Hot on the heels of Ryan Murphy's DAHMER: Monster — The Jeffrey Dahmer Story comes more Netflix content about the notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who murdered and dismembered 17 boys and men from 1978 to 1991.
Joe Berlinger's three-part documentary series, Conversations With A Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes, is streaming on Netflix now and takes audiences through 32 hours of previously unreleased recordings, featuring Dahmer's accounts of his crimes and more.
Berlinger was behind the two other Conversations installments on Netflix: Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes and Conversations With a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes.
The majority of the tapes are feature Dahmer in conversation with Wendy Patrickus, but who is she and where is she now?
Newsweek has everything you need to know.
Who Is Wendy Patrickus?
Wendy Patrickus served as Jeffrey Dahmer's defense lawyer following his arrest in July 1991. At the time of Dahmer's arrest, she was just 25 years old and had recently moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Her first major case was Dahmer's.
When Dahmer was arrested on July 22, 1991, after victim Tracy Edwards escaped from his flat, police uncovered items suggesting Dahmer had committed multiple murders, such as a human head in the refrigerator, two plastic bags in the freezer containing a human heart, and another containing a set of male genitalia.
They also found five human skulls, knives, hammers, and saws in the bedroom. There was also a complete human skeleton in one drawer and a 57-gallon vat filled with acid and three torsos, as well as other body parts.
Dahmer confessed to 17 murders and was sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences in prison. He was killed on November 28, 1994, by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver.
Patrickus' voice features throughout the three episodes of The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes as she recorded hours and hours of conversations in a bid to prepare Dahmer's defense in court.
Speaking in the Netflix documentary, The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes, Patrickus recalls the moment she first met Dahmer in a very small interview room, stating she felt like "Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs."
In Thomas Harris's novel and 1991 film by Jonathan Demme, Starling is an FBI trainee who enlists the help of serial killer Hannibal Lecter to try to solve a series of murders.
Patrickus also spoke of her connection with Dahmer, sharing: "There were times when I felt like a mother to him, there were times when I felt like he was my brother, there were times when I felt like a therapist."
She added: "In order to be a good defense attorney, you have to be non-judgemental and develop a trust. He called me Wendy, and I called him Jeff."
Unfortunately for Patrickus, outside of the courtroom, she was the target of hatred in the Milwaukee community, often receiving death threats.
She told filmmaker Joe Berlinger: "I received death threats from a number of sources. I was out one night and a family member of one of the victims came after me with a pool cue. I became a homebody at that point."
Where Is Wendy Patrickus Now?
Today, Wendy Patrickus is still a practicing lawyer within the Milwaukee area, running her own law firm, Patrickus Law.
She focuses mainly on family and business law and is also a member of the State of Wisconsin Bar Association Professionalism Committee and Milwaukee Bar Association.
According to her LinkedIn page, Patrickus has been heading up her own law firm for the past 18 years.
The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes is one of the few times Patrickus has spoken in depth about working so closely with Dahmer.
In 2021, she published the book Defending the Devil: Inside the Trial of My Client, Jeffrey Dahmer with film producer Rusty Lemorande, which explored 20 hours of private recordings of her conversations with Dahmer, including details of why and how he committed the murders and acts of cannibalism for over a decade.
In her book, she also details the "uncomfortable bond" she formed with Dahmer and why she believes his conviction and the rejection of his insanity plea was wrong, per the book's official synopsis.
Additionally, according to the synopsis of her book, in the past 30 years, she had only given one brief interview about her time representing Dahmer, therefore The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes marks her first in-depth interview.
Newsweek has contacted Patrickus for comment.
Conversations With A Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes is streaming on Netflix now.
About the writer
Molli Mitchell is a Senior SEO TV and Film Newsweek Reporter based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on ... Read more
