Did Steve Toushin Unknowingly Point to a Different Story About Jeffrey Dahmer?
Before You Read This Article
This article builds on two earlier investigations and will make much more sense if you read them first.
What happens when you stop relying on documentaries and media accounts and examine the public records themselves?
The Evidence page presents the public records and documentary evidence that led me to conclude the official serial killer narrative about Jeffrey Dahmer was a fabrication rather than an account of historical events.
I realize that may sound like an extraordinary conclusion. It wasn’t my starting point—it was the conclusion I reached after examining court records, police reports, government documents, and other primary sources related to the case.
Whether you ultimately agree with that conclusion or not, I encourage you to review the evidence before continuing, as the article below builds upon it.
2. Jeremiah Weinberger's Disappearance: Steve Toushin, the FBI, and an Alternative Hypothesis
Why would an adult entertainment entrepreneur in Chicago cause me to rethink Jeffrey Dahmer’s possible role in one of America’s most infamous criminal cases?
This investigation explains why Steve Toushin’s allegations about the federal government’s anti-pornography campaign caused me to reconsider Jeffrey Dahmer’s possible role in what I believe was a fabricated serial killer narrative.
Did Jeffrey Dahmer Really Kill Jeremiah Weinberger?
Only after reading these two investigations does the question explored in this article become meaningful.
One of the more intriguing questions raised by Steve Toushin’s memoir, The Destruction of the Moral Fabric of America, has little to do with Steve Toushin himself.
Instead, it concerns Jeffrey Dahmer.
In his book, Toushin, a longtime Chicago adult entertainment entrepreneur, describes an extraordinary federal campaign against him during the government’s anti-pornography efforts of the 1980s and early 1990s. According to Toushin, investigators were determined to connect gay BDSM, violent crime, and his businesses—even if doing so required abusing their authority.
Whether Toushin’s account is ultimately correct is a separate question. What interests me is where his allegations lead.
What if Jeff Dahmer wasn’t a serial killer, but someone cooperating with the very campaign Steve Toushin believed was being waged against him?
And what if Jeremiah Weinberger – an alleged victim of Jeff Dahmer – was cooperating as well?
I am not presenting this as fact. It is a hypothesis. But viewed through that lens, several otherwise puzzling features of the documentary record surrounding the Jeffrey Dahmer story begin to fit together in ways that deserve closer examination.
a lot of catholics & some Laotian refugees
One of the first patterns I noticed involved the remarkable concentration of deeply committed Catholics in key roles surrounding the Jeff Dahmer case. These included District Attorney Michael McCann, Assistant District Attorney Gregory O’Meara (who later became a Catholic priest and rector at Marquette University), defense attorney Gerald Boyle, and psychologist Dr. Frederick Lodl, who would later serve on a diocesan review board responsible for addressing allegations of clergy sexual abuse.
I also discovered that a reverse address search of 808 N. 24th Street—the address where Jeff Dahmer was alleged to have molested Somsack Sinthasomphone in 1988—does not associate the property with Jeff Dahmer in public records, but does identify a past resident around the same time named Michael McCann. As you just saw, that’s the name of the Catholic District Attorney in the “serial killer” story about Jeff Dahmer.
The family of the alleged victims Konerak Sinthasomphone and Somsack Sinthasomphone also had ties to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, having been brought to the United States from Laos through an Archdiocese-sponsored refugee program.
an emphasis on Extreme Gay BDSM
The hypothesis also provides a possible framework for understanding why the public narrative surrounding Jeff Dahmer became so heavily centered on extreme gay BDSM themes—precisely the niche of pornography with which Steve Toushin’s businesses had become associated. Such themes would have been especially objectionable to many of the religious conservatives and committed Catholics who supported the anti-pornography movement, reinforcing the narrative’s value as a powerful morality tale.
And What agencies Was Jeff Calling?
