Dennis Nilsen

Dennis Nilsen
Mug shot of Nilsen taken, after his arrest, in February 1983
Born	Dennis Andrew Nilsen (1945-11-23) 23 November 1945 (age 71) Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Other names	The Muswell Hill Murderer The Kindly Killer
Criminal penalty	Life imprisonment (whole life tariff)
Conviction(s)	Murder Attempted murder
Killings
Victims	12–15
Span of killings	30 December 1978–26 January 1983
Country	United Kingdom
Date apprehended	9 February 1983
Imprisoned at	HMP Full Sutton

Dennis Andrew Nilsen (born 23 November 1945) is a British serial killer and necrophiliac, also known as the Muswell Hill Murderer and the Kindly Killer, who murdered at least 12 young men in a series of killings committed between 1978 and 1983 in London, England. Convicted of six counts of murder and two of attempted murder at the Old Bailey, Nilsen was sentenced to life imprisonment on 4 November 1983, with a recommendation that he serve a minimum of 25 years. He is currently incarcerated at HMP Full Sutton maximum security prison in Full Sutton in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.

All of Nilsen's murders were committed in two North London addresses in which he alternately resided throughout the years he is known to have killed. His victims would be lured to these addresses through guile and all were murdered by strangulation, sometimes accompanied by drowning. Following the murder, Nilsen would observe a ritual in which he bathed and dressed the victims' bodies, which he would retain for extended periods of time, before dissecting and disposing of the remains via burning upon a bonfire, or flushing the remains down a lavatory.

Nilsen became known as the Muswell Hill Murderer as his later murders were committed in the Muswell Hill district of North London; he also became known as the Kindly Killer, in reference to his belief that his method of murder was the most humane. Owing to the similar modus operandi of the murderers, Nilsen has been described as the "British Jeffrey Dahmer".

Dennis Andrew Nilsen was born on 23 November 1945 in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, the second of three children born to Elizabeth Duthie Whyte, and Olav Magnus Moksheim (who had adopted the surname Nilsen). Nilsen was of Scottish and Norwegian heritage: his father was a Norwegian soldier who had travelled to Scotland in 1940 as part of the Free Norwegian Forces, following the Nazi occupation of Norway. After a brief courtship, he had married Elizabeth Whyte in May 1942 and the newlyweds moved into her parents' house.