Dennis Nilsen: The Kindly Killer…Kinda
Before we dive in, a quick content warning. This story contains necrophilia. And a bunch of other disturbing stuff obviously, so buckle up I guess.
On February 9th, 1983, Dennis Nilsen was arrested after police showed up at his home on a tip from his buildings plumbing company. During the drive to the police station he confessed to killing as many as 16 young men, and once they arrived he gave a full confession, with as many details as he could remember. Points for cooperation I suppose. The officers who knocked on Nilsen’s front door that day probably won’t ever forget the scene they stumbled upon, I know I wouldn’t.
When police showed up that day to question Dennis he initially feigned shock, but soon gave in and directed them to a closet where one of the several bodies hidden throughout his property lay decomposing. They also discovered three severed heads in a kitchen cupboard, which is absolutely horrifying. After pressing him for more information, he simply told them it was “a long story” and he would tell them everything down at the station. Personally, I can’t imagine living with that smell and just ignoring it but I guess if you’re comfortable with murder there’s probably not much that makes you uncomfortable.
“I stood there amazed. I found it hard to believe that I, Dennis Nilsen had actually done all that.” -Dennis Nilsen.
Dennis had a shall we say… colorful upbringing. Nilsen’s mom was a Scottish woman named Betty Whyte (not the cool one sorry), and his father was a Norwegian soldier by the name of Olav Magnus Nilsen, though he left the family when Dennis was only 6. Honestly, his father seemed like a deadbeat who by all accounts wasn’t really interested in his wife or children, and traveled often to get away from them. After he left the family for good Dennis, his mother, and his brother and sister would all live in a single room at his grandparents’ house. With his own father out of the picture, Dennis turned to a different male role model, and spent most of his free time with his grandfather, Andrew Whyte. Whyte was a strict man who some (cough cough me) might have referred to as a little “uptight”. He was an extremely religious man who was VERY stuck in his ways, and VERY judgmental of those he saw as “immoral”. Tragically for Dennis, soon after his father walked out on him, grandpa Andrew passed away while out in his fishing boat. So all in all, not the best year for him. It got so much worse though because instead of just explaining the concept of death to Dennis the adults in his life chose to tell him that his grandpa was simply sleeping… even though they held an open casket funeral for him. That makes zero sense to me but I’m not a parent so hey what do I know? After a few months of waiting for his grandpa to “wake up”, he finally realized the truth and was devastated to know that his favorite person would never actually be coming back to him. He was alone once again.
Once he was of age Nilsen enlisted in the British Army and worked as a cook until 1972 when he left the army. Later that same year he began training to become a police officer and passed all of his courses with ease. His police career was short-lived however and he ended up quitting after only a year. It has been said that one day while on the job he looked into a parked car and saw two men “behaving indecently” (which was illegal at the time) but he couldn’t bring himself to arrest them, so he chose to resign instead. He later moved in with a man named David Gallichan and was overjoyed to finally have a companion and partner with whom he could share his life. His joy was short-lived due to the tenuous nature of the twos relationship, and David eventually moved out in 1977. This left Nilsen feeling devastated and overwhelmed with loneliness once more.
All in all Dennis Nilsen was only convicted of 6 murders and 1 attempted murder, but in total it is believed that he actually killed at least 12 boys and young men during his reign of terror. Most of the victims he chose to target were homeless gay teens, those that in his mind no one would miss enough to report missing, or if if they did, search very hard for. This strategy seemed to work for him since many of his victims were never reported missing and several of the bodies linked to him were never able to be identified. His first victim (according to him ) was Stephen Dean Holmes, a 14-year-old who was on his way home from a concert when Dennis ran into him in a gay bar. According to Nilsen he brought him home, strangled him with a necktie, and then drowned the boy in a bucket of water. Strangulation and drowning would soon become a common theme throughout his crimes and Dennis would resort to killing again in the same fashion just one year later. When describing some of the victims to detectives Dennis claimed to remember little or no details, while others he could remember quite vividly and in great detail. The ones he could remember seemed to be particularly horrific. One of his later victims, John Howlett became the first victim to be killed and dismembered in Dennis's home in December of 1981. Though a struggle ensued during the attack, Dennis eventually gained the upper hand and drowned the poor man before dismembering him and hiding his various body parts around the home. Another later victim, Graham Allen, was also drowned and then left in Nilsen’s bathtub for 3 days before finally being dismembered like the others. Based on the timeline provided by Nilsen, he committed several attempted murders in between his successful killings. One such unlucky victim was Andrew Ho, who was thankfully able to overpower Dennis and get away, but Ho later chose not to press charges. It’s really sad that most of the men/boys that Dennis attempted to kill either didn’t report their attack or didn’t want to press charges. I understand why they were afraid to go to the police but they deserved justice too, and maybe if they had it could have saved a life. It really bothers me that he chose to target young homeless men, it just adds an extra layer of ick. How was this man called the “kindly killer”? Killing and dismembering people doesn’t seem very kind to me. In fact, his crimes feel pretty cold, calculated, and brutal. No kindness there.
