[105], On 26 January 1983, Nilsen killed his final victim, 20-year-old Stephen Sinclair. All the victims' personal possessions were destroyed following the ritual of bathing their bodies in an effort to obliterate their identity prior to their murder and their now becoming what Nilsen described as a "prop" in his fantasies. A forensics expert testified at Nilsen's 1983 trial that "at least eight bodies" had been incinerated at Melrose Avenue,[77] academically confirming he had murdered at least eleven victims. Dennis Andrew Nilsen (23 November 1945 - 12 May 2018) was a Scottish serial killer and necrophile who murdered at least twelve young men and boys between 1978 and 1983 in London.Convicted at the Old Bailey of six counts of murder and two of attempted murder, Nilsen was sentenced to life imprisonment on 4 November 1983, with a recommendation that he serve a minimum of 25 years. For two days, Duffey's body was stowed in a cupboard,[77] before Nilsen noted signs of bloating; therefore, "he went straight under the floorboards".[78]. This aroused the suspicions of both men. [n 3], Initially, Nilsen experienced domestic contentment with Gallichan, but within a year of their moving to Melrose Avenue, the superficial relationship between the two men began to show signs of strain. [167] The interview was screened in full that evening. At the flat, Stottor consumed further alcohol before falling asleep upon an open sleeping bag; he later awoke to find himself being strangled with Nilsen loudly whispering, "Stay still". In a practice which he had conducted upon several victims killed at Melrose Avenue, he also boiled the heads, hands and feet to remove the flesh off these sections of the victims' bodies. One hour later, Nilsen unsuccessfully attempted to rouse Howlett, then sat on the edge of the bed drinking rum as he stared at Howlett before deciding to kill him. Nilsen manually strangled Barlow as he slept, before stowing his body beneath his kitchen sink the following morning.[92]. The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. Following the closing arguments of both prosecution and defence, the jury retired to consider their verdict on 3 November 1983. Nilsen's scholastic record was above average. A drifter and a loner, Nilsen served in the army. [164] Nilsen remained at HMP Full Sutton until his death on 12 May 2018. But one man that didn't quite fit the same pattern was Kenneth Ockenden. He then laid Ockenden's corpse spreadeagled above him on his bed as he watched television for several hours before wrapping the body in plastic bags and stowing the corpse beneath the floorboards. Most victims had died by strangulation;[127] on several occasions, he had drowned the victims once they had been strangled into unconsciousness. Kenneth lived on month day 1939, at address. On 31 October, the prosecution called Paul Bowden to testify in rebuttal of the psychiatrists who had testified for the defence. [29] On one occasion, Nilsen discovered that, by using a free-standing mirror, he could create an effect whereby if positioning the mirror so his head was out of view, he could visualise himself engaged in a sexual act with another man. Staring out of the window of the police car, he replied, "Fifteen or sixteen, since 1978. Birth 12 July 1929 - Leatherhead, Surrey, England, United Kingdom. [61], Nilsen killed his third victim, 16-year-old Martyn Duffey, on 17 May 1980. They slept in separate beds, and both began to bring home casual sexual partners. This ruling ensured Nilsen would never be released from prison, a punishment he accepted. No more!" Following each murder, Nilsen would perform a ritual in which he bathed and dressed the victim's body, which he retained for extended periods of time, before dissecting and disposing of the remains by burning them in a bonfire or flushing them down a toilet. As Cattran had arrived at the property at dusk, he and Wheeler agreed to postpone further investigation into the blockage until the following morning. Drs. [155] Refuting the testimony of MacKeith and Gallwey, Bowden further testified he had found no evidence of maladaptive behaviour, and that Nilsen suffered from no disorder of the mind. Nilsen was brought to trial on 24 October 1983, charged with six counts of murder and two of attempted murder. Of Nilsen's eight identified victims, only threeStephen Holmes, Kenneth Ockenden and Graham Allenhad a permanent address at the time of their murder, with the remaining victims largely (though not exclusively) consisting of vagrants, runaways and male prostitutes. He often talked to or played games with his younger sister, Sylvia, to whom he was closer than any other family member following his grandfather's passing.