What Netflix's Jeffrey Dahmer Series Got Wrong and Left Out

where's my thing what you know mannequin. what do you have that for. where'd you get that. I'm telling you till you told me where. it is what do you have that for Jeff is. Netflix's Jeffrey Dahmer show accurate. what does it get right and what does it. get wrong decider a New York Post writer. Kayla Cobb explains. how you act when you are out of control.

now I don't want to ever have to see my. mother go through this again never. Jeffrey Jeffrey I hate you we wanted to. continue our conversation regarding. Netflix's show Monster the Jeffrey. Dahmer story this 10 part miniseries was. focusing on the notorious serial killer. that murdered and mutilated the bodies. of 17 people it's a series that really. everyone is talking about right now it's. so popular that it's been reported to. have the best opening week of any new.

show on the streaming service which. again is pretty incredible but one of. the reasons that the show is making. headlines is because of all the. controversy surrounding it as we. discussed on a previous episode of. sidebar the family members of the. victims took particular issue with the. show and criticized it for dramatizing. these real-life moments that the. producers the creators of the show. didn't even consult with them beforehand. there have been accusations that it's. re-traumatizing these families members. of the LGBT community have taken note of. this and said we don't even want to be.

tagged in this we don't won't even be. associated with it there's a former. Jeffrey Dahmer prosecutor who's. criticized the series for creating what. he said was a false impression of racism. in the police department at the time so. we thought one of the best ways to. really get to the bottom of all this and. to understand what's happening is to. think about well what is true in this. show and what is not true I mean how. accurate is this show so we're joined. right now by a very special guest Kayla.

Cobb who's a writer reporter for decider. and the New York Post who wrote the. article entitled Dahmer may be one of. the most accurate True Crime. dramatizations brought to television. Kayla Cobb thanks for coming on sidebar. hey thanks for having me that's quite an. article that's quite a headline do so. you believe that this is one of the most. accurate True Crime dramatizations. brought to television how come. um I. I'm writing for decider for about six. and a half years now and my focus has. normally been on kind of True Crime.

dramatizations and True Crime uh TV. projects in general. I've watched a ton of these shows this. is one of the few examples where the. embellishments where were kind of more. for like um just a storytelling. perspective so almost everything. I saw in the show I would like look up. do a little fact check and there was. normally a news story associated with. every single part and really why I wrote.

the article and why I believe that this. is like a fairly accurate dramatization. is that. um one of the aspects that most like. shows and documentaries about Jeffrey. Dahmer Overlook is the role that racism. and homophobia played in. um his reign of terror there were. multiple times where he could have been. stopped he was not a very. sneaky cereal killer.

um. almost everyone around him was like kind. of flagging down that something was. wrong with him his neighbor Glinda. Cleveland was one of the loudest of. these voices she repeatedly called the. cops and complained to her landlord as. well as authorities that uh. there were screams coming from her. neighbor's apartment that she smelled. disturbing smells that something was. wrong and she was she even took it up to.

the FBI at one point and she was. repeatedly ignored and. we can never really say exactly why but. it does seem that the fact that Glinda. Cleveland is a black or was a black. woman and lived in a predominantly black. neighborhood seems to be like a huge. part of that. so just to focus on that aspect for a. second the idea that the police. department and this is made heavy in the. show that they had this kind of you know.

anti-gay racist attitude that they. didn't really fully look into this there. was a commentary that apparently one of. them needed to be deloused after. entering into a a gay man's apartment is. that all accurate I mean because again. you're here there's a Jeffrey Dahmer. prosecutors come forward and said this. is the the Netflix series is. sensationalizing it they're embellishing. it let's first start with the central. issue here of the police department how. accurate is the description of the. police department here. I I will cushion this by saying.

um I'm a TV critic for some foremost a. TV critic entertainment reporter so I'm. not a true crime expert I'm not an. expert on this case but from what I was. able from the research I've done and. from what I've seen it seems fairly. accurate. um. I am I can't recall of the exact. homophobic remark was de-lousing but. after. um the police brought conorak uh sense.

of film. um back to Jeffrey Dahmer's apartment. who again he was a 14 year old boy. um. they did make homophobic comments to. their dispatcher and. um. Dahmer. was known for repeatedly using his. identity as a gay man to kind of like. avoid the police.

um he was known for saying like oh we're. just like well like what he said with. Conor because uh we're Partners this is. just what gay men do and that was. completely incorrect on every level but. um within the hour it is known that. within the hour that the these officers. returned this boy to Jeffrey Dahmer's. apartment where he was eventually. murdered and dismembered.

