The rumour that Jeffrey Dahmer murdered a man in Room 507 of the Ambassador Hotelhas long been echoed on social media, throughout the travel logs of ‘dark tourists’ and even in the occasional Trip Advisor review. But where did this specific room number come from? What truth is there to the 507 claim? And why has it beenperpetuatedto the point of causing grief for the hotel?
The Murder
On the morning of November the 21st, 1987, Jeffrey Dahmer woke under the weight of a 151 proof rum hangover. Beneath him, on his bed at Milwaukee’s Ambassador Hotel, lay the body of 25-year-old Steven Tuomi – beaten and bloodied around the mouth.
It wasn’t the first time Dahmer had used the Ambassador as a liaison site. After being banned from the local bathhouse for drugging a number of its patrons in order to explore a still, but still breathing, body, Dahmer had switched to renting the $43 a night hotel1. There he repeated his practice of drugging-and-exploring strangers who accompanied him back to his room for some kind of good time. On one occassion, this involved two young men at once – one of whom later testified to having been left rugburnt while his friend had awoke to find his underwear gone. “We thought it was strange, but just put it off [that] somebody had slipped us a Mickey and took advantage of us for some reason or another,” the man said.
It was Steve Tuomi who was to become Dahmer’s second murder victim, however. Nine years after Dahmer’s killing of Steven Hicks in Bath, Ohio.
The Ambassador today “Very little history is known prior to 1995 (when the hotel was purchased by the current owners) and there is an abundance of incorrect and falsified info that exists on the internet.” – Guest Relations Manager, 2017
Steven Tuomi
After meeting Dahmer outside Club 219, the Michigan-born fry cook had readily accompanied him back to Dahmer’s pre-booked room. There the two had continued to drink and engage in sexual activity, before Steven passed out from a combination of alcohol and the sleeping pills Dahmer had prepped in a glass earlier that evening. Dahmer continued to lie with the heavily sedated man before emerging from his blackout to the sight of a caved in chest and death – the heavy bruising on Dahmer’s own arms indicative of his responsibility for Steven’s broken body. “I was just planning on drugging him and spending the night with him,” Dahmer later said. “I had no intention of hurting him, [but] apparently I had beaten him to death with my fists.”
Dahmer was “extremely horrified” by what he had done, yet couldn’t remember having done it. “It’s almost like I temporarily lost control of myself,” he said. “I don’t know what was going through my mind. I have no memory of it. I tried to dredge it up, but I have no memory of it whatsoever.”
In his bestselling book The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer, author Brian Masters speculated that perhaps “blinded by alcohol and madness” – and posessing a fascination with listening to a person’s heartbeat – Dahmer had “dug his fists into the sleeping man’s breast in order to get inside of him. To achieve that which, in his deranged mind, was the ultimate intimacy.”
However, Dr. Ken Smail – who interviewed Dahmer on behalf of his defence team – proposed that the pummelling of Steven might’ve been indicative of a repressed rage. Though “where that rage came from, or why that happened, I don’t know,” said Dahmer, finding some merit to Smail’s hypothesis. “I must have pounded awful hard because the ribcage had broken [and] I could feel the bone.”
Panicking, Dahmer hid Steven in the closet and went out to buy a large suitcase from the Grand Avenue Mall, just a 10 minute bus ride away. Steven’s body was stuffed inside the case and transfered from hotel room to the boot of a taxi, before being unpacked in Grandma Dahmer’s fruit cellar where it lay over Thanksgiving week, undetected due to the stench-suppressing cold of the winter air.
“Just couldn’t believe it. Shock, horror, panic. I just couldn’t believe it happened again after all those years when I’d done nothing like this.” – Dahmer’s reaction to the murder of Steven Tuomi, nine years after killing his first victim
Eventually, Dahmer was able to dismember the body and smash the sheet-wrapped bones with a sledgehammer before disposing of them in the trash – where the tripple-bagged remains were carried away by unsuspecting garbagemen the next day. “Except the skull,” Dahmer explained. “Kept the skull.”
The skull itself was thrown away a week or two later, when the undiluted bleach Dahmer had attempted to preserve it with rendered it too brittle.
“After that,” said Dahmer, “my moral compass was so out of whack – and the desire, the compulsion [to permanently possess and control someone] were so strong – that I just continued with that mode.”
The continuation of ‘that mode’ would last four more years and claim the lives of another 15 young men.
The Room
Still open today, the Ambassador has long retained the infamy bestowed upon it via Dahmer. For many true crime enthusiasts and ‘ghost hunters’, it’s become a macabre novelty to visit or even stay in – particularly if one requests to rent Room 507: The room where Dahmer allegedly murdered Steven.
There have been several first-person accounts of strange activityfrom those who have stayed in the now-infamous room – including the reporting of nightmares, “heavy energy”, sleep paralysis, coldness and unexplained bruising.
One guest from 2016 claimed that the hotel had “always had a creepy vibe about it,” before recounting how they and their partner had both spontaneously woken up at 3am – a supposedly “supernatural” sign that the significance of this hour “was not a good thing”. A short while later, the former-guest claimed they’d awoke again – this time to find their partner hanging over the side of the bed, head almost touching the floor, asleep but “like something out of The Exorcist.”
On a later occassion, a self-proclaimed ‘ghost hunter’, visiting the room armed with a spirit box and REM pod, complained about the pain in their ribs – which had started to develop when first sleeping in the room directly opposite. “[They] feel bruised,” she said. “I feel someone there in the [empty] hallway. You can’t tell me that there’s nothing there.”
