In 1990, Christopher J. Scarver was awaiting trial in a Wisconsin jail, accused of killing 27-year-old job trainer Steven Lohman. It was then that the arrest of a 31-year-old Milwaukee man was announced; he had the remains of 11 men and boys in his apartment. That man later confessed to killing a total of 17 men and boys in Ohio and Wisconsin. He also confessed that he would sometimes mutilate and cannibalize his victims.
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00:00In 1990, Christopher J. Scarver was awaiting trial in a Wisconsin jail accused of killing
00:0527-year-old job trainer Steven Lohman. It was then that the arrest of a 31-year-old
00:09Milwaukee man was announced. He had the remains of 11 men and boys in his apartment. That
00:13man later confessed to killing a total of 17 men and boys in Ohio and Wisconsin. He
00:18also confessed that he would sometimes mutilate and cannibalize his victims.
00:22Scarver came to know of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer much like the rest of America, via
00:25the news. But Scarver got to see more of Dahmer than most people. Both men were convicted
00:29murderers serving out life sentences together in the Columbia Correctional Institution outside
00:33of Madison. Although Scarver was also a convicted murderer, he couldn't stomach the things he'd
00:38heard Dahmer had done.
00:39Scarver later told the New York Post that Dahmer would antagonize inmates by making
00:43food look like severed body parts and leave them for people to find. Scarver said he kept
00:47his distance from Dahmer until 1994. Scarver claims when the two were left alone in the
00:52prison gym, he bludgeoned Dahmer to death with a metal rod. He also killed another inmate
00:56at the same time named Jesse Anderson. According to what Scarver told the New York Post, Anderson
01:01and Dahmer antagonized him, so he killed them. Scarver initially pleaded not guilty of the
01:05prison murders, claiming insanity.
01:07At his first court appearance, Scarver entered the courtroom singing.
01:11"...Rain or shine, sharing your dreams, your heart and your mind."
01:20But he later changed his plea to no contest. He did so in exchange for being moved to a
01:24federal prison instead of serving out his life sentences in a state penitentiary. He
01:27was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences on top of the first one.
01:31The insanity plea wasn't out of the blue. When Scarver was awaiting trial for killing
01:34Lohman in 1992, he told a psychiatrist that voices had urged him to commit that murder.
01:39Specifically, he said it was the voices of a family — a mom and a dad, a boy and a
01:43little girl.
01:45Scarver shot Lohman in the head four times, then made a manager write him a check for
01:48$3,000. He also stole the manager's credit card. Scarver went to his girlfriend's home,
01:53where hours later, police found him sitting on the stoop of her apartment. He had the
01:56check, the credit card, and the gun he used in the murder in his pocket.
02:00Scarver told the psychologist he'd never been in trouble with the law or even been in a
02:03fight. He said the voices of the family told him,
02:06"...everything was going to be all right and it was meant to happen like this."
02:09The New York Times reported that he said the voices also told him, quote, "...I'm the chosen
02:13one."
02:14Scarver has been in jail or prison since he was about 20 years old. According to his webpage,
02:18he was placed in solitary confinement for 18 years after killing Jeffrey Dahmer and
02:21Jesse Anderson. But he, quote, "...earned his way out and into a medium-security prison."
02:26When he was initially arrested for murder in 1990, his girlfriend was pregnant and gave
02:30birth after Scarver was sentenced. The child was named Chris, after his father, and the
02:35two maintained a relationship through letters, according to what his son told CNN in 2014.
02:40During his time behind bars, Scarver became a poet and wrote a book titled The Child Left
02:43Behind, Poetry of Christopher J. Scarver. Scarver also writes short stories, musical
02:48compositions, and songs, and creates art. He's proactive in writing prison policy proposals
02:53and initiated the American Prisoner Repatriation Act. Scarver also tries to encourage his son.
02:58In part of a letter the younger Chris shared with CNN, Scarver wrote,
03:01"'Tough times don't last, tough people do, and you are the toughest kid I know.'"