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Rita Isbell

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The Resume

    (1959- )
    Resided in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
    Sister of Jeffrey Dahmer victim Errol Lindsey (murdered on April 7, 1991)
    Delivered an emotional victim impact statement at Dahmer’s sentencing and charged at him in the courtroom (February 17, 1992)

Why she might be annoying:

    She told reporters after the sentencing outburst: ‘What he saw out of me...is what Errol would have done. The only difference is, Errol would have leaped over that table.’
    Her – justified - attack in the courtroom played into some existing stereotypes about women of color (mainly the ‘Angry Black Woman’).
    She criticized the ‘Dahmer’ Netflix series, in an open essay, writing: ‘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 ... That's why it felt like reliving it all over again. It brought back all the emotions I was feeling back then.'

Why she might not be annoying:

    Her brother was kidnapped and drugged by Dahmer before being strangled to death and dismembered (Errol was nineteen).
    When she was asked to give a victim statement, she initially planned on talking about the pain it caused her and Errol’s mother.
    However, watching Jeffrey’s stoic and unfeeling reaction to the other victims’ families as they gave tearful and restrained responses, she grew exceedingly angry.
    She began her statement as follows: ‘Jeff-- Whatever your name is -- Satan. I'm mad. This is how you act when you are out of control. I don't wanna EVER see my mother have to go through this again. NEVER, Jeffrey,’ before lunging at him and having to be forcefully restrained by courtroom bailiffs.
    She conceded in her essay that her lookalike actress in the Netflix show – DaShawn Barnes – was spot on in her reenactment of the victim statement reading.
    She wrote: ‘The reason why I said what I said during that impact statement was because, during the trial, they were portraying him as being so out of control he couldn't stop himself. But you have to be in control in order to do the things that he was doing. You have to very much be in control.’
    Her lashing out at Dahmer flew directly flew in the face of the unwritten societal expectation for black families to ‘love’ and ‘forgive’ those who kill members of their family, even as the same is very rarely expected of other groups.
    She revealed in her essay that her deceased brother actually had a daughter, who was born six months after his murder, and who now has children of her own, writing: ‘It's not about me anymore, it's about her.’

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


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Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 7 Votes: 14.29% Annoying