The Real Des: The Dennis Nilsen Story

Notes taken when watching the documentary first time around.

- Des had killed at least 12 people, however not all of the victims had been

- When asked about how many people Dennis Nilsen killed he replied with “I’ve
killed 15 or 16”.

- Which we still don’t know if this is true or not.

- The most shocking part was that he was so okay with what he had done.

Context of the area and time

- Britain was going under a big social change, which meant there was so much
going on who

- Manchester was a magnet for young people wanting to follow their dreams.

- For many their dreams never came true as many people went missing.

- When people went missing they would wait, they would ask around to see if
they were arrested or homeless. But after that they didn’t look into it any
further.

- Police force was not professional enough at this time which meant that Des
was able to get away with his murders for a long time - when the police found
out about the serial killer and his victims their main question was how did it go
on for so long? How did no one notice?

- It wasn’t until Dennis Nilsen wanted the police to nd his victims that they
found out about the mass murders

- Young and inexperienced people. “Easy pray for someone like Dennis Nilsen”.

- Easily let astray

Martin Du y
- Martin Du y was one of the victims

- In May, 1980 the 16 year old ran away in search if employment.

- This was something he had done before, however he didn't contact anyone
he knew after that which is what he used to do.

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 - Du y was just added to the list of people who had gone missing.

- 3 years later the truth was revealed about what had happened to him.

The Police Station:

- Hornsey Police station, North London

How the Investigation Started.

- Steven Mccusker had been called down to investigate something strange.

- Plumbers had found something strange down a blocked drain.

- There was a mass of less blocking the drain.

- Dennis Nielsen was a Job centre supervisor.

- He lived on the top at of his building; he had said about the blocked drain.

- When they were called it was dark and snowing, so they said that they would
come back the next day when they could investigate properly.

- However because they had left the drain unguarded, Neighbours hear Dennis
Neilson going up and down the drain throughout the night.

- The remains were gone by the next day.

- The police were able to nd what appeared to be bone from ngers and
knuckles from a human hand in the drain.

- They took the bones away to test them to see if they were in fact from a
human being - they were.

- The main suspect was Dennis Neilson, also known as Des by his colleagues
at work.

- Des was due back from work for 5:30, so the police waited for him at his
house to arrive.

- He arrived dressed in a trench coat, with a brief case.

- He acted surprised to see the police o cers and they said that they wanted
to ask some questions inside the house.

- When they opened the door they were welcomed by an awful smell. “The
smell of Death”.

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 - Peter Jay said to Des “Stop messing us about, where is the body?”.

- He said “its in there”.

- In the cupboard the o cer found two black bin bags, lled with the remains
of two dead bodies.

- Peter Jay then arrested him on the suspicion of murder.

- Peter asked Des how many bodies are we talking about, and Des replied
15-16.

- He had said that he was willing to talk and tell them what had happened.

Who worked on the case

- Detective Chief Superintendent Je Chambers and DCI Peter Jay would
investigate Dennis Nielsen.

- While DI Steve Mccusker ran the day to day investigation

Going into the at

- Straight away as you walked into the at there was an open kitchen.

- In the kitchen o cers found in a cooking pot.

- The head had been boiled and pealed back.

- It was the biggest shock that police o cers had ever came across before.

Back at the station

- Nielsen was talking to the o cers about what he had done.

- The strangest part about it was how calm he was about telling them about the
things he had done to his victims and how he had done it.

- He answered all of the questions he was asked.

- Nielsen was mainly concerned about his dog and not the victims he had killed.

- Dennis Neilson had been killing people for 4 years but he could only remember
two of his victims in the interview. His nal victim and a man called John.

- He was also telling investigators where they should look to nd all of the bodies.

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 Finding the bodies, or at least the parts of them.
- In the bathroom there was an upturned drawer which was being used as a shelf.

- O cers turned the drawers over to nd a pair of legs sticking out of a black bin
bag.

- Bin bags with bodies in them were taken out of the wardrobe with a wooden box
full of limbs and a torso.

- Investigators found 4 carrier bags lled with internal organs from Des’ victims.

- There was something wrong with Dennis Nielsen to do something as horrendous

as this.

- The detectives main challenge was to work out who he had killed using the things
they found in the at

- Investigators looked for ngerprints around the house, this is how they were able
to work out one of the victims.

- The rst victim they were able to identify was Steven Sinclair.

- The 20 year old had been strangled in his sleep.

- His identi cation was crucial to the case as it meant that they o cers could be
formally charged with murder.

1980s Gay Scene

- In the 1980s Londons Gay scene was thriving.

- There was many predators around that time looking to exploit the vulnerable.

Dennis Nielsens reputation

- Dennis Nielsen had also been known to have been violent towards young male
sex workers.

- He was known for being violent and being very irty to those with their own
issues.

What Nielsen did with the bodies

- Nielsen would keep 3 bodies at a time, hiding them under the oorboards

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- He would then dissect them on the kitchen oor of his at.

- He would then burn the body parts so then he could hide them.

- Nielsen hid his victims in his garden and when telling investigators where they all
were he drew a map of where he would put everything.

- Police then had to dig up his garden up to nd the bones of his victims.

- All of Nielsens victims were male of the ages around 20-40.

- Nielson started killing people after his relationship had ended.