[14]. Dennis Nilsen killed at least 12 young men and boys between 1978 and 1983. As had been the case with several previous victims, Nilsen stated he could not recall the precise moment he had strangled Allen, but recalled approaching him as he sat eating an omelette with the full intention of murdering him. [10] His body was brought ashore and returned to the Whyte family home prior to burial. [100] For over a week following Howlett's murder, Nilsen's own neck bore the victim's finger impressions. [177] These exhibits include the stove upon which Nilsen had boiled the heads of his final three victims; the knives he had used to dissect several of his victims' bodies; the headphones Nilsen had used to strangle Ockenden; the ligature he had fashioned to strangle his last victim; and the bath from his Cranley Gardens address in which he had drowned Howlett and retained the body of Allen prior to dissection. This posting was more dangerous than his previous postings in West Germany or Norway, and Nilsen later recalled his regiment losing several men, often in ambushes en route to the army barracks. All present viewed the topic with derision, except Nilsen, who ardently spoke in defence of gay rights. He also stated that, beginning in December 1978, he had killed "twelve or thirteen" men at his former address, 195 Melrose Avenue. No sexual activity had occurred, but this incident fuelled Nilsen's sexual fantasies, which initially involved his sexual partnerinvariably a young, slender malebeing completely passive. [101], In May 1982, Nilsen encountered Carl Stottor, a 21-year-old gay man, as the young man drank at the Black Cap pub in Camden. Nilsen was eventually sentenced to life imprisonment in1983 and died in 2018 in prison. Kenneth Hagans Obituary. Born in Aberdeenshire in 1945 to a Norwegian father and Scottish mother, Nilsen's parents divorced in 1948 after his father - who had been involved in the anti-Nazi resistance in Norway during the. He moved into an attic flat at 23D Cranley Gardens[94] in the Muswell Hill district of North London on 5 October 1981. Nilsen envied Olav Jr.'s popularity. The prosecution counsel opened the case for the Crown by describing the events of February 1983 leading to the identification of human remains in the drains at Cranley Gardens and Nilsen's subsequent arrest, the discovery of three dismembered bodies in his property, his detailed confession, his leading investigators to the charred bone fragments of twelve further victims killed at Melrose Avenue, and the efforts he had taken to conceal his crimes. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. After meeting at a pub, the pair went to a few big tourist spots together, visiting Trafalgar Square, Downing Street and Westminster Abbey. The minimum term of 25 years imprisonment to which Nilsen was sentenced in 1983 was replaced by a whole-life tariff by Home Secretary Michael Howard in December 1994. ", Duffey's body was first placed upon a kitchen chair, then upon the bed on which he had been strangled. Nilsen was a quiet yet adventurous child. Over two days, Bowden testified that, although he found Nilsen to be abnormal in a colloquial sense, he had concluded Nilsen to be a manipulative person who had been capable of forming relationships, but had forced himself to objectify people. [151] These factors could be attributed to an unspecified personality disorder from which MacKeith believed Nilsen suffered. [66], "I eased him into his new bed [beneath the floorboards] A week later, I wondered whether his body had changed at all or had started to decompose. Kenneth Ockenden was a Canadian student visiting relatives in Britain when he encountered Dennis Nilsen. Next he killed Kenneth Ockenden on December 3, 1979, a 23-year-old Canadian student. Nilsen strangled him with a headphone cord. This practicewhich had led to his arresthad been the only method he could consider to dispose of the internal organs and soft tissue as, unlike at Melrose Avenue, he had no exclusive use of the garden of the property. