To most people, Jeffrey Dahmer is a ghoul. To John James Smith, family members say, he was an obsession.

His relatives say Smith, a 19-year-old from Carol Stream, was surprised by the publicity that Dahmer gained by killing and mutilating at least 15 young men and was particularly impressed that a book was written about Dahmer's homicidal exploits.

Smith reportedly told family members that he hoped one day to be the focus of news stories, maybe even a book about his life.

On Monday, he was charged with the brutal murder of a 9-year-old Wisconsin boy.

"I thought he was just trying to get attention, so I blew it off," said his father, Timothy Smith. "If that's what he wanted, it's a horrible way to get publicity. . . . It's just totally bizarre."

His stepmother, Denise Smith, said her stepson was fascinated with Dahmer, a former Milwaukee man. "He thought he (Dahmer) was a hero," she said.

The younger Smith was charged with first-degree intentional homicide and child abduction for beating and strangling Jesse Brandon Hubatch in a wooded area in Franklin, Wis., a suburb south of Milwaukee. He remained in jail late Monday on $100,000 bond.

The Smith family said police conducted a search at the family's basement apartment at the St. Charles Square apartments in Carol Stream and confiscated a satanic book and some of Smith's poetry, family members said.

"He wrote a lot about death," said Smith's younger brother, George, 18.

According to a criminal complaint filed when Smith was charged Monday, authorities believe the murder occurred about 5:30 p.m. Thursday, while John James Smith was selling cleaning supplies door-to-door in a residential subdivision and happened upon the boy.

Smith allegedly told police that they walked into a forest area, began talking and "something snapped inside of him, and he began strangling Jesse Hubatch," the complaint says.

The reason that Smith snapped remained unclear. Prosecutors said they were checking into reports of Smith's alleged fascination with Dahmer.

According to the complaint, Smith told police he let go of Jesse when he thought the boy was dead. But when Jesse gasped for air, the complaint says, Smith allegedly began strangling him again, this time with his knee pressed into the boy's abdomen.

Smith also allegedly banged the boy's head against the ground four or five times, the complaint says. Smith allegedly told authorities that he stripped the boy naked and threw his clothes in some bushes.

"He stated that the thing he remembered about killing Jesse Hubatch was Jesse Hubatch's eyes, and that they just kept staring at him, a naked blank stare, that he could see death in Jesse Hubatch's eyes as he strangled him," the complaint states.

The boy's body was found the next day about 12:30 p.m. by Peter Blochowicz, who lives near the field where Jesse was murdered. Blochowicz declined to comment.

An autopsy determined that Jesse died from a loss of blood, blunt-force trauma to the abdomen and strangulation, said Franklin police Lt. Don Hareng. The boy did not appear to have been sexually assaulted, police said.

The child's death was the first homicide this year in Franklin, he said.

The police investigation began about 10:30 p.m. Thursday when Jesse's mother, Patsy Bort, reported him missing. Police conducted interviews in the neighborhood and learned that salespeople had been selling cleaning supplies door-to-door, Hareng said.

Police located the sales force at a hotel in Menomonee Falls, another Milwaukee suburb. Smith confessed after the boy's body was found, Hareng said. A neighbor who reported seeing a man walking down the street with Jesse identified Smith in a lineup, police said.

Smith grew up in Cicero but moved to Santa Clara, Calif., a suburb of San Jose, about four years ago to live with his mother, family members said. He returned to the Chicago area last December and moved into the Carol Stream apartment with his father, stepmother and brother.

George Smith said he and his brother spent their time playing video games and looking for work until a month or so ago, when they answered a classified ad in a suburban newspaper for a sales job. They both accepted jobs selling Hypro liquid cleaning agent door-to-door for EWA Sales.

Smith was arrested in Sugar Grove on June 10 for soliciting without a permit, said Sugar Grove Police Chief Jim Quist, who described Smith as "very evasive and withdrawn." Smith had no other criminal record in DuPage County or in Santa Clara.

George Smith said the company's practice was to drop about 20 salespeople in designated areas. They would be picked up by vans at the end of the day and stay at nearby hotels, Smith said. He said he quit a day before the murder because he was disillusioned with the company.

EWA officials could not be located for comment. Hypro officials in Texas confirmed that both Smith brothers worked for the distributor, EWA, for about four weeks, but could provide no other deatils.

George Smith said his brother became interested in satanism in California and dabbled in drugs, from cocaine to LSD to heroin. But Smith said his older brother has been drug-free for two years and was never prone to violence.

Smith's father, a truck driver, said his son called him from jail at 1:30 a.m. Saturday and said he had been charged with murder.

"I can't even find words to describe it," he said. "It's like a horrible nightmare."