The Adam Walsh Case

While Ratcliff chooses to trust Dahmer’s words at face value, Arthur Jay Harris goes in the complete opposite direction. In the summer of 2009, he published “Jeffrey Dahmer’s Dirty Secret: The Unsolved Murder of Adam Walsh,” an investigative report connecting the Walsh murder to Dahmer. Harris doesn’t see why so many believe that, once in custody, Dahmer opened up about everything.

“When a serial killer is captured and they begin telling, revealing some things about them, should we automatically believe that when they say something that they are no longer telling lies and keeping secrets?” Harris asks.

Harris says there is “every reason to believe that Jeffrey Dahmer did not confess to all of his crimes and kept some secrets.”

He thinks trusting the word of a serial killer is illogical and there is no reason to believe Dahmer had become a “truth teller” since his capture.

The most explosive secret he believes Dahmer kept is that of Adam Walsh’s murder. Adam Walsh was abducted from the Hollywood Mall in Florida in 1981. Two weeks later, his head was found in a canal. The case sprang to the national spotlight when his parents went to the media.

John Walsh became active in politics and hosted “America’s Most Wanted” after the loss of his son. Last December, the case was closed and Ottis Toole was named the killer, but Dahmer was living in Miami at the time of the abduction and Harris believes he is more than connected to the case.

“It’s an incredible statement that Dahmer and Toole were both there and it was a matter of who would get there first,” Harris says. “It’s like a joke.”

Dahmer worked at a sub and pizza delivery shop in Florida. Twenty days before Adam Walsh’s disappearance, Dahmer had told his boss there was a dead homeless man out by the dumpster. He was quoted in the police report and knew the man’s name. Harris, who has a total of six witnesses identifying Dahmer at the mall when Walsh was taken, believes it is clear Dahmer also killed this man.

When ABC News took interest in Harris’ story, they visited the pizza shop. They entered a meter room and to Harris’ shock, found “blood on the wall in a pattern that the crime scene investigator said indicated chopping.”

He estimates at least a hundred spots of blood were spattered on the wall, up to eight or ten feet high. Harris describes the pattern as, “an upward rain reflective of some sort of sharp instrument hitting flesh and blood rising high.”

There was also an old axe and sledgehammer in the room. Harris believes this to be the room where Dahmer murdered Walsh.

Harris believes the only person who could be put in the same bracket as him in American criminal history is Charles Manson.

“He was a supreme sociopath. A sociopath doesn’t care about anyone but himself,” Harris says, adding Dahmer operated with the thought “your death for my sexual satisfaction.”

The take away

Ratcliff is used to people doubting the sincerity of Dahmer and instead, believing that he took Ratcliff for a fool. Yet, Ratcliff said he wouldn’t have written the book and continued his story if he thought he was being deceived. He frankly admits he doesn’t care if he was.

Ratcliff thinks Dahmer confessed to all of his crimes in an attempt to purge himself. “I don’t think he was anywhere near Adam Walsh. To me, that’s just reaching too far. I think Jeff was very open about what he committed and he even talked about some that he couldn’t prove,” he says.

Both Ratcliff and Harris are arguing about situations that are difficult, if not impossible, to prove. The public, especially those who do not believe in Jesus, may dismiss Ratcliff. Yet, the police have dismissed Harris’ theories to the extent that the case is closed and another killer has been named.

The jury may still be out on whether Dahmer is worse or better than we think. Yet, the fact is that Dahmer murdered at least 17 men, his monstrous acts cannot be forgiven and his name will continue to reside in notoriety. Although, who knows? After all, Ratcliff did admit, “Jeff confided to me that he only ate one bicep muscle.” Only one.

If you enjoyed this story, you may be interested in reading “Theories in La Crosse.”