Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Kindly Killer” Pt. 2 - Dennis Nilsen

Episode Date: September 2, 2019

With the start of the 1980s, British serial killer Dennis Nilsen was just hitting his stride. His twisted desire for companionship had spiraled out of control, launching him on a prolific killing spree that ended in the murder of a dozen young men and boys in just two years. But as Nilsen struggled to find room for his rotting lovers in the cramped space of his London flat, he would resort to desperate, gruesome measures that would put investigators hot on his trail. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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This episode includes discussions of murder, dismemberment, and necrophilia that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. It was a crisp English day in late October 1981. The leaves on the trees lining the suburban street were beautiful explosions of color and fell gracefully into vibrant piles of red, gold, and green. A pack of neighborhood kids, none older than 12, jumped into leaf piles as they roamed the quiet streets. It was Saturday, and they had free rain of the neighborhood. With Halloween just around the corner, the air was electric with anticipation, but the kids were bored.

They needed a mission. But then, they caught the woody aroma of a bonfire. Fire meant excitement. So the kids followed the scent to nearby Melrose Avenue. They gravitated to its source like moths, quite literally drawn to a flame. As they grew closer to the burning orange in the distance, they smelled something peculiar, roasting meat maybe, rubber. They walked closer. The bonfire blazed in the backyard of an old home, but only a single man attended to it.

He was a weasily looking fellow, with glasses and, and a dirt-stained undershirt, and he was inexplicably digging holes in the garden, seemingly unconcerned about the inferno raging behind him. The kids sidled up to the backyard fence, watching closely as the man furiously shoveled dirt. They called out to him. What was he doing?

Did he need help? Dennis Nielsen looked up from his shoveling, peering through dirty glasses that the children gathered at his fence. This was not. ideal. The fumes from the fire were dangerous. Then in the corner of his eye, he caught sight of something falling from the bonfire behind him. As he turned around, a human skull rolled to a stop at his feet. I'm Greg Paulson. This is serial killers, a podcast original. Every Monday, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson.

Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Parcast originals for free on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. To stream serial killers for free on Spotify, just open the app and type Serial Killers in the search bar. Today, we'll continue to peel back the layers behind the terrible murders committed by British serial killer, Dennis Nielsen, also known as the kindly killer. At Parcast, we're grateful for you, our listeners. us to do what we love. Let us know how we're doing. Reach out on Facebook and Instagram at Parcast and Twitter at Parcast Network. And if you enjoy today's episode, the best way to help us is to leave a five-star review wherever you're listening. It really does help. Last week, we explored Dennis Nielsen's background, from the early traumas of his childhood to the isolation of his

adulthood, and followed him as his perverse desire for companionship led him to murder his first three victims. This week will continue tracking Nielsen in the wake of his third murder as he embarked on a killing spree that spiraled out of control, leading to his eventual arrest and imprisonment. Throughout his killing career, Dennis Nielsen racked up a prolific body count, making him one of England's most deadly killers. But in 1978, he was just getting started. His favorite hunting ground was London's burgeoning gay scene. Here he would pick up interested men and invite them home on the pretense of a sexual encounter and kill them before the sun rose the next morning.

But Nielsen wasn't always picky about his victim's sexuality. He targeted gay and straight men alike, whether they were college students, runaways, or homeless drifters. Nielsen lured them from the damp streets of the city and into his home, with the promise of alcohol, a hot meal, or a safe place to sleep. His practice of presenting himself as a benevolent stranger is what earned him the nickname, the kindly killer. But as soon as the door closed to his cramped apartment, the performance ended. Nielsen would get his prey as drunk as possible, then murder them

through a combination of strangulation and drowning. But for Dennis Nielsen, murder was hardly the main event. Perhaps the most twisted component to his many crimes happened post-mortem. Nielsen did not just kill for the sake of killing. He killed for companionship. After a murder, he would keep the bodies of his victims for weeks and sometimes months on end. During this time, he bathed and groomed their corpses,

fashioning them into his physical ideal, smooth-skinned and hairless. They were props in his sexual fantasies, and of course, company. When Nielsen was through with them, he dismember the bodies in a variety of gruesome ways, from dissection and burial to burning and boiling, a method that turned Nielsen's once perfectly ordinary London flat into a maggot-infested nightmare. This gruesome cycle of murder, companionship, and disposal became Nielsen's warped passion. But in the beginning, it was a slow burn. From late 1978 to mid-1980, Nielsen claimed three victims that have been identified,

14-year-old Stephen Holmes, 23-year-old student Kenneth Ockenden, and 16-year-old runaway, Martin Duffy. Between each murder, Nielsen had attempted to stifle his desire to kill, but with the murder of Martin Duffy, the floodgates holding back his urges to kill, were opened. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but she has done a lot of research for this show.

