True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

In this fourth instalment of this series, the focus is going to be on notorious serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer. As you may know, I have written about the shocking case of Jeffrey Dahmer in recent times, you can find the posts here (part one) and here (part two). In this post however, you will find some facts about Dahmer that you may not have come across before. So, before we get into it, please don't forget the other serial killers that have been covered so far in this series:

- Ted Bundy

- John Wayne Gacy

- Richard Ramirez

Now let's get into 10 facts about Jeffrey Dahmer....

1) Whilst Jeffrey Dahmer was in prison he was sent endless letters as well as $12,000 from his obsessed fans.

2) Jeffrey faced his karma in prison when he was murdered by a fellow inmate named Christopher Scarver. The majority of Dahmer's victims were African-American and Christopher himself was an African-American man so it seemed like some form of justice came around for Jeffrey. According to Christopher, Jeffrey didn't even put up a fight. 

3) Jeffrey Dahmer was 34 years old when he died. His brain was removed for medical science and the rest of his remains were cremated. 

4) In regards to Jeffrey's brain which was supposed to be studied and analyzed, there was a lot of back and forth between authorities and Jeffrey's parents. The brain had been kept in a jar for some time but it was eventually decided that the brain would be destroyed without any proper investigations taking place. 

5) Jeffrey Dahmer's last words were reported to have been ''I don't care if I live or die. Go ahead and kill me.''

6) Jeffrey Dahmer's father Lionel wrote a memoir about his son which was released in 1994. You can find the book here

7) When the series on Netflix about Jeffrey's crimes was released and went viral, his victim's relatives were disgusted and spoke publicly about the trauma they had to relive through, for what they viewed as entertainment purposes and making money off of suffering. 

8) Jeffrey Dahmer's father, Lionel died in a hospice at the age of 87 in December of 2023. His mother Joyce had passed away in 2000. 

9) A gruesome fact: Jeffrey Dahmer would say that his victims tasted like 'filet mignon'. 

10) Jeffrey once tried to steal a human corpse after seeing a young man's obituary in a local newspaper. He apparently went to the young man's grave after the funeral service and attempted to dig up his remains but soon gave up and went home. 

So, a disturbing individual all round and even though he has been deceased for such a long time, people are still left wondering how all of these horrific things could have happened. Why was Jeffrey Dahmer the way that he was, why did he do those things? The answer to these questions we may never know and it's a chilling thought. 

Further reading & sources:

Thank you for taking the time to check out this fourth instalment, I hope you will join me again next time when we will be looking over more disturbing facts of notorious serial killers. 

Stay safe x 

 (Vili and Mary. Picture credit: news.com)

*Please be aware that quite a lot of the details that I will be sharing in this post are quite disturbing but as always I have tried to be as sensitive with the details without taking away the facts of the case*

Mary Kay Letourneau was a woman who found herself in her early thirties working as a teacher and bored with life. She was married but the marriage had run it's course and she and her husband had been having affairs and the affection had dried up a long time ago. The only positive for Mary was that she and her husband had 4 daughters out of the union but other than that it was pretty much about staying together because they had financial struggles. 

Mary had come from quite a respectable family who were intelligent people, there was a huge interest in politics and her father became quite a prominent figure in politics. She was born on the 30th of January 1962 in California, into a big family and was one of seven children. Tragedy struck the family when Mary's three year old brother accidentally drowned in a swimming pool. 

Mary got married at a young age to a guy that her family were really keen on, she later claimed that she was practically forced into this marriage as she wasn't in love and did it for the sake of her family. She was dating a fellow student at the University of Arizona and it wasn't long until she fell pregnant with their first child and then along came another.  She was able to obtain a teaching degree and began full time work as a teacher at an Elementary school. From the outside looking in it seemed that Mary had it all, the husband, the beautiful two children, the teaching career but all was not as it seemed. Her husband was reportedly violent and visits to the hospital were not uncommon after arguments would get out of hand. So Mary was a deeply unhappy woman, I'm not making any excuses for her but you can see all of the emotional turmoil that she was in. 

She enjoyed her teaching role and loved working with children but there was one particular boy that she was drawn to at the school and that was 8 year old Vili Fualaau. She only knew him briefly at this time but when she took over as his teacher when he turned 12, her feelings towards him were definitely not what they should have been. Very uncomfortable and disturbing to say the least. Vili developed a little crush on Mary and told his cousin that he wanted to make a bet that he could get her. It was just a silly kids thing where a young boy takes a shine to his teacher and it should never have gone any further than that. Vili wanted to win the bet so he would do little nice things for Mary but obviously Mary read more into everything and actually enjoyed the attention this 12 year old child was giving her. 

