How many people Jeffrey Dahmer murdered and when he was caught

Netflix has turned its spotlight on one of the world’s most infamous serial killers in a new series entitled Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.

The 10-episode series focuses on the victims and the role of the police as the story of the so-called Milwaukee Monster unfolds.

He evaded capture on a number of occasion during a killing spree which lasted from 1978 to 1991 and took the lives of 17 people in the US.

Evan Peters plays Jeffrey Dahmer in the series which premieres on Netflix on Wednesday.

We take a look at the life and crimes behind the small screen story of a notorious murderer.

How many people did Jeffrey Dahmer murder?

Dahmer, known as the Milwaukee Monster or Cannibal, is known to have killed 17 people between 1978 and the date of his capture in 1991.

All of them were young men.

His first victim was Steven Hicks, a hitchhiker he befriended and invited back to his parents’ home in Ohio for beers on 18 June 1978.

There he knocked the 18-year-old unconscious with a dumb-bell, strangled him, dissected the body and buried the remains in a shallow grave in the garden.

Steven Tuomi was his second victim, killed in a rented room at the Ambassador Hotel in Milwalkee on 20 November 1987.

Dahmer claimed he had no intention of killing the 25-year-old after inviting him back to his room but awoke to find him dead on his bed.

His third victim was 14-year-old James Doxtator, who he met outside a gay bar in Wisconsin on 16 January 1988.

Dahmer lured him to his grandmother’s home in West Allis, where he strangled him and kept his body in the basement before dismembering and discarding with the rubbish.

No remains were ever found.

On 24 March the same year, Dahmer drugged and strangled Richard Guerrero in his bedroom in West Allis.

After dismembering and discarding the 22-year-old’s body, he kept the skull for several months.

A year later on 25 March, Dahmer drugged and strangled Anthony Sears at his grandmother’s home.

The 24-year-olds skull and genitals were found in a filing cabinet at Dahmer’s home when he was arrested in 1991.

In 1990, Dahmer took the lives of four men in the space of as many months while living at his apartment in Milwaukee.

On 20 May, he killed Raymond Smith at the apartment by drugging him with sleeping pills and then strangling him.

He later spray painted the 32-year-old’s skull and kept it in a filing cabinet.

A month later on 14 June, he drugged and strangled a former acquaintance Edward Smith.

He accidentally destroyed all the remains and so was unable to keep any body parts.

Dahmer met Ernest Miller outside a bookshop on 2 September in 1990, drugged him and then knifed him in the neck at his apartment.

Then three weeks later on 24 September, he strangled David Thomas at his apartment and then dismembering him.

No remains were ever found.

In 1991, Dahmer began the most prolific part of his killing spree taking the lives of eight men before his eventual capture.

On 18 February, he lured 17-year-old Curtis Straughter to his apartment where he drugged and strangled him.

Dahmer kept his skull, hands and genitals.

Errol Lindsey was killed on 7 April after Dahmer had drilled into his skull.

The following month he took the lives of Tony Hughes on 24 May and then 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone on 27 May.

The youth had managed to escape the apartment and alerted police but Dahmer convinced officers they were lovers.

Dahmer met Matt Turner on 30 June at the Chicago Pride Parade, brought him back to his apartment where he drugged and strangled him.

The following month he murdered Jeremiah Weinberger on 5 July after drilling into his skull.

Then he killed Oliver Lacy on 15 July by drugging and strangling him.

And finally on 19 July, Dahmer he killed father-of-three Joseph Bradehoft.

When was he captured?

Dahmer was finally captured by police after he invited Tracy Edwards back to his apartment on 22 July 1991. Dahmer had handcuffed the 32-year-old but he managed to escape and raise the alarm with two police officers on the street.

The officers returned to the apartment where Dahmer was arrested.

He was convicted of 15 of the 16 murders he had committed in Wisconsin and sentenced to fifteen life terms of life imprisonment. He was later sentenced to a sixteenth term for the murder he committed in Ohio.

He was beaten to death by a fellow inmate at Columbia Correctional institution in Wisconsin on 28 November 1994.