Thanks, Greg. Nielsen's relapse into murder once and then a second time is no surprise. According to research conducted by Marku Erronin, Panu Hakola, and Yare Tihonan, the risk of recidivism among men who have previously killed, even after prison or treatment is much higher than the general population. In fact, the likelihood of committing homicide is approximately 10 times higher for men who have previously killed. And male killers with alcoholism in particular were 13 times more likely to kill than the general male population. As we know from his first three murders, drinking was a common trend in Nielsen's horrifying process. Nielsen, it seemed, was primed to relapse into killing again and again.

Perhaps on some level, Nielsen knew this and had made some sort of peace with this dark ritual. We don't know this for certain, but if his pattern of murders in the next three years are any indication, Nielsen did more than make peace with his desire for corpse's companionship. He wholeheartedly embraced it. After Martin Duffy's murder in May 1980, 34-year-old Nielsen went to work, as usual, Monday morning, at his bureaucratic job in the English Civil Service. Throughout his years of killing, Nielsen rarely missed work. He continued to do his duties handily, despite knowing corpses lay beneath his floorboards at home.

Murder at night and work in the morning was quickly becoming Nielsen's routine. Just a few months after Nielsen killed Martin Duffy, Martin's body was beginning. to decompose. Now with his companion marred by time, Nielsen was in need of another to take Martin's place. So in August of 1980, Nielsen went hunting once more, and this time he knew what he was looking for. Nielsen met 27-year-old Billy Sutherland at a gay pub in Soho. Billy himself was actually straight, and he had a girlfriend and child back in his hometown in Scotland. He had recently moved to London in search of work, but finding a job in the big city was more difficult than he had anticipated.

Soon, he fell into sex work. He found that older men were especially eager to pay for a night with a handsome young Scott. So when Billy caught sight of Nielsen across the bar, lonely and forlorn with his rumpled suit, he thought that he had found his target. he couldn't have been more wrong. As the two men got acquainted, Nielsen suggested they spend the next few hours bar hopping, but he soon regretted extending the invitation.

He quickly became irritated with Billy. The young man was pushy and loud, and followed him from pub to pub for hours. Finally, when Nielsen decided to call it a night, Billy insisted on coming back with him. He had just made Nielsen's work so much easier. That night, Nielsen strangled Billy with his bare hands, rather than with a ligature like he had with his first three murders. Nielsen would later claim that he did this specifically because Billy was a pest.

Then, just like Nielsen's three victims before him, Billy's body was bathed, groomed, and kept for company for almost two months. Then it was time to do it all over again. From October 1980 to April 1981, Nielsen went on to more than double his murder rate, killing seven men in the span of six months. It was a prolific streak that proved just how cold-blooded Nielsen could be. Perhaps the most chilling part is that Nielsen could barely recall the details

of the murders that took place during those six months. killing became so inconsequential that he began to retain only the bare minimum of information necessary about his subsequent victims. They weren't people to him anymore. They were his playthings. Sources vary on some of the details of his murderous rampage. But according to author Russ Coffey and his book Dennis Nielsen Conversations with a Serial Killer, Nielsen's next victims were claimed in the following order. In October, Nielsen met an Irish laborer in his late 20s at the gay pub near his home.

Nielsen remembered nothing about the man, except that he wore an old suit and had rough hands. He was promptly killed, replacing the body of Billy Sutherland in his role of silent companion. Nielsen's sixth victim came right on the heels of his fifth in November of 1980. Like Billy, this man was also a male sex worker. But other than this fact, Nielsen could only recall that he had a slim build and that the man was his only victim who wasn't white. Nielsen's seventh victim followed up his sixth in record time. Less than three weeks later,

Nielsen killed a young homeless man that he found sleeping near Charing Cross. More than anything else about him, Nielsen remembered that when he strangled the man, his victim moved his legs in a circular motion, almost as if he was cycling. Nielsen later described his eighth victim as a long-haired hippie in his late 20s. He was murdered in either November or December of 1980.