Things just got more disturbing as time went on because before anyone knew what was happening, Mary (a 34 year old, married mother and also a trusted school teacher) was kissing the 12 year old boy and a disturbing 'relationship' between the pair developed. Obviously to anyone reading or aware of the case can see that she was clearly grooming him from day one and had forced this unhealthy interest onto this child. He was a 12 year old boy who was not mentally mature to understand fully what was happening. 

The situation just got worse beyond all imagination because she actually had sexual relations with this boy. He was just 13 years old apparently, when this occurred. He was an underage child and she was a grown woman, the whole thing is sickening. When I think of the details of this case and about women like Mary, I think about not only how sick these women are but how incredibly selfish they are too. They are stealing childhoods, that's what I feel. They are pedophiles who are attracted to children and force their baggage and emotional drama on these kids and it scars these children for life. Not only do the children have the emotional abuse to deal with, there's also the sexual abuse too. 

So at just 13 years old, Vili (who was just a child himself) was now a father to his 35 year old teacher/abuser's child. Mary had managed to get inside of this boy's head so much that it was almost as if she had brainwashed him. The pair had a very disturbing bond and it was a struggle to keep them apart, Mary especially was determined to see Vili at all costs. Her husband found sickening love letters that Mary had written to the boy and he turned to a relative for advice, the relative contacted the authorities straight away and Mary was promptly arrested. 

(Mary Kay Letourneau. Picture credit: nypost)

Despite the community's horror and aversion to this disturbing union, Mary and Vili carried on with this disturbing bond that they had. It appeared that there was a lot of Stockholm Syndrome on Vili's part, the child was manipulated by an intelligent, older woman who convinced him that this situation was meant to be. The whole thing was a mess and it went on for years. Mary ended up in prison after pleading guilty to two charges of second-degree child r***, She didn't serve all of her sentence at first, she was released early under the rules that she was to stay away from Vili. Mary promised to follow the law but soon broke that promise and the pair were found by the police trying to run off together. There was passports and money along with other items in the car, Mary was sent back to prison. All in all she spent seven and a half years in prison and still continued to pursue Vili who waited for her to leave prison. 

Mary fell pregnant again and the unhealthy relationship was making headlines all over the world. They even started to take advantage of some of the attention. People were interested in their story and they ended up releasing two books as well as attending public appearances. TV interviews soon followed and the pair put up a united front and didn't show any sort of hesitation about their relationship. Mary was so delusional that she actually thought that she could have another child with Vili and return to work as a teacher. She was now classed as a sex offender and on the register for the rest of her life but that didn't seem to phase her.

Mary and Vili stayed together for a long time and got married in May of 2005 (she was 43 and he was 21). They continued to cause a stir wherever they went and still took advantage of their notoriety. Vili worked as a DJ and had a job as a retail assistant. The pair helped host an evening at a club called 'Hot For Teacher' and acted like the whole thing was a laugh. 

They continued on with the marriage until 2019 where they decided to separate. A friend close to them said that their love for each other just faded. Vili moved away but soon returned after he got the news that Mary had been diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. He reportedly helped look after Mary and stayed by her side, morning noon and night until she passed away on the 6th of July 2020. She was 58 years old. 

(Vili and Mary. Picture credit: uk.finance.yahoo)

Years later when Vili was asked about the relationship and his thoughts on his daughters dating someone older, he was dead against it. Apparently he has expressed to those closest to him that he realises now that the relationship was not a healthy one from the start. Vili had been troubled in the past and had struggles with alcohol and even attempted to take his own life. Did he see Mary as a mother figure? It can be hard for some people to understand the way a victim may behave towards an abuser. Some victims feel that they need their abuser because they are manipulated into believing that. There's also a feeling of guilt that victims often feel even though it is not their fault. Mary targeted this boy from a very young age and it was almost like he had joined a cult, he stayed with her, echoed her words and defended her. It seemed that after her death he began to see things differently as his children grew up. 

I feel sorry for Vili, he may have believed what he felt for Mary to be love but this all began when he was a child. She took his childhood away from him and forced the responsibility of being a father on to him at just 13 years old. She came to this child with all of her issues (she was also diagnosed as bi-polar) and problems and made him feel that he was somehow responsible for her. She was in charge all of the way and she knew what she was doing but she was psychologically disturbed. Despite knowing it was wrong and spending time in prison, losing her marriage, her daughters, her career and reputation, she was determined to see Vili at all costs. It was sheer madness. 

