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A Father's Story

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A Father's Story

By: Lionel Dahmer
Narrated by: Scott R. Pollak
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About this listen

Raising a serial killer

A Father's search for answers

In July of 1991, the country was shocked by the unfathomable crimes of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. But no one was more shocked than his parents. In A Father's Story, the listener becomes witness to the incremental unraveling of a parent's image of their child, and the thousand different reactions that follow. In his attempt to understand the nature of his son's psychosis, Lionel Dahmer methodically scrutinizes every possible contributing factor to his son's madness. His desperation is palpable as he searches for clues in the emotional, psychological, and genetic landscape of his son's life.

Riveting and soul-wrenching, this unprecedented memoir is the confession of a father who must confront the saddest truth a human can know—that his child has somehow crossed the line that separates the human from the monstrous.

Produced and published by Echo Point Books & Media, an independent bookseller in Brattleboro, Vermont.

©1991 Lionel Dahmer (P)2024 Echo Point Books & Media, LLC Murder True Crime Crime Exciting
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… a very honest and heartbreakingly soul searching account from a father who obviously loves his son whilst acknowledging his heinous crimes . First hand account of Geoffrey Dahmer’s formative years and life beyond as far as he knew it .Well worth the listen . 5 stars .

Heartbreaking really …

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gives a different perspective of a monster. A father's perspective. where the father try's to look at where he went wrong and how he could have made him better. the narrating gets a bit slow and boring but it is a well written book of the monster that was.

a father's view

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It’s a very different perspective on the Dahmer story but I believe a lot of the takes from Lionel are him just trying to cope with his son being a monster and trying to rationalise why he became the way he did but also saying “I can’t say for certain that’s why he ended up the way he did”. I also think he leaves out quite a bit from the overall story to get whatever narrative he is trying to get across to make sense.

It is interesting and the performance of the narrator is very well done but I don’t think I could recommend to anyone

Different Perspective on Dahmer

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and very honest and reflective of Lionel to take a hard look at what happened to his son Jeffrey and the role he played as his father in bringing him up. takes a lot of guts to do that as a father of a serial killer. Some surprising final moments for Jeffrey once behind bars his slowly becoming a thoughtful human again as well as his untimely death and the impact upon Lionel. Highly recommend.

great listen

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The monotone and at times slow and boring narration matches Lionel’s persona, his lack of personality and lackluster take on life itself. Overall the whole book comes across as Lionel not missing the opportunity to try and redeem himself for having been a poor excuse for a father, neglectful, absent when it mattered, selfish, detached and inapt - while cashing on the disgrace that his monstrous son was. The signs were all there since Jeffrey started displaying dissociated behaviours and inability to engage with anything or anyone. He can mention various times when he saw his son losing grip with reality and he never took his son to see a psychiatrist and get proper treatment… he never took the initiative nor responsibility.
Might be a good alert/warning to other parents, but I can’t help but be skeptical about his attempt to state that his son in the end had anything good to add or share with others.
Why wait until he was in prison, after producing countless victims of horrific crimes, to give him Prozac? He enabled the transformation of his son into a despicable monster and this book is a too little too late attempt to tell himself that it could have been a gazillion different things that caused it, but when it comes to him taking responsibility for his failure, it’s all very hazy.

I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone.

A mix of conjecture and self-justification

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It might be good for some, but I find Lionel narcissistic and full of himself

Over all ehh

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