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. His attendance record was mediocre, although he frequently volunteered to work overtime, leading several colleagues to suspect he was something of a loner. Ockenden was one of the three victims who had fixed address at the time of his death as others were mainly runaways, homeless or sex workers. At least two men who survived Nilsen's attempts to murder them recall Nilsen drunkenly muttering to himself about consulting "the professor" with regards to whether they could permanently "stay with [him]" in the minutes before they were attacked. [28], Unlike his previous postings, Nilsen had his own room while stationed in Aden. Nilsen feigned shock and bewilderment, stating, "Good grief, how awful!" [n 9], Cattran contacted the Daily Mirror on 10 February,[122] informing the newspaper of the ongoing search for human remains at Cranley Gardens, leading the newspaper to break the story and spark intense national media interest. Several hours later, he turned Stephen's head towards him, before kissing the youth's body on the forehead and saying, "Goodnight, Stephen". ", "Free BMD Entry Information: Barlow, Malcolm S.", "Would You Buy the Former Flat of One of Britain's Worst Serial Killers? Cattran reported his suspicions to his supervisor, Gary Wheeler. He remained there until 1993, when he was transferred to HMP Whitemoor, again as a Category A prisoner, and with increased segregation from other inmates. Nilsen then washed the body in his bathtub before placing Holmes on his bed and caressing his body. Kenneth Donnan Lawson Obituary. The following day, the jury returned with a majority verdict of guilty upon six counts of murder and one of attempted murder, with a unanimous verdict of guilty in relation to the attempted murder of Nobbs. [49], The Melrose Avenue flat was supposed to be furnished, but upon moving in the pair found it to be largely threadbare. He further elaborated on the day of his conviction that he took an enormous thrill from the "social seduction; the getting the 'friend' back; the decision to kill; the body and its disposal". [24] He relished the travel opportunities afforded him in his training, and recalled as a highlight his regiment taking part in a ceremonial parade attended by both the Queen and Field Marshal Lord Montgomery of Alamein. [98] There, both Nilsen and Howlett drank as they watched a film, before Howlett walked into Nilsen's front room and fell asleep in his bed (which was located in the front room at this time). He was adamant that the decision to kill was not made until moments before the act of murder. Nilsen was adamant that he was uncertain as to why he had killed, simply saying, "I'm hoping you will tell me that" when asked his motive for the murders. [82] He placed deodorants beneath the floorboards and sprayed insecticide about the flat twice daily, but the odour of decay and the presence of flies remained. [178][179], In January 2021, a former confidant of Nilsen's named Mark Austin revealed that an edited version of The History of a Drowning Boy was to be posthumously published by RedDoor Press. It is with deep sorrow that we announce the death of Kenneth Donnan Lawson of Easley, South Carolina, born in Chester, South Carolina, who passed away on April 28, 2023, at the age of 82, leaving to mourn family and friends. On 26 May, Nilsen was committed to stand trial at the Old Bailey on five counts of murder and two of attempted murder (a sixth murder charge was later added). At the onset of puberty, Nilsen discovered he was gay, which initially confused and shamed him. Case 144 of, This page was last edited on 27 April 2023, at 11:53. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. He twice masturbated over the body, before awaiting the passing of rigor mortis to enable him to stow the corpse beneath his floorboards. Nilsen is again known to have informed his employers he was ill and unable to attend work on 9 October 1982likely in order that he could complete the dissection of Allen's body. He was invited in and, after eating a meal, began drinking rum and coke before falling asleep on the sofa. The body was usually dressed in socks and underpants, before Nilsen draped the victims around him as he talked to the corpse. Upon learning from fellow tenants that the top floor flat from where the human remains had been flushed belonged to Nilsen, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Jay and two colleagues opted to wait outside the house until Nilsen returned home from work. Following his usual ritual of bathing the body, Nilsen laid Sinclair's body upon his bed, applied talcum powder to the body, then arranged three mirrors around the bed before himself lying naked alongside the dead youth. No family members were present at the service. [4] After the birth of her third child, Nilsen's mother concluded she had "rushed into marriage without thinking". I could oscillate between the two with instant ease." Contrary to the prosecution claims, the defence counsel asserted that Nobbs' testimony reflected Nilsen's rational self being unable to control his impulses. [43] Nilsen was