Vili had spent a huge chunk of his life with Mary, she had, had her youth and had the chance to be a child, she stole that from Vili. She forced this child to become a parent when he was a child himself and take on the responsibility of taking care of this haggard, disturbed 34 year old woman. 

I don't care if they were together a long time, that doesn't mean anything to me. The fact is that she manipulated this boy emotionally and used sex (I know, it's sickening) to control him. She was getting pregnant as another form of control, she was trying to tie him to her however possible way that she could. If she really did care about Vili, she would have left that boy alone and let him have his childhood and his life. 

I hope wherever Vili is now (and I'm sure he has a great relationship with his children) that he is happy and has had the chance to experience real love with someone who has his best intentions at heart. 

Another scary fact about this case is that people from the school that Mary had previously worked at, described her as a great person and continued to do so after everything had been exposed. That's quite unsettling to think that some people think that an adult person abusing a 12 year old boy makes them a 'good person'. You cannot be classed as a good person if you do a horrendous thing like that and that's not to mention everything else she did, trapping the boy with the pregnancies etc. In prison she was supposed to be having counselling for her unhealthy interest towards children and she was nothing but disruptive, she had no interest in rehabilitation, she saw nothing wrong with how she was. 

Like I mentioned in the beginning, this story was insane to say the least and like I just mentioned, I come away from it feeling really sorry for Vili and I do hope things have gotten better for him. 

What are your thoughts on this case? Let me know in the comments below or email me at jocaledoniankitty@gmail.com 

Further Reading & Sources: 

- Mary Kay: Article | People

- Mary Kay: Article about death | New York Times

- Mary Kay | Wikipedia

- Vili: Article | People

- Mary Kay & Vili | Biography

- Mary Kay: Article | Parade

- Mary Kay: Article | Yahoo

- Mary Kay: Article | US Weekly

- May December: Article | Business Insider

- Mary Kay: Article about death | Yahoo

- Mary Kay: Article | Rolling Stone

- Vili: Article | In Touch

- Mary Kay: News report | Entertainment Tonight 

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Stay safe and I'll see you in the next post x 

 I had heard about this case a few years ago and stumbled across it on my list of cases to cover last week. I was surprised to see that nobody else had covered the case so far so I thought it was important to share this story in the hopes that other true crime bloggers, podcasters or youtubers would pick it up, I feel it's important that the victim in this case be remembered and for nobody to ever forget what an evil, sadistic man, Darren Vickers is. 

This is my 66th case and I want to warn you that it is going to be quite a harrowing read. I will be talking about the death of a child and the horrific manner in which the death occurred, To read about a murder is always hard but when the victim is a child it is even more difficult to take. 

Jamie Lavis had the face of an angel with a cheeky smile, he was so small, almost like a tiny little doll at just 4 feet tall. He was so small that despite being 8 years old, his mum Karen had to dress him in clothes made for 5 to 6 year olds. He was a bundle of fun and typical of a boy of his age, when he wasn't watching cartoons he was outside searching for a new adventure. 

Jamie grew up on a notorious area known as Openshaw in Manchester, England. It was May 1997 and kids would often go out to play in the street but on this particular Bank Holiday Monday, Jamie was hanging around the street bored and looking for something else to do. Being the little adventurer as he was, he headed to the bus station, like a lot of boys his age, buses, trains, cars, they all fascinated him.

That very night on the 5th of May 1997, little Jamie Lavis didn't come home. When he didn't return at 5pm for his dinner, his parents became concerned but thought he would come through the door at any minute thinking he just got held up playing with friends. As the clock stuck 8 pm their fears began to grow stronger and his parents and family took to the streets to look for him. After a couple of hours and no sign of him, they called the police.

The next few days were anxiety ridden with his family wondering where he was, imagining the worst, the police coming to the house back and forth and his mother, Karen appealed for information via a TV appeal for any help on her son's whereabouts. 

Phone calls and tips of various alleged sightings of Jamie were passed onto the police but it all came to nothing, Jamie's family were beside themselves with worry. 

Nobody could understand how this little boy could go out to play like he always did and not return home.

The days that followed and the more time that Jamie was gone, the more and more people were imagining the worst.

But one day, Jamie's sister was approached by a man who claimed to have seen Jamie. This man was a 28 year old local bus driver who made a statement to the family and the police that he saw Jamie on his bus. He told them that the child had bought an 'All Day Rider' ticket and spent quite a while on the bus before being dropped off near his home.

