Jeffrey Dahmer ‘Tools of Death’ Auction Stopped By Milwaukee Businessman, ‘Conversations With a Killer’ Reveals

In 1991, Milwaukee police made a gruesome discovery at the Oxford Apartments. Inside unit 213 – which was rented by a 31-year-old man named Jeffrey Dahmer – were the remains of 11 men. All had been killed by Dahmer, whose grisly killing spree generated headlines worldwide. (He murdered 17 people in all.) Now, more than 30 years later, Netflix’s Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story has generated fresh interest in the case and raised questions among viewers about what happened to the infamous crime scene. 

As seen in the show, the Oxford Apartments were torn down a little over a year after Dahmer’s arrest and his possessions were destroyed. Netflix’s new docuseries, Conversations With a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes, sheds more light on how one person stepped in to prevent items owned by the Milwaukee killer from falling into the hands of collectors of serial killer memorabilia. 

The Oxford Apartments were torn down after Jeffrey Dahmer’s trial 

After Dahmer’s arrest and trial, many in Milwaukee feared that the Oxford Apartments would become a grim tourist attraction. To prevent that from happening, the Campus Circle Project purchased the 49-unit building for $325,000. It was torn down in November 1992, 15 months after Dahmer’s arrest. The site remains vacant today.

“It has been a symbol of anger, pain, violence and death,” Campus Circle Project President Patrick LeSage told The Bulletin at the time. “It needs to be replaced with a sign of our commitment to support the healing process and to work together as a community of people who care.”

Over the years, there has been discussion about turning the lot into a park or building a memorial to Dahmer’s victims at the location. However, nothing has materialized. 

Jeffrey Dahmer’s possessions were set to go up for auction in 1996 

The destruction of the Oxford Apartments removed one painful reminder of Dahmer’s crimes. But there was still the possibility that his possessions would end up in the hands of collectors of murderabilia. Following Dahmer’s death in 1994, his estate was awarded to the families of some of his victims. They planned to auction his possessions, with any money earned going to compensate them for their pain and suffering.

“Dahmer’s victims had very little recourse in the end,” Jeff Fleming, a reporter who covered the case, says in Conversations With a Killer. “And the family members who had survived, there was very little to compensate them for their losses. But what was left was Dahmer’s property that had been taken out of his apartment.”

That property included the tools he used to commit his crimes, such as a refrigerator used to store body parts, hypodermic needles, and a cooking vat, according to a 1996 report from CNN. 

The planned auction of grisly mementos drew criticism at the time, but family members defended their decision. 

“We’re just supposed to sit back and let everybody make money off of Jeffrey Dahmer, and what do we get? We get nothing. I don’t care what I have to do, if we don’t do it, down the line, someone else is going to be making money off this,” Janie Hagen, whose brother Richard Guerrero was murdered by Dahmer, said. 

A philanthropist stepped in to make sure Dahmer’s possessions were destroyed 

As controversy around the auction swirled, a Milwaukee businessman decided to step in. 

“A philanthropist purchased everything on behalf of the victims,” Fleming explains in the Netflix docuseries.  

Real estate developer Joseph Zilber reached out to other community leaders to raise more than $400,000 to buy everything that would have gone up for auction. The goal was to ensure that “these tools of death be permanently destroyed,″ he said in a statement at the time (via the Associated Press). 

The items were ultimately taken to an undisclosed landfill in Illinois and buried. Eleven families received $32,500 from the sale. But the relatives of Dahmer’s victims still had to live with their loss. 

“I’m glad it’s over with, but it’s not over for my family,” Hagen told the AP. “The memories will always be there.”

For more on the entertainment world and exclusive interviews, subscribe to Showbiz Cheat Sheet’s YouTube channel.