"He tried to make money": Lionel Dahmer book sales come under scrutiny as he considers suing Netflix

Lionel Dahmer, father of the infamous serial murderer Jeffrey Dahmer, has expressed interest in suing the hit drama docuseries about his son.

Dahmer’s caretaker came forward announcing that the frenzy over the recent Netflix series, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, was the reason behind doing so. Since then, netizens have taken to social media to slam the father for profiting off of his son’s gruesome killings.

In an interview with The U.S. Sun, Dahmer’s caretaker stated that the father was not approached by the streaming giant for permission. The caretaker also claimed that Dahmer is hoping to file a lawsuit against Netflix or possibly the production team of the hit show.

The caretaker stated:

“I’ve personally talked to a few lawyers and we’ve talked to his publisher about it too due to all the chaos that is going on and the stories we’ve seen. Lionel and his power of attorney are gathering information and looking at a possible lawsuit against the production team or possibly Netflix.”

Along with the limited series, Netflix also released a docuseries titled Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes, which reportedly left Lionel Dahmer a “nervous wreck.”

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Netizens react to Lionel Dahmer profiting over his son’s murders

Internet users have expressed their disinterest over the 86-year-old writing his own memoir. Many claimed that this was simply his way of making earnings through the gruesome 17 killings his son committed. Some also blamed Lionel Dahmer for his son’s vile acts.

Check out some of these tweets below:

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More details about Lionel Dahmer’s book- A Father’s Story

Dahmer’s decision to now reportedly file a lawsuit against Netflix comes as a surprise because he himself wrote a book about his son Jeffrey Dahmer. A Father’s Story was published in 1994, a year just before the serial killer’s passing. The book mostly entails how Dahmer approached the horrific crimes, struggling to come to terms with what his son did.

The book mostly focuses on Lionel Dahmer’s confusion over what led his son to commit such gruesome killings. In the book, Dahmer blames himself for his son’s vile acts.

Lionel's book A Father's Story (Image via Getty Images)

The book goes on to explain the behind-the-scenes of Jeffrey Dahmer’s trial, where the father places himself in his son’s shoes.

Good Reads describes the book as:

“A Father’s Story cannot claim to have discovered the ultimate solution to the enigma of either the criminal or his deeds. It is, in fact, not the story of Jeffrey Dahmer at all, but of a father who, by slow, incremental degrees, came to realise the saddest truth that any parent may ever know: that following some unknowable process, his child had somewhere crossed the line that divides the human from the monstrous.”

It added that Dahmer’s book does not attempt to change the narrative of the events that transpired, but is a “haunting confession- the searing account of a man who never relented in his effort to fathom the deepest quarters of his son’s affliction, even as they pointed to his own.”

The recent Netflix show suggested that families of all the 17 victims wanted to sue Lionel Dahmer for making profits through his book. However, only two families sued him in real life for portraying their lives without permission. The book ended up not making enough money to contribute to the families of the victims.

Lionel Dahmer has mostly remained out of the public eye. The last time he sat down for an interview was in the 2020 documentary Jeffrey Dahmer: Mind of a Monster. He now lives in Seville, Ohio with his second wife, Shari.