Exclusive
FIEND'S BOILING IN HELL
EVIL Dennis Nilsen, one of Britain’s worst serial killers, died from complications after a stomach op.
Nilsen, 72, was 35 years into a life sentence for murdering 15 men and boiling their bodies.
10
A source said: “Not surprisingly no tears were shed.”
Britain’s second worst serial killer was rushed to hospital from his jail cell after complaining of crippling gut pains.
He died shortly after 9am of complications from an emergency abdominal op.
Ex-cop Nilsen had served 35 years of a whole life sentence at maximum security Full Sutton jail, East Yorks.
10
A source told The Sun on Sunday: “Nilsen was getting on in years but there was little to suggest he was right at death’s door.
“Then he was taken to hospital in York with stomach problems. He had surgery yesterday but there were problems during the procedure and he died soon after.
“You won’t be surprised to hear no tears were shed.”
10
10
Callous Nilsen had shown little sign of frailty in a sneering letter to a lags’ magazine in February.
After finishing a sex offender course he boasted: “Nothing was revealed that I had not already worked out.”
The fiend’s sick fantasies triggered his murderous rampage from 1978 to 1983.
He dismembered many victims and often performed sex acts over their corpses.
10
10
Nilsen confessed to murdering “15 or 16” young men, putting him behind only Harold Shipman as the UK’s most prolific murderer.
Born in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, in 1945, Nilsen joined the Army as a cook aged 16 and served for 11 years.
In 1972 he spent eight months as a cop before quitting for a role in a Jobcentre.
In November 1975 he moved into a flat in Melrose Avenue, Cricklewood, North West London, where he would kill at least nine men.
Only my own death will eventually even the score and only at that point will I know that I am forgiven and really free of that burden of debt
Dennis Nilsen
On December 30, 1978, he claimed his first victim, Irish lad Stephen Holmes, 14, who was walking home from a concert. Nilsen tempted him to his house, throttled and drowned him.
He kept the body under the floorboards for eight months.
In December 1979 Nilsen strangled Canadian tourist Kenneth Ockenden, 23, with a headphone cord as he listened to a record.
Bizarrely Nilsen sat Kenneth’s body in an armchair while he watched TV.
Other victims were carefully bathed and clothed, with Nilsen often lying next to them in bed for hours on end.
His methods led him to be dubbed the Kindly Killer, because he believed his ritualistic killing was humane.
10
10
Nilsen dissected the bodies before burning the remains on a garden bonfire, throwing on a tyre to disguise the smell.
In May 1980 he throttled runaway Martyn Duffey, 16, and drowned him in the kitchen sink. He killed four more men that autumn.
Barman Douglas Stewart fought off Nilsen and alerted police. But officers dismissed it as a domestic row.
In September 1981 Nilsen found homeless Malcolm Barlow, 24, in a doorway and called an ambulance concerned for his welfare.
Barlow was released from hospital the next day, returned to thank Nilsen, and was killed. That October the murderer was forced to leave his flat after his landlord told him he wanted to renovate.
He moved to an attic flat in Cranley Gardens, Muswell Hill, North London.
I deserve to experience the same degree of pain suffered by my victims
Dennis Nilsen
On his 36th birthday in November 1981 he took student Paul Nobbs, 19, back to his house and plied him with alcohol.
When Nobbs woke the next morning, he saw a deep cut across his throat and bruises on his face. Brazen Nilsen advised that he see a doctor and medics revealed someone had tried to strangle him.
Nobbs declined to report the incident. Nilsen went on to claim three more victims.
His second property had no garden so he had to abandon his bonfire plan. Instead he dissected bodies and flushed remains down the loo.
Drag queen Carl Stotter woke as he was being strangled by Nilsen in May 1982. He was spared.
10
10
The monster’s penultimate victim Graham Allen, 27, had been hailing a taxi when Nilsen offered to buy him dinner.
He strangled Graham and left his body in the bath for three days before chopping it up. Nilsen later claimed Graham had died after choking on an omelette.
The fiend was finally caught in February 1983 after complaining about blocked drains at the property.
A Dyno-Rod worker found rats feasting on human remains inside a pipe. Nilsen went on trial at the Old Bailey that October. He was convicted of seven murders and sentenced to 25 years.
Our worst 5 killers
- HAROLD SHIPMAN: Guilty of 15 murders but suspected of killing 260 from 1975-98. Died in jail at 57 in 2004.
- DENNIS NILSEN: Murdered 15 men from 1978-83. Had sex with their corpses before cutting them up.
- PETER SUTCLIFFE: Yorkshire Ripper killed at least 13 women, many of them vice girls, between 1975-80.
- FRED WEST: Murdered 12 women from 1967-87, hiding bodies in cellar. Suicide in jail aged 53 in 1995.
- ANGUS SINCLAIR: Serving life for murders of up to eight women, mainly prostitutes, from 1961 to 1978.
In 1994 then-Home Secretary Michael Howard ordered that Nilsen should never be released, making him one of around 60 whole-life prisoners in the UK.
Yet Nilsen refused to stay quiet, repeatedly suing the Prison Service.
In one case he claimed his human rights had been breached because gay magazines had been censored before they reached his cell. A court threw out his judicial review bid.
Five years ago we revealed that Nilsen had seemingly begun to confront the terrible enormity of his crimes.
In a secret autobiography, seen by The Sun on Sunday, Nilsen wrote: “In the relative ‘twinkling of an eye’, I will have to face my own death just like any other victim.
“I deserve to experience the same degree of pain suffered by my victims. Nothing less will suffice. Only my own death will eventually even the score and only at that point will I know that I am forgiven and really free of that burden of debt.
“In the intervening period of what remains of my life I will try and be worthy of it.”
MOST READ IN NEWS
Last year his two-bed Muswell Hill flat of horrors went up for sale for £500,000.
A chilling reconstruction of its kitchen became one of the most visited exhibits at Scotland Yard’s Black Museum. In 2017 criminal psychologist David Wilson revealed he got Christmas cards from Nilsen after speaking about him in TV documentaries. He was also convinced the serial killer was also following him on Twitter.
A Prison Service spokeswoman confirmed Nilsen’s death, saying: “As with all deaths in custody there will be an independent investigation by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.”
- GOT a news story? RING on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or EMAIL exclusive@the-sun.co.uk