Jeffery Dahmer and Charles Manson were two of the most famous serial killers of the twentieth century. The differences between the two are numerous. Neither had the same motivations, the same types of victims, the same number of victims, nor had they grown up in a similar place. However, there are some aspects of their lives that are almost completely identical, as these aspects are almost identical to those of everyone who is given the title of serial killer. Both had traumatic childhood experiences, both had some form of mental illness, and both abused drugs or alcohol. These three factors will eventually be seen as major contributors to the horrible events in their lives. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayJeffery Dahmer was born in Milwaukie, Wisconsin, on May 21, 1960. At a young age he was described as a bright and happy child. He was extremely interested in nature and wildlife as a child and throughout his life. On several occasions, Dahmer was known to love the study of human and animal anatomy. He would often be caught bicycling around the neighborhood looking for road kill to collect. If at any time he found it, Dahmer would take the dead animal home in a plastic bag and dissect it. There were other accounts by Dahmer that showed an intense appreciation for the insides of animals. His father once collected dead animals from under the house during a summer cleaning session. In his words: I took them out, put them in a metal bucket just to collect them all in one place. They entered with a sort of metallic noise. And Jeff seemed quite interested in that noise and grabbed them and dropped them too. You know, in retrospect, everything seems dark and dark and sinister. You know, could this be the start of something evil? Well, I have to admit, it's simply a child's curiosity. No more than ten years later, Dahmer's family moved to the small rural town of Bath, Ohio. During this time Dahmer had felt his first isolation in his new home. He would continue to feel antisocial and withdrawn throughout his high school years. During his high school years, Dahmer began to realize that he only had sexual feelings for men. Not only did she have sexual feelings only for men, but she also had a sexual obsession with knocking out and killing her lovers in her fantasies so she could then see their insides. Wanting to fit in and not draw attention to himself in a negative way, he never told anyone about these feelings. As he grew up, his parents' marriage began to fall apart. They would eventually divorce the year he graduated. During the initial separation, Lionel, Dahmer's father, moved from their home to a hotel across town to get away from his wife for a while. Soon afterward Dahmer's mother left home with her youngest son, leaving Dahmer alone in his home. This was the next experience in which Dahmer felt truly alone. The feeling of total loneliness combined with his sexual repression led Dahmer to begin drinking heavily. During that summer after graduation, Dahmer picked up a hitchhiker who was passing through his town named Steven Hicks. At first Hicks and Dahmer got along like good friends. Dahmer invited Hicks to his home and acted like a gracious guest. When Hicks went to leave, Dahmer hit him in the back of the head with a barbell which knocked him out. Then Dahmer proceeded to strangle Hicks. With a dead man lying in his house, this was itthe first time Dahmer could act out his violent sexual fantasies. He performed necrophilia on Hicks' body and then dismantled it piece by piece. He shattered his bones and scattered the pieces across his wooded yard. This first murder was a milestone for Dahmer. After the act was over, he felt strong remorse. With this remorse his drinking habit became much worse. Dahmer would continue to attend college, only to drop out after the first half of the first semester. This was due to the fact that he spent all his time getting drunk and not doing his homework. When Lionel found out, he told his son that the next best alternative was to join the army. So Jeffery did as his father told him. While in the army, he was very happy for a period of time. He had improved in shape and joined the medical unit, where he continued to acquire the desired knowledge about human anatomy. Just like in college, however, remorse still caught up with him in the form of alcoholism. Dahmer's officers noticed his habits and eventually had him discharged. With nowhere left to go, Dahmer moved to Milwaukie with his grandmother and found work in a factory. While living in Milwaukie, Dahmer discovered gay bars and began picking up men. These men were willing, but little did they know that they would ultimately be killed by Dahmer. Dahmer soon took up his own apartment in a Milwaukie slum neighborhood and used it to lure men into his home and fulfill his sexual fantasies ("A&E Biography: Jeffery Dahmer", Dahmer). Charles Manson had an even more disturbed childhood than Jeffery Dahmer. Done. Manson was born on November 12, 1934 in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a boy, Manson's mother was arrested and put in prison. He visited her occasionally, but generally lived in West Virginia with his aunt and uncle. They did their best to raise him properly, but he ultimately ended up bouncing from town to town in the Midwest with his mother after she got out of prison. After avoiding probation officers and Child Protective Services for a few years, Manson's mother finally agreed to place him in a boys' school and leave him there. After ten months, Manson ran away to find his mother and live with her again. After Manson finally located his mother, she rejected him from her home and told him to go back to where he came from. After this moment in life, Manson began to have different feelings about the world and his mother. Her own words are as follows: The one thing my mother taught me was that everything she said was a lie. And I learned to never believe anyone about anything. From that point on, Manson's life continued to spiral downwards. Shortly after his mother called the authorities on her son and he returned to the school he had run away from, he ran away again. This time, after escaping, Manson turned to a life of petty crime. His acts included stealing from other children, breaking into shops and destroying property. In 1949, Manson spent time in a juvenile facility. After he was released, he began stealing cars, breaking into stores and committing armed robberies. After being captured again by the authorities, he was sent to the Indiana School for boys. At this school, Manson claimed he was raped and severely beaten. Once again he ran away from school and continued his life of crime. After being caught over and over again for one crime after another, Manson eventually ended up in federal reform schools. He had no luck escaping these institutions, but was paroled in 1954. After his parole, Manson continued to get into trouble. His little crimes were starting to repeat themselves).