The sister of one of Jeffrey Dahmer’s victims has spoken out about the recent Netflix show about the serial killer. Expressing disdain for the ability of studios, producers, and others connected to the series to make money off her family’s pain.
It has been 30 years since her family has been in the headlines, but with the newly released Netflix series “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” has brought the spotlight back on Rita Isbell and her relatives.
In 1992, Dahmer was on trial for murdering 17 men and boys (mostly Black and gay) between the years 1978 and 1991. Isbell’s brother, Errol Lindsey, was one of the men killed at the serial killer’s hands. In an as-told-to essay with the Insider, she shared how she felt seeing the tragedy dramatically portrayed on the small screen.
One of the things that struck her was the incredible accuracy of the scene.
Isbell said, “If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought it was me. Her hair was like mine, she had on the same clothes. That’s why it felt like reliving it all over again. It brought back all the emotions I was feeling back then.”
She said she didn’t complete watching the series because she didn’t have to.
“The episode with me was the only part I saw,” she revealed. “I didn’t watch the whole show. I don’t need to watch it. I lived it. I know exactly what happened.”
Sure, she lived it. But many want to know more about the build-up to that raw moment during the trial, one that actress DaShawn Barnes seemed to pull her all into.
The sister said, “When I found out I could read a victim impact statement, I knew I was going to let Jeffrey Dahmer have it. I just didn’t know what I was going to say.”
Isbell believes if she had written something down; she probably would have torn it up and spoken from the heart. Especially since it was her first time going to speak in front of her brother’s killer in the courtroom.
“My plans were to get up there and say how it made my mother feel and what it did to her and all this other stuff,” she stated. “But no, when I got in front of his face it was a whole new ball game. I recognized evil. I was face-to-face with pure evil.”
She also shared she was not scared to see the man she called “Satan.”
While she admitted the actor nailed it, she made it clear that the streaming service show studio did not contact her family about the show, showing no regard for their trauma.
“I was never contacted about the show. I feel like Netflix should’ve asked if we mind or how we felt about making it,” she said.
Adding, “They didn’t ask me anything. They just did it. But I’m not money hungry, and that’s what this show is about, Netflix trying to get paid. I could even understand it if they gave some of the money to the victims’ children. Not necessarily their families. I mean, I’m old. I’m very, very comfortable. But the victims have children and grandchildren. If the show benefited them in some way, it wouldn’t feel so harsh and careless.”
Her brother, had he lived, would have been a grandfather. His daughter is now 31 years old, born after his death, and she has a daughter.
“It’s sad that they’re just making money off of this tragedy,” she continued. “That’s just greed.”
Another relative of Lindsey, Eric Perry, said he was retraumatized by the release of the show.
“I’m not telling anyone what to watch,” he tweeted. “I know true crime media is huge, but if you’re actually curious about the victims, my family (the Isbell’s) are pissed about this show.”
He continued, “It’s retraumatizing over and over again, and for what? How many series/shows/documentaries do we need?”
“Like recreating my cousin having an emotional breakdown in court in the face of the man who tortured and murdered her brother is WILD. WIIIIIILD,” he wrote.
Family members are not alone in denouncing the show.
According to Pop Buzz, many viewers believe it is the “most disturbing” true crime series ever.
“This Dahmer limited series on Netflix is one of the most disturbing things I have ever watched and I feel like I have a pretty high threshold,” Hutch, a popular YouTuber, tweeted. “Not sure I’m gonna be able to finish it. It is genuinely horrifying.” Another wrote: “This Jeffrey Dahmer Netflix show is so f-cking disturbing. He was a sick ass evil person.”
Another person who saw the film tweeted, “The first episode of “Dahmer” was horrifying… genuinely not sure if I can carry on…”
“Evan Peters playing Jeffrey Dahmer is actually terrifying because how can he be so convincing.”
The series accurately shows how Dahmer confessed to having sex with the dead bodies of the individuals he killed, dismembering them, and, in some cases, eating their body parts. When arrested he said, “For what I did, I should be dead.”
Ultimately, after the trial, he was found guilty of 16 murders and convicted of 941 years in prison.
Dahmer was murdered during his incarceration. A fellow inmate, Christopher Scarver, beat him to death in 1994, two years after this trial.
