A Jeffrey Dahmer survivor has opened up about the horrific abuse he endured and the one regret he’s carried ever since.
Billy Capshaw, who served alongside Dahmer in West Germany in 1980, was forced to share a room with the now-infamous serial killer.
What began as a seemingly normal friendship soon spiraled into something far more sinister.
Capshaw admitted that at first, he “liked” Dahmer, but everything changed when the Milwaukee Monster - who had only admitted to one murder at the time - began unleashing the dark violence that would later define his legacy.
The disturbing account is at the center of Surviving A Serial Killer, which aired on Channel 5.
The documentary series shares the stories of people who narrowly escaped death at the hands of some of the world’s most dangerous murderers, with this episode focusing on Capshaw’s time living with Dahmer before his infamous killing spree.
According to Capshaw, Dahmer would beat him with a metal pipe, sedate him for days, and rape him repeatedly. One night, the abuse escalated even further when Dahmer chased him through the woods before launching another brutal attack.
“He was sitting on the bunk, drinking more vodka. He’s getting drunker and drunker, and all of a sudden he attacks me again," he recalled. "He threw me around like a wet rag. He’s trying to take my clothes off and then he raped me and I couldn’t stop it.”
Fearing for his life, the survivor jumped out of a third-floor window to escape and fractured his pelvis. He was found by officers and reported the assault, undergoing a rape kit test at a military hospital, but unfortunately, nothing came of it.
Capshaw believes Dahmer, who was also an army medic, knew how to dose him just enough to knock him out without killing him. Looking back, he is convinced he was the serial killer’s test subject.
“I was absolutely his guinea pig for him to do what he liked with," he said. "I couldn’t overpower him, but I would scream."
Despite telling his sergeant, who lived just across the hall, nothing was done. “Everyone needs to understand how the military works. There are some things you just don’t say. Rape is one of them, back in 1980," Capshaw shared. "No one did a thing. I found out from a nurse later on that they just discarded the rape kits.”
After the hospital visit, Capshaw was forced to return to his room with Dahmer - where the abuse continued.
Capshaw confessed he once considered killing the twisted killer to stop the violence, but couldn’t bring himself to do it. It’s a decision that still haunts him.
“A lot of people died, and even after he left, I found out where he was living, and I was thinking I’d go there and kill him, but again I couldn’t,” he said. “I carried so much guilt.”
Dahmer would go on to rape, kill, and cannibalise 17 young men and boys between 1978 and 1991. He was finally captured and sentenced to 16 life terms in prison in 1992.
On November 28, 1994, Dahmer met his fate as he was beaten to death by inmate Christopher Scarver.