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.

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.

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.

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. 

• Here are even more TV shows, films, podcasts and books all about the Jeffrey Dahmer case

• You can now buy Jeffrey Dahmer’s urn as loads of his personal belongings go on sale

• Here is everything Evan Peters did to mentally prepare himself for playing Jeffrey Dahmer

All you need is a fiver

I simply cannot picture Matt without tattoos

‘Just because you’re quieter doesn’t mean you’ll fade into the background and be less of a star’

So many Mike Flanagan icons!!

HOW could we forget The Office’s nepotism baby?

‘I look forward to keep recognising the brilliance within the Black community’

All hail the return of the RuPaul bauble

Don’t bring Austin Moon into this

I have never seen so many polaroids in my life

In the new Netflix documentary about the case, she shares her perspective

‘I feel a lot of pressure to make her proud’

‘I wanted to kill Dahmer; he ate people’

‘These two products look the same and it’s really disappointing and disheartening for me to see’

If Casa Amor Billy loves Subway, I love Subway

There’s not a chance Adrian and Thomas are still married

A Conservative spokesperson said ‘if those involved are identified as members of the Party, we will launch swift investigations’

He’s an ambassador for Fenty and says they’ve known each other for years

She would be the first ever Love Islander to star on the show

Disney Plus has a whole collection dedicated to Black History all year round

I’m going with Maura for the name, you?

Mila just randomly shows up in season three of the show