Joseph Zilber Jeffrey Dahmer

Who is Joseph Zilber and why did he buy all of Jeffrey Dahmer’s belongings?

He purchased all of Dahmer’s belongings off the families for $407,225


Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story has been out on Netflix for a while now and people are trying to work out who Joseph Zilber is and what relevance he has to the story. Towards the end of the Netflix series we meet Joseph as he offers to buy all of Dahmer’s items and then continues to put them through an incinerator – but who was he and why did he do this? Here’s everything you need to know about Joseph Zilber and his connection to Jeffrey Dahmer.

Who is Joseph Zilber and what did he do with Jeffrey Dahmer’s stuff?

Joseph Zilber was born in 1917 to Russian immigrant parents and he grew up in Milwaukee’s northern district. At the time of Jeffrey Dahmer’s arrest, he was a real estate magnate and the leader of the Milwaukee Civic Pride Fund. Essentially a Civic Pride Fund helps support local projects, activities and events. Following the death of Jeffrey Dahmer, the victim’s families petitioned the court, requesting that the law return the victims’ property to them.

How much did Joseph spend on buying Dahmer’s belongings?

Joseph Zilber Jeffrey Dahmer

via Netflix

In November 1994, Jeffrey Dahmer was beaten to death by Christopher Scarver whilst serving time in prison. After his death, the families of eleven of Jeffrey Dahmer’s victims filed a petition with the court, asking the law to hand over the victim’s belongings to them. If their petition was successful, the families hoped to auction off these items and accept the money as compensation for their loss. The court agreed to the petition and handed over Dahmer’s fridge, the dressers, the knives, and everything else that was up for sale. The items also included the acid drum, clothing, bedsheets, sledgehammers, bicycles, saw blades and other things like that.

However when Joseph Zilber heard of this, he was reportedly horrified. He didn’t want Jeffrey Dahmer to gain popularity and publicity through the auction. He also wanted Milwaukee to be free of Dahmer’s crimes so he raised $407,225 which he used to buy all of Jeffrey’s belongings from the victims and destroy them. Each of the eleven families received $32,500 before attorney fees as a result.

Where is Joseph Zilber today?

Joseph died on 19th March 2010 after spending the last year of his life in Hawaii. He had several bouts of pneumonia and died at the age of 92 whilst being treated at a hospice.

Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is available now on Netflix. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

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