After Nielsen rang in the new year, he kicked off 1981 by killing yet again. This time he picked up an 18-year-old man at a pub in Soho, who Nielsen described as a blue-eyed scott. Nielsen claimed him as his ninth victim, and his first of the new year. One month later, in February of 1981,

Nielsen murdered a slender Irishman in his 20s, whom he playfully called Belfast Boy. Two to three months later, that spring, Nielsen slayed his tenth victim, a tough 20-year-old skinhead covered in tattoos. One tattoo, Nielsen remembered with irony, was a dotted line that circled around his neck, emblazoned with the words,

Cut here. For almost an entire year, Dennis Nielsen went on an unprecedented killing streak, murdering a man or two almost every month after the fall of 1980. He was indulging in his desires without a worry for the consequences, much less the lives of his victims. The living men were nothing more than vehicles to deliver him a fresh corpse, someone to keep him company through his long months alone. During his time with a new companion,

Nielsen interacted with the body as if it were alive. He talked to it in long, one-sided conversations, propped it up at the dinner table as he ate his meals, and slept next to it at night. He even engaged in sexual acts with the corpses. However, the fall of 1981 marked a new chapter in Nielsen's pattern of killing when he met his 12th victim, Malcolm Barlow.

Nielsen remembered Malcolm's death in great detail because he almost didn't murder him at all. 24-year-old Malcolm Barlow had a difficult history. Orphoned at age 11 after his mother's death, his life quickly spiraled out of control. He became a pathological liar and a thief and was unable to stay in a foster home for long. Soon, he became homeless.

Malcolm also had an unknown psychological or neurological illness. On the day Nielsen found him, Malcolm claimed it was epilepsy. In mid-September of 1981, while taking his faithful border collie, bleep on a stroll, 35-year-old Nielsen spotted Malcolm Barlow, doubled over near his flat on Melrose Avenue. The young man looked weak, almost as if in a daze. Nielsen slowed bleep down to get a better look when Malcolm called out to him. He told Nielsen that he just had an epileptic episode.

Nielsen, feeling as though he couldn't just leave the man stranded, held him up as they walked to Nielsen's flat. Once there, Nielsen took him inside and called an ambulance. Soon, Malcolm was taken away to the nearest hospital, and Nielsen gave himself a pat on the back for doing something so noble amidst all his misdeeds. But then, something happened that Nielsen least expected. Malcolm came back.

After he was released from the hospital, the young man returned to Nielsen's flat to thank him for his kindness. Nielsen, taken by surprise, invited him inside. Nielsen cooked them both dinner, and after the meal, the two men drank together until Malcolm fell asleep on Nielsen's couch. Nielsen was less than pleased with this.

He had invited Malcolm in for a drink, not for a nap. It seemed to Nielsen that his good deed had rewarded him with a pest. He needed to get rid of him. So Nielsen strangled the poor man with a ligature. It was easy. After all, he had plenty of practice. Malcolm Barlow was his 12th victim. The rest were stored under the floorboards.

He was running out of space. and the flat itself was beginning to show signs of Nielsen's gruesome secret. Flies had begun to swarm, and maggots were crawling up through the floor. The rotting bodies created a putrid stench that required Nielsen to spray down the entire apartment with deodorizing sprays and insecticide multiple times a day. It was becoming obvious that Nielsen was eventually going to have to deal with what he casually called, the smell problem in his flat. Soon, the odors started drawing attention from neighbors.

They complained to the landlord about the heady stink coming from the downstairs unit, and Nielsen was promptly issued a notice. In just a few short weeks, he would be forced to leave his precious flat on Melrose Avenue. Though he was upset about losing his home, the impending move posed a much larger concern. What was he going to do with all the bodies? Up next, Dennis Nielsen attempts to destroy the evidence of his three-year murder streak before moving on to new macabre horizons. Now back to the story.

In October of 1981, 35-year-old Dennis Nielsen had concluded his most prolific murder streak yet, slaying seven men in the space of just six months. Now he had a victim count of a dozen, and the bodies were quite literally piling up around him. Nielsen stuffed the corpses of his expired companions into cupboards, under beds, and beneath his floorboards. And inevitably, the smell of their decomposing flesh became an issue. Soon he was forced to move out of his flat at Melrose Avenue, and Nielsen would have to finally deal with the part of his sick murder ritual that he hated the most. disposal.

