'Dahmer' creator Ryan Murphy says he contacted 20 of the victims' family and friends, but nobody responded
- Ryan Murphy said he contacted family and friends of victims ahead of Netflix's "Dahmer."
- The controversial series stars Evan Peters as the infamous serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer.
In the last few weeks, Netflix's "Dahmer" series has been met with strong criticism over the way it dramatized the victims of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and their families over the course of its 10-episode-long season.
The show is part of showrunner Ryan Murphy's $300 million five-year deal with the streaming service and stars Evan Peters as Dahmer.
Although "Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story" has an 84% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, many people have spoken out against the series, including several family members of Errol Lindsey, one of the killer's victims.
Lindsey's sister, Rita Isbell, recently penned a touching essay for Insider about how it felt having to watch the show recreate the emotional victim impact statement she gave in court, and also noted that Netflix didn't contact her about the show.
But showrunner Murphy recently said at an event in Los Angeles (via The Hollywood Reporter) that he and his team contacted "20" of the victims' family and friends during their fact-checking process, but nobody responded to them.
He said: "It's something that we researched for a very long time and we, over the course of the three, three and a half years when we were really writing it, working on it, we reached out to 20, around 20 of the victims' families and friends trying to get input, trying to talk to people and not a single person responded to us in that process."
The showrunner went on to say: "So we relied very, very heavily on our incredible group of researchers who… I don't even know how they found a lot of this stuff. But it was just like a night and day effort to us trying to uncover the truth of these people."
However, Murphy's comments appear to contradict what the families of various Dahmer victims have said in recent weeks.
Errol Lindsey's daughter, Tatiana Banks, also told Insider that Netflix didn't contact her about the show and that the drama has "reopened" old wounds.
Shirley Hughes, the mother of victim Tony Hughes, previously explained that the show is factually inaccurate in places and that the streamer used the names of people involved without their permission.