In February 1983, the residents of 23 Cranley Gardens in Muswell Hill started having problems with their drains. Calling out a plumber, the blockage would turn out to be much, much worse than the usual toilet blockages, as well as accounting for the terrible smell that had been permeating the house for some time. The resident in the attic flat had been flushing human flesh. Quickly arrested, Dennis Nilsen was extremely forthcoming with the police. As well as immediately copping to having bodies hid in his wardrobe awaiting disposal, police asked him if they were dealing with one body or two. Nilsen calmly replied “Fifteen or sixteen, since 1978.”
Born in a remote Scottish fishing village, Nilsen was an extremely withdrawn child. With even his mum stating she never felt she could cuddle him, Nilsen bonded with only one person throughout his childhood – his grandfather. When his grandfather died at sea and was brought home for burial, 6 year old Nilsen was awoken (without having been told his grandfather had died) and asked if he wanted to see him. It is now thought that the image of his grandfather’s corpse made an unbreakable link within his mind, equating love with a dead body.
Nilsen had a range of careers whilst maturing – first in the Army catering corps (where he learned butchery skills), then as a police officer, and eventually in the Jobcentre. He remained, however, unequipped to make lasting friendships, his strident personality proving off-putting to most (check out his home video footage to get an idea of what he’d have been like as company, forever monologuing with no-one else able to get a word in edgeways). Unbeknownst to his colleagues, Nilsen would also spend his nights out looking for male company, so many of whom would never make it out of his house alive. Strangling his victims, Nilsen would then spend days ‘caring’ for the corpse – bathing, dressing and posing his victims as though they were still alive – hiding them under the floorboards for days and weeks at a time before removing them to spend more time with them, only disposing of them when the stench of decomposition became too much to realistically hide.
Killing for Company is an excellent true crime book, looking at the psychological and sociological aspects of Nilsen’s make-up as well as providing documentation of his crimes. That it is able to do this so well is partly due to Nilsen’s behaviour post-capture. Much like Ed Kemper, Nilsen was not only intelligent and articulate, but extremely forthcoming with the police as well as with the book’s author, with his own diaries providing a lot of material around his thoughts and behaviours both during and after his crimes.
This isn’t an easy read by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a fascinating and very informative look at one of Britain’s most notorious killers.
Confession: I live in a tight apartment building and every time one of my neighbors hasn’t taken out their trash in time, I get a little paranoid of the smell and ending up as one of the neighbors who was like “I didn’t think it could be bodies so I didn’t call the police for three months.”
So this sounds fascinating and terrifying. Also, I hadn’t realized there was so much detail on this case!
I had a similar experience with a downstairs neighbour who I hadn’t seen in 3 months, who had all of their blinds drawn and a rotten smell coming from their flat. I also got paranoid and ending up calling the police. Luckily (for her – not for me as she turned out to be a nightmare neighbour in every way), it turned out she was alive and well, but an alcoholic hoarder who didn’t feel like anything ever needed cleaning.
Wow….I’m glad you called the police but also that it only turned out to be more mildly horrifying than it could have been? That’s quite the story!
I thankfully moved out of there 2 years ago…by the time I left I’d have given anything for three months of quiet again. I could write a book on all the awful shit she pulled – neighbours are all well and good until you get a nightmare one. Although, to be fair, she clearly had nothing on Nilsen!