In the next few minutes I’m going to introduce you to a very special person. A man who could not come to grips with his sexuality, but using his loneliness and fascination, brutally kills 15 young men. This is Dennis Andreas Nilsen.
Dennis Nilsen was born on November 23, 1945 in Scotland. His father, who was Norwegian, was mostly absent from time and alcohol and long business trips family life. . By the time Velleius was 4 years, his parents divorced, but he soon married his mother . Loneliness at a young age.
Dennis joined the Army in 1961 and remained there for 11 years. Dennis once moved from the army in London and became sad, then moved to other government jobs. During this time, Dennis was considered a closet homosexual.
Unlike some other serial killers who killed for sex, Velleius did not. The only reason for killing was loneliness and the fascination of death. Velleius would keep the remains of the victims for a month at a time. His teacher Brian’s biographer stated that Dennis basically “killed for society”.
In 1976 and 1977, Lonesome Dennis was placed in custody. A roommate 10 years younger than him sat down with this feeling. Although the two were never romantically involved, Velleius and this young man shared a house of work, both cooking for each other and pulling out in front of the television watches and elsewhere. A teenager left unawares, loneliness and emotional rejection comes in every attack.
On December 30, 1978, the killing began.
Stephen Dean Holmes who was only 14 years old was kidnapped to his death while on his way home from a rock concert. he was strangled by a necktie until he was lifeless, and afterwards drowned in a bucket of water. Nilsen also masturbated the boy’s body and stored his body under the floor until August 1979, when Nilsen decided to burn the body in a pyre.
Between the 1st and 2nd murders, Nilsen tried to kill a student from Hong Kong. Nilsen was released after questioning after the student decided not to press charges.
Kenneth Ockendon was Nilsen’s 2nd victim. On December 03, 1979 Nilsen and Ockendon had sex when he was strangled by an electric cord. Nilsen then dissected his body and took some of the body parts down the toilet, hiding the rest under the floor.
In May 1980, Martyn Duffey aged 16, who was a homeless boy from Birkenhead invited to Nilsen’s house, happily accepted the offer strangled and then drowned in kitchen sink His body was placed under the floor of Kenneth Ockendon.
Billy Sutherland was the next victim, a male prostitute from Scotland. Let it be known to all. Nilsen could not remember how he killed this young man, but it was later revealed that he had strangled the other corpses with his bare hands.
His 5th victim has never been found today. There is no record of how he died, it is known that he was from the Philippines or Thailand.
As for the last few we learn, not much is known. Nilsen was able to remember what he had done to him. Murders number 6 & 7 was only known to Nilsen from some physical feature that stuck in Nilsen’s mind. The Irish youth and the tramp were both strangled in Nilsen’s house. 8 The victim was cut into pieces and buried under the floor. A few days later the remains were burned in another pyre in his garden. 9th & 10. The victims were Scots, who were both chosen in the state. No other information is available.
The next victim would be a young Skinhead whom he picked up at Piccadilly Circle. He had a scar around his neck that said “Kill Here”. Nilsen did this, and hung him in the room for 24 hours, then buried his body under the floor.
In September 1981, the epileptic Malcolm Barlow collapsed against the garden wall of Nilsen. Nilsen called the paramedics. The next day Barlow Nilsen returned home, making a fatal mistake. Nilsen offered Barlow lunch and drinks. That night Barlow was killed.
In October 1981, Nilsen decided he needed a new place, so he moved into a new house in Muswell Hill. Before Nilsen moved, he had one last fire, erasing all evidence of his murder in the last 3 years, but he didn’t stop there.
Nilsen attempted to strangle Paul Nobbes by the neck, but he survived the attack. It was later learned that Nobbs did not go to the police for fear of being sexually assaulted.
John Howlett would fight bitterly for his life. The first victim in Nilsen’s new house and the one who tries to strangle Nilsen back. Unfortunately, he lost the fight and Nilsen eventually drowned Howlett. The remains were then torn up, boiled in a pot, and dried.
He met a twisted man named Graham Allen Nilsen on Shaftesbury Avenue, little did the man know that this would be his last night. Nilsen sank the man again, leaving the body on the lip, until he figured out how he wanted to dispose of the body. Again, he dismembered Allen’s body and put the parts in his closet, the other parts were cooked and red in the bathroom.
Nilsen last and the last victim of “punk” from Oxford Street names Stephen Sinclair. The boy was hungry and Nilsen knew how to get him back to his room. After he agreed, Nilsen fed the young man, then strangled and slashed him. The body is hot and flushed from the water.
Nilsen’s killing spree had come to an abrupt end. They could no longer hold the pipes in their complex. People began to complain about back problems and a plumber was called. When the sewer plumber was incapacitated, human parts were found and the police were called to the scene. When questioned, Nilsen freely confessed his crimes to officers.
After being tried, Nilsen was convicted of six murders, and 2 murders and sentenced to life in prison on November 4, 1983. At first the prison sentence was proposed for a minimum of 25 years, but after a short time, the Secretary of the House imposed a life sentence. so Nilsen never or never was released. Unfortunately the Home Secretary withdrew his powers in November 2002, meaning Nilsen could be released on life license in 2008 from his original 25 year minimum sentence.
Nilsen is currently at HMP Full Sutton, a maximum security prison in East Yorkshire. Nilsen refused to go through the high courts to publish his autobiography called The History of a Drowning Boy, however he was allowed to give a televised interview from prison.
When Dennis Nilsen was asked what was the reason for killing all the young people his opinion was “Having fun is as good as any reason”.
