Rent Jeffrey Dahmer’s Childhood Home, If You Dare
With myriad options now available to find a place to stay, one might wonder whois in the market to rent Jeffrey Dahmer’s childhood home during their vacation.
As it turns out, there’s a high price on staking out the house where Dahmer grew up. Howard Hanna is charging $10,000 a month to take up residence in Dahmer’s old stomping grounds, located in Akron, Ohio.
Jeffrey Dahmer’s home going up for rent coincides with the Republican National Convention, which will be taking place in nearby Cleveland, Ohio, from July 18 to 21. That timing isn’t a coincidence, according to the owner, Chris Butler, who was formerly a part of the 1980s New Wave band The Waitresses. When asked why he’d put up the Dahmer property, he “coyly declined to identify his political affiliation” and referenced the upcoming political convention, reported Akron Beacon Journal.
“I did it for the heck of it. [I wanted to see if I could] suck some Republican gelt from those people.”
Dahmer’s legacy actually isn’t what attracted Butler to the house. In fact, it was the complete opposite; he’d already fallen for the place by the time his realtor called him to give him the bad news. The house’s history goes beyond being Dahmer’s childhood home. It’s also the place where he first developed his appetite to kill, Chris told NPR.
“Dahmer did commit his first murder here — a hitchhiker named Steven Hicks whom he lured back to the house with promises of drugs and alcohol, and then clubbed with a barbell after Hicks said he wanted to leave. [Jeffrey] later dismembered Hicks’ corpse in the house’s crawlspace.”
Dahmer’s dark mark on the house didn’t deter Butler from signing though. Even though Dahmer had not just lived, but killed, between the walls, he was still convinced the home was for him. He jokes that it became a dominating part of any conversation thereafter; and that even his less superstitious friends wanted to know if there were ghosts. In a way, he says, there are.
“I know the house is haunted, maybe not by ghosts, but by something much, much scarier. It’s haunted by reality — by the unbelievable horror that humans are capable of. Dahmer’s “ghost” does exist. He haunts my neighbors who can’t overcome their fears and come inside for a friendly cup of coffee. And he haunts his victims’ families every minute of every day.”
From his childhood home, to the prison where he died, Jeffrey Dahmer himself was haunted. Dahmer was eventually murdered by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver, who was already serving a life sentence for killing his wife.
Dahmer had a reputation for trying to get the best of his prison mates. Some recall him seemingly taunting them with his crimes — the horrific murders of at least 17 young men. Even security wasn’t safe from him, as previously reported Inquisitr.
“If he saw a guard that was nervous and standing near enough to hear him, he would say, ‘I bite.’ Usually the guard would jump away and that would make [Dahmer] laugh.”
Whoever ends up renting Jeffrey Dahmer’s house will catch the opening scene of his first murder in 1978, but Dahmer ended up living in several other spots before committing his final murder in 1991. His victims ranged from the ages of 18 to 36.
Would you rent Jeffrey Dahmer’s childhood home?
[Image via Handout/AP Photo]
