Between 1978 and 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer murdered 17 people in Milwaukee, most of them gay men. Dahmer dismembered the bodies and even ate body parts. The Netflix series that tells his story became a huge hit, but also raised the question among many viewers: How could the American and his terrible deeds remain undiscovered for so long?

Jeffrey Dahmer's father, Lionel Dahmer, has now said in an interview that he was once on the verge of finding out about his son's murders. Specifically, he means a scene that is also shown in the series: Lionel Dahmer wants Jeffrey to open a box because he suspects erotic magazines inside. In fact, the serial killer keeps the severed head of one of his victims in it. Jeffrey Dahmer manages to get rid of his father and exchange the contents of the box.

After Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested, he spoke to his son about the incident, said Lionel Dahmer in an interview with the well-known US psychologist Dr. Phil. "I said, 'What would you have done, Jeff, if I had opened it?'" Dahmer says. "And he said something like: The dance would have been over." Dahmer's series of murders could have ended at this point, his father believes in retrospect: "More lives could have been saved."

In the interview, Lionel Dahmer spoke at length about his son's childhood and youth. He had gutted and dissected animals with him, something that apparently also gave Jeffrey sexual pleasure. "Sometime between the ages of 12 and 14, when he was coming out of puberty, his sexual engine was going into overdrive. At that point, he was touching the innards of these animals," said Lionel Dahmer.

Animal dissection enhanced the father-son bond, he said. He came too late to the fact that his son might feel sexually aroused by it: "At first I couldn't understand how he got there. We are all on a continuum, we all do bad things, we all sin. He was at the end of that continuum, I couldn't understand at first how he could have done those things."

Jeffrey Dahmer is now 86 years old and lives a secluded life in Ohio. He had already informed his supervisor that Netflix had not informed him about the series production and that he was therefore considering suing the streaming provider. In addition, he has been harassed by his son's fans since the series was released.

Sources: Dr. Phil on Youtube / "New York Post"

See the photo gallery: Jeffrey Dahmer brutally murdered 17 people, he was caught in 1991. The original photos from the trial of the serial killer.