“I had started down the avenue of death and possession of a new kind of flatmate.”-Dennis Nilsen (when reflecting on his first murder)
One of the most upsetting parts of his story (at least in my opinion) is that several of these murders took place in front of Nilsen’s dog, Bleep. That definitely seems like animal cruelty to me. Horrifyingly enough Nilsen said in an interview that during one of the attempted murders he only knew that his victim was still alive because Bleep licked his face, and “Bleep did not ever interact with the corpses”… I’m sorry what? Also, side note because I can’t stop thinking about it; who names their dog bleep? Another fun fact that’s not actually fun is that after killing his victims Nilsen often washed the bodies, re-dressed them, and would sleep with them in his bed or place them on a chair in the living room so that he would have someone to watch television with. Even worse he also engaged in sexual acts with several of his victims’ dead bodies. And that’s all I’m going to say about that. You can do your own research if you want to learn more.
This one gives me major Jeffrey Dahmer vibes. Both he and Nilsen struggled with shame and self-hatred about their sexuality, not to mention the daddy issues they both clearly had. In fact, Nilsen was actually referred to as the “British Jeffrey Dahmer” by the people of Scotland, and like Dahmer, Nilsen often lured vulnerable young men back to his home with the promise of alcohol and shelter before killing and dismembering them. But while Dahmer was attempting to create an army of sex zombies, Nilsen was only keeping a select few bodies in tact to spend quality time with. The rest were dismembered and hidden anywhere he could think of. He hid body parts in suitcases, under the floorboards, he buried them in his garden, burned them, and even flushed some of them down the toilet. At least the smaller parts that could fit down the pipes. This tactic would prove to be his undoing because after flushing too many body parts down the toilet, surprise surprise he started to have some problems with the plumbing. I’m not sure why he didn’t think the body parts would eventually clog the toilet because that seems pretty obvious to me. Maybe they have different plumbing in Scotland, but in the U.S. we’re not even supposed to flush our tampons so I can’t imagine trying to flush human remains. It didn’t work out too well for him though because other tenants in his apartment complex began to notice the smell coming from the drains and a plumber was soon dispatched to locate the source of the stench and clear the pipes. The plumber noticed what was causing the problem almost immediately and reported Dennis to his supervisor, and then to the authorities. When initially confronted by the plumber Dennis laughed and said that someone must be flushing their KFC down the toilet. (EW!)
Dennis Nilsen was eventually found guilty and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 25 years in 1983, but was later given a whole life order meaning the possibility of parole would be revoked, and he would spend the rest of his life behind bars. Upon hearing the news Nilsen had little reaction, even stating that he accepted his punishment and had no desire to be free again. Honestly, it makes sense, the man was incredibly lonely his whole life but once he was incarcerated he was no longer alone. I’m sure in some weird way he was happy to be there. He would not end up serving his full life sentence however because Dennis Nilsen would end up dying at 72, on May 12th, 2018 as a result of pulmonary embolism. Good riddance if you ask me. Apparently, he was a bit of a pain in the ass in prison. He claimed that not being allowed to have gay porn while serving out his sentence was a “violation of his human rights”… I’m not sure I can understand his logic on that one, but I guess if you commit murder you probably don’t think like normal people. Either way, given the whole sexual assault thing I’m thinking no porn for him.
Well, that was the story of Dennis Nilsen, the loneliest man in Scotland. I’ll leave you with this final thought: What the heck is up with serial killers hiding dead bodies under their floorboards? That smell had to be atrocious and I don’t see how he could sleep through it. Because no amount of Bath And Body Works wallflower plug-ins can cover up the smell of rotting flesh. Maybe serial killers don’t have very strong senses of smell because this seems to be a common theme.
