Glenda Cleveland Stayed Connected With The Dahmer Victims' Families

where is glenda cleveland from 'monster jeffrey dahmer' now
Where Is Dahmer's Neighbor Glenda Cleveland Now?Netflix


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The hit Netflix limited series, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, introduces viewers to one of the few unsung heroes in the gruesome, true-life Jeffrey Dahmer case: Glenda Cleveland, Jeffrey Dahmer’s neighbor. Cleveland repeatedly tried to stop the serial killer by calling the police about his suspicious activity.

However, despite her numerous warnings, Cleveland’s calls were continually ignored by authorities, allowing Dahmer's murders to continue.

The limited series shows a fictionalized version of how notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer lured victims back to his home before brutally murdering them. And another three-part docuseries, Conversations With a Killer, just dropped, revealing never-before-heard tapes between Dahmer and his defense team. It's unclear if Cleveland's messages will play a role in the new docuseries, but the series suggests her recorded calls from the time still exist.

While the 10-part fictionalized series largely breaks down how Dahmer committed his crimes, it also explains Cleveland's story—how she tried to warn police about the serial killer, and her continued community role after Dahmer's arrest.

But who is Glenda Cleveland, exactly, and where is she now? Here’s what you need to know.

Who is Glenda Cleveland?

Glenda Cleveland was a neighbor who lived in the building next to Dahmer’s apartment, per Digital Spy.

Cleveland was one of nine children, raised on a farm in Mississippi by parents who emphasized the importance of honesty and stepping up when someone needs help. “I don't see any excuse for people not caring for other people," she told a reporter in 1991, per USA Today. She worked in data entry until her job was eventually eliminated, per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

In Monster, Cleveland is portrayed as Dahmer's literal next-door neighbor—but Dahmer's IRL next-door neighbors at Milwaukee’s Oxford apartments (which has since been torn down) were Pamela and Vernell Bass, according to TODAY. Pamela recalled putting towels under her door to keep out the horrible smells that came from Dahmer's place, per The Baltimore Sun. Dahmer's excuse at the time was that his freezer had turned off and the meat he was storing in there had gone bad, The Los Angeles Times reported.

And although she didn't actually live right next to Dahmer, Cleveland really did note the killer’s suspicious behavior and reported it to the police on several occasions. But more on that in a sec.

How did she try to stop Dahmer?

Cleveland repeatedly called the police about Dahmer, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

On May 27, 1991, Cleveland's niece, Nicole Childress, called the police after she and Cleveland's daughter, Sandra Smith, found a bleeding, naked, and incoherent boy on the street who had been running from Dahmer, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"I'm on 25th and State," Childress says on a police tapes from the time. "And there's this young man, he is buck-naked and he has been beaten up. He is very bruised up. He can't stand. He has no clothes on. He is really hurt. . . ."

Dahmer told police that the boy—later identified as the killer’s 14-year-old victim, Konerak Sinthasomphone—was his 19-year-old boyfriend and that he was drunk. "They accepted Dahmer's casual assurance that the Laotian boy was 19," The Seattle Times wrote in 1991. The police assumed "they were dealing with a homosexual lovers' quarrel."

They described Sinthasomphone to their dispatch as an "intoxicated Asian, naked male," according to TIME.

It turns out that Dahmer was found guilty of second-degree assault in 1989 for molesting Sinthasomphone's older brother in 1988, per The New York Times. He then spent a year working at a work release camp and got five years of probation, as reported by TODAY, and was released in 1990, according to the FBI.

Cleveland called the police herself after she realized no one paid attention to what her niece and daughter had reported, per People.

When Cleveland is shown calling the police in episode two of Monster, the series appears to show the real audio from the 911 call to the Milwaukee police department plays, per TODAY. Childress, Cleveland's niece, later wrote a book in 2009 titled, "Divine Providence: Finding Purpose in the in Between," and recalled the incident, stating that Sinthasomphone was "butt naked," and that she could "tell the officers were against (her)," while Dahmer told them she was "crazy," according to TODAY.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, five of Dahmer’s murders happened after Cleveland tried to alert the police. And after Dahmer's arrest, Cleveland told reporters that she just wanted life “to get back to normal.”

In her obituary, which has since been republished by the Sentinel, Cleveland was described as "a symbol of good at a time of so much bad in our city. She got involved. She tried to help. She spoke a life-or-death truth and was ignored. Then she handled the crush of media attention with patience and dignity."

Reverend Jesse Jackson ended up coming to Milwaukee in August 1991 to address the Black community and encourage people in positions of power to take accountability for their actions. He met Glenda and told her that “Police chose the word of a killer over an innocent woman,” according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Niecy Nash plays Glenda in the series.

Emmy Award-winning actress Niecy Nash plays Cleveland in the series and told Queue that she wanted to tell her story.

Photo credit: Netflix
Photo credit: Netflix

“Glenda was one of his victims too,” she said. “And her story has been told the least.”

Where is Glenda Cleveland now?

In 1991, Cleveland did an interview on television recalling the interaction: “He was let down as low as he could get. And that was to his grave. You can’t get much lower than that," according to TODAY.

Despite the horrors Dahmer committed in her neighborhood, Cleveland stayed in her apartment on 25th Street until 2009. Her brother would even tease her, asking: "Why don't you move away from that house on haunted hill?" to which she'd reply, "I'm not going anywhere," per USA Today.

She moved to a new apartment only a few blocks away where she lived for two years, according to USA Today. When her job in entry data was eliminated, she helped her daughter with her nine children. Cleveland also remained connected with the Sinthasomphones and went to one of their son's weddings, per USA Today.

Cleveland died in 2011, according to the the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Her daughter, Sandra Smith, works as a nurse in Milwaukee, according to USA Today.

Milwaukee police officers found Cleveland’s body after her concerned neighbors reported that they hadn’t seen her in a couple of days.

She died at 56.

Cleveland died in her home in 2011 from heart disease and high blood pressure, the Sentinel reported. Smith chalked it up to her cigarette habit, per USA Today.

Before her death, Cleveland was honored by the Common Council and the County Board, along with being called a "model citizen" by Mayor John Norquist. She received multiple awards from local women’s groups and was even recognized by the Milwaukee Police Department, per The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

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