In a tense episode of Dr. Phil, the host showed his interview with the father of one of America’s most infamous murderers and asked his guests for feedback.
In a recent special by Dr. Phil, “In The Presence of Evil: Face to Face with Jeffrey Dahmer,” focused on those lives impacted by serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who was infamously labeled the “Milwaukee Cannibal.”
As the Netflix series based on Dahmer’s heinous crimes dominated headlines, Dr. Phil interviewed the serial killer’s father, Lionel, and asked what he would say to those whose lives his son impacted.
Lionel indicated that he was “sorry” for what happened to their loved ones and “if I could have done anything to prevent it, I would have.” He followed by asking those impacted by his son to “forgive Jeff for what he did.”
Jeffrey Dahmer’s father speaks on a recent episode of Dr. Phil.
(CBS Screenshot)
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Dr. Phil then cut to his guests on stage, asking them what they thought.
“That’s a very hard way to answer that,” Preston Davis, a man who claims Dahmer drugged and assaulted him, replied. “Forgiveness to me has different levels.”
He noted further, “the stuff that he did consumed me, that probably fueled my alcohol – my drug abuse,” and later summarized, “no I don’t forgive him, but I don’t hate him if that makes any sense. I hate what he did, but it doesn’t consume my life anymore.”
Billy Capshaw, who claims Dahmer tortured and assaulted him, explained, “I can’t forgive him.” He later added that he blames Dahmer’s father for turning a blind eye to his son’s criminality, “I feel like that he knew something was wrong with Jeff and he tried to put him in the military even, to get rid of that problem.”
Dr. Phil asked Lionel whether there had been “red flags” and “warning signs” that he had missed.
Conversations With A Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes. (L to R) Wendy Patrickus and Jeffrey Dahmer in Conversations With A Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2022
(Netflix)
Lionel said that when Dahmer was very young, he would explore through the local countryside and collect parts of dead animals and “felt them, explored them-their insides, their entrails and terrible things like that. Although I’ve had friends who have told me they’ve done the same sort of thing, but that would have been a red flag.”
Back on Dr. Phil’s stage, Davis replied, “Dr. Phil, that’s a bunch of bull, okay? He knew, he chose to look the other way.”
FBI Criminal Profiler Candice Delong slammed the father’s commentary as well, “ninety percent of what he just said was all these horrible things he was unaware of Jeffrey was doing but then he wipes it away by saying ‘but then my friends said they did it too.’”
Later footage of Lionel showed him explaining that Dahmer at 12-14 years old would “pick up roadkill,” noting this age was when his son began to have a strange association between “roadkill” and “his sexual urges.”
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer (May 21, 1960 Ð November 28, 1994) was an American serial killer, who murdered 17 men between 1978 and 1991 (with the majority of the murders occurring between 1989 and 1991). His murders were particularly gruesome, involving rape, necrophilia and cannibalism. With evidence overwhelmingly against him, Dahmer pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. The court found Dahmer sane and guilty on 15 counts of murder and sentenced him to 15 life terms, totalling 957 years in prison.
(PA/PA Images via Getty Images)
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Dr Phil turned to viewers and said that while he has “talked about evil” and seen it “more than once,” he urged his viewers to “consider” that “there are bad people in this world, we’ve been talking about one today, but I want you to have that concept in your mind.”
