The mother of one ofJeffrey Dahmer’s victims is questioning the accuracy of the hit Netflix dramaMonster.
Shirley Hughes, the mother of Dahmer’s victim Tony Hughes, told theGuardianMonday that the show’s depiction of her son’s death and its aftermath “didn’t happen” how it is shown on screen.
“I don’t see how they can do that,” the 85-year-old said. “I don’t see how they can use our names and put stuff out like that out there.”
Tony, who was deaf and could not speak, met Dahmer at a Milwaukee gay bar on May 24, 1991, according to theAssociated Press. Dahmer then took Hughes home, drugged him, and dismembered his body, but also kept his skull added AP.
EUGENE GARCIA/AFP/Getty
According to the AP, Shirley Hughes attended every day of Dahmer’s 1992 trial. At the time, a Pentecostal minister named Elder Durain Hughes (no relation to Shirley) told the outlet that the murder “literally tore her to pieces.”
“I’ve never seen anybody so emotionally and spiritually wounded as Miss Hughes,” he told the outlet in 1992. “She’s come a long ways. Now she has a perpetual desire to help other grieving families.”
Hughes is the most recent family member of a victim to share displeasure with the project.
Last month, Eric Perry, a cousin of victim Errol Lindsey, tweeted that theRyan Murphy-helmed series is “retraumatizing” his family.
“I’m not telling anyone what to watch, I know true crime media is huge rn, but if you’re actually curious about the victims, my family (the Isbell’s) are pissed about this show,” he posted onTwitter. “It’s retraumatizing over and over again, and for what? How many movies/shows/documentaries do we need?”
Ser Baffo/Netflix
Perry also retweeted a video that drew a comparison between Rita Isbell, Lindsey’s sister, who tried to rush Dahmer in the courtroom, and the Netflix interpretation of the event.
“Like recreating my cousin having an emotional breakdown in court in the face of the man who tortured and murdered her brother is WILD,” Perry wrote. “WIIIIIILD.”
Netflix did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment at the time.
Evan Peters in Monster.Courtesy Of Netflix
Isbell also opened up about the moment in which she gave her victim impact statement in 1992, echoing Perry’s emotions about the new series.
“When I saw some of the show, it 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,” she wrote in a first-person essay forInsider.
“If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought it was me,” she continued. “Her hair was like mine, she had on the same clothes. That’s why it felt like reliving it all over again. It brought back all the emotions I was feeling back then.”
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Isbell concluded, “I was never contacted about the show. I feel like Netflix should’ve asked if we mind or how we felt about making it. They didn’t ask me anything. They just did it.”
Perry also later tweeted that his family was not notified about the project, writing, “My family found out when everyone else did.”
source: people.com
