Crime Library: Criminal Minds and Methods

Dennis Nilsen

Stage Set for Betrayal

The second man was Archibald Graham Allan. 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.

He placed Allan into a bath and left him there for three days, then dissected him as he had with John the Guardsman.

The third and last victim was Steven Sinclair, age 20, who 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. Nilsen told him, "Nothing can hurt you now." Then he removed bandages on Stephen's arms and discovered that he recently had tried to commit suicide with a razor.

Nilsen then bathed him and put him into the bed. He placed two mirrors by the bed and removed his clothes so that he could look at the two of them naked together. He experienced a feeling of oneness and thought that this surely was the meaning of life and death. He talked with Stephen as if he were still alive. The dog jumped into bed with them and sniffed at Stephen. Nilsen turned the young man's head toward him and kissed it. He had no idea that this corpse would betray him and finally be the cause of his undoing.

Categories
We're Following
Slender Man stabbing, Waukesha, Wisconsin
Gilberto Valle 'Cannibal Cop'
Advertisement