Jesse Anderson The Inmate Who Met The Same Fate As Jeffrey Dahmer
The case of prolific serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, a.k.a. the “Milwaukee Monster,” fascinates the public so much that it’s not surprising that his murder at the hands of another inmate dominated the media. Yet there was a second prisoner slain that day too whose death is often overshadowed. That man was Jesse Anderson, and his tale adds another chapter to the sinister story.
Grisly picture
Don’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of Jesse Anderson or his death — it’s certainly not as sensational as Dahmer’s — but it quickly followed the serial killer’s own and paints a grisly picture.
Anderson was serving a life sentence for killing his wife when he was struck down in 1994, though some believe his murder wasn’t just a case of “wrong place, wrong time.” But to explore this fully we need to rewind the clock a little.
Minor scrapes
Anderson’s childhood was pretty unremarkable and there was little to suggest that a killer lurked inside him. He was born in 1957 in Alton, Illinois, where he’d had a few minor scrapes with the law.
Apart from assaulting his stepfather one time, his infractions were petty and largely overlooked. There was no pattern of escalation, either. In fact, at one time Anderson had been a family man.
Worked together
Remember how we said Anderson had murdered his wife? Well, it was technically his second wife. The first time he’d got wed — to a woman called Debra Ann Eickert — their relationship didn’t work out, and they were divorced by 1984.
A year later Anderson took a second wife, Barbara. They settled down in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, and had three children. They even worked together at an oil company: Barbara was the president and Anderson was in sales.
An ordinary night
It had been seemingly just an ordinary night in 1992 when tragedy struck. Passersby at a T.G.I. Friday’s in Northridge Mall, Milwaukee, stumbled on a violent scene in the restaurant parking lot.
It appeared as though a couple had been attacked. A beaten woman lay under a pickup truck, suffering multiple stab wounds to her head and face, and a man, presumably her husband, lay just a few feet away.
Intriguing tale
The man, who’d suffered four stab wounds to the chest himself, was clutching a Los Angeles Clippers cap and a knife, both of which he had bravely torn from their attackers. Or had he?
The alleged male victim was Anderson, and he wove an intriguing tale for paramedics and police. He said he and his wife were attacked on their way home by two Black assailants in an attempted robbery.
“Fought them off”
Anderson claimed he’d fought them off, and while he couldn’t identify the thugs, he had the evidence to prove it happened. It was a cut-and-dried story, right? But then his tale started to unravel.
A man called Tommy Myles came forward with an interesting story he later recounted to Media Milwaukee in 2022. He recalled how he and his girlfriend had been at the same mall looking for a job when a man approached him.
“Pretty convincing”
According to Myles the man had said, “One of the jobs has me going out into the mall and just randomly selecting people to buy something from as part of the interview process.”
He continued, “So I want to buy your hat, can I buy your hat for $20?” It was a $6 profit for a struggling teen, so he jumped at the chance. Myles recalled, “He was pretty convincing.”
An odd interview?
“I mean now look[ing] in retrospect; I’m like, ‘What kinds of jobs sent you out on a mission to buy something randomly from somebody in a mall?’” Myles said later.
“But it was the mall, and malls are pretty unique in how they handle their interview processes if that’s the case.” Myles’ testimony wasn’t the last piece of evidence against Anderson, either.
Bought the knife
What about the knife Anderson was found holding, and the wounds he suffered? Well, a military surplus store confirmed it had sold a knife to Anderson in the weeks prior to the event.
Even more damning was the fact that this specific knife, which bore a red handle, was only sold by that store. So what had really happened that night in the parking lot?
Unhappily married
Well, Anderson stuck by his story to the end, but prosecutors painted a different picture. It was one of a man unhappy in his marriage, and an FBI investigation turned up evidence to support this.
They also discovered a letter from Barbara to Anderson, who had become unhappy with his wife’s weight-gain following her brother’s passing. The correspondence promised she’d lose weight if he put more effort into their relationship.
Even darker
Officials carried out an inquiry and took a deeper look into Anderson’s personal life, where they discovered an even darker story below the surface. He wasn’t just unattentive, but flat-out abusive.
According to Media Milwaukee, more letters were found that revealed Anderson had been tormenting Barbara about her weight ever since she’d had their third child. And the abuse had even been physical on occasion, too.
Threw a knife
During one encounter, Anderson had turned violent and thrown a knife at Barbara while she was cradling their child. Yet he somehow managed to separate all this from his public image.
From the outside, it almost looked like a “perfect marriage;” Anderson had become so well-respected in the community that he’d even only just missed out on a spot on the city council.
Red flag
The last red flag was an inquiry Anderson had made into his wife’s life-insurance policy. Just a month prior to this alleged attack, he discovered the couple had insured Barbara for at least $250,000.
The official verdict was this: on that fateful night, Anderson had gone out with Barbara and had a meal as if everything was normal. When they returned to the car, he’d carried out a vicious, unprovoked attack on her.
Never fooled
And Anderson’s stab wounds? Well, it turns out those had never really fooled the police. Although they didn’t announce it publicly, they’d already had their suspicions and hadn’t found Anderson’s constantly shifting story convincing.
