Jeffrey Dahmer Walking Tour upsets residents

[Hum]

MILWAUKEE -- A marketing group in Wisconsin wants to give walking tours of the bar where serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer met and hung out with some of his victims.

But when victims' families and others found out about the tours this week through a Groupon promotion for a cut-rate tour, they started calling for the tour, which they described as insensitive and in poor taste, to end.

Bam Marketing and Media spokeswoman Amanda Morden said Thursday the company is not deterred and the first two tours are Saturday in Milwaukee and have nearly reached the 20-person capacity for each. That upsets neighborhood group president Victor Ray, who says it's too soon for a tour since the crimes are just 2 decades old and many family members of Dahmer's victims are still around.

"I just don't think this is the right timing," said Ray, who heads the Walker's Point Association. "And a tour of the area is not the right thing to do. It's sensationalism in its finest."

Ray said he's received 75 emails, most against the tours, and that some plan to protest Saturday, including some family members of victims. He said he's been in contact with one victim's mother, who asked for his group's help.

"She said `Do what you can to stop it,'" Ray said. The woman didn't want to be interviewed by reporters.

He met with Morden and another tour group representative Thursday night and hoped he had convinced them to quit the tours. But Morden said they have a legitimate, viable product for people interested in the history of the crimes, rather than the sensational nature of them.

Dahmer, a chocolate factory worker, would frequent gay bars in the area. He was arrested in 1991 and admitted to killing 17 young men, some of whom he mutilated and cannibalized. He was serving life prison sentences when a fellow inmate beat him to death in 1994.

His apartment building - where he stored body parts - was eventually razed. There's been talk over the years about putting a memorial there, but the idea has received mixed reactions. Morden said they hoped to put a plaque with the victims' names on one of the businesses in the area as a memorial.

She also said a portion of the tour profits will be donated to charity, although a specific one hasn't been chosen.

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[jdegree]

They (residents) should promote it instead of being against it. Anything to bring new dollars into any city is worth it.

[Hum]

They promoted Jack-the-Ripper

[Growled Member]

That's just sick.

[DocM]

Agreed. The families of his victims don't need these slimes reminding them of their pain.