Inadvertently finding themselves in, what they called, “the Dahmer room”, also led to a troubled night for another guest – and a 2-star review on Trip Advisor:
Review of the Ambassador from 2022. Courtesy of Trip Advisor
Guests can request to stay in Room 507 at the discretion of cautious and cagey staff, who – while they will not volunteer the specifics as a topic of local interest – may humour guests who are already inquiring politely. “Is there a reason why you picked the room?” one deskclerk is recorded (off-camera) as asking a self-proclaimed ‘paranormal investigator’ requesting the room in 2022. “Are you on vacation or are you doing TikToks in there?” Another member of staff then warns the guest: “Don’t be surprised if you get knocks on the door asking ‘can we please stay in the room for a couple of hours?‘”
October 2024: The unnumbered door to Room 507. As a source close to the Ambassador explained: “We do replace the room number constantly, but that is just a part of the job.”
However, some deskclerks will simply claim (truly or falsely) that the room is undergoing maintenance and is not available for rent. “There are relatives of the victims still in area,” said a spokesperson for the hotel, “and it is not an event that we feel should be glorified in any way.”
Following a period of constant disruption during 2022’s wave of Netflix-induced ‘Dahmermania’, the ‘507’ identifying the room was removed. Many visitors (most not even staying at the hotel) had turned up to take pictures, disturb its occupants and attempt to steal the door number. Even the placeholding paper numbers were reported to have been taken “pretty much immediately” by souvenir hunters as soon as they were put up, leaving the hotel to give up trying to replace even those.
“We were getting calls like crazy,” said one desk clerk at the time. “Creepy calls like, ‘Oh my God, I’m in love with him! I love Jeff!'”
However, despite its notoriety, Room 507 was never once mentioned by Dahmer as having been the room.
“He stated that he would leave Grandma’s house early in the evening on a Friday night and rent a room at one of the cheap hotels, just west of the downtown area. There he would have a supply of alcoholic beverages and crushed Halcion tablets waiting for any pick-ups he might persuade to accompany him for the night. He said it worked well and he spent many a night sexually dominating men he’d picked up and drugged.”– Detective Pat Kennedy on Dahmer’s hotel M.O
There is no mention of it anywhere in his 179-page official police confession; across the 2 weeks worth of footage from his trial; in the transcripts of his FBI interviews; in any of the newspaper coverage from the time; or in any of the reports obtained from the various psychiatrists tasked with analysing him.
It was never covertly disclosed to a penpal, nor mentioned to Nancy Glass or Stone Philips in their respective televised interviews with Dahmer from prison.
It’s not referred to in the earliest Dahmer documentaries (including the BBC’s 1994 Everyman: Profile of a Serial Killer and A&E’s ’96 The Monster Within), in 2013’s The Jeffrey Dahmer Files, or in Netflix’s most recent Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes.
Brian Masters doesn’t disclose it in the deeply detailed Shrine, and neither does Lionel Dahmer in the autobiographically retrospective, A Father’s Story.
Other books written about Dahmer – including The Man Who Could Not Kill Enough by Anne Schwartz (the first reporter to break Dahmer’s story to the media), Massacre in Milwaukee by Jaeger and Balousek (the first book ever released on the case in October ’91) and Deep Journey, Dark Grace by Roy Ratcliff (Dahmer’s prison minister) – bare no mention of it either. In fact, the only books which may do so are of the independent or self-published kind which came far later.
By all official accounts, it is not an official part of the story – and yet, for many, it remains a heavy part of true crime history.
From ‘The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer’ by Brian Masters (1993)
From ‘I Have Lived in the Monster’ by Robert Ressler (1998)
‘The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer’ – Brian Masters (mention in previous chapter)
From ‘The Milwaukee Murders’ by Dom Davis (1997)
From ‘The Man Who Could Not Kill Enough’ by Anne E. Schwartz (1992)
Extracts from various books omitting any mention of ‘Room 507’ in their account of Steven’s murder
The Hotel
In 2005, the Ambassador emerged from a $14 million dollar rennovation that had been progressively underway since new management purchased the hotel 10 years prior.
While the Ambassador previously contained 189 rooms, the renovation condensed the total down to 132 in favour of combining some of the small old rooms into larger suites. The previous rooms were completely gutted and stripped of everything – right down to their cement floors and beams. New bathrooms were installed, original doors and hardware were incorporated into adjoining rooms, and smart thermostats were added. Any room Dahmer might’ve inhabited bears no resemblance to any room today – in location or interior.
As one source connected to the Ambassador (and who wishes to remain anonymous) explained:
“507, as we know, is not the room number. The hotel was completely gutted to the studs of the outer walls and the rooms reconfigured and constructed in 2004/2005. [As it stands today,] the infamous 507 would have been part of three different rooms in the old configuration.
However, there were no records kept at the time of the alleged victim by Dahmer... There has been speculation internally over the years from rumors about it actually being on the sixth floor. However, we don’t have any documents to support that either.”
