Netflix will release documentary series 'Conversations With a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes' in October

Milwaukee serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer will be the subject of the third season of Netflix's true-crime documentary series.

"Conversations With a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes" begins showing on the streaming service Oct. 7. The three-part documentary tells the story of Dahmer's arrest and confession to a horrifying string of crimes, including murder, necrophilia and cannibalism. Sentenced to 15 life sentences — and then a 16th for a murder committed years earlier in Ohio — in 1992, Dahmer, 34, was beaten to death in prison in 1994.

"The discovery shocked the nation and stunned the local community, who were incensed that such a depraved killer had been allowed to operate within their city for so long," the description of the series on Netflix's media site reads. "Why was Dahmer, who had been convicted of sexual assault of a minor in 1988, able to avoid suspicion and detection from police as he stalked Milwaukee’s gay scene for victims, many of whom were people of color?"

Directed by documentary veteran Joe Berlinger, who also made the "Conversations" installments on serial killers Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy, the series features "never-before-heard" interviews between Dahmer and his defense team "answering open questions of police accountability through a modern-day lens."

The description sounds not unlike Netflix's other Dahmer series, "Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story," a dramatic series by Ryan Murphy ("American Horror Story"). First reported in October 2020, "Monster" is expected to tell the Dahmer story largely from the point of view of his victims, with a focus on the role of the police in Dahmer's ability to commit his crimes for as long as he was able to. Reportedly, one of the series' lead characters will be Glenda Cleveland, a neighbor of Dahmer's who tried to intervene after teenage boy Konerak Sinthasomphone was returned to Dahmer by police after he'd been seen fleeing Dahmer's apartment. (The police took Dahmer's word that the two were lovers; Dahmer later confessed to killing Sinthasomphone.)

Evan Peters is playing Dahmer, with Niecy Nash as Cleveland, and Richard Jenkins and Penelope Ann Miller as Dahmer's parents. According to a cast list on Internet Movie Database, many of the other real-life people in the Dahmer story, including then-Police Chief Philip Arreola and the two officers who returned Sinthasomphone to Dahmer, are characters in the drama.

Netflix has said the 10-episode drama series will be released sometime this year but has not given an official debut date.

Contact Chris Foran at chris.foran@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @cforan12. 

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Netflix sets 'Conversations With a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes'