Christopher Scarver was 45 years old when he decided to speak, but the story began much earlier, at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Wisconsin. He had arrived at that prison in 1992, almost at the same time as Jeffrey Dahmer, the man who confessed to killing 17 men and young men between 1978 and 1991, including acts of cannibalism and necrophilia.
In an interview, Scarver said that what he despised most about Dahmer was his sense of humor. According to his account, the killer made fake limbs out of food and squirted ketchup on them as if it were blood, just to mock other inmates. He claimed that Dahmer “crossed the line” with prisoners and staff, and that he was not one of the remorseful inmates.
On November 28, 1994, the two were cleaning the prison gym’s bathroom. Scarver says he had a newspaper clipping with details of the crimes in his pocket and asked Dahmer whether he had really done those things. According to him, Dahmer was taken aback and headed for the door, but Scarver blocked it. There were two blows, one to the head and one to the face. He then also killed Jesse Anderson, 37, who was serving a life sentence for killing his wife.
Scarver also suggested that someone inside the prison had facilitated the encounter: he said the guards disappeared just beforehand and refused to give further details for his own safety. This is only his account, and it was never confirmed.