Photos showing the rennovation of the Ambassador Hotel. Circa 2005
A video in which a guest claims a locally-living, long-serving female manager told him the story of Room 507 was also dismissed as being “completely fabricated”:
“At no time did we have a female manager and one that has been here for years, nor lived in the neighborhood all that time… Our female assistant general manager never has, or ever will, speak publicly about Dahmer. She lives an hour outside the city limits, so she isn’t the one who ever lived in the neighborhood either.“
– Source from the Ambassador
The Ambassador’s art deco interior. Photos taken in 2024
By all accounts, the male senior staffers at the hotel are also fiercely discouraging of the rumour – and at least one person close to the Ambassador has tried to inform a wider audience about the unfounded claims in recent times. Seemingly to no great avail.
In October 2024, a now defunct Reddit account appeared to have searched the site for mentions of ‘Dahmer Room 507’ and left a string of comments irritably attempting to share the truth:
“New account and all you comment on is this subject. Do you work for the hotel?”
Customer service tone indicating a source within the hotel
Screencaps detailing some of ‘[deleted]’s’ comment history and insider information
Perhaps growing aware of just how deep into Dahmer lore Room 507 had sunk – and the futility of trying to convince the internet otherwise – the account was soon deleted. But in this attempt to wage a war of reason against one social media site, the account missed the real social media-based source of the rumour:
Tumblr.
The Source
NOTE: Although the blog was public, it felt somewhat distasteful to directly include its handle as though trying to inspire a witchhunt against its owner.After much consideration, I decided to omit this information – especially after contacting the source directly and being met with only kindness and courtesy. However, he was content to use his first name for the sake of a bit more transparency, and was “super happy to help clear things up!”
The first mention of Room 507 anywhere on the internet was on August the 5th, 2014 – when a then 24-year-old drummer named Cody enthusiastically documented his stay at the hotel during a gig.
In his first Tumblr post of the day, Cody shared a picture of the hotel alongside the caption:
“The venue I’m performing at tonight is directly across the street from the Ambassador Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This hotel is where Jeffrey Dahmer killed his first Milwaukee victim in 1987. I’m geeking out big time. Can’t wait to explore more after I play!”
A few hours later, Cody uploaded some more photos documenting himself outside the room and a view of the corridor:
“Okay, guys. This is room 507 at the Ambassador Hotel. This is the room where Jeffrey Dahmer committed his second of 17 murders on September 15th (sic), 1987. Love it.“
The first ever mention of Room 507 online. As posted on Tumblr in August 2014 by an excited true crime fan
With hotel rennovations having taken place 10 years beforehand, no records from the 80s having been preserved, and no mention of it from Dahmer or detectives, such posts call into question how Cody could’ve possibly known that was the ‘murder room.’
Luckily, a decade on, he was gracious enough to share the story behind his old post:
“So, in this instance in 2014, I was on tour with a band and one of the stops was Milwaukee.
Prior to embarking on the tour, I saw Milwaukee on the itinerary and immediately cued up some classic Dahmer spots. Like the original Apartment 213 on 25th Street (which has actually been leveled), the Ambassador Hotel and Club 219 – which was seemingly vacant at the time (not abandoned, but there didn’t seem to be an operational business in the space at that time – though I could be wrong).
When I visited the Ambassador for the first time in 2014, the staff was awesome. They let me take a bunch of photos of the elevators and the lobby as I was trying to envision [Dahmer] lugging Tuomi’s body through the lobby.
Conversation with Cody
While I was down in the lobby chatting with the staff, they called down a maintenance guy to answer some questions for me (I can’t remember his name, but I think it was Jeremy). He had worked for Rick Wiegand as a maintenance man on various properties of Rick’s since the 90s. Rick Wiegand was the owner of the hotel at the time. Since 1995, I think…
Well, this maintenance man explained to me that in the mid-00s the hotel went through massive renovations, so none of the original rooms exist in the original format. He kind of explained how the rooms are staggered and more open now [and] the entire floor plan was remodeled, so Room 507 is just in close proximity to the original scene of the crime – according to this maintenance guy. The rooms numbers apparently had changed multiple times since 1987 as well, and there are no guest records available or on file that pre-date 1995. So the 507 lore is honestly just a myth that people ran with (me included, but I was young and excited).
There is really nothing stating that Jeff’s room number was ever 507. It’s just that according to the legend, Room 507 is in close proximity to the original door placement of the crime scene.”
– Cody, the original source of the Room 507 rumour
Cody went onto add that, though he had been to Milwaukee a few times since 2014, the staff at the Ambassador has changed “multiple times – and it seems [they] have been directed to not entertain any questions regarding the case. Which is a bummer… It’s worth popping in though, because the energy is electric.”
“The room is definitely creepy as hell, but I’m sure that a lot of that comes from the fact that I know at least one person has died in this room. Not exactly the stuff sweet dreams are made of. Tonight should be interesting.” – Tumblr user ‘Jeffreydahmersmyspace’ speaking about their upcoming sleep in Room 507 (May 2016)
Cody’s post was reblogged 20 times and ‘liked’ 42 times over the following months and years. Today, only 1 of the reblogging accounts remain visible – the other 19 having been deleted by their owners or banned by Tumblr’s attempt to remove anything glorifying true crime. However, as some of the accounts still present in the posts ‘likes’ section depict avatars of Ted Bundy and the ‘jeff[Dahmer]-and-richie[Ramirez]-blog’, it’s safe to say it was picked up on by several members of the true crime community and taken at face-value. Including by the long-since-deleted account, ‘Jeffreydahmersmyspace’.
