A Father's Story

by Lionel Dahmer

A strange fear had begun to creep into his personality, a dread of others that was combined with a general lack of self-confidence.

And so, on September 10, we consented to our first television interview. It appeared on Inside Edition, and was conducted by Nancy Glass.

Interview lionel

Two days later, on September 12, the Geraldo Rivera show devoted its entire program to Jeff's case. In harrowing detail, Tracy Edwards recounted his escape from Jeff's apartment, and Jeff's later arrest. In his version of events, my son emerged not only as a brutal killer, but as a psychologically sadistic one.

Interview tracy edwards

Even more telling, however, was my mother's tendency to finish things for me before I had a chance to complete them myself. I would start some task, working slowly through it, as I always did, and suddenly my mother would appear, and in a few quick strokes, either of mind or hand, she would finish it for me. Even though done with a helpful, loving intention, such gestures powerfully reinforced my sense of myself as slow and inept and caused me to doubt my ability to do things, to carry through, to complete even the simplest tasks. The net effect was corrosive, leaving me feeling undermined and powerless.