Shirley Hughes, who is the mother of Tony Hughes, one of Jeffrey Dahmer’s victims, has expressed her disapproval of the Netflix series “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” which details the murders committed by the serial killer.
In an interview with the Guardian, Shirley, who is now 85 years old, has joined the growing number of relatives who have criticized Ryan Murphy’s dramatization of the gruesome killer who murdered 17 men and teenage boys over the course of 13 years. Evan Peters plays the role of the killer in the dramatization. Rodney Burford plays the role of Tony, a deaf and mute man who was murdered in 1991, and Karen Malina White portrays his mother, Shirley. The series has quickly become one of the most watched originals on Netflix and has quickly become one of the most-watched originals on Netflix.
“I don’t see how they can do that,” she said, with the outlet reporting that she explained “it was difficult to talk about Tony’s murder” before hanging up.
In addition to Shirley, Errol Lindsey’s sister, Rita Isbell, and a cousin named Eric Perry have both spoken out against the limited series, accusing it of “retraumatizing” their experiences and blaming it for not reaching out to them prior to the series debut on Netflix.
Isbell’s emotional victim impact statement was put on screen word for word by actress DaShawn Barnes. In an essay she sent to Insider, she said that what she saw of the series “bothered me, especially when I saw myself – when I saw my name come across the screen and this lady saying verbatim exactly what I said.”
Suddenly, “it felt like reliving it all over again,” she explained. “It brought back all the emotions I was feeling back then.”
While this was going on, Perry’s comments about how “wild” it was that they recreated Isbell’s moment in court went viral on Twitter after he said it.
In the docuseries Conversations With a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes, which is available on Netflix, Michael Ross remembers the last time he saw Hughes alive. Those who knew the victims have spoken out against the limited series, but two friends of those who were murdered share their stories in the series.
“Tony knew Jeff for a long time. And Tony and Jeff had had relations. Tony told me so,” Ross said on camera. “It was Memorial Day weekend of 1991. Tony Hughes and I were together in a bar called The Phoenix. We were sitting at the bar having cocktails and Jeff came in the back door. Jeffrey Dahmer. When Jeff walked in, Tony got up from the bar and approached him. Tony left me and went to follow Jeff on the dance floor.”
“That was the last time I saw Tony Hughes,” he added.
While director Joe Berlinger revealed to sources that when it came to the families of Dahmer’s victims, no one knew what to say or do, they felt helpless.
But Ross explained why it was necessary to speak out and to “humanize” the individuals who lost their lives in front of the camera. He said it was important to “humanize the individuals who lost their lives.”
“Recognizing that each one of those young men had a mother, a father, had sisters and brothers that loved them and still miss them,” said Ross, who was close with several of the men killed by Dahmer, including Hughes, Tony Sears, Ernest Miller and Eddie Smith.
“They were just trying to do what we’re all trying to do: Survive. Live and enjoy the life they’d been given. They had a life that they loved. I think it’s important to tell their story. Nobody deserves to die like that,” Ross concluded.
