The Tragic Story of Jeffrey Dahmer’s Would-Be Victim, Tracy Edwards

Ryan Murphy‘s Netflix series, Dahmer Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, dropped on September 23. The show highlights the story of Tracy Edwards, who escaped from serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and heroically ended Dahmer’s unspeakable crimes… only to then commit several himself.

Dahmer, commonly known as the “Milwaukee Cannibal” and “Milwaukee Monster,” killed 17 men and boys from 1978 to 1991. His horrific murders involved cannibalism, dismemberment and necrophilia.

> READ THE uINTERVIEW EXCLUSIVE WITH THE MAN WHO GOT DAHMER TO CONFESS!

As the new miniseries retells, Edwards famously led the police to Dahmer’s apartment and all the gruesome evidence in 1991.

During Edwards’ deeply unsettling 1992 testimony, he recalled, “[Dahmer] was listening to my heart [at knifepoint] because at that point he told me he was going to eat my heart.”

Tragically, Edwards’ life took a turn for the worse in the years following. The once-lauded hero was arrested for property damage, theft, bail jumping, failure to pay child support and drug possession. He lived mostly on the streets and in shelters.

It was almost exactly 20 years after saving the day that Edwards was accused of murder himself. He allegedly helped a fellow homeless man push another homeless man into the Milwaukee River, and the man died before help arrived. Edwards pleaded guilty to aiding a felon and got a reduced one-and-a-half year sentence.

Edwards’ defense attorney, Paul Ksicinski, said back in 2011, “It’s like Humpty Dumpty. It’s like he was never able to put the pieces back together again.”

Shaun Brown, the actor who portrayed Edwards, wrote on Twitter, “I have so much love for Tracy Edwards and I hope that through my portrayal you will also. I hope you have love for all the victims and maybe in time you will have more love for one another.”

He added, “Empathy and awareness can create heaven on Earth if we allow it. We are one. We are all beings made of stardust. Much love to you all.”

Ever since the series dropped, there’s been quite a bit of backlash. Many viewers believe the show “humanizes” Dahmer and potentially glorifies his murders. And family members of the victims are speaking out too.

A cousin of Dahmer victim Errol Lindsey, Eric Perry, called the show “retraumatizing” and noted that if people are “actually curious about the victims,” his family is “pissed about this show.”