Summary
- Accuracy of Tony Hughes' story in Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is debated, particularly regarding the portrayal of his relationship with Dahmer.
- Shirley Hughes, Tony's mother, disapproves of how the show depicted her son's kidnapping and murder, and criticizes the profiting off of their family tragedy.
- Shirley Hughes' testimony and powerful poem at Dahmer's trial had an impact on his sentencing, leading to 16 life sentences. However, the show made changes to Tony's story for narrative purposes.
Tony Hughes, Jeffrey Dahmer's 12th victim, is depicted in Netflix’s the entirety of Jeffrey Dahmer's life, but specifically, episode six focuses on the murder of Tony Hughes.
In the episode, Hughes was communicating with Dahmer through notes because he was non-verbal when the killer invited Hughes back to his apartment to take photos. Once there, Hughes was drugged, and Dahmer killed him. Hughes’ bones were found in Dahmer's apartment upon his arrest. Tony Hughes’ mother Shirley Hughes, also depicted in Monster, gave a testimony at Dahmer’s murder trial in which she read a heartbreaking poem depicting her son’s final moments. Since the Netflix show, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, was released, Shirley Hughes has been outspoken about her disapproval of how it potrayed what happened to her son.
Monster: Everything The Jeffrey Dahmer Show Leaves Out About The True Story
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How Accurate Is Tony Hughes' Story In Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story
There Are Many Issues With How Monster Portrayed What Happened To Tony Hughes
The accuracy of Monster: the Jeffrey Dahmer Story has been hotly debated, and this includes the relationship between Tony Hughes and Jeffrey Dahmer. The main point of contention, in of accuracy, is the choice to portray a relationship between Hughes and Dahmer that is both friendly and romantic prior to Hughes' gruesome murder. After his arrest, Jeffrey Dahmer claimed in his confession that the two never met before the night of Hughes' drugging and death, but friends of Hughes said they had seen the two together beforehand.
While there is no way to prove whether they had previously met, Shirley Hughes asserts that Monster is inaccurate stating that Dahmer and Tony Hughes' encounter “didn’t happen like that.” Many, particularly the families of the victims, find that the way their relationship is portrayed offensively romanticizes Dahmer.
Tony Hughes' Mother Has Spoken Out Against Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story
Like Many Relatives Of Dahmer's Victims, Shirley Hughes Isn't Happy About The Show
In addition to its portrayal of Tony, Shirley Hughes has also been more generally critical of the whole project of Monster, accusing it of profiting off of her family and others’ tragedies. In a brief comment to The Guardian, Hughes stated “I don’t see how they can do that, I don’t see how they can use our names and put stuff out like that out there.” Other family of Jeffrey Dahmer's victims, including Errol Lindsey's sister Rita Isbell, have criticized the way the series depicted their relative's stories and that producers did not consult with them before production.
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story depicts Tony Hughes in a humanizing way, with actor Rodney Burford's performance being praised, and the series emphasizes the systemic injustices that led to Dahmer's victims being ignored. However, family of victims such as Tony Hughes' mother certainly have a right to feel that the existence of the series at all is making a profit off their tragedy.
Creator Ryan Murphy has depicted the victims of real-life crimes before, most notably in American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace, but Monster seems to have struck much more of a nerve when it comes to its depiction of real crimes. With Monster set to return for a second season, based on the Menendez brothers, this debate is not likely to be over any time soon.
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How Tony Hughes' Mother Impacted Jeffrey Dahmer's Murder Trial
Shirley Hughes's Statement Captured The Tragedy Of Dahmer's Actions
Shirley Hughes’ aforementioned reading of a poem at Jeffrey Dahmer’s trial impacted the outcome. She read this during her victim impact statement to the court before sentencing. The poem, written by a friend of Tony Hughes, heartbreakingly details his last moments before his murder, from his own perspective. The piece opens with the line “why am I a victim in your cruel and rueful world?” and ends with Hughes speaking to his mother from the afterlife. His mother finished the reading by g “I love you”, in American Sign Language.
Soon after, Dahmer was handed 16 life sentences for his crimes. The large sentence was likely in no small part due to Shirley Hughes’ powerful words about her son. Later, as depicted in Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Dahmer was killed in prison. The Netflix special undoubtedly altered some of the facts for the sake of building a more fluid narrative, and unfortunately, Tony Hughes's story was impacted by these changes.
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The Tony Hughes Controversy Proves That Shows Like Monster Can Be Problematic
There Is A Tendency To Glamorize Serial Killer Stories
It’s hard for Hollywood to walk the line between entertaining and informing without someone getting hurt in the process.
The public has long had a fascination with mystery, but also, with the idea of serial killers. There is a desire to understand what makes a person become a Monster, and while fictional s of real crime have led to a rise in dramatic television, they can sometimes do more harm than good as the depiction of serial killers can inadvertently glamorize them.
The growing obsession with serial killers’ stories in particular, especially those who have been so recently studied by psychologists and law enforcement, means that people connected to those stories are still alive and still processing their own grief. Seeing the stories of their loved ones turned into entertainment is something that is, undoubtedly, incredibly painful. It’s hard for Hollywood to walk the line between entertaining and informing without someone getting hurt in the process.
What might be less harmful to families of victims are true crime documentaries. Those actually allow families to tell their stories in their own words as well as the law enforcement who worked the cases. It allows for multiple sides of a narrative to be explored, and for a more complete picture to emerge for those who are genuinely interested in what makes a serial killer tick, but also in honoring their victims.
Unfortunately, because true crime documentaries are so popular, they’ve led to the rise of true crime podcasts, and fictionalized s of real events. It’s the latter that will likely continue to prove to be most problematic, especially if those who were directly impacted by the crimes depicted are not at the very least consulted about the story. Most true stories that feature depictions of people still alive feature consultations with those very individuals, or in the case of death, with their estate. That hasn’t been happening with shows like Monster, leaving these survivors to be hurt all over again.
Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer story is another limited crime drama biography series created by Ian Brennan and Ryan Murphy, starring Evan Peters in the titular role. This series tells the story of Jeffrey Dahmer from the perspective of surviving victims while exploring the missteps taken by the police that allowed Dahmer to continue his three-decade-long killing spree, leading to the murder of at least seventeen young men. In addition, the show covers the earlier years of Dahmer's life, including the difficult divorce between his parents, his murderous origins back in high school, and his demise in prison.
- Cast
- Evan Peters, Niecy Nash, Molly Ringwald, Richard Jenkins, Michael Learned
- Showrunner
- Ian Brennan
- Seasons
- 1
