Dahmer Victims’ Families Are Begging You Not to Dress as Him This Halloween
TRIGGERING
The latest TV series on serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is still topping Netflix’s charts, but victims’ parents aren’t too happy about it, or the retailers commodifying the murders and the real-life wannabes it’s inspiring. Shirley Hughes, mother of Tony Hughes, a deaf man who became Dahmer’s 12th victim, told TMZ that seeing online stores profiting off her son’s death with Halloween costume is triggering, and that if Netflix hadn’t aired the show the families wouldn’t have been “re-victimized.” Over the last week, influencers and teens have been snapped donning blonde wigs, retro tops and aviator eyeglasses to resemble the cannibal. “I don’t see how they can use our names and put stuff out like that out there,” Hughes told The Guardian, referring to the show. Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, which pitched itself as a victim-centric narrative that wanted to honor the families shattered by the serial killer, never actually reached out to the families, according to relatives of multiple victims.