initially posted to a Jobcentre in Denmark Street, where his primary role was to find employment for unskilled labourers. At Melrose Avenue, Nilsen typically retained the victims' bodies for a much longer period before disposing of the remains. DENNIS Nilsen became one of Britain's most infamous serial killers when he murdered at least a dozen boys and young men in his North London houses of horror. Also, actor Rupert Everett has now made a shock claim that he could have been one of the sick murderers victims, here is what he said. Prior to moving into Melrose Avenue, Nilsen negotiated a deal with the landlord whereby he and Gallichan had exclusive use of the garden at the rear of the property. Early History of the Ockenden family. At Nilsen's home, both he and Holmes drank heavily before they fell asleep. Allen accepted Nilsen's offer to accompany him to Cranley Gardens for a meal. I disinterred him and pulled the dirt-stained youth up onto the floor. MacKeith testified as to how, through a lack of emotional development,[150] Nilsen experienced difficulty expressing any emotion other than anger,[151] and his tendency to treat other human beings as components of his fantasies. Nilsen died on 12 May. [64] Reaching for a necktie, Nilsen straddled Holmes as he strangled him into unconsciousness, before drowning the teenager in a bucket filled with water. Nilsen enjoyed the work, but missed the comradeship of the army. He discarded these innards both upon the waste ground behind his flat, and in his household rubbish. [14] Nilsen initially believed that his fondling of his sister may have been evidence that he was bisexual. His birth father died the same month, leaving each of his three children 1,000 (the equivalent of about 9,972 as of 2022). Almost exactly a year after the first murder, this 23-year-old Canadian student was killed on December 3, 1979. . Inevitably, the accumulated bodies beneath Nilsen's floorboards attracted insects and created a foul odourparticularly throughout summer months. [n 1], Following a brief period with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in Inverness, Nilsen was selected to cook for the Queen's Royal Guard before, in January 1971, being reassigned to serve as a cook for a different regiment in the Shetland Islands, where he ended his 11-year military career at the rank of corporal in October 1972. For other inquiries, Contact Us. Upon washing his face in Nilsen's bathroom, as Nobbs noted his eyes were bloodshot and his face completely red, Nilsen had exclaimed, "God! His skin was very dirty. When Stottor had regained enough strength to question Nilsen as to his recollections of being strangled and immersed in cold water, Nilsen explained he had become caught in the zip of the sleeping bag following a nightmare, and that he had placed him in cold water as "you were in shock". He frequented the Black. I relive experiences from childhood to present, taking out the bad bits. He had been on a tour of Britain when he came across Nilsen in a pub and he was taken around London. He viewed these encounters as "soul-destroying" liaisons in which he "would only lend" his partner his body in a "vain search for inner peace"[40] as he sought a lasting relationship. Nilsen said that three unidentified victims he had initially confessed to killingan Irishman in September 1980; a "long-haired hippy" in November or December 1980, and an English skinhead in April 1981had been invented to simply "complement the continuity of evidence". Nilsen asked why the police were interested in his drains and also whether or not the two officers present with Jay were health inspectors. He was then arrested and cautioned on suspicion of murder before being taken to Hornsey police station. He is believed to be the second known victim at the hands of Nilsen. As he "gasped for air which wasn't there"[15] he recalled believing that his grandfather was about to arrive and pull him out, before experiencing a sense of tranquility. Nilsen was kidnapped by an Arab taxi driver, who beat him unconscious and placed him in the boot of his car. [159] Nilsen also claimed drunkenness was the sole reason at least two of his attempted murders were unsuccessful. [85] When the bonfire had been reduced to ashes and cinders, Nilsen used a rake to search the debris for any recognisable bones. [138] With Nilsen's full consent, Moss had fully prepared his defence; five weeks before his trial, Nilsen again dismissed Moss, and opted instead to be represented by Ralph Haeems, upon whose advice Nilsen agreed to plead not guilty by diminished responsibility.