Warning: This post features explicit details of child abuse that could be triggering for some readers.
There's a new crime series we can't stop thinking about that's just dropped on Netflix, delving into one of the most notorious serial killers the United States has ever seen.
Jeffrey Dahmer murdered and dismembered 17 men and boys, with his later crimes involving both necrophilia and cannibalism.
While Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story has all the creepy and blood-curdling aspects you'd expect from a serial-killer show, it's told through the lense of Dahmer’s many victims.
In doing so, we’ve been able to learn the story of Glenda Cleveland, one of Dahmer’s neighbours who was aware that something was going on in his apartment, but was ignored by authorities in her many attempts to report the killer.
She’s rarely mentioned by name in reports from the time, and it’s taken this series to teach us about Glenda, who tried to save one of Dahmer’s youngest victims in particular.
Who was Glenda Cleveland?
Glenda lived in the same apartment block as Dahmer, where neighbours often noticed a terrible smell emanating from his apartment. He passed it off as rotted meat, claiming his freezer had broken while adding that his tropical fish had died, and that he would sort it out.
The truth was, the smell was the decomposing bodies he kept inside. In the series, Glenda is shown as one of the people who pointed out the smell and asked Dahmer to do something about it.
She’s often shown as the one calling the police after hearing strange noises coming from the apartment, and while it’s believed that Glenda did attempt to alert police to Dahmer’s activity on numerous occasions, her most noticeable attempt was in 1991 when she tried to alert police about a victim who had just tried to escape.
However, the fact that Glenda was a woman of colour living in a low socio-economic area played into the authorities' choice to ignore her.
Unfortunately, Glenda passed away in 2010 from natural causes, but her part in the Dahmer story is now being remembered in this new series, where she is played by Niecy Nash.
The murder of Konerak Sinthasomphone.
In May 1991, Dahmer encountered 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone, and lured him back to his apartment, promising he would pay the teenager if he allowed him to take photos of him.
Once he was inside, Konerak was drugged by Dahmer, who also injected hydrochloric acid into his brain to impair him. After this, he left the apartment to buy more beer, and while he was gone, Konerak made an attempt to escape.
He was found wandering around naked and disorientated on the street by Glenda’s niece and daughter, Sandra Smith and Nicole Childress.
They called the police while attempting to protect the boy from Dahmer, who had returned and was claiming Konerak was ‘his friend’. Eventually, when the police arrived, they began to speak to Dahmer and largely ignored Sandra and Nicole, telling them to “butt out”.
An hour later, after her daughter explained what had happened, Glenda called the police to try to convince them that Konarek was a child, and he was in danger.
"He assured me that he (the victim) was not a child," Glenda told The Milwaukee Sentinel after Dahmer’s arrest in 1991.
"He said he was an adult and that it was a domestic squabble between two homosexuals."
"This could have all been prevented," Nicole also said.
"If they had listened that night, that little boy would still be alive and all the others wouldn't be dead."
Watch: Niecy Nash On The Untold Story Of Glenda Cleveland. Post continues below.
The other victims.
Often referred to as the Milwaukee Cannibal or the Milwaukee Monster, Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys across a 13-year period.
He committed his first murder just three weeks after he graduated high school, but made a habit of it in his late 20s and early 30s.
Dahmer sought out his victims - who were typically Black, Asian or Latino men - at gay bars, malls, and bus stops, luring them back with the promise of either sex or money. He would then drug them, often strangle them to death and keep the bodies for weeks at a time before he would dispose of them. Eventually, he would begin to keep some of the body parts as souvenirs.
By mid-1991, the year Konerak was murdered, Dahmer was committing murders on almost a weekly basis. He lured Tracy Edwards back to his home, likely with the intention of murdering him, but Tracy's escape led to Dahmer's downfall instead.
Tracy fled the apartment with a handcuff around one wrist, and flagged down two police officers, whom he then took to Dahmer's apartment. A quick look at the polaroids he had of numerous men, the smell of decomposing bodies, and the eventual discovery of a severed head, led to Dahmer's immediate arrest.
Dahmer quickly admitted to his crimes, and was charged a few days later on four counts of first-degree murder. A few weeks later, a further eleven counts of murder were added to the charges. He plead guilty, and spent the first year of his life sentence in solitary confinement amid concerns for his safety.
He was killed in prison in 1994 by a fellow inmate, Christopher Scarver.
Glenda Cleveland’s legacy
Although her name was barely known prior to the release of Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, she’s now being remembered as one of the only people who tried to stop Dahmer, who was given multiple chances by authorities.
The show explains how there were instances where Dahmer could have been stopped, given his other run-ins with the law, and the many complaints made by his neighbours.
“Hers was a story I did not know,” actress Niecy Nash, who plays Glenda in the series told Netflix.
“Glenda was one of his victims too, and her story has been told the least,” she added.
“Heavy is the head that wears the crown, to tell this story, specifically through Glenda’s lens, as it had never been done before - that comes with a lot of responsibility, because you want to make sure you get it right.”
Feature image: Netflix/Getty.
You can now stream Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story on Netflix.