- Born
- Died
- Birth namePatrick F. Kennedy
- Nickname
- Pat
- Height6′ 6½″ (1.99 m)
- Patrick Francis Kennedy was born in Detroit, Michigan, the eldest son of 10 children of Angus Patrick and Catherine Ann Kennedy. Once a teen, he was sent to St. Lawrence Seminary School in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin where he excelled at basketball and his parents hoped he would continue to Marian College and become a Catholic priest due to his older-brotherly manner.
After graduating and attending two years of college there, Pat chose instead to follow in his father's and great-grandfather's tradition of becoming a policeman with hopes of going into education or social work after retirement. After moving to Milwaukee and joining the force, Pat soon became a detective in the violent crimes division.
Then, one night on duty at 11:30pm, July 22, 1991, Pat answered a call for back up to go to the Oxford Apartments, the scene of what appeared to have been a murder and a police struggle in progress. It was there that he found Jeffrey Dahmer, an enormous amount of evidence, and made his arrest, along with history.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
- Endearing and disarming personality.
- Traditional Irish handlebar mustache.
- Broad smile and booming laugh.
- After an epiphany shortly before the Dahmer arrest, Pat credited his faith with getting him through the arrest, trial and aftermath of the murder, along with subsequent personal and professional challenges. Pat also claimed his spirituality helped gain Dahmer's confidence and ultimate confession. In his last years, Pat devoted his free time to volunteering downtown at St. John's Cathedral's Open Door Café for homeless men, sitting and talking with them.
- After leaving the Milwaukee Police Department in 1999, he joined the Peace Corps., spending a year in Paraguay. While he had planned to consult for a new police department, he wound up mentoring children more, who gave him the nickname "El Gigante," or "The Giant." Pat returned in 2000 to work on his Master's in Educational Psychology at Marian College and a Ph.D in School Psychology at the University of Wisconsin, after which he was added to the department as a very popular part-time professor. Pat also lectured at Marquette University before joining the University of Wisconsin system.
- Pat attended SxSW Movie and Music Festival, 2013, one month before his passing, to address questions for the film, The Jeffrey Dahmer Files, that was featured at the festival.
- In his last years with the Milwaukee Police Department, Pat became a national lecturer at police trainings and conventions about how to gain confessions through productive methods that didn't violate civil liberties. Also a proponent of multiculturalism, Pat shared information and participated in exchanges about diversity, and was a believer in engagement measures, even coaching a city little league team in the 1980s and '90s.
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