While Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Netflix’s new limited series, details the terrifying crimes of notorious American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, it also sheds light on his long-forgotten victims, telling their life stories from their own perspectives.
Tony Hughes, a deaf man who could not speak, is one of Jeffrey’s victims who has finally been given the opportunity to “tell” his story.
The sixth episode of the series focuses on Tony, who is played by Rodney Burford, and explores Tony’s interactions with Jeffrey Dahmer and their eventual murder. But who was Tony Hughes, and what happened to him? Here’s what you should know.
Who was Tony Hughes?
Tony Hughes was born in the year 1960.
Because of the side effects of medicines given to him as a child, he lost his hearing permanently as an infant. Hughes moved to Madison for college and to pursue a modeling career in the fashion industry as an aspiring model.
According to the Netflix biopic, he struggled to find work because of his disability, eventually ending up at clothing stores where he communicated with his manager using sign language.
Hughes identified as gay and frequented gay bars.
He couldn’t speak because he was deaf.
According to FBI records, Anthony “Tony” Hughes was born on August 26, 1959. According to The Sun, he lost his hearing as a baby due to some side effects of medicines given to him as a child. He was also apparently deafeningly deafeningly deafeningly dea
According to Gallaudet University, only one person graduated from the Wisconsin School for the Deaf. Shirley Hughes, Tony’s mother, described her son as “outgoing, jolly, and happy,” adding that “he could easily make friends.”
How did Tony and Jeffrey meet?
According to reports, the two met at a gay bar where Tony interacted with customers by writing on a notepad. In the same way, he communicated with his eventual killer, Jeffrey Dahmer.
Tony was in Madison visiting family “On May 24, 1991, I went dancing at a gay bar in Milwaukee. Jeffrey Dahmer kidnapped him, drove him home, drugged him, dismembered him, and kept his skull “according to the most recent Associated Press news reports
The series details how the two became attracted to each other, and even shows Jeffrey attending some of Hughes’ photoshoots—but it’s unclear how much of the episode is true and how much is fiction.
His mother, however, told The Associated Press that her son had “taken a new job two weeks earlier but never got his first paycheck,” and that “she was unable to contact the friend because she only knew a first name—Jeffrey.”
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Tony was murdered by Jeffrey in 1991.
Even in the series, there are few details about Tony’s murder at the hands of Jeffrey Dahmer.
However, according to FBI records, Hughes, 31, went missing on May 31, 1991, but hadn’t been seen since May 24, when friends saw him at the “219-Club.” His remains, including his skull and vertebrae, were discovered in Dahmer’s apartment two months later, in July 1991, along with the remains of many other victims.
Tony was identified initially through dental records, and his mother was informed of his death in early July.
“I thought I was going insane when it first happened,′′ his mother, Shirley Hughes, told The Associated Press in 1992. She stated in another interview, “I simply prayed to the Lord to show me where my son was. I just wanted to know if he was alive or dead. It hurts because of how he died. It defies description.′′
What was wrong with him?
In May of 1991, Anthony Hughes met serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in a gay bar in Milwaukee. Dahmer was a regular, and he had used the promise of sex and sexual favors to get his victims in the past.
Sources say that Hughes, who was 31 at the time, agreed to go home with Dahmer. People think that Dahmer had asked for a naked photo shoot in writing. Once inside, Dahmer gave him drugs and then killed him by strangling him. His body was supposedly broken up by acid, but Dahmer kept his head.
Who were the other people Jeffrey Dahmer killed?
Between 1978 and 1991, Dahmer, also known as the “Milwaukee Monster,” butchered at least 17 young men and boys. He even cannibalized some of them, keeping body parts like skulls and genitals as souvenirs. The men were all in their twenties, ranging in age from 14 to 32. Many of them were gay ethnic minorities, like Hughes.
Among his victims were:
- 18-year-old Steven Hicks
- Steven Tuomi (25),
- Ricky Beeks (33),
- 25-year-old Joseph Bredehoft
- 14 James Doxtator
- 25-year-old Richard Guerrero
- 31-year-old Anthony Hughes
- 23-year-old Oliver Lacy
- 19-year-old Errol Lindsey
- Ernest Miller, 22 years old
- 26-year-old Anthony Sears
- 14″ Konerak Sinthasomphone
- 28-year-old Edward W. Smith
- 18-year-old Curtis Straughter
- 23-year-old David C. Thomas
- 20-year-old Matt Turner
- 23-year-old Jeremy Weinberger
After committing the heinous murders, he was apprehended by Milwaukee police officers on July 22, 1991, after Tracy Edwards escaped his grasp. The following year, Dahmer was convicted and sentenced to 16 consecutive life terms in prison. In 1994, he was murdered in prison by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver.
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