This man who's name was Darren Vickers came across as such a nice man, he just wanted to help the family and felt that his information could somehow help the police with their investigation. Darren couldn't have been any nicer, he offered to help the family any way that he could and soon he was being invited over for dinner and ended up moving into the family home. 

Darren, apparently wanted to take the stress off of the family by doing all of the appeals for Jamie, he did tons of interviews on the family's behalf and had elected himself as their official spokesperson. The family seemed to think of him as an absolute Godsend and began to rely on him. Rumours also went around the local community that Karen and Darren were having an affair (which she has always denied), the police however were not convinced that Darren Vickers was the nice guy he was painting himself out to be.

There was discrepancies in his statement about seeing Jamie on the day that he went missing, he claimed that Jamie had come onto the bus with a ticket, however, CCTV footage from the bus station emerged showing Darren leaving his bus to approach the little figure who was Jamie. He was seen following Jamie around and playing with the little boy's hair before going onto the bus with him. Witnesses on the bus that day also came forward and described how Jamie was having the time of his life as Darren was letting him play with the ticket machine and sit in the drivers booth with him. 

The ''All Day Rider'' ticket that Darren had claimed that Jamie had bought was not issued to children and Jamie did not have a ticket that day. Further investigation into Darren's background also led police to his work references which were all fake contacts apart from one referee who turned out to be a convicted paedophile. 

Darren, the nice guy, suddenly became the prime suspect and Jamie's family were outraged. They believed that the police were clutching at straws and couldn't come up with anything so they were just focusing on Darren for the sake of it. When Darren was at the police station, the family were outside waiting for him, supporting him. When no further evidence turned up and the police let him go, the family held a party at their house for him.

To the police and no doubt some of the local members of the community who suspected that Darren Vickers was not all that he seemed, this was shocking and unbelievable.

Darren Vickers must have thought he was very clever having the family at his beck and call and I don't want to come across as feeling any negativity towards the family, at the end of the day they were worried sick about Jamie, their minds were all over the place and this man was a master manipulator. The net was closing in on Darren, his constant courting of the local media and TV appearances backfired on him. Two teenagers who had spotted him on TV reported to the police that he had tried to abduct them one night.

This report led to the police taking Darren back to the station where they pressed him for hours about Jamie. The police asked the two teenagers where Darren was the night he tried to abduct them and the police were directed to a wooded area. Investigators and a forensic team were then sent to this location to do a thorough search. 

During the search of the woods the police found some pieces of clothing that matched the clothes that Jamie was wearing on the day that he went missing. When they took the wet materials back to the forensic lab for further testing, a piece of human jaw bone was found entangled in the clothing. 

Unfortunately the jaw bone and the pieces of clothing had indeed been identified as belonging to Jamie Lavis. It became clear that Jamie had been abducted, murdered and dismembered. The majority of Jamie's remains were never found. 

When Darren was charged and taken to court, he denied guilt and began making a number of allegations against Jamie's family including that he and Karen had been having an affair and that she was pregnant with his child. He also tried to pin the blame on Jamie's father. Karen later said that she had a DNA test done on her child just to prove that Darren was lying and to silence the local gossips who believed that she had been having an affair with him.

Darren Vickers was sentenced to life for the murder of Jamie Lavis in April of 1999. Darren confessed that he abducted, sexually abused, murdered and dismembered the little boy.

It was shocking and sickening that this vile creature was able to pull the wool over the eyes of the family for 5 months during the search for Jamie. I can't imagine what that must feel like for the family. They had their son's murderer living in their house, sitting at their dinner table. The horrible details of what this sick individual did to Jamie is too much to bear. 

In 2014, Darren Vickers was the victim of a random hammer attack at Frankland Prison in Durham. He suffered skull fractures and spent some time in hospital but made a full recovery....unfortunately.

As I mentioned earlier, this case was a very heavy going one to cover but I wanted to share Jamie's story. It's so heartbreaking and this story is so unbelievable. 

As well as being my 66th true crime case that I have covered, this will also be my last post on this blog for 2020, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all of the support over the past 12 months and I look forward to bringing you more content in 2021. All the best for New Year and have an amazing Christmas.

RIP Jamie. 

Further Reading & Sources:

- Darren Vickers Article | The Northern Echo Newspaper

- The Lavis Case Article | Manchester Evening News

- Article On The Case | The Guardian Newspaper

- Darren Vickers Trial | The Independent Newspaper

- Darren Vickers Article | Daily Mail Newspaper

- Killers: Documentary

Thank you for taking the time to read my latest post. See you in the next one x