- A year after the relationship ended

- Prof. David Wilson a professional criminalogious met Dennis Nielsen.

- “Most serial killers I have met have been silent and non-commicative” however
Nielsen told everything that had happened. He was a narcissist, he wanted his
story to be told his way.

- Nielsen began playing mind games with the investigators by only telling certain
information at certain times. Like how he told the police only 3 of the victims
names.

What turned Mr ordinary into a serial killer?

- Nielsen was born just after World War 2.

- His parents were divorced.

- He became close to his grandfather, and the death of his grandad really e ected
himself.

- Nielsen wanted company that would listen to what he said and would do what he
said. He needed to be in control.

- At the age of 15 Nielsen wanted to get away from his family and he wanted to go
to the army to become a chef, it was there where he learned how to be a butcher
and cut up meat properly.

- Nielsen then moved to London and became an o cer, which is what shocked
investigators as they were investigating their own.

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 - He left the police force to then work at a job centre, it was then when he started
killing people.

The mistake that almost ended the killing spree

- Kennith occunten was a tourist from Canada

- He was due to go home however he went missing.

- And because police couldn’t nd him which then got the politicians involved.

- Nielsen took Kennith back to his house where he would strangle him and kill him.

- Nielsen kept his body under the oor boards.

- He would take Kenneth out of the oorboards to wash and dress him. He would
often watch TV with the corpse as company.

- They went through a book inside of Nielsen’s home, and found Kennith’s
ngerprints inside of the book and investigators were able to charge Nielsen for
the murder of Kennith.

- Police had also identi ed Malcolm Burlow.

- Nielsen had found Malcolm when he was having a t and helped him get to
hospital, the 23 year old man had gone back to Nielsens at to thank him for his
help.

- Nielsen would then invite him inside and then strangle him.

- He kept the body underneath the kitchen sink before burning it in his back
garden.

Victims that got away.

- 5 men had gone to the police to say that they had been victims of violent attacks
by Nielsen.

- However there was never an investigation into any of the attacks.

- The murder investigation team now needed to nd these victims for evidence
against Nielsen.

- One of these victims was 21 year old Carl Stotter.

- Carl had left home after being disowned by his farther after coming out as gay.

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- In April 1982 Carls met Nielsen in the Blackcap pub; after the pub had closed
Niesen had asked if Carl wanted to come to his home for a drink.

- Nielsen paid for the taxi ride back to his house; when they got back to the house
they had some drinks and put some music on.

- They had gone to bed and there is suspicion that Nielsen had drugged Carl’s
drink which is why they had gone to bed early.

- When Carl woke up and Nielsen was telling him to stay still and Carl passed out.

- Nielsen was trying to kill him.

- The next thing Carl knew was that he was in the bath, he was being drowned in
the bath by Nielsen, however for some unknown reason Nielsen stopped and
started reviving Carl.

- Nielsen helped Carl go to a tube station so then he could go to the hospital, Carl
would then go to the police station to report what had happened.

- Police had just said that it was a lovers ti and the fact the Carl didn’t know
Nielsens last name meant they didn’t believe him.

- There was a lot of homophobia in the police force in 1980 which is one of the
reasons why they decided to leave the case and not look into it.

- Nielsen was questioned 3 times by the police by numerous complaints however

police took no further action.

- Nielsen was able to kill 2 more men after his attack on Carl.

- Carl had survivors guilt, he didn't understand why Nielsen had kept him alive and
killed the other victims, which then lead him to become an alcoholic.

- After a few months the police were only able to nd out 5 of the 15 victims,
Nielsen had given them another name John from High Wickham.

- Detectives con rmed the 6th victim: John Hewlett; Nielsen had strangled and
drowned him in March 1982.

- Investigators managed to found more objects including 3 dental plates, which

they hoped would help discover who the other victims were.

- However the investigations overtime bill was rumoured to be over a million

pounds. This was devastating because the victims families and friends would
never know where they were or what happened to them.

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 - This meant that Nielsen would only be charged for 6 murders of what was meant
to be 15-16

- The 14th victim and the last to be identi ed was Graham Allan from Glasgow. He
was 28 and had a child.

- Investigators had found a jaw bone and were able to match it with Graham Allan’s
dental records.

- However because this was only found out days before the trial it was never added
into the inditement.

1st November 1983

- Dennis Nielsen is charged with 6 murders and 2 attempted murders.

- Nielsen pleaded not guilty on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

- The court heard evidence from 3 phycologists explaining what Nielsens mental
health was like - Prosecution argued he was in the right mind when he had killed
these men and the jury agreed.

Nielsens autobiography
- In the early 1990s Peter Paul Hartnett began researching a book and started
exchanging letters with Nielsen

- Hartnett was able able to recorded some of the the conversations that they had.

- Nielsen was wanting him to edit his autobiography - Nielsen had said he regretted
the murders however not in the way you would think he would have.

- Nielsen regretted not keeping the body parts in glasses.

- He had said that if he had the money he would have gotten a van and would have
picked up hitchhikers, gas them and then bring them home to then murder them
like his other victims.

- Hartnett declined the o er to write his autobiography.

The victims
- In 2006 the rst victim was discovered to only be a 14 year old boy.

- Only 8 of the victims were identi ed, the rest are unknown to this day

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