um within that hour they were making. homophobic jokes to their dispatcher so. like. this is a part of the story yeah and I. think there's certain aspects of it that. the series maybe took a little bit of. liberties with that certain officers you. know in the show that said that they. received officer of the year but in. reality they didn't receive officer of. the year they might have actually been. um. um you know they might have not received. that kind of commendation but were. enlisted but you talked about.

embellishments in the show what kind of. embellishments are there. [Music]. embellishment. um. they you're as you said they were not a. given officer of the year but one of the. officers. um. officer bolsarak he eventually became. the president of the Milwaukee Police. Union and both were reinstated and given. 55 000 in back pay a few years after. they were fired for. um this.

I struglessly incident because it's you. know so much more disturbing than that. but mistake. um other. kind of embellishments so for example. the finale claims that John game uh John. Wayne Gacy was executed on the same day. that Jeffrey Dahmer was baptized there's. no proof that that is actually the case. it happened on the same month.

um I also could not find any like. big news stories that showed that the. media was really. that this was like a really big thing. that people were talking about at the. time so that's a little suspect there. are smaller things where uh also I think. it's the second to last episode shows uh. Dahmer's death. um he was murdered by an inmate. Christopher scarver and in the show he's. murdered second in another inmate is.

murdered first. um the order was flipped in real life. and actually uh not murdered but he was. attacked and later died of his injuries. but they're like little details like. that which to me as someone who watches. a lot of these projects. they're just storytelling embellishments. um just to kind of build tension. at the end of the day this is a TV show. and it is designed to entertain people. so the unfortunately these things crop.

up a lot but but the the crime scenes. Dahmer drinking blood maybe the way that. they've portrayed the victims which is. tough because you know you don't have. the victims to come forward and say this. is what happened to the best that you've. seen is this accurate. is accurate to the best I've seen. um and also like you just mentioned it's. really really tough to say exactly how. accurate it is there have been many many. um interviews with Dahmer when he was.

alive. once he was properly medicated and. almost honestly as soon as he was uh. arrested he was pretty vocal about. everything he did he pretty much. confessed to all his crimes right away. um and he seemed happy to cooperate with. police and tell like. his side of the story of course we can. never know if like. everything he said is accurate we will.

never know any of these things because. his victims have. died but he. seemed to be pretty like upfront about. everything and like. a lot of his stories checked out with. like evidence that was found so. it's largely based on his testimony. which is inherently problematic but he. did seem. I don't want to say honest but like.

he did not seem to sugarcoat most of. what he did There's also I mean I can't. this is an interesting criticism because. my understanding is there's a part in. the series where the family members are. providing testimony in court you know. they're providing Victim Impact. statements and those were taken word for. word from the actual Court transcripts. but again as I said the the victims. family members are I mean some of them. have come forward have said. you didn't even consult us on this I had. to re-watch me you know as an actor.

playing this part but that was accurate. right the what they said and in court. you could find. um you could find those uh testimonies. online there's a lot of videos this was. like a huge case at the time. um so almost all of those are word for. word accurate there's also a uh scene in. I believe it's episode two where Glenda. Cleveland played by Niecy Nash has a. conversation with a police officer and. that is a word for word transcript of. what happened that's just reenacted.

um it's interesting because the camera. kind of like cuts to Black and you just. see the words appear on screen it really. tries to like drill home that this was a. real conversation that happened so. yeah this is the most accurate I've seen. all right that's good to know I don't. know if that helps the conversation if. it helps the controversy with it but I. think it's better in my opinion that. they were as accurate as possible and. getting this story out there than in.

complete can taking complete Liberties. and changing the whole story I don't. know I think that would have been better. I'll give you about you know 30 seconds. to to respond to that if you agree with. me. yeah no I agree. um the hunt I mean these stories are. really really difficult to talk about. and think about mostly because. as we've as you've mentioned they do. affect the victims they re-traumatize. people. um.

so like should we even have them should. we even portray them I honestly do not. know I do not know have the answers to. this but I do think that if these. stories are to be like uh re-examined. and re-dramatized then they need to be. as accurate as possible and they need to. point out the larger systematic. problems that led to things like Jeffrey. Dahmer happening and Kayla Cobb will be.

watching these shows to see how accurate. they are and keep them to accountability. Kayla thanks so much for coming on. thanks for having me and everyone thanks. so much for joining us here on sidebar. please subscribe on Apple podcast. Spotify YouTube wherever you get your. podcast I'm Jesse Weber we'll speak to. you next time. [Music].