It may also shed light on Jeff Dahmer’s visible lack of anxiety during portions of the legal process, as well as several curious passages contained in the typed confession attributed to him. That document states that, just days before Jeremiah Weinberger disappeared, Jeff contacted two police departments and “various agencies” allegedly to merely report a stolen wallet. The same, unrecorded confession also contains another man’s Social Security number, a fact discussed elsewhere on this site.
If the hypothesis outlined above has any merit, one might also expect surviving documents to reinforce the impression that Jeff and his family had interests opposed to those of the FBI.
And there exists such a document.
It’s a letter Jeff Dahmer wrote to his father and stepmother that repeatedly reassures Lionel and Shari Dahmer that Jeff revealed nothing of significance during his meetings with the FBI and promises not to speak with them again. The letter invites the reader to infer that Jeff and his family were united in keeping information from the FBI—an impression that would naturally discourage speculation about any cooperative relationship. So, let’s take a look at the contents of that letter.
Jeff Dahmer’s 1992 Letter to Lionel and Shari Dahmer
Dated August 21, 1992, the letter was reportedly written by Jeffrey Dahmer to his father, Lionel, and his stepmother, Shari. It later appeared for sale through Cult Collectibles, a company known for marketing crime-related memorabilia.
In the letter, Jeff Dahmer attempts to reassure his parents about recent conversations with the FBI. He repeatedly emphasizes that he revealed nothing about his family and promises not to speak with the FBI again.
transcript
8-21-92
Dear Dad & Shari,
Thanks for coming up to see me. Shari, I hope that your feeling much better by the time this letter arrives.
You will probably receive this letter after I phone you on Aug. 23rd.
Bob Mozenter called me early this week and told me you are very concerned about my talk with the FBI. I also got your letter, dad. Thanks.
I DO NOT think that you should worry about my talk with them. I gave Bob Mozenter the address and phone # of the Milwaukee FBI agent. This agent met with me about 2 weeks ago and the ONLY topic of discussion was as follows:
What could the police have done differently to stop me sooner.
What could my probation agent done differently.
Why did I decide to confess to all the crimes.
That’s ALL we talked about.
I told them nothing that would interfere with the book, NOTHING about our family life. In fact most of the time was spent talking about the creation science books that I’m reading. The second visit was short. The Florida detective wanted to know,
If I was involved in the Adam Walsh case.
Why I went to Florida.
How long was I in FL.
What was my job in FL.
Where did I live in Miami.
Did I own a car or van there.
Who did I spend time with in FL.
Again, I said NOTHING about our family – past, present – or future! I gave them NO NEW information on ANYTHING!. Their questions dealt only with my activities in FL and how the police could have handled the encounters with me differently.
I promise I will not talk with them again. I did not mean to worry you, I’m sorry.
Love, Jeff
If someone wished to deflect future suspicion away from the FBI, this is exactly the kind of mundane document that could prove useful.
Again, I am not trying to prove that this is what happened. I am suggesting only that, if one accepts the hypothetical premise that Jeff Dahmer was an FBI informant, the existence of such a letter is entirely consistent with it.
I also think it’s fair to say that companies specializing in crime memorabilia, such as Cult Collectibles, provide a mechanism through which documents could eventually become part of the historical record.
Steve Toushin's Allegations
Two passages from Toushin’s memoir stand out in this context.
“What I did not know was just how fucking nuts the federal government was in trying to tie BDSM, murder, and me together…”
Later, he writes:
“These people abused power, broke the law, and caused harm to people. According to them, the end they wanted justified the means.”
What makes Toushin’s memoir especially relevant to the Dahmer case is where his story intersects with the official “serial killer” narrative.
Jeremiah Weinberger, one of the alleged victims at the center of that narrative, spent months trying to establish a relationship with Steve Toushin before later emerging as one of Jeff Dahmer’s alleged victims—a sequence of events that, for the reasons discussed throughout this website, deserves closer examination.