Jeffery Dahmer and Charles Manson were two of the most famous serial killers of the 20th century. The differences between the two are numerous. Neither had the same motivations, the same types of victims, the same number of victims, nor did they grow up in a similar place. However, some aspects of their lives are almost completely identical, as these aspects are almost identical to everyone who is given the title of serial killer. They both had traumatic childhood experiences, both suffered from some form of mental illness, and both were drug addicts or alcoholics. These three factors would ultimately be considered the main contributors to the horrific events in their lives. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayJeffery Dahmer was born in Milwaukie, Wisconsin, on May 21, 1960. At a young age, he was described as a bright and happy child. He was extremely interested in nature and wildlife from a young child and throughout his life. At various times, Dahmer was known to enjoy learning human and animal anatomy. He was often caught riding his bike around the neighborhood looking for road kill to collect. If he found it at some point, Dahmer would take the dead animal home in a plastic bag and dissect it. There were other accounts of Dahmer showing an intense appreciation for the insides of animals. His father had once picked up dead animals from under the house during a summer cleaning session. In his words: I took them out, put them in a metal bucket just to get them all in one place. They arrived with a sort of clicking noise. And Jeff seemed pretty interested in that noise and he grabbed them and dropped them too. You know, in retrospect, everything seems grim and dark and sinister. You know, could this be the start of something bad? Well, I have to admit, it's just a child's curiosity. No more than ten years later, Dahmer's family moved to the small rural town of Bath, Ohio. Meanwhile, Dahmer had felt his isolation in his new home for the first time. He will feel antisocial and isolated throughout his high school years. During his high school years, Dahmer began to realize that he only had sexual feelings for men. Not only did he only have sexual feelings for men, but he also had a sexual obsession with knocking out and killing his lovers in his fantasies and then seeing their insides. Wanting to fit in and not draw attention to himself in a negative way, he never told anyone about these feelings. As he grew up, his parents' marriage began to crumble. They would eventually divorce the year he graduated. During the initial separation, Dahmer's father Lionel moved out of their home and into a hotel across town to temporarily get away from his wife. Shortly after, Dahmer's mother left home with her youngest son, leaving Dahmer alone in his house. This was the next experience where Dahmer felt truly alone. The feeling of complete loneliness combined with his sexual repression led Dahmer to start drinking heavily. During the summer after graduation, Dahmer picked up a hitchhiker passing through his town named Steven Hicks. At first, Hicks and Dahmer got along like good friends. Dahmer invited Hicks to his home and acted as a gracious host. When Hicks left, Dahmer hit him in the back of the headwith a bar that knocked him out. Then Dahmer choked Hicks. With a dead man lying in his house, this was the first time Dahmer was able to act out his violent sexual fantasies. He performed necrophilia on Hicks' body, then took it apart piece by piece. He broke his bones and scattered the pieces throughout his heavily wooded backyard. This first murder was a milestone for Dahmer. After he had finished his act, he felt heavy remorse. With this remorse, his drinking became even worse. Dahmer continued to attend college, only to drop out after the first half of his first semester. This was because he spent all his time getting drunk and not doing his homework. When Lionel found out about this, he told his son that his next best alternative was to join the army. So Jeffery did as his father told him. When he was in the military, he was very happy for a while. He improved and joined the medical unit, where he continued to acquire the desired knowledge of human anatomy. However, just like in college, his remorse caught up with him in the form of heavy drinking. Dahmer's officers noticed his habits and eventually fired him. With nowhere else to go, Dahmer moved to Milwaukie with his grandmother and got a job in a factory. While living in Milwaukie, Dahmer discovered gay bars and began picking up men. These men agreed, but did not know that they would ultimately be killed by Dahmer. Dahmer soon got his own apartment in a Milwaukie slum and used it to lure men into his house and fulfill his sexual fantasies ("A&E Biography: Jeffery Dahmer", Dahmer). Charles Manson had an even more troubled childhood than Jeffery Dahmer. did. Manson was born on November 12, 1934 in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a young boy, Manson's mother was arrested and imprisoned. He visited her occasionally, but usually lived in West Virginia with his aunt and uncle. They did their best to raise him well, but he ended up bouncing from town to town in the Midwest with his mother after his release from prison. After a few years of dodging parole officers and child protective services, Manson's mother finally agreed to place him in an all-boys school and leave him there. After ten months, Manson ran away to find his mother and live with her again. After Manson finally located his mother, she threw him out of her home and told him to go back to where he came from. After this period of his life, Manson began to have different feelings about the world and his mother. Her own words are: The only thing my mother taught me was that everything she said was a lie. And I learned to never believe anyone about anything. From that point on, Manson's life continued to go downhill. Shortly after his mother called authorities about her own son and he returned to the school from which he had run away, he ran away again. This time, after escaping, Manson turned to a life of petty crime. His actions included stealing from other children, breaking into stores, and destroying property. In 1949, Manson served time in a juvenile facility. After being released, he began stealing cars, breaking into stores, and committing armed robberies. After being arrested again by authorities, he was sent to the Indiana School for Boys. At this school, Manson claimed to have been raped and severely beaten. He ran away from school again and moved on with his life).