How Did Jeffrey Dahmer Die?

As Netflix’s Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story drew to its horrifying end in Episode 10, we got an inevitable dramatization: Dahmer’s death.

After his imprisonment—at least how Ryan Murphy’s series shows it—Dahmer encounters a fellow inmate at Wisconsin’s Columbia Correctional Institution, Christopher Scarver. They’re in the weight room. Scarver walks up to Dahmer, who seemingly realizes that he’s about to meet his end, a nervous look giving way to quiet resignation. Scarver punches Dahmer, then begins taunting him. He asks, “You liked seeing those men in pain, didn’t you?” After taunting the serial killer more, Scarver takes a barbell and whacks Dahmer with it, so many times that it kills him. It’s a bloody, brutal conclusion to a series that made for a sickening watch. We have to ask one final question, though. Given that the stories of real-life figures like Tony Hughes and Dahmer’s brother, David, were told with varying levels of accuracy, how close is Monster‘s depiction of the serial killer’s death how it actually happened?

Well, we should get this out of the way first: Scarver really did kill Dahmer. Scarver ended up in jail after shooting Steven Lohman, who worked at Wisconsin Conservation Corps. Scarver was cleaning the prison gym when he was left unsupervised with Dahmer and another inmate, Jesse Anderson. He killed them both. Scarver would later tell The New York Post about his motives. “[Dahmer] crossed the line with some people—prisoners, prison staff. Some people who are in prison are repentant—but he was not one of them,” Scarver said, continuing, “I turned around, and [Dahmer] and Jesse were kind of laughing under their breath. I looked right into their eyes, and I couldn’t tell which had done it.”

The Post confirmed that the act was done with a 20-inch-long, five-pound metal bar. “He ended up dead. I put his head down,” Scarver recounted. That’s about all Scarver was able to share, continuing, “I would need a good attorney to ensure there would not be any retaliation by Wisconsin officials or to get me out of any type of retaliatory position they would put me in.” If you’re wondering why Dahmer did not receive the death penalty, similar to a serial killer like Ted Bundy, it’s because Wisconsin struck down the death penalty in 1853, long before Dahmer committed his crimes.

So, yes—Monster mostly gets this one right. So does Conversations With A Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes, out today. (Yes, we’re serious. Netflix has more Dahmer rehashing now streaming.)

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