Anthony “Tony” Hughes, a 31-year-old Black/African American man, was living in Madison, Wisconsin, when he returned to Milwaukee in May 1991 to visit family and friends. Hughes had been deaf since early childhood and communicated through sign language, lip-reading, and written notes. On the night of May 24, he went to Club 219 on South Second Street, a Milwaukee nightclub he regularly visited. Friends and patrons later said he was last seen leaving the club with Jeffrey Dahmer.
Dahmer later told investigators that he encountered Hughes near Club 219 and communicated with him by writing because of Hughes’s deafness. According to the criminal complaint, Dahmer offered him $50 to come to his apartment at 924 North 25th Street to pose for photographs and watch videos. Once inside, Dahmer gave Hughes a drink containing a sleeping substance. After Hughes became incapacitated, Dahmer killed him, dismembered his body, and retained his skull. The homicide was later formally alleged to have occurred at Dahmer’s apartment on May 24, 1991.
When Hughes failed to return, his family became increasingly alarmed. He was reported missing to Madison police on May 31, a week after he had last been seen at Club 219. His mother and other relatives searched for information, knowing that his prolonged disappearance was completely out of character. An FBI case summary later recorded that Hughes had last been seen by a friend at the club on May 24 and that investigators ultimately recovered his skull and vertebrae. His identity was established through comparison with dental records.
The truth about what had happened to Hughes emerged after Dahmer’s arrest on July 22, 1991. Tracy Edwards escaped from Dahmer’s apartment with part of a handcuff still attached to his wrist and flagged down Milwaukee police officers. When officers entered the apartment, they discovered photographs of mutilated victims along with human heads, skulls, and other remains. Dahmer was taken into custody and soon admitted responsibility for numerous killings. As investigators began identifying the remains, Hughes was confirmed as one of the victims found in the apartment. Police publicly identified him in late July.
Prosecutors subsequently charged Dahmer in Hughes’s death. The case was listed as Count 7 of the Wisconsin criminal complaint, charging Dahmer with first-degree intentional homicide for causing Hughes’s death at 924 North 25th Street on or about May 24, 1991. By August 1991, Hughes’s killing was among the multiple homicide charges filed against Dahmer as authorities continued assembling the full scope of the case.
Dahmer ultimately pleaded guilty but insane to 15 Wisconsin murders, including Hughes’s. Because the killings themselves were admitted, the major trial issue became whether Dahmer was legally responsible for his actions. On February 15, 1992, a Milwaukee County jury found him legally sane for the murders. Two days later, Judge Laurence C. Gram Jr. imposed 15 consecutive life sentences, ensuring that Dahmer would remain imprisoned for the rest of his life. Hughes’s death was therefore not left as an unresolved homicide: Jeffrey Dahmer admitted killing him, was prosecuted for the crime, was found legally responsible, and received a life sentence as part of the series of consecutive sentences imposed for his victims.
