The mother of a victim of Jeffrey Dahmer's grisly crimes has come forward to slam the Netflix hit series Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.
Shirley Hughes, mother of Tony Hughes who an episode centres around, has slammed the show and stated that she doesn't understand how Netflix were able to recreate this difficult part of their lives on screen in this manner.
She said: "I don’t see how they can use our names and put stuff like that out there."
The sixth episode focuses on Tony Hughes, an aspiring model who loses his hearing as a child when a doctor mistakenly prescribed him the wrong medication during what is described as a battle with pneumonia.
Tony grows up writing notes, reading lips and using sign language and the episode shows his sister wanting to name her child after him, his close relationship with his mother and his desire to find a committed romantic partner.
The episode focusing on Tony is titled 'Silenced' and shows the two men meeting during a night out, it ends with Dahmer cooking and eating the young man's liver after he donates money to a search effort for his victim.
Netflix doesn't have a legal obligation to consult the families of the victims as the events brought to life on screen are a matter of public record, but viewers have found it interesting that the families were seemingly not consulted when Monster's creators insisted that their main priority was to tell this version of the story from the perspective of the victims.
Shirley isn't the only one to take issue with the show, Rita Isbell's brother Errol Lindsey was just 19 years old when he was killed by Dahmer. Dahmer drugged the young man, drilled a hole into his head and poured hydrochloric acid into said hole in an attempt to turn Lindsey into a 'zombified sex slave'.
Rita famously gave a passionate statement at the killer's trial and this was recreated in the Netflix show. Rita has said that Netflix didn't attempt to contact her despite portraying her as an emotionally broken person and dubbed the series 'harsh and careless'.
She said: "It brought back all the emotions I was feeling back then, I was never contacted about the show. I feel like Netflix should’ve asked if we mind or how we felt about making it . . . They just did it."
Lindsey's cousin, Eric Perry, has slated the show saying that it is 're-traumatising' for his family. He said: "And for what? How many movies/shows/documentaries do we need?"
