Richard Hanania's Newsletter
The H&H Podcast
Occam's Razor and Serial Killers
0:00
Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -1:24:02
-1:24:02

Occam's Razor and Serial Killers

Me and Rob Henderson on the Dahmer miniseries, Episodes 4-7

This is part two of my conversation with Rob Henderson on the miniseries Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, covering episodes 4-7. For the video, click here. Episode 6, as critics have noted, is the most emotionally charged of the show. I argue that the ending revealed a lack of courage on the part of the producers. Episode 7 is when the series goes full woke, bringing in Jesse Jackson to heroically hold the white power structure in Milwaukee to account. Rob doubts that Jackson would’ve been woke on LGBT in 1991, and I do a bit of googling and show that he was.

We talk about the strange thing where I call the guy “Dahmer” and Rob says “Jeff” like they’re old pals.

I explain to Rob why we can’t take the explanations of Dahmer’s motives presented in the show at face value, given that a lot of the information comes from the murderer himself in talks he had while trying to establish an insanity defense for his crimes. My theory is that Dahmer simply wanted sex without the inconvenience of taking into account the wishes or desires of others. Drugging men was a way to get sex, but then he realized he had to kill the men in order to not get in trouble. By the end he may have been more of a sadist, but I think that’s how he started.

We also go over what is real and what is fiction in the show.

Dahmer’s only real romantic connection n the show. The real nature of their relationship remains uncertain. Source.

Links

Part I of Dahmer discussion, audio and video

“What's real and what's fiction in Netflix’s Jeffrey Dahmer series, ‘Monster’”

Timeline of murders

“How Jesse Jackson helped bring gay rights to the Democratic mainstream.”

Discussion about this podcast

Richard Hanania's Newsletter
The H&H Podcast
Connected to the Richard Hanania Substack. Discussions with Chris Nicholson on war, Rob Henderson on movies, TV shows, and culture, and more.