THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 1, 1994 TAG: 9412010421
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Marc Tibbs
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Few among us have hearts that bleed for Jeffrey Dahmer.
In fact, some people were relieved to learn that the 34-year-old killer was bludgeoned to death Monday inside a Wisconsin prison.
Dahmer's despicable crimes warranted as much, some staunch penalists said. He was a human being not fit to live.
Among some blacks, that feeling was even stronger.
Dahmer had preyed on young black men. They were nine of his 17 victims. Blacks across the country were enraged when his crimes were made public. Black people were angry at Dahmer and angry at Milwaukee police who failed to protect those young men from this necrophiliac cannibal.
Some blacks even saw Dahmer's body-boiling and skull-drilling as evidence of what they perceived as a secret contempt harbored for black males in America.
But no matter how repulsive his crimes, it's not as easy as it seems to say Dahmer got what he deserved.
It's almost understandable that family members of Dahmer's victims would feel relief at his death. For them, it was an eye for an eye.
And it's understandable that some others - blacks and whites alike - got a charge from Dahmer's demise.
``Live by the sword, you die by the sword,'' one black woman said during an office discussion about the case. ``What goes around comes around,'' said another.
Most decent people despised Dahmer and his crimes, but his murder mitigates nothing.
Even if Jeffrey Dahmer got what was coming to him, how can any of us, in good conscience, feel fulfilled by a murderous act?
It would have been easier for us had Dahmer been executed by the state. At least then, we could have seen his death as the final grind in the wheel of justice.
It also would have been easier had Dahmer taken his own life. We would have expected as much from a man as mentally tormented as he surely must have been.
But Dahmer's murder doesn't rest easy on me. His death has left an emotional numbness - leaving me unable to revile either him or his murderer. To despise the one is to embrace the other.
And now, our prurient interests in his exploits may be tilling fertile ground for more Dahmer-like deeds.
His family is fighting for custody of his soon-to-be cremated remains. And others are clamoring for his belongings.
Soon to be auctioned are his toothbrush, an 80-quart kettle that he used to boil body parts; the refrigerator in which he stored skulls - all likely to fetch hefty prices from a salivating public. And just in time for Christmas.
What kind of society is repulsed by Jeffrey Dahmer's exploits, then offers to the highest bidder the wares of such wickedness?
Not even Dahmer's murder can be therapy for such an ailing society.
Maybe we've gotten what we deserve. MEMO: Got a comment or a complaint? Call Marc Tibbs' INFOLINE number. Dial
640-5555 (245-5555 from the Peninsula) and enter category 6272 (MARC).
by CNB