By A. Pawlowski, msnbc.com contributor
You may know Milwaukee for its beer and beautiful lakefront, but the city is bracing itself for a new attraction inspired by one of the nation?s most notorious serial killers.
Starting Saturday, visitors can take a walking tour of some of the favorite haunts of Jeffrey Dahmer, who killed 17 boys and men in a gruesome murder spree that spanned 13 years and involved cannibalism and necrophilia.
Dahmer, who was eventually caught and sentenced to 15 consecutive life terms,?was killed in prison on Nov. 29, 1994.
Already causing outrage in Milwaukee, the tour garnered additional attention after it was offered for a time on the popular deal website Groupon.com.
?Give yourself the creeps with this Groupon,? the text of the deal read, inviting participants to explore Milwaukee?s Walker's Point area, where Dahmer hunted for some of his victims.
?Guides march guests through the grisly corridors of Jeffrey Dahmer's life and killing spree as they narrate the triggers of his psychosis and the heinous crimes he committed.?
The guides ?are neither insensitive to the victims? families nor approbating of Dahmer?s monstrous acts,? the organizers of the tour promised in the ad, which offered the excursion for $25 for two people ? a $35 discount.
The outing was listed as sold out as of Wednesday on Groupon, but the company said its customers wouldn?t see the deal again.
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"Groupon works with hundreds of thousands of merchants, and it's never our intention to offend anyone. We?ve pulled the deal and only 15 were purchased," said spokesman Nicholas Halliwell.
City officials are distancing themselves from the Dahmer tour as well, with a spokeswoman for Visit Milwaukee calling the new attraction very discouraging and disappointing.??It only serves to bring up a very painful and difficult time in our history,? said Jeannine Sherman.
?It?s insensitive to think that this would not be hurtful, first and foremost to the families of his victims, many of whom probably still live in our area, but to the image of the city as a whole.?
When the organizers of the tour came to Visit Milwaukee to let the city know about their plans, tourism officials advised them against it, Sherman said. Dahmer?s story has no relevance to today?s Milwaukee, she added.
But a spokeswoman for BAM Marketing and Media, the locally based company behind the tour, countered that such an argument is a narrow way to look at the issue and said the tour is meant to educate.
?[Dahmer?s story] is not something that?s going to get swept under the rug and go away. This is a piece of history, whether we like it or not,? said Amanda Morden.
?The people who are looking at it as in poor taste maybe are not educated as to what the tour entails.?
The company has received interest not only from customers, but from school programs within the Milwaukee metro area who want to use the tour as an educational tool for students, Morden said.
The organizers also say they?re not forgetting Dahmer?s victims. They?ve ordered a temporary memorial plaque to be displayed and say they have approached the city to request that a permanent memorial be erected in one of the empty fields on Second Street, ?where Dahmer was known to appraise his victims,? according to DahmerTours.com.
The walking tour is scheduled to take place every Saturday until June 30.
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