Rita Isbell, family member of one of Jeffrey Dahmer’s victims who is portrayed in the new Netflix series about the serial killer, talks about Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.
Isbell’s brother, Errol Lindsey, was murdered at age 19 by Dahmer. She gave a victim impact statement during Dahmer’s 1992 sentencing, when the killer was sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences. The emotional moment is recreated in the limited series created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, which topped the streamer’s top 10 the week of its September 21 release.
“When I saw part of the show it bothered me, especially when I saw myself – when I saw my name appear on the screen and this lady saying verbatim exactly what I said “, Isbell wrote in an essay for Initiated. “If I didn’t know better, I would have thought it was me. Her hair was like mine, she was wearing the same clothes. That’s why I felt like I was reliving everything. It brought back all the emotions I felt at the time.
Isbell says she was not contacted by Netflix and slammed the streaming giant for profiting from the tragic story.
“I feel like Netflix should have asked if we mind or how we feel about doing it. They didn’t ask me anything. They just did it,” she said. continued. “I could even understand it if they gave some of the money to the children of the victims. … The victims have children and grandchildren. If the show benefited them in any way, he wouldn’t be so tough and careless. It’s sad that they’re just making money out of this tragedy. It’s just greed.
She added: “The episode with me was the only part I saw. I didn’t watch the whole show. I don’t need to watch it. I lived it. I know exactly what happened.
Netflix and Ryan Murphy Productions declined to comment.
Eric Perry, who identified as a cousin of Lindsey, also spoke about the show when the scene depicting Isbell’s victim impact statement was first shared on social media.
“I don’t tell anyone what to watch, I know true crime media is huge, but if you’re really curious about the victims, my family (the Isbells) are pissed off about this show,” a- he posted on Twitter. “It’s re-traumatizing again and again, and why? How many movies/shows/documentaries do we need? »
Perry added of the scene depicting Isbell: “Like recreating my cousin having an emotional breakdown in court facing the man who tortured and murdered her brother is WILD,” Perry wrote. “WIIIIIILD.”
After his post received replies, he followed up to say that because the conviction is a public record, the family has not been notified.
“To answer the main question,” he said. written in a tracking thread, “No, they don’t inform the families when they do this. It’s all common knowledge, so they don’t have to warn (or pay!) anyone. My family found out when everyone else did. So when they say they do it “with respect for the victims” or “with respect for the dignity of the families”, no one contacts them. My cousins wake up every few months at this point with a bunch of calls and texts and they know there’s another Dahmer show. It’s cruel. (Netflix Conversations with a Killer: The Tapes of Jeffrey Dahmer also premiering October 7.)
Between 1978 and 1991, Dahmer gruesomely murdered 17 men. According to the show’s description, “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is a series that exposes these unconscionable crimes, focusing on underserved victims and their communities impacted by the systemic racism and institutional failures of policing that allowed one of America’s most notorious serial killers to continue his killer streak in plain sight for over a decade. ”
Despite the stated purpose, the show has been criticized for its focus on Dahmer’s horrific behavior and the framing of the victims’ stories. As THR’Chief Television Critic Daniel Fienberg notes in his review, “Reducing most victims and their families to their pain is closer to exploiting that pain than honoring memories.”
Although the ethics of telling true crime stories without input from victims’ families is debated, there is generally no legal requirement to contact them. Nobody owns the facts, and you can’t defame the dead. Theoretically, creators could acquire life rights from family members in a situation like this. Sometimes this will give them access to information that was not public before. But often they’re appealing because they offer some assurance that creators won’t have to face a lawsuit – which can be a risk when people or events are fictionalized in stories otherwise based on real life – or the perspective of unfortunate subjects or their survivors.
Murphy, who has an overall deal with Netflix, co-created the series – which stars Evan Peters in the title role – with longtime producing partner Brennan. The executive pair produces with Alexis Martin Woodall, Eric Kovtun, Peters, Janet Mock and Carl Franklin.
Rashad Robinson, president of non-profit civil rights organization Color of Change, is a consulting producer and spoke about his role on the show, saying he worked with Murphy to highlight the stories of the victims. “I wanted to make sure that we really improve the deep understanding of systemic racism in the Milwaukee Police Department, that we really improve all the ways the police failed at every stage, the incentive structures that allowed hair blond, blue-eyed guy to continually kill and hurt people, especially black and brown people,” he said in an interview with Netflix’s Tudum Team.
On Twitter, Robinson noted, “11 of Jeffrey Dahmer’s 17 victims were black. And even though neighbors made several complaints to the police against him, they were ignored.
Peters added: “It’s called Jeffrey Dahmer’s Story, but it’s not just him and his backstory. These are the repercussions; this is how society and our system have failed to stop it repeatedly because of racism and homophobia.
Rounding out the cast are Richard Jenkins and Molly Ringwald, playing Dahmer’s father, Lionel Dahmer, and stepmother, Shari; Penelope Ann Joyce as Dahmer’s mother, Joyce; Michael Learned as Dahmer’s grandmother, Catherine Dahmer; and Niecy Nash as Dahmer’s neighbor Glenda Cleveland, who attempted to report her behavior to the Milwaukee Police Department on multiple occasions.
In his review of the 10-episode series, Fienberg praised the show’s second half, but wondered if audiences would stick with the Dahmer-centric first half to get there. He wrote: “Put through a different editing process, there is a clever interrogation of Jeffrey Dahmer’s crimes, the real people affected and the consequences here. It is often lost or obscured.
Ashley Cullins contributed to this report.