So the day before Nielsen was scheduled to vacate his apartment, he got to work. He would later claim that he got himself blinding drunk just so he could stomach the awful task ahead of him. Then he started by pulling up the floorboards of his flat. One by one, he brought up each corpse from its hiding place and dismembered it on top of large trash bags on his kitchen floor. training as a cook and butcher in the army came in handy here. He knew which parts of the bodies were easiest to remove and where to cut to get the job done easily. Heads were removed first,

then the hands and feet, and the internal organs were last. Then the separated body parts were carted off in suitcases and brought to his garden. There he would dispose of them in a variety of ways. Inards were often thrown behind his fence for wild animals. Some parts were buried, and all the rest was burned. This Nielsen did in a bonfire he built in his garden. A bonfire in October of 1981 wouldn't have aroused too much suspicion. Burning leaves was a common practice. However, the smell of burning flesh would. So Nielsen would mask the scent by throwing a couple of rubber tires on the fire for good measure. The bonfire blazed on through the night as Nielsen scrambled to erase any trace of his murders

from the past three years. As he locked up the flat for the last time, the haze of smoke still hung heavily in the air. While Nielsen and his dog Bleep drove away from Melrose Avenue, Nielsen said a silent goodbye to his old home and to the corpses of his many dead companions. He hoped that leaving his flat behind would mean a new beginning, and a new beginning would mean no more killing. A part of Nielsen wanted desperately to let go of his sick ritual. The longer he went on without being caught,

the more his anxiety mounted. At the moment, moving from the house on Melrose seemed like the best chance he had to distance himself from his old ways. His new home was an attic flat in the suburban Muswell Hill District. of North London, number 23 Cranley Gardens. In a small upstairs unit with no direct garden access, Nielsen believed that he would be forced to stop his sick ritual, if only from the inconvenience of having no place to dispose of the bodies.

And after his past gruesome 24 hours of dismembering, burying, and burning, he was convinced he would never feel the desire to obtain another corpse again. According to Russ Coffey's book, for the next five months, Nielsen felt himself regain control over his life, though it was no doubt a struggle. The holidays especially emphasized the sting of Nielsen's loneliness. But in the winter of 1981, Nielsen had managed to make it through his 36th birthday and Christmas without a single body to keep him company in his new flat. But soon enough, Nielsen's semblance. of an ordinary life unraveled once again. In March of 1982, 36-year-old Nielsen went to his local pub for his usual nightcap,

and though he wasn't looking for any company that evening, he did run into 28-year-old John Howlett. John was tall, rugged and traditionally masculine, not at all Nielsen's type, which typically included thin and usually beardless men with a youthful look, But because John was a regular at the pub and an acquaintance, Nielsen invited him back to his flat for an after-hours drink. However, as the night wore on, John became increasingly drunk, ultimately blacking out on Nielsen's bed. Nielsen was furious, and then he snapped.

He strangled John just as he had Malcolm Barlow six months before. The feeling was familiar, satisfying. even, Nielsen felt the floodgates of his dark desire reopen. In the months following John Howlett's murder, Nielsen grappled with his urge to go out and kill once more. He threw himself into work, desperately trying to keep his mind off his own loneliness, and the dead body rotting in his armor. But after six months, he felt himself giving in.

In September of 1982, Nielsen met 20, seven-year-old Graham Allen at Piccadilly Circus and immediately identified him as an easy target. Graham was a heroin addict, and Nielsen could tell as soon as he met him that he was high. Graham was also straight, so Nielsen seamlessly switched his tactics to lure him back to his home. Instead of a possible sexual encounter, he promised Graham a hot meal. Within an hour, Graham was sitting at Nielsen's kitchen table, dining on an omelette. And in the next moment, it seemed, Graham was dead. It was almost as at the time bridging Graham's living moments to his death had been erased.

Nielsen later claimed that he simply didn't remember what happened. This claim of memory loss while murdering wasn't new for Nielsen. Following his prolific six-month killing streak the previous year, Nielsen stated he forgot almost everything about his victims. He would even say that he didn't even remember some of the murders at all. However, none of this can be verified. According to researchers at the University of British Columbia, memory loss during or following a traumatic event is called dissociative amnesia.

