Dahmer's Lawyer Gerald Boyle Also Represented This Famous NFL Player
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Netflix’s new docuseries, Conversations With a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes, shares never-before heard audio from tapes recorded between notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and his legal team. Dahmer's lawyers, Wendy Patrickus and Gerald Boyle, also speak in the documentary to give a little more insight on what it was like to defend one of the most infamous murderers in history.
Dahmer, in case you’re not familiar with him, murdered 17 men between 1978 and 1991 before he was finally arrested, per Biography. He would kill his victims, take photos during various stages of dismemberment, engage in sex acts with their corpses, eat parts of his victims, and keep gruesome souvenirs, including genitalia and severed heads.
In the new docuseries, Gerald "Gerry" Boyle, who was the lead lawyer on Jeffrey’s defense team, becomes a big part of Dahmer's story. But who is Gerry Boyle, exactly, and where is he now? Here’s what you need to know.
Who is Gerry Boyle?
Gerry Boyle is a defense lawyer who was hired by Jeffrey’s dad to defend his son in court. Boyle said in the documentary that “my duty and my goal” during the trial was to prove that Jeffrey “was insane” when he committed his crimes, “that when he killed somebody, he was suffering from mental illness,” Boyle said in the documentary, per Oxygen.
But the court didn’t agree with Boyle's argument. Boyle noted in the documentary that Jeffrey “didn’t care” and that he “had no sympathy” for the people he killed.
Boyle used to practice at his own Milwaukee, Wisconsin, law firm, Boyle, Boyle & Boyle.
He also defended Green Bay Packer Mark Chmura.
Back in the early 2000s, Green Bay Packers tight end Mark Chmura was put on trial for allegedly sexually assaulting a teenager at a post-prom party—and Boyle defended him.
The teen, who babysat for Chmura's family, said during the trial, per ABC News, that she disliked Chmura because he didn’t treat his wife well. "I disapproved of the way he would just stick her with the kids and come home separately hours later, it was just very disgusting to me," she said.
Chmura was eventually found innocent on all charges, per Bleacher Report.
He had his legal license suspended for ethics violations in 2015.
Boyle was reprimanded three times between 2002 and 2012 for failing to act diligently in representing a criminal defendant, failing to take action on cases his associates neglected, and failing to prepare a written fee agreement, according to the Green Bay Press Gazette.
While Boyle argued that he only deserved a reprimand, his license was suspended, the paper reports.
He had his license revoked in 2018 after health issues.
Boyle's license was “suspended indefinitely” in 2018 due to “medical incapacity,” according to court proceedings.
Boyle said earlier that year that he couldn’t properly defend himself against complaints from clients because he became sick after having surgery in 2017, per ABC 12.
He practiced law until he was 82.
Boyle was 82 when his license was suspended, per ABC 12. He doesn’t seem to have practiced law since.
Where is he now?
As of 2019, Boyle was still living in Wisconsin, but he was facing foreclosure on his home in Mequon, according to the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal. The paper reports that BMO Harris Bank filed a mortgage foreclosure action that alleged that Boyle and his wife stopped making payments on his home and a home equity line of credit. This, the bank alleged, caused the couple to build up more than $72,000 in back-payments on their home mortgage and $36,228 on the line of credit.
The bank was demanding re-payment, along with the remaining principal balances, which is a total of $686,000.
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