The Jeffrey Dahmer confession tapes are the subject of an upcoming Netflix documentary

'Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes' is gearing up for a release

Jeffrey Dahmer head shot in court
(Image credit: Curt Borgwardt/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images)

Jeffrey Dahmer's story has seen a resurgence, much to true crime fans' delight and victims' families' chagrin. 

Evan Peters has taken on the dark role for Ryan Murphy's fictionalized Netflix retelling, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. The 10-episode miniseries quickly rose to the streamer's top spot after its September 21 release. 

Now, director Joe Berlinger's Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes offers a non-fiction alternative for those who are fascinated by this unfathomable string of events.  

*TRIGGER WARNING AHEAD*

The Jeffrey Dahmer confession tapes

According to Netflix, Conversations with a Killer—which featured episodes with other notorious figures like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy—says the release will dig deep into Dahmer's mind "through newly-unearthed recorded interviews with his legal team, revealing the ways that race, sexuality, class and policing allowed him to prey upon Milwaukee’s marginalized communities."

While Peters is being praised for his performance and the show is an accurate portrayal of events, there's something particularly unsettling about revisiting the serial killer's actual interviews. (If you're wondering "Is the Jeffrey Dahmer series on Netflix accurate," we did a few side-by-side comparisons to see what's fact vs. fiction and took a look back at Dahmer's horrific acts.)  

jeffrey dahmer going to meet with his attorney in jail in netflix docu-series confessions of a killer the jeffrey dahmer tapes

(Image credit: Netflix)

'Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes'

Throughout the teaser for the docu-series, we catch snippets of Dahmer's confessions and his accounts of what took place—"I had a drill at home and, uh… This is gonna sound bad…"—but we also get a look inside how attorney Wendy Patrickus, then 25, handled her first assignment out of law school. 

"I was incredibly nervous, because this is something that I felt was way over my head. I felt like Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs," she confessed. 

She admitted to feeling overwhelmed by the circumstances, but revealed that she became attached to her client while working with him day in and day out, though his wrongdoings would ultimately stay with her forever.

"I don't think there's anything that can prepare anybody for that kind of carnage," she said.

Although we know how Jeffrey Dahmer got caught, we don't know what necessarily drove him to these heinous acts in the first place. 

"What triggered it all? I wish I could give you a straightforward answer on that," he said. 

In another interview snippet, we hear him say, "I started falling away. I gave up trying to resist. It was my own private little world and I had complete control."

The story itself, whether the subject of a fictionalized true crime story or a documentary, is deeply unsettling and will remain a dark chapter in our history. 

The three-part docu-series, Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes, will arrive on Netflix on October 7. Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is currently available for streaming on Netflix.

Danielle Valente
Digital News Writer

Need a TV show recommendation? Maybe a few decor tips? Danielle, a digital news writer at Future, has you covered. Her work appears throughout the company’s lifestyle brands, including My Imperfect Life, Real Homes, and woman&home. Mainly, her time is spent at My Imperfect Life, where she’s attuned to the latest entertainment trends and dating advice for Gen Z.


Before her time at Future, Danielle was the editor of Time Out New York Kids, where she got to experience the best of the city from the point of view of its littlest residents. Before that, she was a news editor at Elite Daily. Her work has also appeared in Domino, Chowhound, and amNewYork, to name a few. 


When Danielle’s not writing, you can find her testing out a new recipe, reading a book (suggestions always welcome), or rearranging the furniture in her apartment…again.