‘Jeffreydahmersmyspace’ made three posts about their trip to Milwaukee between the 19th and 21st of May, 2016:
The culminating description came complete with all manner of colourful detail for the true crime community’s mastabatory entertainment. With highlights including a group of drunk strangers standing outside the door shouting: “Happy Birthday, Jeffrey!”3; raiding the minibar while watching a Dahmer documentary, despite the “incredibly heavy vibe” in the air; waking up to find their partner looking like he had just been murdered4; and toasting to Jeff with rum and coke.
‘Jeffreydahmersmyspace’ posts picked up a lot more attention than Cody’s5 (both on and outside of Tumblr) and really began to perpetuate the claim that the exact location of Steve’s death was known.
Google results showing no mention of Dahmer and Room 507 prior to Cody’s post…
… Before the popularity and visibility of ‘Jeffreydahmersmyspace’ posts indexes ‘Dahmer and Room 507’ to Googlein 2016.Two years after Cody’s initial claim
When a popular Dahmer account made their own video about the room in 2020, the story was as good as gospel.
Dahmer information account with over 6,000 subscribers and over 9,000 views on their Room 507 video (as of March 2025)
Today a Youtube search for ‘Dahmer room 507’ brings up a range of videos detailing Steve’s death in “the Jeffrey Dahmer room” or the uploaders own stay there. Each one embedding the myth deeper into the Dahmer narrative.
Perpetuation of misinformation: A handful of videos detailing ‘Dahmer’s stay’ in Room 507
Elsewhere, several other sites have reported the significance of Room 507. Including:
Cody was both amused and shocked to find out his post had lit the fuse which blew Room 507 into true crime lore.
Extract from conversation with Cody theorising on the ‘spiritual claims’ surrounding Room 507 – despite no Dahmer murder taking place there
“I really didn’t intend to lead anyone on with that,” he said, “and I’m sorry for the confusion and conflict. I just remember the dude telling me, ‘right where we’re standing is the general vicinity of where the original door was’ and the door right next to us was 507. So, from then on, I just called it 507… In retrospect, I should’ve touched on that in my original post!”
Cody also stressed the need to research such claims before blindly believing them – especially when stories are passed down from a third-party to a fourth and further party “like a bad game of telephone.” The janitor who’d spoken to Cody had himself only began working at the hotel in 1995 after all – when room numbers had already been swapped around, new management was making changes and no records from ’87 were even available.
“People can get really posessive with their beliefs and tend to write their own truths,” Cody added. “It’s absolutely beneficial to be a skeptic with shit like this. It’s gotta be so frustrating [for the Ambassador and Dahmer researchers] to see frail claims become so set in stone.”
The Problem with Recollection
Even if its origin remained unknown, were one to assume the 507 claim had come from Dahmer directly somewhere, it’s worth considering what the likelihood would’ve been of him even remembering the number of a room he’d stayed in four years prior to his arrest.
As the source at the Ambassador pointed out:
“I don’t know the room number I stayed in last weekend, let alone years later.”
Though Dahmer was notably very open in his confession, his memory could also be a little muddled at times – either due to the stress of his questioning; the genuine inability to recollect certain details alongside nine years worth of homicide and drunken dismemberment; or moments where his shame caused him to be selective about the information he provided (or at least initially – as when he feared being judged by detectives for “branching out” into cannibalism and the consumption of about 10 pounds of human flesh).
While it could be conversely argued that, due to the gravitas of the situation (and the fact Dahmer had to provide the number to extend his reservation), ‘507’ had simply stuck in his mind as a haunting reminder of what he had done, the lack of direct-Dahmer source dispels this. Even without Cody’s role in the story.
The fact that Dahmer really could’ve stayed in any room at the Ambassador was exploited by one opportune ‘murderabilia’ dealer in 1994, when Illinoisan Kregg Sanders claimed to be in posession of the exact key Dahmer had used the night of Steven’s death – valid for Room 715 and retailing at $500.
Genuine Dahmer letters listed alongside an unsubstantiated key. A common tactic for trying to offload phoney collectibles after gaining the trust of a potential buyer with real items
Letter from Kregg Sanders in 1994, assuring a potential buyer that the key to Room 715 is “of course the key held by Dahmer.” To further inspire faith in this claim, Sanders believes this was where Dahmer committed his “first” murder – despite the Ambassador being the death site of Dahmer’s second victim
The Explanation
The Room 507 myth has had a lot of staying power since its conception over a decade ago. Presumably because few people have thought (or cared enough) to look into the origin of its rumours and have been content to take it with a pinch of spooky salt. For many, the strange experiences reported in the room also appear to confirm its direct role in the Dahmer case.
The Ambassador’s outward opening elevator. “The hotel was so retro and historical that it had a weird feel to it anyway, particularly with the elevator. But no, I didnt get spooky feels; I don’t believe in it.” – Testimony and photo courtesy of a guest from 2024
An explanation of these experiences would depend on the belief system of those refuting them. For some, such stories will be no more than an eerie coincidence, psychogenic superstition, the product of confirmation bias, or the misinterpretation of excitement or angst. More disdainfully, they’ll just be an attempt by their narrator to elicit some attention – potentially for self-promotion or financial gain.
However, for others they’ll remain evidence of the paranormal pull of the hotel and its general energy – regardless of any particular room. After all, the Ambassador has a history of once operating as a residence for drug dealers, prostitutes, and other down-and-outs not always unfamiliar with illegal activity – and Dahmer had made sinister use of several rooms prior to his time with Steve.
