Despite the fact that the Milwaukee Monster’s reign of terror ended more than 30 years ago, Netflix’s limited series Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story has reignited interest in Jeffrey Dahmer’s horrifying crimes.
The spotlight on the prolific serial killer comes at the expense of further aggravating the wounds of those who were directly impacted by the crimes he committed. Cola Styles was one of those affected; she met Dahmer when she came across one of his victims wandering around outside naked, bloodied, and beaten.
Police took Dahmer’s word that Konerak Sinthasomphone, 14, was his 19-year-old lover, despite the fact that Styles had called 911 to get help for the boy who was almost completely unresponsive. Styles and her aunt Glenda Cleveland pleaded with the police to recognize that Sinthasomphone was in grave danger, but they instead turned the boy over to the murderer.
Soon after police left his apartment that night, according to information provided by Dahmer to investigators, he killed and dismembered Sinthasomphone. Between that time and his capture two months later, he would go on to commit four other homicides.
Styles claims she hasn’t been able to force herself to watch any of the numerous movies, TV shows, specials, and documentaries that have been produced in response to Dahmer’s case when speaking with Milwaukee’s Spectrum News 1 after the Netflix series’ release. She even claims to have wished she could erase the incident from her memory.
“I was wondering if I could get hypnotized so I could block that part of my life out. I really did not want to think about it”
When Styles discovered the confused Sinthasomphone outside her aunt’s Milwaukee apartment, she was only 17 years old. She had no idea that Dahmer had drugged Sinthasomphone and injected hydrochloric acid into his skull.
When Dahmer approached Styles, she had just called 911 and was comforting the boy. To get Styles and her cousin to give him Sinthasomphone, Dahmer first tried to humor them. When they didn’t fall for his act, he became aggressive.
“When I told him we dialed 911, he joked that ‘Jim’ had wandered off from being drunk. But then the name kept changing from Jim. And when he saw I wasn’t buying it, I did see a streak of evil in him. And then he was handling the boy in a rough way, trying to take him away. There was a lot of yanking and twisting his arm, just being really aggressive”
“I just couldn’t understand why he was giving me such a hard time knowing help was on the way. I just didn’t have a good feeling”, she added.
You can now watch Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story on Netflix.