Items owned by accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann listed for sale on eBay

A Vietnam-era Army jeep owned by alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann is being sold in an online auction this week.

The vehicle and a military cargo trailer are being sold on the auction site eBay by a family representative with proceeds going to Heuermann’s former wife, Asa Ellerup. 

The sale hit a snag Tuesday when eBay found the sale had violated its "violence and violent criminals" policy. It was relisted Wednesday without using Heuermann's name to meet the auction site's standards, said the representative, who is selling the item anonymously.

Bids on the items had eclipsed $7,500 by the time the listing was removed from the site about 11 hours into the weeklong auction. It was reposted with a minimum opening bid of $5,000.

Heuermann, who was also an avid collector of historic military style guns, drove the jeep to go hunting, according to his family.

The military utility tactical truck is an M151A2 produced by AM General Corp. in 1972. The A2 model is the last version of the M151 vehicle, which was introduced in 1960 and manufactured until 1985, according to militarytrader.com. The trailer was manufactured in 1963.

The tarp-covered jeep, which has 52,565 miles on it, caught the attention of followers of the case soon after Heuermann’s arrest in 2023, when it was towed from the family home by police and also showed up on Google images of the property from 2007 and 2011.

While Heuermann owned the vehicle during the time he is alleged to have committed six of the seven killings he has been charged with, prosecutors do not believe it was used in the crimes. As a result, the jeep was eventually returned to the family since it held no evidentiary value, unlike his Chevy Avalanche truck. A Suffolk County Police Department impound lot number is still visible on the front windshield of the jeep.

Heuermann discussed the military vehicle, which features an ax on one side and a shovel on the other, in an April 2018 deposition he gave for a lawsuit filed against a driver he alleged struck him while he walked home from the Massapequa Park LIRR station in 2017, court documents show. He said the accident left him unable to drive the stick-shift vehicle without pain.

"I have not driven it in quite a few months," Heuermann told the attorneys handling the deposition. "It was out probably for the first time since September a week or two ago."

The registration on the vehicle, which bears Heuermann’s name, expired in 2019. It needs a new battery but otherwise runs, the seller said. 

The buyer must be able to pick up the vehicle and trailer in Suffolk County, according to the listing.

The title of the jeep has been signed by Heuermann, making the sale possible, according to the seller and a Newsday review of the documents.

"This is a big deal," said David Adamovich, of Freeport, a collector of serial killer memorabilia who is not involved with the Heuermann sale. "Especially here on Long Island. A large collectible, like the jeep, it's an interesting item."

Adamovich, who acquired his more than 9,000 serial killer items when a collector friend died, said he believes the jeep is ultimately worth its book value plus whatever a collector might want to pay as a premium because of its association with the notorious case. Hagerty, a classic car insurance and valuation company, estimates the good condition value of a 1972 M151A2 at $16,700, with sales of M151 vehicles from all 25 years of production ranging anywhere from about $6,000 to $31,000.

Richard Acritelli, who curates the VFW Post 6249 Suffolk County World War II and Military History Museum in Rocky Point, said an M151 also has significant value for military collectors, but the jeep's association with Heuermann is a nonstarter for a museum collection.

Adamovich, whose collection includes signed letters from Charles Manson and John Wayne Gacy and the aviator-style glasses Jeffrey Dahmer wore in his 1991 police booking photo, agrees the jeep has less value as a military souvenir. Its association with Heuermann ultimately increases its value, said Adamovich, who manages a Facebook group of more than 6,500 members interested in trading serial killer memorabilia.

Adamovich considers items from Manson, Gacy, Dahmer and Ed Kemper to be the most valuable. Heuermann, should he be convicted of the cases he’s already charged in, would rank "pretty high" up on the list.

Adamovich said with all serial killer memorabilia, buyers need to verify the provenance of an item, its authenticity and the authority of the seller, which he said the military vehicle has.

"The jeep was his, the title shows it was his," Adamovich said. "It’s a nice collectible."

Heuermann has been incarcerated at the Suffolk County jail in Riverhead since his initial arraignment on July 14, 2023. He is charged with murder in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack, whose remains were all found at Gilgo Beach, as well as Sandra Costilla, whose body was discovered more than 65 miles away in the Southampton hamlet of North Sea.

Partial remains of Taylor and Mack were also found in wooded areas north of the Long Island Expressway in Manorville. The killings occurred between November 1993 and September 2010.

Heuermann is due back in court July 17 for a continuation of a suppression hearing regarding DNA evidence in the case.