One of Jeffrey's greatest peculiarities when he was finally discovered was certainly how he collaborated with the investigation to find all of his victims. Initially, the idea was suggested by Patrick Kennedy and Dennis Murphy as his way of showing that he truly regretted what he had done — which he readily appreciated and accepted.
"This lightened the mood and he took my notebook, writing that he wanted to talk to me and Murphy. He would contact Mr. Boyle later. He then signed and dated his statement. I left the room and returned to the conference room where the chief and company were still discussing the matter, handing my notebook to Boyle. After reading it, he looked at me disdainfully and showed it to the inspector. "Is that how it is going to be?" The inspector shook his head and said, "Detective Kennedy, we have decided to allow the attorney to speak to your client. Since he's already here and he was hired by the defendant's father, I think he should be allowed in." Boyle walked past me into the interrogation room, asking Murphy to leave and closing the door behind him. Murphy and I stood together as the commanders huddled and talked. Murphy confided to me that Gerald Boyle was a high-powered defense attorney who had run for district attorney and had been a close ally of the police in the past. "I just hope we convinced Jeff to stay with us," he whispered. A moment or two passed and Boyle re-emerged from the interrogation room looking stressed and disgusted. He was holding a waiver form stating that he had advised his client not to talk to us; however, Dahmer had told Boyle of his intention to complete the task of identifying all the victims. Jeff signed the waiver despite Boyle's advice not to. Boyle looked directly at Murphy and me and said, "Okay. Look, guys, he wants to cooperate, but I want one of my associates in the room with you while this is being done. I'm sending one of them to sit in on the sessions." He left and Murphy slapped me on the back, telling me we had done it, and the two of us walked back to the interrogation room. We opened the door to the room and found Dahmer smoking contentedly. "Well, what's going on?" he asked. "It's all right," Murphy said with a smile, patting him on the shoulder. He sat down next to Dahmer. "Now we can take all the time we need to identify each victim." Dahmer seemed taken aback by Murphy's display of masculine bravado and was clearly uncomfortable with the term "victim." I asked Dahmer about the nature of his discussion with Boyle. "Well, what did you say?" I asked. Dahmer took another cigarette from the pack, lit it, and said, "I told him everything we talked about last night, Pat. I told him that I had already told him all of my crimes. That I felt that the only way to show the world, my family, and myself that I was truly sorry for what I had done was to cooperate with you. I told him I wanted to keep talking to you two until we found everyone." We all sat in silence for a moment. Murphy smiled widely and Dahmer seemed to be happy that we were satisfied with the outcome of the situation". (Grilling Dahmer: The Interrogation Of "The Milwaukee Cannibal – Patrick Kennedy and Robyn Maharaj).