To add another question mark over Anderson, his wounds were noted to be superficial. If he’d fought off the attackers as he claimed, why then were his wife’s injuries so severe?
Telltale signs
Myles can answer that. When he’d gone to the police station to testify, he had been in the room with the medic who had attended the macabre scene, and he’d heard that there had been some telltale signs.
“They knew that the wounds that [Anderson] had had on him were self-inflicted,” Myles revealed. “But they knew right from when they investigated, they just needed all the evidence to corroborate what they were trying to do.”
Stabbed himself
Myles elaborated, “They could tell by the angle of the knife that [Anderson] had stabbed himself.” Barbara didn’t die in the parking lot, though: she was in a coma for two days before the injuries finally claimed her life.
Anderson was subsequently arrested and tried for her murder, although as mentioned he denied everything. He even made a statement claiming, “I’ve been made a scapegoat in a farce that some people call a trial. In a fair and impartial trial, my innocence would have been proven.”
Sentenced to 60 years
All the same, the jury hadn’t believed Anderson’s story, and in the face of the evidence the judge sentenced him to 60 years. Officially, it was termed life in prison with the possibility of parole in 2052.
Anderson was sent to serve his time in the Columbia Correctional Institution, though that wasn’t the last Myles heard from him. “While he was in jail,” Myles revealed, “Jesse Anderson sent a… he had me summoned to appear in court.”
Custody battle
Apparently, Anderson had wanted Myles to attend court on his behalf in an attempt to get custody of his children, for whom Barbara’s family were caring. “I thought he was in jail,” Myles said. “How was [Anderson] going to try to get custody of his children?”
The court case highlighted a loophole in Wisconsin law regarding how serving a prison sentence didn’t remove parental rights, meaning the children didn’t end up in foster care. Barbara’s family remained their caregivers instead, and the situation led to a new piece of legislation: the Barbara Lynch-Anderson Bill.
The Milwaukee Monster
By now, you’re probably wondering how Anderson had come to be in the same place at the same time as Dahmer’s murder. Well, in case you’re somehow not familiar with him, it helps to know about the so-called “Milwaukee Monster.”
Dahmer’s crimes were abhorrent, violent, and sexual in nature, largely targeting young non-white males. He murdered his first victim in 1978 and by the time of his capture in 1991 he’d killed an estimated 17 people, though the true number is possibly even higher.
Pleaded insanity
At his trial Dahmer pleaded guilty but claimed insanity — not that the jury believed him — and he was sentenced to serve no fewer than 15 consecutive life sentences. Another was added later, too.
At his trial Dahmer said, “I know my time in prison will be terrible, but I deserve whatever I get because of what I have done.” The judge sent him to the maximum-security Columbia Correctional Institution.
Unsettling behavior
While Dahmer was kept away from the rest of the prison population for the first year of his sentence, they transferred him to a lower-security section later. Yet his behavior with the other inmates was unsettling.
In 1994 following Dahmer’s death, People magazine said, “He was simply bored being inmate 177252. Dahmer would sometimes try to break the monotony by kidding around with guards and inmates.”
“Interesting” sense of humor
“[Dahmer] had a very interesting sense of humor,” a jail spokesman told People. “Interesting” is a curious word here, because according to fellow inmate Christopher Scarver, Dahmer’s actions were nothing short of antagonizing.
Scarver, who had been serving a life sentence of his own for the violent 1990 murder of his boss, spoke to the New York Post about his impression of Dahmer in 2014. “He crossed the line with some people,” Scarver said.
Heated interactions
“Prisoners, prison staff,” Scarver continued. “Some people who are in prison are repentant — but he was not one of them. I saw heated interactions between [Dahmer] and other prisoners from time to time.”
Apparently, Dahmer liked to unnerve other inmates by modeling severed human limbs from his food. “He would put them in places where people would be,” Scarver said. He apparently used ketchup as blood, too.
Despised by fellow inmates
In fact, Dahmer had been so despised by some other inmates that even before his murder in 1994 there had been other attempts made on his life. Take the one earlier that same year, for example.
Osvaldo Durruthy, who was serving time for narcotics and firearms offenses, feigned mental illness to get access to Columbia Correctional Institution’s medical health facilities. But ultimately, his aim was to get him in reach of Dahmer.
“I wanted to kill him”
“I’ve done a lot of bad things in my life that wouldn’t make my family too proud,” Durruthy told the Daily Mail after Dahmer’s murder in 2022. “I thought that if I killed him, I could make up for some of the bad things I had done.”
Durruthy continued, “I wanted to kill him for my family and for the Black community.” He was almost successful, too. He cornered Dahmer one day and attacked with a shank made from a razor blade.
“I don’t regret what I did”
Durruthy tried to slash Dahmer’s throat, but the shank broke before he could make a fatal strike, and after pleading guilty to that attack Durruthy had another five months added to his sentence.
“I don’t regret what I did,” Durruthy said. “If I had the chance to do it again I would. I really tried to kill him. I’m glad Dahmer is dead. Maybe when word got out that I tried to kill him, it gave other inmates ideas.”
