Who are Dennis Nilsen’s victims?
DENNIS Nilsen, one of the UK’s worst ever serial killers, was caged for life in 1983 after murdering up to 15 men when he picked them up from the streets.
Nilsen, from Fraserburgh in Scotland, strangled or drowned them before having sex with their corpses between 1978 and 1983 at his addresses in north London. But who were the twists killer’s known victims?
Nilsen confessed committing 15 murders to police in February 1983 after a visit by police to his home at 23 Cranley Gardens in Muswell Hill, north London.
Cops were investigating fragments of human bone and flesh clogging up drains in the area.
He could reportedly only name 12, however, and only six bodies were ever recovered.
Who are Dennis Nilsen’s victims?
Stephen Dean Holmes (killed on December 30, 1978)
Nilsen’s first victim was 14 when he meet the killer in a pub, before inviting him back to his house and killing him.
Nilsen kept his body in his flat for several months, and even slept beside it.
Kenneth Ockendon (killed December 3, 1979)
A Canadian tourist who spent the day sightseeing with Nilsen in 1979 after meeting him in pub, before ending up at Nilsen’s flat after agreeing to dinner and further drinks.
He was one of only a few of Nilsen’s victims who was recorded as a missing person.
The young man was strangled with the lead of a set of headphones as Nilsen listened to a record.
Martin Duffey (killed May 17, 1980)
Martin Duffey, 16, was homeless and was killed by strangulation and drowning him in the kitchen sink, before bathing his body on May 17, 1980.
Two days later, Duffey’s body was placed beneath the floorboards at Nilsen’s home.
William Sutherland (killed August 20, 1980)
William, from Edinburgh, was 26-years-old when he crossed paths with Nilsen and was killed at Melrose Avenue address in Cricklewood in August 1980.
Sutherland occasionally worked as a male prostitute and met Nilsen in a pub in Piccadilly Circus and the pair returned to the killer’s flat.
Nilsen could not recall precisely how he had murdered Sutherland, other than that he had strangled
Unidentified (killed September 1980)
Nilsen could only remember about his fifth victim was that he was an Irish labourer with rough hands, who wore an old suit and jacket, and whose age he estimated to be between 27 and 30 years old.
He had met this victim in the Cricklewood Arms in late 1980.
Unidentified (killed October 1980)
Nilsen’s sixth victim was described by the monster as a slender male prostitute, aged between 20 and 30, and of either Filipino or Mexican descent.
Nilsen met this victim in the Salisbury Arms in October 1980.
Unidentified (killed November 1980)
The victim was described by Nilsen as being an English vagrant in his 20s, whom he encountered sleeping in a doorway at the top of Charing Cross Road.
Nilsen, who killed the man at his Melrose Avenue address, said he believed this victim’s life had been “one of long suffering” .
Nilsen commented that killing him had been “as easy as taking candy from a baby”.
Unidentified (killed between November and December 1980)
The last victim to be killed in 1980 was a “long-haired hippy”, aged between 25 and 30, whom he had met in the West End after the pubs had closed.
The victim’s body was retained beneath the floorboards of the flat until Nilsen removed the corpse, cut it into three pieces, and then returned them under the floorboards. He burnt the remains one year later.
Unidentified (killed January 4, 1981)
Nilsen’s ninth victim was described as an “18-year-old, blue-eyed Scot” who wore a green tracksuit top and trainers. Nilsen him in the Golden Lion pub in Soho in early January 1981.
He was murdered after taking part in a drinking contest with Nilsen at Melrose Avenue
Unidentified (killed February (1981)
Nilsen did not recall much about this victim, other than the fact he was originally from Belfast and was in his early 20s, and that they met somewhere in the West End after the pubs had closed.
The victim was strangled with a necktie and his body before being placed beneath Nilsen’s floorboards.
Unidentified (killed April 1981)
Nilsen met his next victim, an English skinhead aged approximately 20, at a food stall in Leicester Square in April 1981 and was lured to Nilsen’s home with the promise of a meal and alcohol.
Nilsen hung this victim’s naked torso in his bedroom for 24 hours, before placing the body beneath the floorboards. Nilsen later claimed to have fabricated this victim.
Malcolm Barlow (killed September 18, 1981)
Malcolm Barlow, then 23, was an epileptic orphan who had spent much of his life in care.
Mr Barlow was the final person to be killed by Nilsen at the Melrose Avenue address, after the killer had helped the young man to get medical help when suffering a seizure.
Malcolm went back to Nilsen’s home to thank him for his assistance but was killed.
Barlow’s body was stowed in a kitchen cupboard as there was no further room beneath his floorboards, before the psycho dissected his corpse.
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John Howlett (killed March,1982)
John Howlett was killed at Nilsen’s second address, 23 Cranley Gardens in March 1982.
The 23-year-old had met Nilsen in a pub near Leicester Square before returning to his flat.
Howlett awoke to find himself being strangled and Nilsen drowned Howlett by holding his head under water in a bathtub for five minutes.
He then dismembered his body and flushed various organs down the toilet, and put large bones “out with the rubbish”.
Graham Allen (killed September 1982)
Tourist Graham Allen, 27, had been attempting to find his way to Shaftesbury avenue in London’s West End.
But he bumped into Nilsen, who invited him back to his flat for dinner and subsequently killed him.
Allen was strangled with a ligature as he sat eating an omelette Nilsen had cooked for him. His body was identified from dental records and healed fractures to his jawbone.
Dissected portions of flesh and small bones from the body of Allen subsequently blocked the drains at Cranley Gardens.
Stephen Sinclair (killed January 26, 1983)
Sinclair, 20 was also killed at 23 Cranley Gardens in Muswell Hill and was Nilsen’s final victim.
He was a heroin addict who engaged in acts of self-harming. Nilsen encountered Sinclair in Oxford Street, where he first bought the youth a hamburger before suggesting that Sinclair accompany him to Cranley Gardens.
After Sinclair had consumed alcohol and injected heroin at Nilsen’s flat, Nilsen strangled him to death with a ligature.
He was one of the victims Nilsen identified by name and he was charged with his murder on 11 February 1983.