[2] In 1994, he wrote A Father's Story, a non-fictional account on his son's upbringing, subsequent progress to become a world-wide-known serial killer and its aftermath.

[3] Lionel's figure has been controversial in the subsequent years since his son's crimes, as both he and his first wife were accused of neglecting Jeffrey during his childhood.

[8] In A Father's Story, Dahmer related that, from the very beginning, their marriage struggled due to Joyce's poor mental health and irascible and tempestuous behavior and his own inability to fully keep up with it.

During the latter months of the pregnancy, Joyce suffered from increased mental breakdowns and seizures, which, according to her doctor "were rooted in Joyce's mental, rather than physical state" and which aggravated her already severe prescription barbiturates and morphine addiction, to the point of taking as "many as twenty-six pills a day" and being constantly sedated to ease her pain.

[9]During the early years of Jeffrey's life, Dahmer's academic responsibilities and, later on, long work shifts prevented him from spending enough time with his wife and children.

Others had flashes of creative brilliance, of sudden illumination, but I had only the power of my own will.After divorcing Joyce in 1978, Dahmer married Shari Jordan, and moved to Granger, Ohio.

[13] Dahmer chronicles that the morning of July 23, 1991, he called Jeffrey's apartment to check on his son after he had missed a visit to his grandmother in West Allis.

[16] Dahmer was particularly affected by his mother's (Jeffrey's grandmother) reaction to the news, especially after acts of vandalism against the elderly woman's house in West Allis, and further harassment.