Mass-Murder Trail May Extend To Ohio, Germany Over 13 Years -- Man Charged In 4 Slayings

MILWAUKEE - A pattern of drugging, strangling, dismembering and possibly eating victims, which may date as far as 1978 and extend beyond Wisconsin to Ohio and Germany, emerged yesterday as Jeffrey Dahmer was charged with murdering four men.

Dahmer, 31, whose apartment held the dismembered remains of 11 men, may be responsible for killing at least 17, police said.

"That any civilized human being in a civilized society could do something this gruesome is inexplicable," said Milwaukee Police Chief Philip Arreola.

Police have released the names of seven victims, but Dahmer was charged in only four murders because only four identifications had been made at the time of his court appearance yesterday.

Three of the victims were from Chicago - Jeremiah Weinberger, 23; Matt Turner, also known as Donald Montrell, 20; and Oliver Lacy, 23, who moved to Milwaukee four months ago. A fourth victim, Joseph Bradehoft, 25, of Milwaukee, had lived in Greenville, Ill.

Others were identified as Conerak Sinthasomphone, 14, Milwaukee; Anthony Hughes, 31, Madison, Wis., and Ricky Beeks, 33, Milwaukee.

The criminal complaint submitted by prosecutors describes a pattern in which Dahmer picked up victims in Chicago and took them by bus to Milwaukee.

After sometimes engaging in homosexual acts, police said, Dahmer would drug his victims before strangling and dismembering them, likely using either chloroform or Lorazepam, a powerful

tranquilizer. A prescription for Lorazepam was found in Dahmer's apartment.

Investigators say Dahmer told them he cut out Lacy's heart and put it in the refrigerator with the intention of eating it later.

There was no food in the house, only condiments, but pots and pans were dirty and had congealed material on them, according the medical examiner's report.

Investigators for medical examiner Dr. Jeffrey Jentzen painted a macabre picture of Dahmer's apartment, where they found photos of men in a dresser drawer in different stages of undress and dismemberment, a freezer containing two heads in garbage bags, a filing cabinet containing three skulls and a refrigerator with a box containing another head.

Bottles of chloroform, formaldehyde and ethyl alcohol were found, along with electric tools. A knife was found beneath Dahmer's bed. Hands and bones were found in computer boxes, and two torsos were found in a plastic drum.

Dahmer is a tall, slender man whose brief responses to Circuit Judge Frank Thomas Crivello yesterday afternoon were courteous and soft-spoken.

Defense lawyer Gerald Boyle later described his client as "very destitute of spirit, a grave state of anguish and a sense of desperation." He expressed concern that Dahmer may be suicidal.

The lawyer, who was hired in 1988 to represent Dahmer in a sexual-assault case, promised a defense effort that would explore "every piece" of Dahmer's life to learn "what it was that caused him to do the things he admitted doing.

"It's safe to assume that anyone with an ounce of common sense would want to take a look at his mind," Boyle said.

In an affidavit filed Wednesday, Dahmer admitted killing 11 men. Police say he is cooperating with them in the investigation.

Meanwhile, the Cleveland Plain Dealer quoted Dahmer's stepmother, Shari Dahmer, as saying her stepson seemed a changed man after serving 10 months in the Milwaukee House of Corrections after his 1988 conviction for sexually assaulting a minor.

"Something happened to him in prison that he would never talk about," she told the newspaper. "Everyone knows what happens to a child molester in prison. I don't know if that's what happened, but when he came out he was hardened and he hated black people," she was quoted as saying.

German authorities said today they are investigating whether Dahmer is linked to unresolved murders in Germany. Dahmer was stationed in Germany with the U.S. Army between June 1979 and March 1981.

The mass-circulation newspaper Bild reported in today's editions that Dahmer was being examined in connection with five unsolved murders in central Germany during his time there.

A spokeswoman for the Army's Military Personnel Records division in St. Louis said Dahmer served at bases in Germany, Anniston, Ala., and San Antonio, Texas. She would not say why he was discharged before his term of service was completed; his stepmother said it was because of alcoholism.

-- Material from Associated Press is included in this report.