Why Jeffrey Dahmer's Killer Murdered Him—'He Crossed the Line'

Between 1978 and 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer killed 17 men and boys. He was eventually caught when his next intended victim, Tracy Edwards, managed to escape from Dahmer's apartment and alert police.

When police arrived at Dahmer's apartment, they found items suggesting Dahmer had committed multiple murders, such as a human head in the refrigerator, two plastic bags in the freezer containing a human heart, and another containing a set of male genitalia.

They uncovered five human skulls, knives, hammers, and saws in the bedroom. There was also a complete human skeleton in one drawer and a 57-gallon vat filled with acid and three torsos, as well as other body parts.

Dahmer, one of the world's most notorious serial killers, was sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences in February 1992.

However, Dahmer's time in prison proved to be short.

On November 28, 1994, Christopher Scarver, an inmate at Columbia Correctional Institution, bludgeoned Dahmer to death.

Dahmer was not even three years into his life sentence.

In 2015, Scarver told The New York Postwhy he decided to attack Dahmer, stating he had ultimately "crossed the line" by taunting other inmates about his crimes.

Known as The Milwaukee Cannibal, Dahmer engaged in necrophilia and cannibalism in his later murders. In police-recorded interviews, Dahmer described in detail his crimes, including his experience of eating human flesh.

As seen in Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, on Netflix, in prison Dahmer would allegedly create severed limbs out of the prison food, covering them in ketchup to resemble blood.

Scarver explained: "He would put them in places where people would be. He crossed the line with some people—prisoners, prison staff. Some people who are in prison are repentant—but he was not one of them."

Scarver, who is serving a life sentence for murder, also told The New York Post he kept his distance from Dahmer after seeing "heated interactions" take place between Dahmer and other prisoners.

However, everything changed on the morning of November 28, 1994.

Dahmer, Scarver, and a third inmate (Jesse Anderson) were taken by prison officers to clean the prison gym and weight rooms. To carry out the cleaning, they were unshackled and left unattended for 20 minutes.

Scarver recalled when he was filling a bucket up with water, he was poked in the back, but was unsure whether it was Dahmer or Anderson.

He said: "I turned around, and [Dahmer] and Jesse were kind of laughing under their breath. I looked right into their eyes, and I couldn't tell which had done it."

Scarver then followed Dahmer into a staff locker room, armed with a large metal bar.

Recalling what happened next in the locker room, Scarver said: "I asked him if he did those things because I was fiercely disgusted. He was shocked. Yes, he was. He started looking for the door pretty quickly. I blocked him."

Scarver then hit Dahmer over the head with the metal bar, crushing his skull. He then attacked Anderson in a separate locker room, killing him with the metal bar.

Scarver shared with The New York Post that prior to attacking Dahmer, he had kept a newspaper article detailing Dahmer's crimes and was completely repulsed by them.

Dahmer was rushed to hospital and pronounced dead an hour later. Anderson died two days later from his injuries.

Dahmer's body was cremated and his ashes were returned to his parents.

At first, Scarver pleaded insanity to the two murders but changed his plea to "no contest" in exchange for a transfer to a federal penitentiary.

He was sentenced to two additional life terms.

Since the 2015 New York Post interview, Scarver has retracted his comments, writing on his blog it was "riddled with lies and foolishness."

Newsweek has contacted The New York Post for comment.

All 10 episodes of Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story are currently streaming on Netflix.