Nilsen met the young Irish-boy in a pub, and invited him home. They
continued to drink and eventually crawled into bed together to sleep.
Nilsen woke up at dawn and realized that his new friend was now going to
leave. Something he didn't want to happen, so he took his tie and
slipped it around his victims neck and pulled tight. The boy woke up
immediately. And they struggled off the bed onto the floor.
Nilsen tightened his grip, not about to let go and lose this battle
to the death. His victim pushed himself with his feet, with Nilsen on
top of him, along the carpet. When he came up against the wall, he lay
there and grew limp, giving up. Nilsen relaxed, but realized the man was
not yet dead, only unconscious. He ran into the kitchen and filled a
plastic bucket full of water in order to drown the man. Nilsen lifted
him onto some chairs, draping his head back, and pushed it into the
bucket. The man did not struggle, although water splashed all over the
carpet. After a few minutes, the bubbles stopped coming. Nilsen had just
killed his first victim.
He saved the corps under the floorboards. It remained there for seven
and a half months, until He took it out and burned the remains in a
bonfire. He added rubber to the fire to mask the smell of burning flesh.
He raked the ashes into the ground. Nilsen confessed to the murder in
january 2006.
Name:
Martyn Duffey
Age: 16 years-old
Murdered: May, 1980
Location: 195 Melrose Avenue in London
Martyn Duffey was homeless and he accepted Nilsen’s invitation to
spend the night. After two beers, he went to bed. Nilsen climbed on top,
trapping his arms under the covers, and strangled him. He went limp, but
was still alive, so Nilsen carried him into the kitchen and drowned him
by pushing his head into a sink full of water. Then he took him to the
bathroom and got into the tub with him. Duffrey went into the cupboard
for two full weeks, and then was placed under the floorboards.
*****
Name:
William 'Billy' Sutherland
Age: 27 years-old
Murdered: August 1980
Location: 195 Melrose Avenue in London
Sutherland slept with men for money. Nilsen did not even want to take
him home, but he followed Nilsen after they went bar-hopping one night.
Nilsen barely recalls strangling him and finding a body in his home the
next morning.
*****
Name:
Douglas Stewart
Age: ?? years-old
Attempted murder: August, 1980
Location: 195 Melrose Avenue in London
Stewart said that Nilsen had attacked him. He had fallen asleep in
the armchair, waking to find his feet tied and Nilsen putting a tie
around his neck. He fought back, knocking Nilsen over, and Nilsen told
him to leave. He called the police to 195 Melrose Place on August 11,
1980, around 4:00 a.m., but they noticed that he had been drinking. They
knocked at the door and Nilsen seemed surprised by what they said. They
figured it to be a homosexual encounter, with both sides hiding some of
the truth. They made a report, but Stewart failed to follow-up as
required.
*****
Between november 1980 and may 1981
Nilsen killed seven men who were never indentified.
*****
Name:
Malcolm Barlow
Age: 24 years-old
Murdered: September 18, 1981
Location: 195 Melrose Avenue in London
Malcolm Barlow was an orphan with mental problems. He was also a
pathological liar. Nilsen found Barlow loitering outside his home,
complaining of weakness from epilepsy, and he took him home and called
an ambulance. When Barlow was released, he came back and sat on Nilsen’s
doorstep to await his return from work. Nilsen invited him in and they
drank together before Barlow fell into a deep sleep. Nilsen found his
presence a nuisance, so he strangled him. The next day, he stuffed
Barlow in the cabinet under the kitchen sink. He sat in the flat with a
half dozen other bodies awaiting disposal. Some of them Nilsen had kept
in bed with him for sexual purposes for as long as a week. Having
control over these men thrilled him and the mystery of a dead body that
would not respond fascinated him. It was his feeling that he appreciated
them more deeply than they had ever been appreciated before.
*****
Name:
Paul Nobbs
Age: 25 years-old
Attempted murder: November 23, 1981
Location: Cranley Gardens, Muswell Hill
On November 23rd, 1981-Nilsen’s 36th birthday--he took a nineteen-year-old
gay student named Paul Nobbs back home with him and they sat drinking
together. Then they went to bed and Nobbs woke up at 2:30 in the morning
with a terrible headache. He woke again at six and went into the kitchen.
