Christopher Scarver 1994 fatally beat two inmates, including the notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Scarver stated that he grew to despise Dahmer because of his habit of fashioning severed limbs out of prison food and using them to taunt other inmates.
On November 28, 1994, Jeffrey Dahmer left his cell with two fellow inmates, Jesse Anderson and Christopher Scarver, for their assigned work detail. The three were unsupervised in the showers of the prison gym for around 20 minutes. Later that morning at approximately 8:10 a.m., Dahmer was discovered on the bathroom floor of the gym, having suffered extreme head wounds. He had been repeatedly bludgeoned with a 20-inch (51-centimeter) metal bar and his head had been struck against the wall. Despite being rushed to a nearby hospital, he was pronounced dead one hour later. Anderson had also been beaten with the same metal bar and passed away from his injuries two days later.
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Who is Christopher Scarver?
Scarver was born on July 6, 1969, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He spent much of his early life in and out of jail for various offenses, including burglary and armed robbery. Scarver struggled with mental health issues and was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
In November 1994, Scarver was serving a life sentence at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin, for a previous murder conviction. It was in this prison that Scarver met and murdered fellow inmate Jeffrey Dahmer, who was also serving a life sentence for the murder, rape, and dismemberment of 17 men and boys.
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His Early Life
Scarver, who grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is the second of five children. He attended James Madison High School but dropped out during his junior year. After developing addictions to alcohol and marijuana, Scarver was kicked out of his mother’s home. He eventually found work as a trainee carpenter at a job program run by the Wisconsin Conservation Corps.
Scarver claims that he was promised a full-time position upon completion of the program by his supervisor, Edward Patts. However, Patts was fired, and Scarver’s promised position never materialized. This led to Scarver drinking heavily and hearing voices that referred to him as the “chosen one.” He was later diagnosed with schizophrenia and suffered from messianic delusions.
Why is Christopher Scarver in prison?
Christopher Scarver received a life sentence in 1990 for shooting Steven Lohman, a Wisconsin Conservation Corps employee, three times. Scarver’s mental state had deteriorated after being terminated from the same company where Lohman worked, causing him to hear voices that convinced him he was “the chosen one.” Scarver subsequently demanded money from a site manager and was only provided with $15, which prompted him to commit the murder.
Why did Christopher Scarver kill Jeffrey Dahmer?
Christopher Scarver killed Jeffrey Dahmer in November 1994, in the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin. Scarver, who was also serving a life sentence for murder, had been assigned to a work detail with Dahmer and another inmate. According to Scarver, he had become increasingly agitated by Dahmer’s behavior, including his taunting and bullying of other inmates. Scarver later reported that he had retrieved a metal bar from the weight room, followed Dahmer into a staff bathroom, and attacked him, striking him repeatedly with the bar until he was dead.
After the killing, Scarver confessed to the murder and pleaded no contest to the charges, receiving an additional life sentence without the possibility of parole. Scarver’s actions were widely condemned, but some individuals praised him for what they saw as vigilante-style justice against a heinous criminal. The incident also raised questions about the safety and supervision of high-profile inmates in prisons, as Dahmer had been the subject of intense media scrutiny and was known to be at risk of attack from other inmates.
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After The Murder
After being deemed too dangerous for Wisconsin prisons, Christopher Scarver was transferred to the Federal Bureau of Prisons in 1995, where he underwent a psychiatric evaluation at MCFP Springfield before being moved to ADX Florence, a supermax facility in Colorado. Scarver remained there until the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility opened in 2000, and he was transferred there. However, in 2001, a federal judge ordered Scarver and other seriously mentally ill inmates to be relocated from the facility. Scarver was eventually moved to the Centennial Correctional Facility in Colorado.
In 2005, Scarver filed a federal civil rights suit against officials at the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility, claiming that his constitutional rights had been violated through cruel and unusual punishment. However, the district court dismissed the suit against several defendants, and Scarver’s appeal in 2006 was unsuccessful. Scarver spent a total of 16 years in solitary confinement for the murders of Dahmer and Anderson.
In 2012, a representative for Scarver announced that he was willing to write a book about the murder of Dahmer.
Is Scarver still alive?
Christopher Scarver is currently incarcerated at the Centennial Correctional Facility in Colorado, serving two additional life sentences for the murder of Jeffrey Dahmer. As of 2021, he remains alive and in custody. In 2015, Scarver began writing and publishing poetry books while in prison.
