Christopher Scarver, who is popularly known as Jeffrey Dahmer’s killer, is currently serving multiple life sentences at the Centennial Correctional Facility in Colorado. According to Seventeen, Scarver was already serving a life sentence when he murdered his fellow inmates—Jeffrey Dahmer and Jesse Anderson—on November 28, 1994. The incident occurred at Columbia Correctional Facility in Wisconsin.
Scarver told the New York Post that he fatally beat Dahmer with a metal bar as he was repulsed by the cannibal’s crimes. He also said that he grew to despise the serial killer because of his actions. Dahmer often taunted other inmates by “fashion[ing] severed limbs out of prison food. He would put them in places where people would be. He crossed the line with some people – prisoners, prison staff. Some people who are in prison are repentant – but he was not one of them.”
After the murders, Scarver received two additional life sentences and will likely remain in prison.
Why was Christopher Scarver sentenced to life in prison?
Before earning a reputation as Jeffrey Dahmer’s killer, Christopher Scarver was serving a life sentence at the same facility as Dahmer. According to the U.S. Sun, Scarver grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He dropped out of high school in eleventh grade and started working as a trainee carpenter under the Wisconsin Conservation Corps job program.
However, Scarver’s supervisor fired him from the job-training program, after which he started drinking heavily. He later claimed to have heard voices that called him “the chosen one.” The then-21-year-old returned to his former workplace with a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol and attempted to orchestrate a robbery on June 1, 1990. He demanded cash from the site manager, who handed him $15.
In a fit of rage, Scarver shot a worker, Steven Lohman, in the head before firing two more shots at him. The New York Post reported that following the shooting, the site manager knocked the gun out of the shooter’s hand. Authorities arrested him from his girlfriend’s apartment building hours later.
The incident resulted in Scarver’s murder conviction, for which he received a life sentence in prison at the Columbia Correctional Institution in 1992. There, he attacked and murdered notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who was serving multiple life sentences for his crimes. He also murdered a second inmate, Jesse Anderson, and later received two additional life sentences for both murders.
How did Christopher Scarver kill Jeffrey Dahmer & Jesse Anderson?
Recounting the attack, Christopher Scarver told the Post in detail about the day of the murders. The convict, who was 25 years old at the time, claimed that he, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Jesse Anderson were led unshackled to clean the bathrooms by correction officers. The officers had left them unattended.
Scarver said he had just retrieved his mop and was filling a bucket with water when someone poked him in the back. “I turned around, and [Dahmer] and Jesse were kind of laughing under their breath. I looked right into their eyes, and I couldn’t tell which had done it.” After this, the three men split up, and he decided to follow Dahmer.
According to his account, Scarver had grabbed a metal bar from the weight room and confronted Dahmer with a news story about his crimes. He said, “I asked him [Jeffrey Dahmer] if he did those things ’cause I was fiercely disgusted. He was shocked. Yes, he was. He started looking for the door pretty quick. I blocked him. He ended up dead. I put his head down.”
The outlet further mentioned that after killing Dahmer, Scarver went to the locker room where Jesse Anderson was working. The inmate said, “He [Anderson] stopped for a second and looked around. He was looking to see if any officials were there. There were none. Pretty much the same thing [happened].” Anderson was reportedly serving a life term for killing his wife in 1992.
Netflix series Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is among many works that elaborates on the serial killer’s crimes. The series also looks into his death at the hands of Christopher Scarver.