In the mirror there, he saw a deep red mark across his throat. The white
of his eyes were bloodshot and his face looked bruised. Nilsen commented
that he looked awful and advised him to see a doctor. That day, Nobbs
visited the university infirmary and learned that bruises on his throat
indicated that someone had tried to strangle him. He declined to report
the incident.
*****
Name:
Toshimitsu Ozawa
Age: ?? years-old
Attempted murder: December 31, 1981
Location: Cranley Gardens, Muswell Hill
On New Year’s Eve, 1981, neighbors of Nilsen’s were invited to his
flat, but they had plans. Besides, he appeared drunk, which disturbed
them. They heard him leave the house and return home with someone. Then
they heard a commotion upstairs. Someone came running down the steps,
sobbing, and ran out the front door. That man was Toshimitsu Ozawa. He
told police that he thought Nilsen had intended to kill him. He had
approached Ozawa with a tie stretched between his hands.
There was no follow-up investigation.
*****
Name:
John Howlett - Nilsen called him John the
Guardsman
Age: years-old
Murdered: march 1982
Location: Cranley Gardens, Muswell Hill
Nilsen and Howlett had met once in a pub and had engaged in a long
conversation. Then Nilsen was drinking alone one day when John walked in
and recognized him. They chatted and then decided to go to Nilsen’s
place, where after drinking awhile, John got into Nilsen’s bed. Nilsen
tried to get him to leave, but he refused to go. Nilsen then found a
length of loose upholstery strap on an armchair and used it to strangle
the man.
At one point he feared he would be overpowered, so he tightened his
grip as John fought for control. Then he struck his head and soon went
limp. Nilsen kept the strap on him until he was sure he was dead, and
then went shakily into the other room. He soon became aware the John was
still alive. He lopped the strap around his neck again and held it for
two or three minutes. However, John’s heart was still beating, so Nilsen
dragged him into the bathroom and drowned him.
*****
Nilsen entertained drag artist Carl Stotter, 21. They drank together
and went to bed. He attempted to strangle Stotter, who woke up, unable
to breathe.
He thought Nilsen was trying to help him, but that was not the case.
Nilsen carried him into the bathroom and placed him in a tub of water,
submerging him several times until Stotter begged for him to stop.
Stotter then went under and stopped struggling. Nilsen thought he was
dead and carried him to the couch. Bleep jumped up and began to lick
Stotter’s face, aware that he was still alive.
Nilsen then took him to bed and wrapped himself around the young man
until he regained consciousness. Nilsen told Stotter that he had gotten
his throat caught in the zipper of the sleeping bag that had covered him.
Stotter attributed the experience to a bad nightmare, despite getting a
check-up and learning that his condition was consistent with severe
strangulation. He actually agreed to meet Nilsen again, but did not keep
the appointment. He also did not go to the police.
*****
Name:
Archibald Graham Allan
Age: years-old
Murdered: late 1982
Location: Cranley Gardens, Muswell Hill
Nilsen made him an omelet, and what he recalled of this death was
rather odd. “I noticed he was sitting there and suddenly he appeared to
be asleep or unconscious with a large piece of omelet hanging out of his
mouth.” At that point he thought he strangled him, but does not recall.
He thought the man might have choked on the egg dish. “If the omelet
killed him, I don’t know.” Since an omelet does not leave red marks on
someone’s neck, Nilsen supposed that he was the one responsible.
*****
Name:
Steve Sinclair
Age: 20 years-old
Murdered: January 26, 1983
Location: Cranley Gardens, Muswell Hill
Steven Sinclair took drugs and loitered about the Leicester Square.
On January 23rd, 1983, some of his acquaintances saw him go off with
strange man. They went to Nilsen’s home where Nilsen sat and listened to
music, while Sinclair shot up and then fell asleep in a chair. Nilsen
went into the kitchen and found some thick string, thinking to himself,
“Here we go again.” The string was too short so he attached it to a tie.
He draped the ligature over the sleeping man’s knees and poured himself
a drink. Then he sat and contemplated all the pain in Stephen's life and
decided to stop it for him. He went over, made sure he was deep asleep,
and then used the string-and-tie ligature to strangle him. He struggled
slightly and then went unconscious. He was Nilsen's last victim.