Wednesday, 8 February 2017

Dennis Nilsen the kindly killer

It's been a while since we had a serial killer post,hasn't it? 
Obviously mentions of death and murder to follow. 


Often referred to as “The Muswell Hill Murderer” and dubbed by the media as “The British Jeffrey Dahmer”, Dennis Nilsen was a serial killer and necrophiliac who killed between 12-15 men during 1978-1983.

Much like the notorious cannibal-serial killer Jeffery Dahmer, Nilsen struggled with his sexuality at an early age and did not confide in anyone around him. He also joined the army and drank in excess to combat his social anxieties.
Another similarity they shared was morbid sexual fantasies involving dead bodies. Nilsen’s fuel for these macabre erotic scenarios were memories from his time in the army and various classical paintings portraying dismemberment and death.




Eventually Dennis Nilsen drifted away from his family and left his rural beginnings to train as a police officer in London. The city had more to offer him in the way of a gay community, and he was able to socialize at various bars and clubs in the area; however he was never able to develop a meaningful, long term relationship. Flings and casual encounters left him feeling empty and he changed jobs often.

Nilsen did manage to move in with a young man that he had saved from a beating outside of a pub one night, but it lacked in attraction and eventually dissolved. He started killing after the breakup.
His victims were typically young men down on their luck, such as the homeless, or men he met and lured to his abode with the promise of alcohol.

One of the flats he lived in,in Cranley Gardens
(image source:murderpedia)

 Nilsen’s modus operandi was strangling or drowning his victims. He would clean and shave their corpses and pleasure himself at the sight. Nilsen would keep the bodies with them for as long as he could stave off the inevitable decay, sometimes months would pass by and they’d still be there in his flat under the floor.  In his mind, these were the longest relationships he had ever had; he had been unable to have a relationship with such longevity as the men he had affairs with had always left. His new housemates couldn’t leave, and he would prop them up in his apartment and chat to them as if they were still alive. Sometimes he would have them embrace him and partake in non-penetrive sex with their lifeless bodies.

Police photo of Nilsen's closet containing black bags filled with organs and body parts.
(image source: Murderpedia)

He concealed his victims beneath the floorboards, battling the stench of decay with air fresheners and gassing the maggots and insects that writhed in and out of his decomposing paramours.
When he decided that they had expired beyond saving, he would burn the remains on a bonfire near his flat. He would take out their organs and dispose of them around the perimeter of his garden or the nearest park. He boiled the heads so the flesh would slide off the skull and cut up the rest. 

An example of the tools used on his victims.
(image source: murderpedia)

Decapitation allowed him to dispose of the corpse piece by piece by flushing small parts down the toilet- a process that would eventually attract the attention of his neighbors and lead to his arrest.
Nilsen attempted to act shocked at the news that the drains were blocked with human remains, as well as attempting to suggest that the bones were that of leftover chicken meat and nothing to do with him, but he eventually admitted to the murders and went into detail when recalling his doings.
Dennis Nilsen claimed that he never premeditated the murders, and that he suddenly found himself strangling or drowning his acquaintances.
He was convicted for his crimes and is spending the remainder of his life in HMP Full Sutton.

Apparently his flat in Muswell hill was made over and sold in 2014.
You can read an article about it here [X]


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