[139]. Investigators recovered over 1,000 fragments of bone from the garden behind Melrose Avenue, many of them blackened and charred by fire. Nilsen was. The bodies of the victims killed at his previous address were kept for as long as decomposition would allow: upon noting any major signs of decomposition in a body, Nilsen stowed it beneath his floorboards. Over the following two days, Stottor repeatedly lapsed in and out of consciousness. [165][166], In September 1992, Central Television conducted an interview with Nilsen as part of the programme Viewpoint 1993 Murder In Mind, which focused upon offender profiling. (Gallichan later informed investigators that he had chosen to end the relationship.[52]). Throughout his service with this regiment, he was required to cook for thirty soldiers and two officers on a daily basis. [70], Two months after the attempted murder of Ho, on 3 December 1979, Nilsen encountered a 23-year-old Canadian student named Kenneth Ockenden,[71] who had been on a tour of England visiting relatives. [173] In his autobiography, Nilsen states that, beginning with his service in the army, he constantly lived two separate lives: his "real life" and his "fantasy life". [32], When Nilsen completed his deployment in Aden, he returned to the UK and was assigned to serve with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders at Seaton Barracks in Plymouth, Devon. [88], The final victim to be murdered at Melrose Avenue was 23-year-old Malcolm Barlow,[90] whom Nilsen discovered slumped against a wall outside his home on 17 September 1981. He kept his sexuality hidden from his family and his few friends. THE heartbroken family of one of Dennis Nilsen's victims has slammed ITV for cashing in on the serial killer's twisted crimes. DCI Jay later dismissed Nilsen's claims to have killed only twelve victims, stating that in the more than thirty hours of interviews police had conducted with Nilsen, when discussing the fifteen victims he had initially confessed to killing, he had never provided any inconsistencies in the physical characteristics, the date or place of encounter, the act of murder, or the ritual he observed with the body of any of the fifteen victims.[187]. Ockenden was sadly killed on December 3, 1979, at Nilsens home on Melrose Avenue. Both men immediately called the police who, upon closer inspection, discovered further small bones and scraps of what looked to the naked eye like either human or animal flesh in the same pipe. With heavy hearts, we announce the death of Kenneth F Adkison (Garden City, Michigan), who passed away on April 30, 2023 at the age of 97. Before the end of 1980, he killed a further five victims and attempted to murder one other; only one of these victims whom Nilsen murdered, 26-year-old William Sutherland, has ever been identified. Again, Nilsen ensured the bonfire was crowned with an old car tyre to disguise the smell of burning flesh (Nilsen had already dissected the bodies of four of these victims in January and August,[95] and needed only to complete the dissection of Barlow for this third bonfire). Initially, Nilsen intended to plead guilty to each charge of murder at his upcoming trial. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. [163] In October 2001, Nilsen brought a judicial review against the prison service, citing that the gay softcore pornography magazines Vulcan and Him, to which he subscribed regularly, had some images and articles of a more explicit nature removed before the magazine reached him. Nilsen formed brief relationships with several other young men over the following eighteen months; none of these relationships lasted more than a few weeks, and none of the men expressed any intention of living with him on a permanent basis. Following Duffey's murder, Nilsen began to kill with increasing frequency. [93] The day before he vacated the property, Nilsen burned the dissected bodies of the last five victims he had killed at this address upon a third and final bonfire he constructed in the garden behind his flat. Nilsen's first murder victim was identified in 2006 as 14-year-old Stephen Holmes. With reference to his murders, Nilsen claimed that his emotional state upon the dates of the murders, in conjunction with the amount of alcohol he had consumed, were both core factors in his decision to kill. Assembling the remains of the victims killed at Cranley Gardens on the floor of Hornsey mortuary, Professor Bowen was able to confirm the fingerprints on one body matched those on police files of Sinclair. Several days later, the pair viewed a vacant ground floor flat at 195 Melrose Avenue, also in Cricklewood, and they decided to move into the