This is a phenomenon that is very commonly reported in homicide cases. However, in their article entitled Memory for Murder, a psychological perspective on dissociative amnesia in legal contexts, researchers state that claims of dissociative amnesia in serial murder cases are highly suspect. Because one of the definitive qualities of a serial murder is a degree of premeditation. Explanations of trauma-related memory loss are often considered to be fabricated by the killer. And given Nielsen's years of fantasizing about the possession of a dead companion, it's safe to say his claims of dissociative amnesia should be regarded with the same

skepticism. Now, Nielsen was living with the bodies of both John Howlett and Graham Allen, his 13th and 14th victims, in his tiny attic flat. A few weeks later, when Graham's body began to decompose also, Nielsen was faced with a dilemma he'd been avoiding for months. He had no way to dispose of their corpses. His new flat, with no direct access to a garden and no room underneath its floorboards, presented Nielsen with a challenge.

Until he decided what to do with them, Nielsen put the men's corpses in the bathtub. He gazed at their bruised and bloated bodies, wondering how he could possibly get rid of them discreetly. Then he had an idea, the toilet. He would dispose of the bodies piece by piece and flush them down the loo. It would be time-consuming, yes,

but it would also ensure that he never had to take their... risk of bringing the bodies outside of the apartment. So once again, Nielsen got to work on the gruesome task of dismembering his former companions. He'd remove the inner organs and limbs as usual. Then he'd flush them away. But besides the slow and laborious process, this left Nielsen with another issue, what to do with the heads.

This is where Nielsen's skills as a chef came into play. decided to boil them. Boiling the heads allowed Nielsen to easily break them into smaller pieces. It was a disgusting step in the cleanup process, but a necessary one. Over and over, Nielsen flushed away the evidence of his horrific crimes. Until finally, his apartment was devoid of all signs of his victims, John Howlett and Graham Allen. Nielsen was finally free to fetch himself a new companion. And this time, he told himself, he'd find someone exactly his type. In January of 1983, 37-year-old Dennis Nielsen took the tube to Lester Square in West London. It was a popular area to pick up male sex workers, and we can assume that was exactly

Nielsen's intention. Instead, he met Stephen Sinclair. 20-year-old Stephen was Nielsen's ideal victim, slightly built and fair with bleach blonde hair. Nielsen spotted him as he loitered on the busy street. Despite his tough appearance with his mullet haircut and leather motorcycle jacket, Nielsen sensed a vulnerability in the young man. Stephen had a rough childhood and lived his formative years in a combination of foster homes and psychiatric institutions. That was until recently, when he had a rough childhood.

He found himself on the streets addicted to heroin, a prime target for a roaming predator. So Nielsen employed his kindly stranger approach. He bought the young man a quick meal and suggested that he'd come back to his apartment and out at the cold. Once back at Nielsen's flat, Nielsen poured them both a glass of rum and put on a record. They talked and listened to music for hours until Stephen shot up a dose of heroin and quickly drifted off. As he slipped the ligature around Stephen's neck,

Nielsen spoke aloud, almost as if the young man could hear him through his drug-induced stupor. He said to him, Oh, Stephen, here I go again. Dennis Nielsen had claimed his 15th victim, but though he did Stephen Sinclair in, Stephen, in death, would do Nielsen one better.

Coming up, Nielsen's reckless new methods of disposal catch up with him. Now back to the story. In 1981, Dennis Nielsen moved from his garden flat on Melrose Avenue, hoping to leave his murderous ways behind him. For the next five months, he attempted to abstain from killing and take back control of his life. But in March of 1982, his efforts failed. That month, he murdered 28-year-old John Howlett. The following September, he killed 20, 27-year-old Graham Allen. A few months later, in January of 1983,

37-year-old Nielsen claimed the life of his 15th victim, 20-year-old Stephen Sinclair. After Stephen's murder, Nielsen prepared to bathe and groom his body just as he did all his dead companions. But as he began to address Stephen, Nielsen found something he hadn't expected. Underneath Stephen's long sleeves,

his forearms were wrapped in gauze. When Nielsen removed the bandages, he found deep gashes cut across his wrist, not yet healed from a recent suicide attempt. Nielsen found himself suddenly floored by the cruel irony of Stephen's murder. He thought about all the pain the young man must have suffered

before Nielsen had met him. And then he thought to himself that taking his life was really a sort of mercy killing. As he bathed Stephen's body, gently washing the dried blood from his wrists, he whispered to him softly. Nothing can hurt you now. For the next few weeks, Nielsen lived in twisted bliss with the corpse of his beautiful young companion. He slept by his side each night and spoke to him as if in ordinary conversation

