Dennis Nilsen Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tie

Nilsen, a homosexual, met his male victims at various pubs, invited them home with him, then strangled them, often using one of his own neckties. These were close to hand for Nilsen, as he wore them to his job as a clerk at an employment centre. When he was arrested he had only one tie left that he could wear to work.

Answer: 23 Cranley Gardens

Nilsen lived in the attic flat at Cranley Gardens in the London suburb of Muswell Hill from 1981 to his arrest in 1983. He kept various parts of his victim's bodies with him after killing them. Prior to this, Nilsen lived in Melrose Avenue, north London, where police uncovered remains of other victims after his confessions.

Answer: Bleep

Despite his lack of emotional attachment to human beings, Nilsen loved animals. Following his arrest he showed much concern for the welfare of his mixed-breed dog, Bleep.

Answer: 30 December 1978

After spending Christmas alone, Nilsen went drinking at a local pub and met a young Irish lad. Nilsen invited the youth home with him after the pub closed, where he strangled him, then gave the dead young man a bath and put him into his bed before storing the body under the floorboards of his home.

A week later he took the body out again and gave it another bath, then put it back under the floorboards and kept it there before disposing of it in a bonfire in August 1979.

Answer: A plumber called to inspect a blockage found rotting flesh in his drains.

In February 1983, other tenants in Nilsen's block of flats complained of toilets not flushing properly and called in a specialist drain clearance company. Engineer Mike Cattran inspected a drainage pit and found it full of what looked and smelled like rotting flesh.

When he brought his boss back to take a look the next day the flesh had mysteriously gone, but there were skin and bone fragments left in the pipes and the concerned plumber phoned the police.

Answer: Jeffrey Dahmer

Nilsen and Dahmer share many characteristics in terms of their backgrounds, lifestyles and methods of killing. Both men were closet homosexuals who picked up victims at bars and invited them back home to kill them. Both managed to elude capture for some time, despite close calls. Both also preserved parts of their victim's bodies in their apartments after the murders. Dahmer, however, cooked and ate parts of his victims; Nilsen never (as far as is known) went that far.

Answer: Douglas Stewart

On 10 November 1980 26-year-old Stewart went home with Nilsen and fell asleep in an armchair. He awoke to find that Nilsen had tied his ankles together and was trying to strangle him with a necktie. Stewart was able to overpower Nilsen, escape and call the police, however police dismissed it as a domestic homosexual dispute.

Answer: Ivan Lawrence QC

Nilsen went on trial for the murders of 6 men, and attempted murder of 2 others on 24 October 1983 in London's Old Bailey. Ivan Lawrence, one of Britian's finest legal minds, argued that Nilsen suffered from a mental illness when he committed his crimes. Nilsen was found guilty of all the murders and sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he serve a minimum of 25 years.

Answer: Stephen Sinclair

Twenty-year-old Stephen Sinclair was an HIV positive drug addict who scrounged a hamburger off Nilsen on 26 January 1983, then went back to Nilsen's flat to drink beer and inject heroin. Nilsen strangled Sinclair when he passed out in front of the TV.

Answer: The Drowning Man

"The Drowning Man" has never been published, as authorities at Whitemoor top security prison, where Nilsen was first imprisoned, confiscated the manuscript (along with an anthology of poems Nilsen had also written) in 2001. Nilsen appealed to the High Court to have the manuscript returned to him, but this was rejected. Nilsen has also tried to have pornography permitted in prison while he has been incarcerated.