A group of business leaders who paid thousands for property owned by serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer will not pay a dime to anyone who comes forward with other Dahmer artifacts, a spokesman for the group said Monday.
"I got one guy who says he's got the door; I've got another who says he's got the lava lamp," said Michael Mervis, a spokesman for real estate magnate Joseph Zilber.Zilber last month announced that he would raise money to buy the inventory of Dahmer's estate from the families of 11 of the serial killer's victims. Since then, several people have come forward claiming to have some of Dahmer's property.
Meanwhile, a self-described professional psychic has stepped forward to offer his services to cleanse Dahmer's personal effects.
Jeffrey Seelman, of Milwaukee, faxed the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Monday commending the sale of Dahmer's property to be destroyed and condemning others who say they may sell other Dahmer items.
"At the very least, these items should be cleansed of all residual energies before being displayed for view," he wrote in the fax.
Mervis says it is not Zilber's intention to buy everything Dahmer ever owned and destroy it. The focus is upon only those items that a judge ordered to be turned over to the families, including property from Dahmer's prison cell, the Milwaukee police, and the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office.
The items were going to be turned over to the families so that they could sell them at an auction and take the money as compensation for the pain and suffering of losing their loved ones.
Zilber, upset at the spectacle that such an auction would create, spearheaded the fund-raising drive, raising $407,225. He said he plans to destroy the items after the sale is completed.
With nearly $50,000 taken off the top for administrative fees in dispersing the estate, each of the 11 families will receive $32,500.
News of the sale has prompted several people to come forward claiming they have Dahmer property. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Monday that a childhood friend of Lionel Dahmer, the killer's father, was given a number of Jeffrey Dahmer's belongings, including much of his furniture, clothing and kitchen utensils.
The man, who says he is not interested in selling them, said Monday that he will destroy them but he declined to give details.
"If other individuals have items that they wish to contribute to be destroyed, all they have to do is contact us and we will be glad to make arrangements for their pick-up and disposal," Mervis said.
Seelman, of Vanguard Psychic Investigations, said he has been in the psychic-cleaning business for the past five years. For an average fee of $500, he said, he will clean you, your house or your belongings of bad psychic energy.
Seelman uses ancient and modern techniques, he said, including practices performed in India, by American Indians, early Europeans and some he personally designed. He uses incense, "specialized waters" and his secret weapon: "a force of will. It's my greatest asset."
Before entering the psychic-cleaning business, Seelman did some "communication work," helping people "who need to communicate with a departed loved one."
Dahmer, a Milwaukee chocolate factory worker, confessed to torturing and killing 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991. He confessed to cannibalizing some of his victims. Dahmer was murdered by a fellow inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institute on Nov. 29, 1994.
Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.