Even today, the hotel inhabits a rougher part of the city where crime is high. “We are aware of the challenges in our neighborhood,” a member of staff wrote on Trip Advisor in 2017. “Which is why we have a minimum of two bellman on duty at all times.”
Though the rumour of Room 507 was ultimately a result of innocent enthusiasm picked up by Google’s algorithm and perpetuated by social media and false belief, the fact it allows for true crime fans to say they stayed in an exact room so closely linked to one of America’s most notorious serial killers, means it’s unlikely to disappear from dark tourism anytime soon.
Dahmer’s time at the Ambassador was objectively interesting and gruesome enough without the need for embellishment, though not knowing exactly where he committed his murder – and therefore not knowing which ‘murder room’ to actively avoid – may make a stay at the hotel even scarier for some.
Dahmer was never formally charged with Steven’s death. With insufficient evidence to support an indictment, Steven officially remains missing.
“I have no limitation.” Steve Tuomi (1962 – 1987) Rest in Peace 💐
A very special thank you to Cody for his generous help and time 🙂
Appendix:
More screencaps from conversations with Cody here, here and here
Various books about Dahmer. Including I Have Lived in the Monster by Robert Ressler & Tom Shachtman (1997), The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer by Brian Masters (1993) and Step into My Parlour by Edward Baumann (1991)
The Ambassador Hotel
Several Youtube videos and first-person accounts of staying in Room 507
Trip Advisor, On Milwaukee, The Fitz
Netflix’s Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes (2022)
Footnotes:
Dahmer said he made use of the Ambassador and another hotel in the area about 15 times in total, 7 or 8 times each ↩︎
The original blog has long been deactivated, so the posts today remain reblogged on several other pages – some of those a few months (or even years) later ↩︎
Referenced earlier in this post as the guest who’d claimed their partner had been left looking “like something out of The Exorcist.” ↩︎
Their post documenting the night in Room 507 was reblogged 69 times and ‘liked’ 143 times; while their post anticipating the night was reblogged 39 times. ↩︎
Thank you for new article. Agree about “room 507 myth”. Also, it seems to me Ambassador hotel was never any cheap place for one night as everybody say, actually. In 90-s also. Wonder also about how it was possible to kill a strong young individual without blood around in the room, without to be noticed by stuff. To pack the body into a suitcase. Jeff`s clothes should be a mess after that by checking out.
P.S. About “dark tourists” and screaing from windows – ppl are really ridiculous.
Back in the late-80s // early 90s, a room at the Ambassador was around $43.88 a night. Dahmer earnt about $20 – $25k a year (as he told Dr. Fosdal, anyway) and gave his grandmother $400 each month in rent. By his own admission he spent most of his money on alcohol and eating out a lot, but as he only used hotels about 15 times in about three years (half in the Ambassador, half in another), that’s not an unaccountable expense.
The blood is definitely an interesting point! It seems bizarre how that could’ve been missed, but the truth is we don’t know what the crime scene actually looked like and how much blood there really was. If no major arteries had been severed, it would’ve been a whole lot less than a stabbing or shooting. The Ambassador was known at the time for hosting pimps, drug dealers and other criminals – so some blood in the rooms probably wasn’t as shocking to the staff then as it would be now. With no real records being kept, even if they’d had their suspicions, Dahmer wouldn’t have been able to be traced like he would’ve been today.
Just remember 2 of original payment checks from Ambrosia wich both had amount about under 300 dollars each. One of them is still on sale.
I mentioned blood because i have seen myself some young men fighting, they usually got damage on theit lips/eyebrows/eyelids, some not deep cuts – and it was quite a lot of bleeding, even without any seriouse insures.
He told Dr. Fosdal he earned around 20-25k. Ambrosia paid him about $10 an hour.
Yeah, I’m not denying there would’ve been blood, of course, just wondering the extent of it. Maybe there was a lot of it on the sheets, and the staff – used to dealing with all manner of criminality in their residence in a rough part of the neighbourhood – just took it in stride and didn’t want to ask questions and attract the police. After all, it wasn’t like they’d found a body. Maybe Steve died from an overdose of Halcion + alcohol, and Dahmer’s rage came off the back of attempting to revive him and a loss of control at knowing he was responsible for another murder. Maybe Steve died from internal bleeding (expaining the bloody mouth) or cardiac arrest – all things which don’t have as much blood to hide as a gunshot or knife wound, or even Dahmer’s own death from steel-barred blunt force trauma. The point is, we will never know what happened and what it looked like after it happened. But it’s not a reason to doubt the story that Steve died in the Ambassador.
The post acknowledges he died there, just not that he died in this particular room.
Yeah, it stay around 8,75 dollars/hour for night shift work, you are right)
I was checking also about Halcion – it`s a drug helping to fall asleep (working on the 1-st phase of a dream). it doesn`t give a deep sleeping or narcose. To get a toxic dose for an adult person about 70 – 80 kg weight it needs 6 – 7 tablets of Halcion. In one glass/beer box. Quite a lot to not notice it for a victim. Just some thoughts..
Taking enough tablets by themselves would put someone in a deep sleep (just as taking enough tablets could put someone in a coma or kill them). But as it’s a central nervous depressant, that means it can be potentially lethal (and a lot faster at a smaller dose) if combined with another central nervous depressant like alcohol. The sedative effects of Halcion combined with the sedative effects of alcohol are what would render someone deeply unconscious quite quickly – not just the Halcion itself.
That also doesn’t take into account that everyones metabolism is different, even if people are the same weight.