each day. Once again, he felt elated and whole. But as with all of Nielsen's corpses, his new plaything had a limited window before it inevitably began to rot, and soon Nielsen was forced to bid Stephen Sinclair's body a gruesome goodbye. But this time, simply flushing away the evidence of his crimes wouldn't work. Fate and the plumbing in Nielsen's building had other plans. The accumulation of human flesh at 23 Cranley Gardens was proving too much for the sewage pipes to handle. The addition of Stephen Sinclair's remains was the straw that broke the camel's back. Soon, the plumbing of Nielsen's entire apartment building was completely blocked. The other tenants were furious. For days, their sinks had been backed up, and their toilets were unable to flush.

In early February of 1983, Nielsen and his neighbors held a meeting. They wanted to send the building's landlord a strongly worded complaint. Nielsen volunteered to pen the letter. We can only speculate why Nielsen decided to write the complaint. Perhaps he thought doing so would eliminate suspicions that he was the cause of the drain blockage. Or maybe it was because he knew his time was up, and writing the letter himself was a way of embracing his defeat and controlling his own downfall. According to Dr. Scott Bonn, professor and criminology expert, serial killers very rarely turn themselves in or sabotage their own crimes as a form of resignation. Typically, increasingly reckless behavior while murdering comes from a place of ego or from a desire

for a bigger thrill. Taking greater risks when killing increases a murderer's excitement. And if a killer continues to elude police, this only contributes to their growing sense of empowerment and invulnerability. It's possible that by writing the letter, Nielsen felt he was just flying closer to the sun. Regardless of Nielsen's reasoning, the letter of complaint to his building's landlord certainly heightened the risk of being discovered. The very next day, he would face the single biggest threat to his killing career, the local plumber. That day, February 5, 1983, was bitter cold. But the weather didn't stop the residents.

of 23 Cranley Gardens from gathering outside, as Dina Rod technician Mike Katran investigated the mysterious drain blockage in the sewers below their building. When Mike removed the manhole cover to the sewer's entrance, he was immediately met with the smell of rotting meat. Something was horribly wrong. As he descended into the bowels of the sewer system,

his gut feeling was confirmed. In the drains leading to 23 Cranley Garland, dozens of chunks of fleshy material were obstructing the flow of the sewage pipes. He decided to bring the unknown substance up to the surface to get a better look. The tenants of Cranley Gardens crowded around Mike to catch a glimpse of the offending object. Then they backed away, gasping. In the fading light of day, it was obvious what the material was, dead flesh. Whether human or animal, Mike couldn't be sure.

But regardless, he did know one thing. This was well above his pay grade. He called his supervisor who suggested they come back to do a full investigation the next morning. That night, Dennis Nielsen entered a full-blown panic. He berated himself for being so careless. Of course the body parts would block the drains. But an idiot he'd been to think he could simply flush away his crimes. And now here he was, left with the dirty aftermath of his stupidity.

Nielsen decided he needed to clean up every trace of human remains in the sewer, and he had to do it before sunrise. At midnight, Nielsen descended into the manhole and cleaned up as many pieces of flesh as he could find. He gathered them up in bags and hid them in cabinets and armoires throughout his flat. Then he drank himself into a stupor until finally. he could go to sleep. The next morning, Mike Catran arrived with his supervisor to reassess the sewer,

but what he saw was immediately suspicious. The manhole cover looked as though it had been moved over the course of the night, and when he crawled into the depths below, he saw that the drains had miraculously been cleared. Mike scoured the pipes for traces of the fleshy material he had found the day before. Finally, he came across a small piece that Dennis had missed in his race against the sunrise. When he surfaced, a neighbor overheard a spooked Mike explaining to his supervisor that the sewer had almost been entirely cleaned out. The neighbor cautiously told the two plumbers that he had heard lots of movement the night before from the tenant in the attic flat.

Dennis Nielsen had been up that entire night. Mike and his supervisor called the police. and the piece of flesh Mike had managed to recover was immediately sent to a forensic pathologist. A few days later, their worst suspicions were confirmed. The remains were human. In the days after the plumbers returned, Nielsen steeled himself for what he knew would be his impending arrest.

