Ok so as I've mentioned, it's been years since I last read
Across the Hall and I honestly could not remember if it offers any new information. As it turns out, I forgot most of it exactly because of that - nothing much is revealed.
Vern and his then-wife Pam lived in the apartment right opposite the infamous 213. They were friendly with Jeff, occasionally sharing beers and cigarettes. Pam has actually appeared in the fantastic documentary "The Jeffrey Dahmer Files" and the more recent two-part series "Dahmer on Dahmer". Here they can be seen looking at Jeff's apartment after he was captured.
Vern's book is self-published and it does contain typographical errors, but it never pretends to be anything more than a personal story. It starts off talking about how he and his wife moved into the Oxford apartments and then briefly details their relationship with Jeff. The latter half of the book centres around Dahmer's arrest and trial and the way it affected Vern's job and his and his wife's personal lives.
Here are some quotes from the book that I found interesting:
"It was no surprise to see Jeff wearing his light gray jacket walking at 9:00pm through someone's backyard or taking a short cut through the alley headed towards the Oxford Building. He'd walk among dope peddlers to have them approach him and ask him 'you looking...?' 'You straight..?' Meaning do you want to buy drugs but he would either shake his head negatively or ignore the peddlers all together. [...] I recall once telling Pam that I thought he had a lot of heart to live in this area. He never showed any sign of being fearful, he didn't have a kick ass type of attitude." page 26
Dahmer apparently installed an alarm system that would ring every time his front door would open. This indicates his daily schedule:
"Later that night we heard an almost funny light ringing sound. The alarm he had gotten would ring lightly every time his door opened. The ringing became familiar to us as he would leave every night during the week at 10:05pm to catch the 10:15pm [bus] on the corner of 25th and Wisconsin Ave. heading east towards downtown near the chocolate factory. Pamela would hear it again at 8:30am when he would return to his apartment." page 28
When foul odours of rotting flesh started to permeate the apartment building, Jeff often invited Vernell into his apartment to ask if he could still smell anything. They talked about his freezer that apparently broke during Jeff's night shift and contained the spoiled meat. Jeff apologised and said "Everyone's on my fucking case about the smell." page 41 Yea, who would have thought.
The freezer in question contained human remains: three heads, a torso and human organs.
This describes one of Vernell's visits:
" It was Sunday morning, he looked through the peep hole to see that it was me. He opened the door to allow me inside. He was wearing a long knee length terry cloth bathrobe and didn't have on his glasses. I assumed that he was still in bed or sleeping. [...] He went into the bedroom and returned with a pack of Marlboro cigarettes and a red lighter. He has also put on his glasses. I had stepped inside the apartment and closed the door behind me as he had walked towards the bedroom to get the cigarettes. The awful smell was still lingering in his apartment but it was mild but far from none existing. After giving me a cigarette, he offered me a seat on the couch. I took the lighter from him and sat down. After giving me the lighter he went back to close the sliding door that led to the small hallway to the bedroom and bathroom. His apartment was neat and clean, everything seemed to be in place. There were no dishes in the kitchen sink." page 42.
He then describes some of the small talk they had and how Jeff had made up an ex-girlfriend. Vern noted that he had never seen him with a woman or anyone, he was always alone. Later on he even told Jeff that one of the women in the building fancies him, to which he "flat out told me he wasn't interested." page 47.
On a different occasion, Dahmer visited Vern and Pamela in their apartment:
"He entered as I came out of the bathroom, I told him to have a seat so he sat on the couch. He began to tell me how nice he thought our apartment was and the small talk about different what-knots we had around the apartment. I walked to the refrigerator and removed the 64 oz. bottle of beer and got two glasses from the cabinet. He had left his jacket in his apartment and had brought his smokes with him. He put them on the table next to where I had put his glass of beer. He was very impressed when he saw our cat walk out of the bedroom picking her up and saying he likes cats a lot. [...] The three of us sat in our living room for nearly an hour chopping it up about the neighborhood, the apartments, our children that Pam and myself had and our jobs. He worked at the chocolate factory and offered to bring Pam a box of chocolates one day. Of all the guests we've had in our apartment, he appeared to be no different doing or saying nothing unusual." page 49
This was right around Thanksgiving 1990, the day when Jeff's parents visited him to see his apartment. From the timing, we can presume that the white jacket is the same one he's seen wearing in the home video from Thanksgiving.
Later on, nearing Jeff's arrest, Vern notes that he heard Jeff using power tools in the evening:
"I could hear the sound of a power tool being used in Jeff's apartment. The time was around 8:00pm. It could have been a power saw or a power drill. [...] When I entered I asked Pamela...'What the hell is Jeff building over there baby?' 'I think he's building a bookcase because he's been trying to dress up his apartment lately.' She went on to say that she'd seen him carrying boxes and large bags in and out. Things he had been shopping for and getting rid of to decorate his place." page 61.
Some of the tools found in Jeff's apartment
Not soon after that, Dahmer was arrested. The book also talks about how the residents felt about this - spoiler not good. If you want to read the book, it's available on Amazon.
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