P.S. should also add that Jeff was extremely poor this time. To such degree he refused to have a phone connection in his apartment for 10 dollars – and saving money for bus every day for work and back. He walked around being frustrated by it, it`s understandable. He even started to work 7 (!) days a week nightshift to cover his humble needs.. He talk about it in this wellknown Thanksgiving Day video. Nightshift at the factory 6 days a week (23.00 – 07.00) he was working in several years already. So, for me to imagine the Ambassador Hotel as his “dating place” almost impossible.
Like I said in my previous reply to your other comment, it’s not really an unaccountable expense when having occured 15 times or so over three years.
He worked 6 nights at Ambrosia 🙂 🍫 In the Thanksgiving video he says he starts Monday and goes back Sunday nights, so he does his housework during Sunday afternoon.
And I know, I can’t believe I did either tbh 😅 It had been driving me nuts for a long time because I knew it was nonsense, I just couldn’t say for sure where that nonsense had came from 🌚 And if he hadn’t been so nice and helpful, this post would’ve been so ‘meh’. So it was truly a team effort with Cody!
Great post! Do you happen to of know any other Dahmer websites that are worth checking out? There was one a few years ago ran by a man but it seems to have been deleted ;—;
Unfortunately I think the account you’re referring to is one that was deleted a long time ago now when the person left the community 😔 It’s a shame as they were quite sweet and had achieved some amazing things via their research and collection.
Off the top of my head, I recommend the Youtube account ran by ‘Brandy Dahmer’ here. They’ve been following the case since it broke in the 90s and have uploaded a ton of rare vintage news clips and coverage!
Amazing research as always. Interesting comments speculating on the amount of blood (or lack of it). I agree that the staff wouldn’t have investigated it to the extent they might have today (especially with no body present). The missing liquor bottle is also an interesting detail that always baffled me…
Dahmer searched for the missing bottle and said not knowing where it had gone had troubled the hell out of him for a long time. Personally, I think he just ended up throwing it out the window and it smashed. He said he went down to the sidewalk the next morning to check, but by then the glass could’ve been swept away by staff or streetcleaners. He might’ve also just left it outside the door and someone came and cleared it away. But, idk.. I think the out-the-window theory ties in a bit more with the kind of aggressive unruly drunk he could be.
If the theory of Dahmer trying to revive an overdosed (benzo + alcohol) Steven has any merit to it, it’s also plausible that Dahmer threw the bottle out the window in a desperate bid to dispose of the evidence, or when raging against the source of some of the problem. It doesn’t make much sense – in that scenario – to leave any kind of evidence directly outside the room in proximity to outsiders.
There are so many theories and possibilities! Interested to hear your thoughts! 🙂
And yeah, tbh, even if the room had been absolutely covered in blood, the fact there was no body could’ve made it just seem like a fight that had gotten out of hand but which both parties had seemingly walked away from. If the person on desk duty (or whoever else) hadn’t seen anyone stumbling around covered in blood that night, why would they assume someone had died there? I think people overlook just how grimy part of the Ambassador’s history is and how sleazy those kinda lodgings could be lol
That’s a very good theory. It can’t have gone anywhere else, really. We don’t know what the rooms looked like then, either. So no way to theorize on any hiding place. I can’t imagine him leaving it outside the room… The trope of waking up from The Night Before surrounded by bottles exists for a reason. Ha.
Wow, what a fun and interesting piece. It goes to show how many stories are just passed on that are not really verified! Tracking down Cody and getting to the truth is great work.
This was the one murder that leaves us with the most questions.
Looking forward to your next idea. What a great blog.
Thank you so much 😊 I appreciate your kind words and you taking the time to read it!
And yes, Cody was absolutely brilliant! He’s chuffed to be able to help put things right – despite not even knowing, until a few days ago, that he was part of the whole thing 😆
This is a really cool blog and post. Very interesting… It’s strange to think that the rumor has gone on for so long without evidence. I was sure it was mentioned in Jeffrey’s confession, but went back to check after reading and there is no mention, at all.
Regarding the crime scene, it’s possible the injuries were primarily internal and any incidental blood was tossed with the bedding.
Plus, I think he was pretty neat about the cleanup. This was someone as a kid who crushed bones and scattered them on his first go-around. So he was cognizant of evidence. The body was also likely prepped in the bathtub.
Omggg i loveee this blog & jst noticed the photos on ur about page!!! Sooo we actualy spoke b4 & u sent me a pdf file with the psychology reports in!! *^____^* Thank u bcuz srsly that also helped me get into JD a LOT!!! ;-; but jst wanted to say i didnt know it was u!
Sophie’s persistence on getting to the bottom of this ‘myth’ was truly incredible and I enjoyed every second of our interaction. Her attention to detail is a cut above the rest. The drive she has for providing honest, insightful and rock solid information to the community stands out to me as nothing but genuine. Everything within this blog is just tip top! Class act!
My love and interest for this case has been revitalized and I’m grateful.