There was no way around it now. This was the end of the road, and he was determined to meet it head on. On February 9, 1983, as Nielsen left the office, he reportedly told a co-worker, If I'm not in tomorrow, I'll either be ill, dead, or in jail. Nielsen's little joke couldn't have been closer to the truth. Waiting patiently outside his flat at 23 Cranley Gardens were Detective Chief Inspector Peter Jay and his officers of the London police.

Jay and his men planned to apprehend Dennis Nielsen as soon as he arrived home. from work that evening. Given the grisly nature of his crimes, they anticipated Nielsen would be dangerous and could potentially put up a fight. What they encountered instead was perhaps just as terrifying. As Nielsen walked through the door of his building, Detective J. noted his practical suit and round glasses. He looked like any other man in London. He was quiet, inconspicuous, and seamlessly blended in with his surroundings. He was the perfect killer. And to Jay's surprise, Nielsen barely protested his own arrest. After feigning ignorance for just a few moments, he quickly admitted he knew why the police had come

and promptly led them upstairs to his flat. On the attic floor, the smell hit Jay's nose before Nielsen even opened the door. Nielsen offered to show the officers where he had hidden the remains in various parts of the apartment. Horrified and reeling from the stench, Jay declined. Nielsen was promptly handcuffed and read his rights. He was told that he was being arrested on suspicion of multiple murders. On the drive to the police station, Jay asked Nielsen exactly how many people he had killed. Without hesitation, Nielsen answered 15 or 16 since 1978. The blood in Jay's veins ran cold. He had just arrested one of the most deadly serial killers in England's history. For the next 30 hours, Nielsen provided an in-depth testimony to the

detectives, describing his every crime in gruesome detail. 37-year-old Nielsen found himself feeling a great deal of relief. Finally, he was able to release the burden he'd been holding for years. Later, Nielsen would refer to the day of his arrest as the day help came. Nielsen spared nothing in his testimony, determined to give detectives every bit of information he knew. He even drew detailed maps of his old flat on Melrose Avenue, explaining where authorities would be able to find the remains of his first victims. The next day, a forensic team embarked on an excavation of Melrose Avenue that ultimately yielded more than 1,000 different bone fragments.

The entire undertaking took weeks to complete. Soon, Dennis Nielsen's name was splashed across headlines throughout England. He became a macabre sensation, proof of the dark, twisted things that humanity was capable of. And before long, news of Britain's prolific, kindly killer, could be found in every publication and news show throughout Europe. Nielsen continued to be cooperative and forthcoming with the police, and soon he did the same with the prosecution trying his case.

However, despite his efforts to emphasize his own mental instability, Nielsen received the maximum sentence. On November 4, 1983, two weeks shy of his 38th birthday, Nielsen was found guilty on six counts of murder. He was sentenced to life in prison, with the possibility of parole, after 25 years. That day, he became prisoner B-62006 and spent the next half of his life behind bars

at various maximum security prisons in England. There, he became obsessed with his own criminal career penning multiple papers and books and even a memoir that was, at one point, confiscated by prison authorities. His obsessions continued until May 12, 2008, That day, Nielsen was rushed to the hospital for an emergency stomach surgery.

In a final act of cruel irony, Dennis Nielsen was dealt to death far less terrifying than the one he'd given his numerous victims. He died peacefully while unconscious at age 72 due to a blood clot. It was discreet and perfectly ordinary, just like Dennis Nielsen. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers. Monday with a new episode. For more information on Dennis Nielsen, among the many sources we consulted, we found killing for company, the story of a man addicted to murder by Brian Masters, and conversation with Britain's most evil serial killer by Ken Coffey, helpful to our research.

You can find more episodes of serial killers and all other parcast originals for free on Spotify. Not only does Spotify already have all of your favorite music, but now Spotify is making it easy for you to enjoy all of your favorite Parcast originals, like Serial Killers, for free from your phone, desktop, or smart speaker. To stream Serial Killers on Spotify, just open the app, tap browse, and type Serial Killers in the search bar. And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Parcast and Twitter at Parcast Network. We'll see you next time. Have a killer week. Serial Killers was created by Max Cutler, is a production of Cutler Media and is of the Pardcast Network. It is produced by Max and Ron Cutler, sound design by Dick Schroeder,

with production assistance by Ron Shapiro and Paul Liebeskind. Additional production assistance by Maggie Admire and Freddie Beckley. Serial Killers is written by Alex Garland and stars Greg Paulson and Vanessa Richardson. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up, getting ready for bed, is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hicks. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcasts this year, but they're not crime beat. Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon

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