"Keepsake"

"Keepsake"
Written by: Sugaree

         On July 22, 1991, I was sitting at a lunch table with a few classmates laughing and talking. It was fairly early in the morning when I peered over onto someone’s newspaper that read, “BODY PARTS.” I turned to one of my classmates, Sheila, to ask if she’d seen this movie that seemed to be getting all sorts of press.

         “What on earth is this movie about to make front page of the Milwaukee Journal and the Sentinel?

         “I have no idea! I was wondering that too,” she said as she picked the section of the paper up that told this horrendous story of a man killing and eating his prey. Nonetheless, in our city, only about two miles away from where we sat.

         “What? What’s wrong? I asked because her face seemed like she’s seen a ghost suddenly.

         “Oh my God! This is something that happened for real! Right here! Not the movie. They said the movie, Body Parts, has been delayed for now due to this!”
A man on 34 off of McKinley has been killing people and eating them. This is not about that movie! Oh my God! She screamed.

         Sheila was in shock, so I took the paper and my eyes nearly popped out of my head as I continued to read that Jeffrey Dahmer, a man none of us had known, became the topic of our conversation for months on end from that point on. I nearly ripped the page as I turned to finish reading the endless and soon to be timeless story of a cannibal.

         Press from all over the country started filing in to get a glimpse of the notorious Oxford apartments and to interview anyone that lived anywhere remotely in that vicinity. They were desperate for someone to give their spin on what was going on.

         At this point, I began reading the paper aloud. Suddenly, when I read the address, one of my classmates jumped to her feet. I was not sure why, but she ran from the building screaming something. Later on that day while watching this story unfold, I saw her face screaming and crying and pleading for the police to let her inside of the apartment building where this horrendous crime had taken place.

         I picked up the phone to call another classmate that knew her.

         “Are you looking at the news? That’s the woman that jumped up today as I read the paper! Who is she? What happened? Do you know if she knew him or something?” I was almost out of breath as I showered my classmate with questions.

         “Yes! She lives in that building. She always complained of the rotten smell and said that she was looking for another place. Wow! I know she must be loosing her mind! My classmate and I watched the breaking news that had been covered since the first discoveries. The body count was up to nine at that point.

         “She lives there? Oh my God! That was the only thing that could come out of my mouth since everyone that laid eyes on this story was in pure shock. This area where Jeffrey Dahmer lived was very frequented since a major hospital was on a few blocks away. I’d been down that street many times. To even think about how many times I’d gone down that street crept me. So, I could only imagine what the people that actually lived in the same building were feeling.

         We both held the phone silently at this point. An announcer began speaking about the body parts and the barrel in which he’d placed them in acid. Just as she finished, another news castor came on with yet another count, which were eleven by then.

         Everyone in Milwaukee and probably across the nation followed this unbelievable movie quality story as it unfolded. The latest after about three weeks was vandals trying to break into the temporary fence the city had put up to keep Jeffery Dahmer’s new followers out.

         Many just wanted to see up close. Some actually wanted to find something the police had left behind. Others believed that he was so cute and wanted a rock from the lawn or anything having to do with this serial killer. It was unbelievable that he actually had groupies.

         My mouth dropped as one of Jeffery Dahmer’s followers begged and pleaded on national news, just to get a stone out of his yard and admitted that she and some of her friends had written him.

         In class that day, we all gathered at the lunch table and of course, this was our topic.

         “Did you see those crazy girls all excited about this man? What on earth makes them so desperate as to think so highly of a man like that?” I asked with a high pitch.

         “I saw that too! I have no idea what could be so wrong in their lives to make them think highly of a serial killer! Sheila’s voice had the same contempt as mine.

         “I heard that the police blocked the entire area off because they were disturbing the investigation with their demands on Jeffery Dahmer’s property.”

         "Yes they did. The city has relocated all of the other tenants of the building. That must have been hard since there were soooo many families living there.”

         “I would have left on my own!” I snapped.

         “The ones that got a chance to get some dirt or rocks or even leaves out of his yard should be haunted for the rest of their lives by those very objects,” Sheila admitted.

         “You’re right. That is sick! Wouldn't that serve those girls just right if strange thigs really start happening to them on the day Jeff was caught, or better yet, the day that each one of them were killed by this maniac?”

         Just as we were about to return to class, the woman that had been our classmate entered the building. We all watched as her nervous hands fiddled with papers that she gave to the front desk clerk, then left. I saw a woman that usually sat near her on our breaks follow behind her. We could see them through the glass doors, chatting and hugging and what even looked like crying.

         All of us stared and wondered what was being said. When the woman returned, we listened as she told yet another student what happened. The lady’s daughter was home sick that day and she simply wanted to get into her apartment, which was only four doors away from Dahmer’s, to get her family out. She told the lady that the police had already gone in and took the sick child to social services since she had been left alone. I will assume that was her main reason for reacting the way she had that day.

         One year later to date, real odd stories and reports started filing in about young girls hallucinating and committing suicide and all sorts of odd things. What each of them had in common were ‘keepsakes or souvenirs’ removed from the yard of Jeffery Dahmer. Many of the girls had gathered bags of rocks to be sold or given to anyone with an interest in those items.

         To date, no one has counted the suicides, or the many followers that have been permanently committed into insane asylums that had purchased or taken the ‘keep sakes.’ All we do know is that several hundred had been collected and distributed by the time the police realized the quest for these items and closed the street down. Even more were taken once the investigation was over and the building was demolished.

         Each year, on July 22nd, a record number of people commit suicide or are committed. Each year, a glow from the, now fenced landmark, shines a dull light and noises and excruciating screams come from that doomed street in Milwaukee.

         All that sat at the table the day we heard this news about Jeff Dahmer had graduated and lost contact with one another. I had followed the stories of these people that stole or purchased 'keepsakes.' I went back to the school to find Sheila's information. They weren't allowed to give her information to me.

         Instead, I offered them my number and begged them to call her and give her my new number. Six days later, Sheila called.

         "Hello there. Been a while. I have a feeling why you wanted to contact me. I should have thought to go to the school. Anyway, what's up?"

         "Well, good to hear from you. Do you recall what we said about the people that were taking Jeffery Dahmer's items for keepsakes?"

         "Yes. Like it was yesterday! I wondered the same about you! I've been following as closely as possible. What have you come up with?" Sheila asked in her excited tone.

         "Well, the first few girls that they showed out there and interviewed are all dead. They died on different days, but it's still strange that such young girls are dead with that in common. Don't you think?"

         "Yes! How did you find out?"

         "Well, I overheard someone talking about the one girl that was interviewed that said Dahmer was the greatest and the cutest. I interrupted the conversation and asked the girl's name. They told me that she had been hospitalized in a mental complex and later found dead. They said that she had started eating her own body and even gave herself a labotomy. Go figure!"

         "Really? That's exactly what I heard from someone that worked at the mental complex. It must be true. Well, I found out that yet another young girl that adored Dahmer had his pictures pasted all over her walls and had stacks of his keepsakes in a shrine. Later, her mother found her dead and a picture of one of the victims was stuffed down her throat. She strangled on it."

         "Hmmm, want to do some research together? Let's put some of that computer science we learned to work and find these people, or what's left of them."

         "Fine with me. I am very curious about this. I'll bet there's a connection."

         "Ok, let's start with the first girl to die. Maybe her family will be willing to tell us how many keepsakes she was able to get and distribute and maybe even to whom."

         "Great idea. Let's meet this weekend."

Stay tuned for part two which will be released the week of Halloween.