Jeffrey Dahmer’s home in northern Ohio in which he committed the first of many murders, is back on the market for an asking price of $295,000, according to a report by The Associated Press.
The property is situated in a well-to-do neighborhood close to Akron in a private wooded lot, and was first listed two years ago.
Chris Butler, the current owner agreed with realtor Rich Lubinski to withdraw it from sale at that time since the housing market was not buoyant then.
There was also the question of its notorious past. “If you can get past that little problem, you’ll have a wonderful place to live,” said Butler.
He bought the house in 2005, and says he was drawn to the house by its 1950’s style and wooded lot. But he was aware of its past history: “The fact that it was Jeffrey Dahmer’s house was not an attraction,” Butler told WKYC-TV in Cleveland. “I am not a ghoul. I am not interested in the supernatural.”
Which is just as well, considering the gruesome connection to its former occupant.
Jeffrey Dahmer was born in 1960 in Milwaukee, and was sexually molested by a neighbor when he was 8. At age 10, he decapitated animals and mounted their heads on stakes in the backyard.
He committed his first murder of a male hitchhiker in Butler’s house, and buried his remains in the nearby woods.
Following an unspectacular career in the Army, Dahmer began his serial killing in earnest in the late 80’s. He moved to Wisconsin in 1982, and there he murdered another 16 victims — all males, some homosexual, like Dahmer.
Dahmer was finally arrested in 1991, was convicted of 15 of the murders, and was sentenced to 936 years in prison.
However, in 1994, another inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Wisconsin bludgeoned Dahmer to death.
Some sort of poetic justice.
Since the house was put back on the market, Lubinski says he receives calls every day.
While around half the people don’t seem to care about its past, the others immediately lose interest when they learn of the history of the property.
Which is somewhat surprising in this day-and-age, and as Lubinski wryly points out, “this house never killed anyone.”
The ranch-style house was built in 1952, and later was featured in the Akron Beacon Journal which commended its modern style, open layout and floor-to-ceiling windows that provided views of the wooded hillside.
It seems that the house’s reputation is international; last month a film crew from Japan came for a story on who lived there.
But Lubinski will only show it to serious buyers. He says that the house isn’t open for tours, and that it’s not a museum.
Maybe not, but it seems that the reputation and “ghost” of Jeffrey Dahmer are destined to have their influence over the property for ever.