“No impression”
And what about Scarver? What did he think of Dahmer? “There was no impression,” he told the New York Post. “I never interacted with him.” But Scarver mentioned that because of Dahmer’s reputation, he was never left unsupervised around other inmates.
And Scarver should know: he was the one who killed both Dahmer and Anderson. So how did Scarver even get into a situation where he could murder them both — especially after the previous attempt on Dahmer’s life — and why?
A vendetta
Well, whether he’d spoken to Dahmer or not, Scarver had a vendetta against both the infamous serial killer and Anderson, to the extent that he allegedly kept newspaper clippings of Dahmer’s crimes in his pocket.
And as for Anderson, his murder was a simple case of opportunity. You see, Scarver had considered Anderson a racist, and he’d had it in for him for a couple of reasons since his incarceration.
Resented his racism
To begin with, there was Anderson’s cover story regarding his wife’s murder. He’d blamed a pair of Black males for the attack, which in the light of his standing as a respected white man, had exacerbated tumultuous race relations at the time.
Secondly, there had been Anderson’s disrespect for jail rules. It would seem that he’d sabotaged another inmate’s artwork, and the subject of his vandalism had done nothing to change Scarver’s opinion of him.
“As if it were a bullet wound”
As Scarver later elaborated to the New York Post, “There was a picture [of Martin Luther King Jr.] in the arts and crafts room that a prisoner had spent a lot of time painting.”
“He hung it up in that room to dry,” Scarver continued. “[Anderson] painted a blood dot on [MLK’s] forehead as if it were a bullet wound.” This act helped to convince Scarver that Anderson was vehemently racist in outlook.
Cleaning the lavatories
In late 1994 it just so happened that Scarver had found himself on janitorial duty with both Dahmer and Anderson. They had all been unshackled and left alone to clean the lavatories, which is when Scarver struck.
Armed with an iron bar from the weight room, Scarver confronted Dahmer outside the locker room first with clippings of the serial killer’s crimes. “I asked [Dahmer] if he did those things, ’cause I was fiercely disgusted,” he recounted.
“I put his head down”
“He was shocked,” Scarver continued. “Yes, he was. He started looking for the door pretty quick. I blocked him.” Of course, we know how their encounter ended: violently and, for Dahmer, fatally.
Scarver stated simply, “He ended up dead. I put his head down.” Yet it was Scarver’s next actions that the media often overlooks. He then went into the locker room where Anderson had been busy cleaning.
“God told me to do it”
“He stopped for a second and looked around,” Scarver said of Anderson. “He was looking to see if any officials were there. There were none. Pretty much the same thing [happened].”
Scarver concluded, “[He] got his head put out.” The inmate confessed right away and informed the guard, “God told me to do it. You will hear about it on the 6 o'clock news. Jesse Anderson and Jeffrey Dahmer are dead.”
On life support
Except there was one more twist to come. You see, while Dahmer was indeed dead, Anderson wasn’t. He survived the attack — just barely — and was placed on a life-support machine.
Yet Anderson’s reprieve wasn’t to last very long. Two days later he was pronounced dead from his head injuries, which coincidentally was exactly the same pattern of events that had ensued when the felon had killed his own wife.
Pleaded “no contest”
Scarver pleaded “no contest” in court on account of insanity, but the jury decided otherwise. Two more life sentences were added to the one he was already serving. Reactions to the murders were mixed, though.
The majority of people were against Scarver’s actions, including Theresa Smith, whose brother was one of Dahmer’s victims. “[Dahmer] shouldn’t have been murdered like that,” she said. She wasn’t alone in her thoughts.
“The hurt is worse now”
Catherine Lacy, mother to another of Dahmer’s victims, was less than pleased. She said, “The hurt is worse now, because he’s not suffering like we are.” Not everyone shared this opinion, though.
Dahmer took Janie Hagen’s brother from her, and she believes he got what he deserved. She told People magazine, “I’m happy and very excited that the monster is finally dead. The Devil is gone.”
Left alone deliberately?
There’s still the question of how Anderson and Dahmer came to be alone with Scarver in the first place, and the answer to that, it seems, depends on who you ask. Scarver believes it had been intentional.
He indicated that prison staff had left him alone with fellow inmates, fully aware of the potential consequences. Scarver informed the New York Post, “They had something to do with what took place. Yes.”
Feared repercussions
Scarver refused to elaborate more on the subject, allegedly because he feared repercussions. “I would need a good attorney to ensure there would not be any retaliation by Wisconsin officials or to get me out of any type of retaliatory position they would put me in,” he claimed.
The Wisconsin Correction Department had no official comment to make on Scarver’s allegations. Regardless of how the circumstances came to be, the case has inspired a Netflix biopic, with Jeff Harms representing Anderson.
“This was murder”
E. Michael McCann, a Milwaukee County District Attorney, warned that two wrongs — or three, in this case — don’t make a right. “This was murder,” he said. “I’m hoping that whoever did it doesn’t emerge a folk hero.”
While Anderson’s death is often forgotten in the heinous shadow of Dahmer’s, his inclusion in the story certainly sheds an extra dimension to the macabre events that happened at the Columbia Correctional Institution.