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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
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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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Lionel Dahmer, with this book, tries to understand his son's descent into depravity. He looks at his own childhood as well as his relationship with his son and the misgivings he has in hindsight. It's honest, heartfelt and an interesting read, well written and well narrated.

An honest reflection on a father's relationship with his son

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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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