Controversy Over Dahmer Walking Tour

[Barnaby]

Apparently a Jeffrey Dahmer walking tour is being met with community resistance in Milwaukee. Given that (I think) the majority of us don't have problems with JTR walking tours, is the Dahmer tour just too soon or is there absolutely nothing wrong with it?

http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_t3#...-bar-tour.wisn

[DVV]

Hi Barnaby, wasn't Dahmer's block razed years ago ?
If I were from Milwaukee, I'd be against those Dahmer Tours, I think.

[mariab]

I've been to Milwaukee (at a conference) and I have friends from there. It's a very short train ride from Chicago. It's an OK town, a cool art Museum by the waterfront on lake Michigan, nice atmosphere downtown, lots of crime in some parts of the city (similar to Chicago, but not as bad as Detroit).
The apartment building where Dahmer used to live on North 25th Street has been demolished. I've heard it's now a vacant lot. I can imagine that a "Dahmer tour" would consist of visiting North Milwaukee, the spot where his apartment used to be, the gay bars he used to hang out, the spot where the police found Sinthasomphone wandering about (and let him go back to his death, failing to run a background check on Dahmer), and the Milwaukee PD.

I very much doubt that the Ambrosia chocolate Factory in West Milwaukee, where Dahmer used to work for a while, still exists, and if it did, can't imagine it doing good with their sales. Protein enhanced chocolate?

A Dahmer tour is creepy and unnecessary. A Ripper tour has historical value, esp. since the Whitechapel murders were not solved and the case is so deeply embedded in Victorian social history and politics. Though I've witnessed directly that Whitechapel locals (not the pubs, obviously!) are hostile to the Ripper tours. And though I have to admit I've grilled my Milwaukee friends with questions about the Dahmer case, as everyone else visiting has. It's unavoidable not to associate Milwaukee with Dahmer, esp. since the town hasn't been known for much else before and since.

[Ally]

There are relatives of victims still living in the area in which the tours operate. MOTHERS of the victims still living in the area where the tour operates. It is disgusting. I am not a person who comes down firmly against much, but needlessly causing the families of the victims pain by turning their sons deaths into spectator sports is just WRONG. This is not a historical tour, this is a tour going on down the streets from the parents who grieved their children. It is putrid. This isn't a case of mystery, or intrigue, or historical importance, items that might make it a tour spot of worth, it is done purely for the delight of the ghoul and to do so this soon after the fact ...well...no. I would not go so far as to say it should be illegal, but basic human decency should prevent anyone from doing it without there needing to be a law.

[DVV]

That's so right.

[DVV]

It's unavoidable not to associate Milwaukee with Dahmer, esp. since the town hasn't been known for much else before and since.

Interesting. Indeed, I wouldn't like my village to become famous because of a cannibal. And Tours would just add insult to tragedy.

[The Grave Maurice]

...esp. since the town hasn't been known for much else before and since.

Well, there's beer...and Laverne & Shirley.

[mariab]

I knew someone would come out about the beer. :-)

Their Art Museum on the waterfront was pretty cool, Ken. And I loved staying on the 32d floor at the Hotel during the conf. The Hotel also had an indoors waterpark, though it was more for kids, with a shallow pool and slides and climbing rope and stuff. But I indulged.

[Barnaby]

The only argument that I can accept is a "it's too soon" one emphasizing that there are relatives of the victims still living in the area. All of the other arguments could be made about JTR tours.

The Dahmer murders are a legitimate topic of historical/psychological/sociocultural investigation. Books have been written on the subject. And it has been two decades since the murders. So, of course there is little "to see" on the walking tour. The same can be said of the JTR tour.

While the JTR case remains unsolved, I highly doubt the walking tours are going to help solve it. They are tourist attractions designed to be profitable. And I don't condemn this in any way. The Dahmer tour is the same.

I say in another 20 years, if Dahmer remains a person of cultural interest, tour away!

[kensei]

Well, there's beer...and Laverne & Shirley.

Don't forget "Happy Days," which spawned Laverne & Shirley. The Fonz was an American icon.

[Lord-z]

I think it was David Mitchell, in one of his Soapbox videos, who said something to the effect of History can only be funny once everyone involved and those who knew them are dead. That is why vikings raping and pillaging their way across the nothern hemisphere can be regarded with a detached sense of "Oh, well". Not to imply that there is anything funny about the Ripper murderers. I am just saying that we are long since detached from them. The grandchildren of someone involved might still be around, but they must be absolutely ancient by now.

Everyone who knew the Ripper victims, and everyone who knew those guys, are all dead. The Dahmer murders, the last was no more than little over 20 years ago. The parents of the victims are probably mostly all alive. Heck, Dahmers parents may still be alive. It is too soon.

[mariab]

Heck, Dahmers parents may still be alive. It is too soon.

His father's still alive, he's a scientist and has written a book on the case. Very interesting, at least the pieces and parts I've read online. He also has a brother or stepbrother who's changed his name (big surprise).

I still see a commercial Dahmer tour as essentially obscene. Now if a cop or criminologist or Ripperologist wants to walk these spots in North Milwaukee to get an idea about distance and crime apprehension in real life, that should be OK.
And by the by, Ripper tours don't only concentrate on the case, they often discuss Victorian Whitechapel in general, not just its criminal but also its social history.
The British among you would imagine the reaction if a commercial Yorkshire Ripper tour were to be introduced in Leeds.

[Barnaby]

Ripper tours don't only concentrate on the case, they often discuss Victorian Whitechapel in general, not just its criminal but also its social history.

This is a good point that I failed to consider. I doubt anything similar is going on with the Dahmer tour.

[ChainzCooper]

Does anybody know what happened to the two cops who failed to arrest Dahmer when they caught him red handed in his apartment minutes before he was about to murder one of his victims? I hope they're still in prison
Jordan

[Ally]

That's not actually exactly how it went down but it was still fairly hideously incompetent. The victim had escaped, and being disoriented and unable to speak english ran into two women who called the police. Just before the police arrived, Dahmer showed up and attempted to reclaim the boy and the women saw the boy trying to fight off Dahmer. The police showed up and despite the women telling them that the boy was fighting him and appeared afraid of him he convinced the police that they were lovers, in a quarrel because the victim was drunk and he convinced the cops to let him take him "home". Which they did. They followed him home and noticed nothing out of the ordinary except for a strange smell. They were temporarily relieved of duty but were later reinstated.