over, you will still be standing up. (Ephesians 6:11-13
, The Living Bible)

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. An Unholy Childhood

2. Still Running From the Law

3. A New Life Begins

4. Another Sinner Captured

5. Trials of Life Inside Maximum Security

6. Life Goes on Without Dahmer

7. Dahmer’s Day in Court

8. Back to Serve His Time

9. Who is This Man, Dahmer?

10. The Great Weapons Search

11. And So It Begins

12. Dahmer’s Private Hell

13. Is Your Soul Dead?

14. More Questions, More Answers

15. Inferiority Complexes

16. The Pull Between Good and Evil

17. A Quiet, Lonely Sunday

18. Another Letter from Jeff

19. The Day Before My Disciplinary Hearing

20. Hearing Day Arrives

21. Corresponding with Jeff from Afar

22. Unanswered Letters

23. My Release from Prison

24. The Murder of Jeffrey Dahmer

Afterword

Final Notes from Patricia Lorenz

About the Authors

Herman Martin
, who was willing to open his life and his heart to share with others his incredible journey spent in the cell next to Jeffrey Dahmer.

Tracy Ertl
, the joyful, hard-working owner of TitleTown Publishing, who had faith in this book from the first moment she heard about it.

Ellen Kozak
, one of America’s leading copyright attorneys who asked me to be the ghostwriter for this book in 1995 and who had faith in it for the fifteen years it sat in limbo awaiting the right publisher.

Julie Rogers
, editor, whose amazing attention-to-detail work ethic has certainly helped make this book reader ready.

Jessica Engman
, a talented intern at TitleTown Publishing who did follow-up interviews with Herman and thus provided insightful rewrites fifteen years after the original manuscript was written.

Erika Block
, creator of the book’s easy-on-the-eyes interior design.

Michael Stromberg
, cover artist. As we all know it’s the cover of a book that sells it.

Thank you to all who had a part in this book birthed, with considerable labor pains, over many years. I am especially grateful for having the opportunity to do the final rewrites and present a book that will hopefully encourage readers to think and explore on their own the many issues and ideas that this book presents.

Thank you to Herman for finally having the courage to go forward with his story fifteen years after the beginning.

Patricia Lorenz

June 1, 2010

My curiosity overtook my fear. As I sat on my bed and stared at the gray wall separating us, I looked up at the vents at the top of my cell. Those vents led directly into Jeffrey Dahmer’s cell. My eyes trailed down toward the metal sink attached to the wall. I compared the distance between the two and, if I stood on the sink, I figured I could get close to the vents. Close enough, maybe, so I could talk to him quietly. I wondered if he would talk back.

Curiosity or fear, which would prove stronger?

I took a deep breath and felt my palms getting sweaty. I stood up, went over to the sink, put both hands onto the sides, and hoisted myself up onto it. My heart was thudding so loudly I almost wondered if he could hear it. The pipes beneath the shiny metal of the sink creaked slightly under the new, unwanted addition of my weight. I steadied myself, leaning in toward the wall. I listened closely for just a moment, straining, to see if I could hear any sign of life from a man who took that very thing from so many others.

If I had met Jeffrey Dahmer before it all happened, before Tracy Edwards’ escape and Dahmer’s subsequent arrest, I probably would have fallen for Jeff’s lies, too. I would have returned to his apartment in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and my fate may have been the same as the seventeen others whose lives he claimed. Granted, I wouldn’t have gone there for the same reasons as the others, who mostly went for sex, drugs, alcohol, promises of money, or gay porn. That wasn’t my bag. I would have gone to his apartment to steal stuff.

I learned to steal at an early age. Stealing is a behavioral addiction that has followed me my entire life, even now. Stealing, for me, is like a drug. After years of being clean and waiting for the right time to reveal my Dahmer story, I
still
failed to resist the urge to steal and landed back in prison. I had everything to look forward to and failed. I, along with many other people, always wondered
if Dahmer was
human
when he could do the things he did. Perhaps Dahmer was indeed human but also had his own addiction? Dahmer’s addiction was that he couldn’t resist the compulsion to kill.

There’s one thing to set straight from the start: to steal is one thing, to lie is another.

When the police arrested Jeffrey Dahmer in 1991, I was already in the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin. I was serving time for theft–armed robbery, to be specific. We watched Dahmer on the news religiously. Everyone around me watched his trial, the evidence, the gross details…
everything
. The inmates at Columbia and I heard it all. We were inmates, yet we were shocked. The entire city of Milwaukee was shocked on that July day in 1991. The
world
was shocked.

It was a virtual pandemic of fear. Parents worried about their children. Police worried that there would be a Dahmer wanna-be who would attempt to pick up where Jeff left off, a “copy-cat” killer. City officials argued about what to do with items taken from Dahmer’s apartment: his tools, his photographs, and all his other belongings. People were angry, scared, and looking for someone to blame. The news stations couldn’t get enough of the Dahmer story. Programs popped up about how parents could protect their children, problems with big cities, innercity area crime, issues with the police, discrimination, and the problems with the legal system. When something like Dahmer happens, the world is full of blame and finger pointing.