property. [65] Holmes' bound corpse remained beneath the floorboards for almost eight months, before Nilsen built a bonfire in the garden behind his flat and burned the body on 11 August 1979. [46] Nilsen engaged Stottor in conversation, discovering he was depressed following a failed relationship. The first witness to testify for the prosecution was Douglas Stewart, who testified that in November 1980, he had fallen asleep in a chair in Nilsen's flat only to wake to find his ankles bound to a chair and Nilsen strangling him with a tie as he pressed his knee to his (Stewart's) chest. Leave a sympathy message to the family in the guestbook on this memorial page of Kenneth . He then vaguely recalled hearing "water running" before realising he was immersed in the water and that Nilsen was attempting to drown him. But it was in Nilsens home where Ockenden was strangled with the cord of Nilsens headphones as he listened to music. [167] A four-minute section of this interview, in which Nilsen frankly discussed his crimes, was initially scheduled to be broadcast on 19 January 1993; the Home Office sought to ban the interview from being broadcast[168] on the grounds that they had not granted permission for Central to conduct interviews with Nilsen which were later broadcast to the public, and claimed ownership of copyrighted material. ", Extract from Nilsen's prison journals, written while on remand, April 1983. Stottor's voice frequently quavered with emotion as he recounted how Nilsen had repeatedly attempted to drown him in his bathtub as he pleaded in vain for his life to be spared, and how he later awoke to find Nilsen's mongrel dog licking his face; on several occasions, the judge had to allow Stottor time to regain his composure. Duffey was a catering student from Birkenhead, Merseyside, who had hitchhiked to London without his parents' knowledge on 13 May after being questioned by the British Transport Police for evading his train fare. [30] These fantasies gradually evolved to incorporate his own near-death experience with the Arab taxi driver; the dead bodies he had seen in Aden; and imagery within a 19th-century oil painting entitled The Raft of the Medusa, which depicts an old man holding the limp, nude body of a dead youth as he sits aside the dismembered body of another young male. The 23-year-old was touring England while visiting relatives before he fell into Nilsen's depraved clutches. [80] On another occasion, he had lain in bed alongside the body of an unidentified victim as he listened to the classical theme Fanfare for the Common Man[81] before bursting into tears. Three months after Nilsen's June 1982 promotion to the position of executive officer in his employment, he encountered a 27-year-old named Graham Allen attempting to hail a taxi in Shaftesbury Avenue. In December, Nilsen resigned from the police. )[146], "When under pressure of work and extreme pain of social loneliness and utter misery, I am drawn compulsively to a means of temporary escape from reality. He had been touring. ", Nilsen's written recollections of the ritual he observed after the murder of his first victim. [69][n 4], On 11 October 1979, Nilsen attempted to murder a student from Hong Kong named Andrew Ho, whom he had met in a St Martin's Lane pub and lured to his flat on the promise of sex. Central Television challenged the Home Office ruling in court, citing sections of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and that full permission to conduct an interview with Nilsen had been granted in advance. When Stottor regained consciousness, Nilsen embraced him; he then explained to Stottor he had almost strangled himself on the zip of the sleeping bag, and that he had resuscitated him. [27], Following two years of service in Osnabrck, Nilsen returned to Aldershot, where he passed his official catering exam before being deployed to serve as a cook for the British Army in Norway. Not hereat the police station." [59], Nilsen admitted to engaging in masturbation as he viewed the nude bodies of several of his victims, and to have engaged in sexual acts with six of his victims' bodies,[60] but was adamant that he had never penetrated any of his victims. While en route to the police station, Nilsen was asked whether the remains in his flat belonged to one person or two. Nilsen was questioned in relation to the incident, but Ho decided not to press charges. [51] Gallichan later insisted Nilsen had never been violent towards him, but that he did engage in verbal abuse, and the pair had begun arguing with increasing frequency by early 1976.
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