In retrospect, I wish I would have asked more questions at the time of my initial visit to The Ambassador but I feel very fortunate to have gathered what I did at the time. Even though I had absolutely no idea what kind of mess it would cause 🫠
Again, big thank you to you Soph for being absolutely rad 🖤
What an amazing comment. It’s been so lovely to have met you! I’m still beyond grateful that you were so receptive to talking about it all. It was a fun investigation and I’m touched that my blog helped respark your interest in Dahmer (though I suspect the inherently fascinating nature of the case did most of the heavy lifting there 😁). It sounds like you had an amazing experience at the Ambassador – and helped shape a bunch of other people’s experiences there 10+ years later lmao
“Even though I had absolutely no idea what kind of mess it would cause 🫠”
And that’s how everyone will remember you forever (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
(PS: Love how you wrote your comment like if it were a LinkedIn recommendation. Hahaha – H03s Incorporated 📈💯🐘)
Thank you for new article. Agree about “room 507 myth”. Also, it seems to me Ambassador hotel was never any cheap place for one night as everybody say, actually. In 90-s also. Wonder also about how it was possible to kill a strong young individual without blood around in the room, without to be noticed by stuff. To pack the body into a suitcase. Jeff`s clothes should be a mess after that by checking out.
P.S. About “dark tourists” and screaing from windows – ppl are really ridiculous.
You’re welcome! Thank you for reading it 🙂
Back in the late-80s // early 90s, a room at the Ambassador was around $43.88 a night. Dahmer earnt about $20 – $25k a year (as he told Dr. Fosdal, anyway) and gave his grandmother $400 each month in rent. By his own admission he spent most of his money on alcohol and eating out a lot, but as he only used hotels about 15 times in about three years (half in the Ambassador, half in another), that’s not an unaccountable expense.
The blood is definitely an interesting point! It seems bizarre how that could’ve been missed, but the truth is we don’t know what the crime scene actually looked like and how much blood there really was. If no major arteries had been severed, it would’ve been a whole lot less than a stabbing or shooting. The Ambassador was known at the time for hosting pimps, drug dealers and other criminals – so some blood in the rooms probably wasn’t as shocking to the staff then as it would be now. With no real records being kept, even if they’d had their suspicions, Dahmer wouldn’t have been able to be traced like he would’ve been today.
Just remember 2 of original payment checks from Ambrosia wich both had amount about under 300 dollars each. One of them is still on sale.
I mentioned blood because i have seen myself some young men fighting, they usually got damage on theit lips/eyebrows/eyelids, some not deep cuts – and it was quite a lot of bleeding, even without any seriouse insures.
He told Dr. Fosdal he earned around 20-25k. Ambrosia paid him about $10 an hour.
Yeah, I’m not denying there would’ve been blood, of course, just wondering the extent of it. Maybe there was a lot of it on the sheets, and the staff – used to dealing with all manner of criminality in their residence in a rough part of the neighbourhood – just took it in stride and didn’t want to ask questions and attract the police. After all, it wasn’t like they’d found a body. Maybe Steve died from an overdose of Halcion + alcohol, and Dahmer’s rage came off the back of attempting to revive him and a loss of control at knowing he was responsible for another murder. Maybe Steve died from internal bleeding (expaining the bloody mouth) or cardiac arrest – all things which don’t have as much blood to hide as a gunshot or knife wound, or even Dahmer’s own death from steel-barred blunt force trauma. The point is, we will never know what happened and what it looked like after it happened. But it’s not a reason to doubt the story that Steve died in the Ambassador.
The post acknowledges he died there, just not that he died in this particular room.
Yeah, it stay around 8,75 dollars/hour for night shift work, you are right)
I was checking also about Halcion – it`s a drug helping to fall asleep (working on the 1-st phase of a dream). it doesn`t give a deep sleeping or narcose. To get a toxic dose for an adult person about 70 – 80 kg weight it needs 6 – 7 tablets of Halcion. In one glass/beer box. Quite a lot to not notice it for a victim. Just some thoughts..
Taking enough tablets by themselves would put someone in a deep sleep (just as taking enough tablets could put someone in a coma or kill them). But as it’s a central nervous depressant, that means it can be potentially lethal (and a lot faster at a smaller dose) if combined with another central nervous depressant like alcohol. The sedative effects of Halcion combined with the sedative effects of alcohol are what would render someone deeply unconscious quite quickly – not just the Halcion itself.
That also doesn’t take into account that everyones metabolism is different, even if people are the same weight.
P.S. should also add that Jeff was extremely poor this time. To such degree he refused to have a phone connection in his apartment for 10 dollars – and saving money for bus every day for work and back. He walked around being frustrated by it, it`s understandable. He even started to work 7 (!) days a week nightshift to cover his humble needs.. He talk about it in this wellknown Thanksgiving Day video. Nightshift at the factory 6 days a week (23.00 – 07.00) he was working in several years already. So, for me to imagine the Ambassador Hotel as his “dating place” almost impossible.
Like I said in my previous reply to your other comment, it’s not really an unaccountable expense when having occured 15 times or so over three years.
He worked 6 nights at Ambrosia 🙂 🍫 In the Thanksgiving video he says he starts Monday and goes back Sunday nights, so he does his housework during Sunday afternoon.
No way NO WAY did you find the original source of this?!?!?! ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE RESEARCH 😭😭😭😭😭😭 You are the Dahmer goat
Omfg
Thank you so much!!
And I know, I can’t believe I did either tbh 😅 It had been driving me nuts for a long time because I knew it was nonsense, I just couldn’t say for sure where that nonsense had came from 🌚 And if he hadn’t been so nice and helpful, this post would’ve been so ‘meh’. So it was truly a team effort with Cody!
Great post! Do you happen to of know any other Dahmer websites that are worth checking out? There was one a few years ago ran by a man but it seems to have been deleted ;—;
Thank you so much! 😁
Unfortunately I think the account you’re referring to is one that was deleted a long time ago now when the person left the community 😔 It’s a shame as they were quite sweet and had achieved some amazing things via their research and collection.
