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"They intended to get all of us January the 10th, 1966."
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Ellie Dahmer (ED) and Bettie Dahmer (BD)
ED: We didn’t think anybody would bother the children, but we were wrong. They intended to get all of us January the 10th, 1966. That night, when I waked up, the house was on fire, and it was so bright and so hot. You was screaming to the top of your voice, “Lord have mercy. We’re going to get burned up in this house alive.” I raised the windows up, and then your father was handing you out the window to me.
BD: We escaped to the barn to hide, and I can remember us sitting on the bales of hay. I had burns over a good portion of my body, and I was screaming and crying because I was in pain. Daddy was burned so much worse than I was. When he held up his arm the skin just hung down. But Daddy never did complain. He was just concerned about me. I remember us going to the hospital.
ED: You was in the room with your father. I was sitting between the two beds. And he yelled my name real loud, and then he was gone. He knew that he might get killed, and he was willing to take the risk, but it was not worth it to me. I miss him so much.
BD: Daddy wasn’t a man that wore a suit, he wore overalls. In Daddy’s world everybody had a job to do. Black people couldn’t vote, so I do understand why he did what he did. It meant a lot to him.
ED: Some of the last words he said was, “If you don’t vote, you don’t count.” That’s on his tombstone.
We made a tremendous sacrifice, Bettie. I try to go on and live my life without thinking about it, but it’s a night I can never forget. It’s been over 50 years, and seems like it was yesterday.
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StoryCorps is America’s oral history project. Since 2003, StoryCorps has collected more than 60,000 interviews with over 100,000 participants from all backgrounds -- the largest single collection of human voices ever gathered. Recordings are archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress so that future generations can hear the stories – and the voices – of today. We share stories online and through our popular weekly NPR broadcasts, podcast, animated shorts, and best-selling books. StoryCorps is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.