It happened on a cold Monday morning in November. November 28, 1994, to be exact. The world woke up to the news that Jeffrey Dahmer—the man whose name was synonymous with the most depraved acts of the 20th century—was dead. He wasn't executed by the state of Wisconsin. He didn't die of old age. He was bludgeoned to death in a prison bathroom while he was supposed to be cleaning up.
Honestly, the details are still chilling. People often wonder how one of the most high-profile inmates in the country was left alone long enough for another prisoner to crush his skull with a metal bar.
The Man Who Pulled the Trigger (and the Bar)
The man who killed Jeffrey Dahmer in prison was Christopher Scarver.
Scarver wasn't some random petty thief. He was a convicted murderer serving a life sentence for the 1990 killing of Steve Lohman. Scarver had walked into a Wisconsin Conservation Corps office, demanded money, and when he only got $15, he shot Lohman in the head. He was a man with a hair-trigger temper and, according to later psychiatric evaluations, a history of schizophrenia and messianic delusions.
By the time he met Dahmer, Scarver was already deep into his own dark mental spiral.
The Morning of the Murder
Dahmer had been in the Columbia Correctional Institution for a couple of years. He had mostly stayed in protective custody because, well, everyone wanted him dead. But by late 1994, he started mixing with the general population. He was part of a three-man work detail assigned to clean the gymnasium area.
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The three men were:
- Jeffrey Dahmer (the serial killer)
- Jesse Anderson (who had murdered his wife and tried to blame two Black men)
- Christopher Scarver
They were left unsupervised. For twenty minutes, the guards were gone. That’s all it took.
Scarver had picked up a 20-inch, five-pound metal bar from the prison weight room earlier that morning. He hid it in his pants. While they were in the staff locker room area, Scarver confronted Dahmer. He had a newspaper clipping in his pocket detailing Dahmer’s crimes—the cannibalism, the necrophilia, the absolute horror he had inflicted on 17 victims, many of whom were people of color.
Scarver later told the New York Post that he was "fiercely disgusted" by Dahmer. He asked Dahmer if he really did those things. Dahmer reportedly tried to find a way out, but Scarver blocked him.
He swung the bar.
He hit Dahmer in the head twice, crushing his skull. Dahmer was found at 8:10 AM, still breathing but barely alive. He died an hour later at Divine Savior Hospital.
The Second Victim: Jesse Anderson
Scarver didn't stop with Dahmer. He went looking for Jesse Anderson, who was cleaning a different part of the gym. He found Anderson in the showers and beat him with the same metal bar (and a wooden stick). Anderson lingered for two days on life support before he died.
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Why Anderson? Scarver felt Anderson’s attempt to frame Black men for his wife's murder was a personal insult. It was a morning of vigilante justice fueled by a very unstable mind.
Why It Wasn't Stopped
The big question is always: Where were the guards?
Scarver has spent years claiming that the prison staff basically gave him a "green light." He believes they left the three of them alone on purpose because they wanted Dahmer dead just as much as the rest of the world did. The prison has always denied this, of course. They chalked it up to a lapse in protocol.
But it’s hard to ignore the timing. You have a world-famous serial killer and two other violent offenders left alone in a locker room with heavy metal equipment. It’s a recipe for a homicide.
Life After Dahmer
After the killings, Scarver didn't try to hide it. He went back to his cell and told a guard, "God told me to do it. Jesse Anderson and Jeffrey Dahmer are dead."
He was sentenced to two more life terms. He spent roughly 16 years in solitary confinement. Eventually, he was moved around the federal prison system, including the Supermax facility in Florence, Colorado.
Interestingly, Scarver has since turned to writing poetry. He’s published books and maintains a blog (through third parties) where he talks about his life and his perspective on the justice system. He remains a polarizing figure—some see him as a hero who did what the law wouldn't, while others see him as just another murderer who took the law into his own hands.
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What This Means for Us Today
The death of Jeffrey Dahmer ended a horrific chapter in American history, but it raised massive questions about prison safety and the ethics of vigilante justice.
What you should take away from this:
- Vigilance is key: The failure of the Columbia Correctional Institution shows that even high-profile inmates are vulnerable when protocols are ignored.
- Mental health in prison: Scarver’s history of schizophrenia played a massive role in his actions. The intersection of mental illness and the penal system is often where these tragedies occur.
- The legacy of the victims: While Dahmer is dead, the families of his victims still carry the weight of his actions. For many, his death provided a sense of "cosmic justice," but it didn't bring their loved ones back.
If you are researching this case, focus on the trial transcripts and the 2015 interviews with Scarver. They provide the most direct insight into the motive behind the man who killed Jeffrey Dahmer in prison. Don't just rely on the sensationalized TV shows; the real story is found in the prison logs and the psychiatric reports from the 90s.
Next Steps for You
To get a full picture of the fallout, you should look into the 1995 federal civil rights lawsuit Scarver filed regarding his treatment in solitary. It sheds a lot of light on how the state of Wisconsin handled the man who ended their most famous prisoner. You can also research the specific changes Wisconsin made to inmate supervision protocols following the 1994 investigation.