Dennis Nilsen: The Kindly Killer
On the 9th February 1983, the police were called to a small, north London flat by contractors called in to unblock the drains. They had found human remains in the sewers. The owner of the flat was a local civil servant, Dennis Nilsen, who became known as the Kindly Killer. Nilsen killed fifteen boys and men in the space of five years and was brutally honest when the police interrogated him.
Dennis Nilsen was born on the 23rd November 1945 in Strichen Aberdeenshire. His father was an alcoholic and when Nilsen was four years old, his parents divorced. Nilsen was sent to live with his grandparents for a couple of years. He was then sent back to live with his mother and his step-father. Nilsen later claimed that the death of his grandfather and his catholic mother’s insistence that he see the body was one of his earliest traumas. He also claimed that his step-father’s lectures of the “impunities of the flesh” impacted him from a young age.
In 1961, Nilsen joined the army and became a cook, working in Arden, Cyprus and Berlin. Whilst in the army, Nilsen learnt butchery. In 1972, he left the army and served as a police officer for a short period of time. Then, in 1973, he left the police force and became a civil servant at a jobcentre.
Between 1978 and 1983, Nilsen murdered fifteen people, all students or homeless men who he picked up on the streets or in bars. Nilsen either strangled or drowned his victims. It is thought his motive was that he sought someone “who wouldn’t leave” to help deal with feelings of profound loneliness and isolation. Nilsen claimed he often woke up the day after murdering someone with little or no memory of the event.
Nilsen kept the bodies of his victims in his flat and every so often would burn the remains in a bonfire at the bottom of his garden. In 1981, when Nilsen moved to an upstairs flat, he kept human organs in suitcases in his wardrobe and plastic bags stored under the floorboards. The neighbours began to complain about the smell and Nilsen tried to dispose of the remains. He used the butchering skills he picked up in the army to dismember the bodies. He then tried to flush the remains down the toilet. It blocked the drains. A company was called and the contractor found a drain packed with flesh-like stuff. A supervisor was called but couldn’t make it until the next day. The next day, the flesh-like stuff was gone. The police were called. The small bones found were identified later as human bones.
Dennis Nilsen was arrested. He was very honest with the police and even apologised for not knowing the exact number of bodies there were. The police found three heads in his flat and the remains of thirteen bodies at his former residence.
Nilsen was brought to trial at the Old Bailey on the 24th October 1983. He was seen to be completely unaffected by the murders. He pleaded diminished responsibility in order to seek a charge of guilty of manslaughter. He was convicted for six murders and two attempted murders. He was sentenced on the 4th November 1983 to twenty-five years, but the home secretary changed it to life imprisonment. Nilsen was imprisoned at HMP Full Suton maximum security.
The Murders and the Attempted Murders
The first murder took place on the 30th December 1978. Nilsen met the boy in a gay bar. He was strangled with a tie until he was unconscious. Then, he was drowned in a bucket of water. On the 12th January 2006, it was announced that the victim had been identified as Stephen Dean Holmes, born on the 22nd March 1964, making him just fourteen when he was murdered. Stephen had been on his way home from a pop concert when he had met Nilsen.
Between the first and second murders, Nilsen attempted to murder a student from Hong Kong. He was not successful, however, the student decided not to prosecute and so Nilsen was released without any charges.
Kenneth Ockendon was a Canadian student and was murdered by Nilsen on the 3rd December 1978. Nilsen strangled him during sex. Ockendon was one of the few of Nilsen’s victims that were reported missing.
The third murder took place sometime during May 1980. Nilsen met sixteen-year-old homeless Martyn Duffey, who was from Birkenhead. Nilsen proceeded to strangle Duffey and then drown him in the kitchen sink.
Nilsen couldn’t remember how he killed his fourth victim, Billy Sutherland, a prostitute from Scotland. Later investigation revealed that he had been strangled by Nilsen’s bare hands.
Similarly, Nilsen couldn’t remember much about his fifth victim, only that he was a male prostitute either from the Philippines or Thailand. Unfortunately, the victim has never been identified.
Nilsen had very little memory of his sixth victim, only that he was a young, Irish labourer who he had met in the bar.
The seventh victim was a homeless man that Nilsen found sleeping in a doorway in Charing Cross and described as the “hippy-type” but otherwise couldn’t remember anything else.
Nilsen’s eighth victim is nameless and characterless as Nilsen couldn’t remember anything about this murder.
Both victims nine and ten were young scots that Nilsen met in pubs in Soho.
Nilsen picked up victim eleven at Picadilly Circus. He was a skinhead and had a tattoo around his neck saying “cut here”. Nilsen recalled that this victim boasted that he was tough and that he liked to fight. However, after he was drunk, Nilsen murdered him before hanging the torso in his bedroom for twenty-four hours before burying it under his floorboards.
On the 10th November 1980, somewhere between victims six and eleven, a potential victim woke as Nilsen strangled him. He fought Nilsen off and escaped. He called the police but no action was taken as the police believed it to be a domestic disagreement.
The last murder that took place in Nilsen’s downstairs flat was Malcolm Barlow. He was found sleeping in a doorway near Nilsen’s home. Nilsen called an ambulance. The next day, the 18th September 1981, Malcolm Barlow returned to Nilsen’s house to thank him. He was invited in and fed him before being murdered.
In October 1981, Nilsen moved to an upstairs flat. Not long after, he met a student in a bar in Soho. The student woke up disoriented and left. Later, he went to the doctors about bruising that had appeared on his neck, The doctor told him that it was the results of attempted strangulation and told him to go to the police. The student didn’t; scared that he would face homophobia.
Nilsen also invited a drag queen back to his flat after meeting him in a pub in Camden. The drag queen passed out from strangulation but woke whilst being drowned. The drag queen fought him off and escaped.
The first victim in Nilsen’s new flat was John Howlett in December 1981. Howlett fought back and Nilsen took a disliking to him. There was a struggle and they both strangled each other. Nilsen drowned Howlett by holding his head underwater for five minutes. Howlett was the first of Nilsen’s victims to be dismembered. His remains were either hidden or flushed.
Graham Allen, a homeless man that Nilsen met in Shaftesbury Avenue was the fourteenth victim. After murdering Graham Allen, Nilsen left his body in the bath for three days before dismembering him.
The last of Nilsen’s victims was Stephen Sinclair. Stephen Sinclair was a drug addict who Nilsen met on Oxford Street. Nilsen paid for a burger before inviting Stephen home with him. After Sinclair dropped into a heroin and alcohol stupor, Nilsen strangled him. He was dismembered and his remains were the ones that caused the blocked drains.