Off the top of my head, I recommend the Youtube account ran by ‘Brandy Dahmer’ here. They’ve been following the case since it broke in the 90s and have uploaded a ton of rare vintage news clips and coverage!
Amazing research as always. Interesting comments speculating on the amount of blood (or lack of it). I agree that the staff wouldn’t have investigated it to the extent they might have today (especially with no body present). The missing liquor bottle is also an interesting detail that always baffled me…
Thank you very much! 🙂
Dahmer searched for the missing bottle and said not knowing where it had gone had troubled the hell out of him for a long time. Personally, I think he just ended up throwing it out the window and it smashed. He said he went down to the sidewalk the next morning to check, but by then the glass could’ve been swept away by staff or streetcleaners. He might’ve also just left it outside the door and someone came and cleared it away. But, idk.. I think the out-the-window theory ties in a bit more with the kind of aggressive unruly drunk he could be.
If the theory of Dahmer trying to revive an overdosed (benzo + alcohol) Steven has any merit to it, it’s also plausible that Dahmer threw the bottle out the window in a desperate bid to dispose of the evidence, or when raging against the source of some of the problem. It doesn’t make much sense – in that scenario – to leave any kind of evidence directly outside the room in proximity to outsiders.
There are so many theories and possibilities! Interested to hear your thoughts! 🙂
And yeah, tbh, even if the room had been absolutely covered in blood, the fact there was no body could’ve made it just seem like a fight that had gotten out of hand but which both parties had seemingly walked away from. If the person on desk duty (or whoever else) hadn’t seen anyone stumbling around covered in blood that night, why would they assume someone had died there? I think people overlook just how grimy part of the Ambassador’s history is and how sleazy those kinda lodgings could be lol
That’s a very good theory. It can’t have gone anywhere else, really. We don’t know what the rooms looked like then, either. So no way to theorize on any hiding place. I can’t imagine him leaving it outside the room… The trope of waking up from The Night Before surrounded by bottles exists for a reason. Ha.
Wow, what a fun and interesting piece. It goes to show how many stories are just passed on that are not really verified! Tracking down Cody and getting to the truth is great work.
This was the one murder that leaves us with the most questions.
Looking forward to your next idea. What a great blog.
Paul S.
Thank you so much 😊 I appreciate your kind words and you taking the time to read it!
And yes, Cody was absolutely brilliant! He’s chuffed to be able to help put things right – despite not even knowing, until a few days ago, that he was part of the whole thing 😆
Great post!
Thank you very much! 🙂
This is absolutely brilliant!! I have seen certain people in the community claim this as the fact, so it is hilarious to see how wrong they were 🤣🤣🤣😂😂
Can’t trust some people when it comes to Jeff ✌️🤦🏼♀️
Thank you! I appreciate it 🙂
This is a really cool blog and post. Very interesting… It’s strange to think that the rumor has gone on for so long without evidence. I was sure it was mentioned in Jeffrey’s confession, but went back to check after reading and there is no mention, at all.
Thank you! 😁
Regarding the crime scene, it’s possible the injuries were primarily internal and any incidental blood was tossed with the bedding.
Plus, I think he was pretty neat about the cleanup. This was someone as a kid who crushed bones and scattered them on his first go-around. So he was cognizant of evidence. The body was also likely prepped in the bathtub.
Excellent thoughts as always, my friend!
LOVE THISSSSS thank u!!
Omggg i loveee this blog & jst noticed the photos on ur about page!!! Sooo we actualy spoke b4 & u sent me a pdf file with the psychology reports in!! *^____^* Thank u bcuz srsly that also helped me get into JD a LOT!!! ;-; but jst wanted to say i didnt know it was u!
This is actually so cute 🥹 Thank you so much! That’s really cool that you found those things useful 😊
Seriously, what a sweet message to get. I remember you too and, yes, the Psych Reports are an amazing insight!
Incredible research, Soph! This needs to be shared more widely so people know the truth. Well done
Thank you! 😄
Sophie’s persistence on getting to the bottom of this ‘myth’ was truly incredible and I enjoyed every second of our interaction. Her attention to detail is a cut above the rest. The drive she has for providing honest, insightful and rock solid information to the community stands out to me as nothing but genuine. Everything within this blog is just tip top! Class act!
My love and interest for this case has been revitalized and I’m grateful.
In retrospect, I wish I would have asked more questions at the time of my initial visit to The Ambassador but I feel very fortunate to have gathered what I did at the time. Even though I had absolutely no idea what kind of mess it would cause 🫠
Again, big thank you to you Soph for being absolutely rad 🖤
N’awwww – Cooooddyyyy 🥹🥹🥹🥹
What an amazing comment. It’s been so lovely to have met you! I’m still beyond grateful that you were so receptive to talking about it all. It was a fun investigation and I’m touched that my blog helped respark your interest in Dahmer (though I suspect the inherently fascinating nature of the case did most of the heavy lifting there 😁). It sounds like you had an amazing experience at the Ambassador – and helped shape a bunch of other people’s experiences there 10+ years later lmao
“Even though I had absolutely no idea what kind of mess it would cause 🫠”
And that’s how everyone will remember you forever (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
(PS: Love how you wrote your comment like if it were a LinkedIn recommendation. Hahaha – H03s Incorporated 📈💯🐘)