Murder Mile UK True Crime Podcast - "one of the best British & UK True Crime podcasts"
  • PODCAST
    • About the Host
    • About the Music
    • About the Sound
    • About the Research
    • Legal Disclaimer
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • Contact

A Mundane Letter from Serial Killer - Dennis Nilsen

2/11/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Nominated BEST TRUE-CRIME PODCAST at British Podcast Awards 2018, The Telegraph's Top Five True-Crime Podcasts, The Guardian's Podcast of the Week and iTunes Top 25. Subscribe via iTunes, Spotify, Acast, Stitcher and all podcast platforms.
Picture
This week: Dennis Nilsen; the Kindly killer from Muswell Hill who murdered 12 young men in the late 1970’s/80, topic of eps 11-12 of MM.

Extract from letter written to an unidentified friend by Dennis Nilsen from Full Sutton Prison on 4th September 2003. Owing to prison regulations, he can’t discuss his case or the killings, and although this is such a mundane letter, it actually gives a fascinating insight into Dennis Nilsen as a person. Are you sitting comfortably, if you’ve got piles then probably not, so I shall begin?
Dear… (NAME REDACTED)

This is a supplementary reply to your last letter. When I wrote to you there had been no official acknowledgement that your cheque had been received here. The usual procedure is that the prisoner concerned is called up to sign for it in the registration book and, the fact that money or a cheque had arrived, this is usually noted on the incoming envelope. None of these procedures were followed. I noted in today’s weekly Earning Statement there is an unexplained entry of £10 in the “private cash” section. I guess that this may be your cheque. The administration of prisoner’s monies was never up to much here… the latest example being that my meagre prison wage was £1 and 50 pence short last week. Their error which they have not, as of yet, got around to correcting. This is the routine here and management has still not engaged the remedy of addressing their ‘offending behaviour’. There is no mind set like the Prison Service mind set. Routines just bumble along to nowhere”. He goes on…

“I watched the Channel Five documentary on Myra Hindley last night. One suspects that any programme with “Monster” in its title is not to be taken seriously as offering any new insight into the subject. TV journalism remains too set in its populist formulas. It revealed no new analysis or enlightening information. It hinged itself on that famous ‘demonic’ photograph of her taken at the police station. That saved millions the bother of ever having to think deeply about her ever again”.

He ends his letter… “Scientists tell us that an asteroid might strike the earth on 21st April 2014. If I’m still around, I’ll look out for it as the end of the world is something not to be missed. Friendly greetings as always, Des. PS: What do you think of the new Bull Ring development?”

Why was that an insight? Entirely different to his style of writing; often regarded as pompous, opinionated and highfalutin, loved to show how superior he was, (ep12) Carl Stotter wrote to Dennis Nilsen to ask him why he’d attacked him, almost killed him and then brought him back to life; in his reply Nilsen cryptically wrote, 'What passed between us was a thin strand of love and humanity'. Still to this day, Carl Stotter states "I've turned over what he meant until I'm blue in the face, but I can't find an answer.". As an example, in his autobiography – Memoir of a Drowning Boy (never published, court of European Human Rights deemed he couldn’t profit from his crimes, although, now he’s dead, this could change – his book is very much a pompous self-analysis of himself.

Here’s an example: "I serve my time as an extreme example of human contradiction in the wide continuum of human nature and its actions. I am not contained, mute and immobile in a glass jar as some kind of eternal official specimen of popular 'evil'. As I am alive I must live as a man. I seek only to reach out to engage with the human dimension which is anathema to rigid officials of the retribution machine who are content with the official view of men like me as eternally and evilly sub-human and monstrous."

Did you understand that? Nope. I think that makes all of us. But if you want to hear how Dennis Nilsen actually spoke… (CLIP)… taken from his police interview after his arrest in Feb 1983 at Hornsey Police Station.

If you found this interesting? Check out the Mini Mile episodes of the Murder Mile UK True-Crime Podcast, or click on the link below to listen to an episode.
Michael J Buchanan-Dunne is a writer, crime historian, podcaster and tour-guide who runs Murder Mile Walks, a guided tour of Soho’s most notorious murder cases, hailed as “one of the top ten curious, quirky, unusual and different things to do in London”, nominated "one of the best true-crime  podcasts at the British Podcast Awards 2018", and featuring 12 murderers, including 3 serial killers, across 15 locations, totaling 50 deaths, over just a one mile walk
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Author

    Michael J Buchanan-Dunne is a crime writer, podcaster of Murder Mile UK True Crime and creator of true-crime TV series.

    Become a Patron!
    Picture

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016



    Picture
    Subscribe to the Murder Mile true-crime podcast

    Categories

    All
    Adverts
    Assassinations
    Canalkillers
    Cannibal
    Celebrities
    Curious-stuff
    Deadly-families
    Execution Sites
    Forgotten Disasters
    Head Injuries
    Killer Interviews
    Killer Profiles
    Killer's Books
    Killers By Age
    Killers By Birthday
    Killers By Birth Name
    Killers By County
    Killers By Diet
    Killers By Drink
    Killers By Height
    Killers By IQ
    Killers By Job
    Killers By Lunar Cycle
    Killers By Marriage
    Killers By Motive
    Killers By Music
    Killers By Nickname
    Killers By Star Sign
    Killers By Weight
    Killers = Dead Or Alive?
    Killer's Kids
    Killers Last Meals
    Killers Last Words
    Killers Mothers
    Killers Not Caught
    Killers On TV
    Killers & Pets
    Killer's Religion
    Local History
    Mass Graves
    Mistakes
    Murder
    Murder Mile
    Nicknames
    Obsession With True Crime
    Pod
    Podcast
    Poisoners
    Q & A
    Serial Killers
    Soho Murders
    The Dangers Of Booze
    The Innocent
    The Law

    Note: This blog contains only licence-free images or photos shot by myself in compliance with UK & EU copyright laws. If any image breaches these laws, blame Google Images. 

SOCIAL MEDIA

BUSINESS ADDRESS

ABOUT MURDER MILE UK TRUE CRIME

(c) Murder Mile Walks, P O Box 83
15 Ingestre Place, Soho, W1F 0JH
Murder Mile UK True Crime is a true-crime podcast and blog featuring little known cases within London's West End but mostly the square mile of Soho, with new projects in the works
  • PODCAST
    • About the Host
    • About the Music
    • About the Sound
    • About the Research
    • Legal Disclaimer
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • Contact