Dr. Phil Discusses New 3-Part Jeffery Dahmer Special: ‘This Is a Sadistic, Cold Killer’ (Exclusive)

This week on the Dr. Phil show, famed clinical psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw will spend three special episodes breaking down the truth behind the crimes of notorious serial killer Jefferey Dahmer. Viewers will get to hear from victims of Dahmer who escaped alive, as well as the sister of one of Dahmer’s victims who did not survive his encounter with the heinous murderer. He also will reveal a previously unseen interview with Dahmer’s father, Lionel Dahmer.

PopCulture.com had a chance to sit down with McGraw ahead of the special, and he confirmed that the backlash to the recent Netflix series Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story was part of why he wanted to break down the romanticism of the story. “People were very upset about this, and I’ve got a real interest in, and have spoken and studied about evil, which kind of goes beyond diagnoses. It goes beyond pathology,” he told us. “And we talked to some people that were very upset about the Netflix series because they said this doesn’t depict what really went on. It kind of romanticizes. Doesn’t try to excuse, but contextualizes Jeffrey Dahmer in an empathetic sort of way.”

Sharing some details about what viewers will see in this week’s episodes, McGraw said, “I talked to Rita Isbell, whose younger brother was killed by him. And people have seen her impact statement in court where she kind of loses it and tries to attack him physically. And she’s still very, very upset about this, and was triggered strongly by the Netflix series. And then two survivors, Preston Davis and Billy Capshaw were two men that were tortured, raped.”

McGraw continued, “Billy Capshaw was stabbed 30 times by Jeffrey Dahmer, but they survived. So they’re here to say, let us tell you what he’s really like versus how he was depicted on television because they’re very different things. This is a sadistic, cold, rapist and killer. And this is not somebody that has a charming side. This is not somebody that you want to glamorize in any way. And I can tell you, just even talking to Billy, he’s just shaking the whole time he is talking after all this time. It’s changed both of their lives forever more. And so the inside of two people that weren’t murdered, but went through every other aspect of Jeffrey Dahmer is really compelling.”

Many criticisms of the Netflix series stem from the fact that this is not a fictional story. The grisly murders that are depicted really happened, and people really died. Noting this, McGraw offered, “I think that was the value in talking to these people who said, ‘Look, there’s no soundtrack in real life. There’s no dramatic music. There’s only pain and loss and torture.’ And you can’t imagine the ripple effect of these people that lost their lives, these people that were impacted by him.”

While the number of deaths attributed to Dahmer is 17, McGraw thinks “it’s much bigger” than that. “In Texas, we say for every rat you see, there’s 50 you don’t. These are the ones that they know about,” he said. “These two men I talked to encountered him in the military in Germany. They feel like he committed murders in Germany that were never brought to light. And I think people look at someone that’s out doing these scary things and getting away with it, and they don’t really think about some dead, decomposing, rotting body and some mother’s broken heart when her son never comes home. Those things don’t make good copies, so they don’t get focused on as much.” 

Finally, McGraw revealed some minor details about his conversation with Lionel Dahmer, saying, “The denial on his part of what his son was really doing. Even pre-murder with dead animals and sexuality, and then trophies that during the murder spree, that he was not very sophisticated in hiding around the house. It would’ve been so easy to discover with just one more question, but it’s just nobody wants to see the downside. They just want to see what’s in front of them and there’s a lot of denial here.” The three-part Dr. Phil special, In the Presence of Evil: Face to Face With Jeffrey Dahmer, starts Tuesday. Check your local listings for time and channel.