Dennis Nilsen Case Analysis | Britain's Jeffrey Dahmer

hello this is dr grande today's question is can i analyze dennis nielsen another question here is can i analyze the documentary on netflix about dennis nielsen titled memories of a murder the nielsen tapes just a reminder i'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel consider supporting me on patreon and check out my podcast bella grande media i will put the irrelevant links for those items in the description for this video so first i'll look at the background in this case i'll move to the timeline of the crimes then offer my analysis dennis nielsen was born in scotland on november 23 1945 he had an older brother and a younger sister his father was a norwegian soldier who was in scotland during world war ii his mother was also from norway his parents struggled in their marriage and divorced in 1948 growing up nielsen had a particular affection for his paternal grandfather andrew white spending a lot of time with him his grandfather died in 1951 at age 62. nielsen was shown his corpse by his mother later he would say that this influenced him as far as his fascination with death nielsen was greatly affected by his grandfather's death he didn't even know his grandfather had been ill nielsen started to have a fear that he could be abandoned by anybody at any time nielsen became more isolated after his grandfather's death he would pull away from family members who were trying to show him affection one day in 1954 or 1955 nielsen was visiting a beach by himself when he was almost dragged out to sea an older boy pulled him back to shore saving his life nielsen referred to this as a near-death experience that was significant in his life this affected his thinking nielsen's mother remarried that couple would have four more children around this time nielsen realized that he was gay he kept this information hidden from his family as he was ashamed when he was 14 nielsen joined the army cadet force hoping it may lead to a career in the british army he finished school in 1961 briefly worked in a factory then joined the army for the most part nielsen adjusted well to life in the army he worked as a chef he was deployed to several areas around the world and saw death and other unpleasant circumstances nielsen started to develop sexual fantasies that included a partner being dead sometimes he would fantasize that he was dead in 1972 nielsen's military career came to a close he lived with his family temporarily as he was trying to figure out what he was going to do next after having an argument with nielsen his older brother told his mother that nielsen was gay nielsen cut off contact with his brother and only occasionally communicated with his mother from that point forward in some ways nielsen missed the camaraderie of the military he joined the metropolitan police and moved to london in an effort to recapture that experience nielsen started drinking and seeking romantic encounters with other men he quit the police force in 1973 and started working as a security guard he was disappointed with the way the police behaved he didn't like the idea of having to enforce laws that he did not believe were just in 1974 he found work as a civil servant he worked at a job center helping unskilled laborers find work he did fairly well in this job he was promoted at one point although his attendance was not exemplary nielsen and a 20-year-old man that he met in a bar became romantically involved they moved into a residence on melrose avenue the couple did not have a good relationship they argued frequently nielsen's partner moved out in 1977. nielsen had a few other partners after this but was largely living alone by late 1978. this takes me to the timeline of the crimes on december 30 1978 nielsen met a 14 year old boy at a bar the two went back to nielsen's melrose avenue residence nielsen strangled him with a necktie and drowned him in a bucket of water he buried the body underneath the floorboards of his apartment on october 11 1979 nielsen attempted to kill a student from hong kong who he met at a bar the student managed to escape but did not press charges on december 3 1979 nielsen met a 23 year old man in a bar nielsen invited him to his house and strangled him with an electrical cord from a pair of headphones he placed the body of the victim underneath the floorboards nielsen encountered a 16 year old runaway on may 17 1980 he offered him food and a place to sleep once there at nielsen's residence he strangled him and drowned him in the sink after a few days nielsen buried his body under the floorboards so we see a pretty clear pattern emerging nielsen continued to commit homicides he didn't remember all of his victims it's believed that before the end of 1980 he had killed five more victims and attempted to murder one other nielsen had so many bodies buried under the floorboards of his apartment he was having trouble managing the smell and the insects he put deodorant under the floorboards and sprayed insecticide twice a day but the odor was getting out of control near the end of 1980 he removed several bodies and burned them along with an old tire in his backyard when the fire went out he spread the remains over his yard with a rake nielsen continued to commit murders he killed four more people by september of 1981 nielsen's landlord at melrose avenue wanted to renovate the property and needed nielsen to move out he also didn't like nielsen as a tenant so he was actually eager to get rid of nielsen the landlord offered nielsen a thousand pounds to go nielsen took the deal in october of 1981 he moved into an attic apartment in a house in cranley gardens unable to bury bodies under the floorboards in that unit nielsen refrained from committing murders for a while in march of 1982 he resumed his homicidal activity even though he really hadn't overcome the problem of body disposal nielsen attacked a 23 year old man the two fought vigorously the man almost strangled nielsen but nielsen was able to strangle the man into unconsciousness and drown him in a bathtub in may 1982 nielsen took a 21 year old man back to his apartment strangled him into unconsciousness and attempted to drown him the man survived when he regained consciousness nielsen told him that he almost strangled himself with a sleeping bag nielsen took credit for resuscitating him for saving his life in june of 1982 nielsen killed a 27 year old man after inviting him home for a meal on january 26 1983 nielsen killed a 20 year old man and disposed of his smaller bones and internal organs by flushing them down the toilet on february 8 1983 plumbers visited the residence after receiving complaints that the toilets were blocked they tried to figure out what was causing the obstruction they noticed a flesh-like substance and bones in the pipes the plumbers talked to the tenants including nielsen and told them that they may have to call the police but they were going to come out the next day and have a better look they wanted to see what it looked like in the daylight around midnight nielsen removed the body parts and dumped them over a fence he contemplated replacing the body parts with pieces of chicken to fool the plumbers the next day but instead he sat alone in his apartment and consumed alcohol he made no effort to get rid of the body parts that were still in his apartment the plumbers returned the next day and discovered the drain had been cleared which prompted them to immediately call the police the police determined that the remains were human so nielsen had not cleared out all the remains there were some in there that he missed at this time on february 9 nielsen was at work he told a co-worker if i'm not in tomorrow i'll either be ill dead or in jail apparently they both laughed indicating that the standard for jokes in that area was set pretty low the police confronted nielsen as he returned home from work asking if they could speak to him about the whole drain situation nielsen and the police walked into his apartment the officers were stunned by the overwhelming smell of decomposing bodies which is one of the easier clues to interpret from the police perspective the police asked him where the rest of the body was nielsen directed them to plastic bags located in the closet after the police inspected the bags and found body parts nielsen was arrested in the police car on the way the station an officer asked nielsen whether the bag contained one body or two nielsen replied 15 or 16 since 1978. nielsen confessed to being a serial killer he talked on and on for hours when asked about his motive he said quote i'm hoping you will tell me that unquote on february 11 nielsen was charged with six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder he pleaded not guilty at his trial in october of 1983 no one disagreed that nielsen committed the murders so the defense wasn't trying to argue that he was not guilty the issue was really about premeditation and his sanity as far as premeditation nielsen argued that he made the decision to kill at the last second as far as the sanity component the defense argued that nielsen was mentally ill i'll talk more about this in the analysis nielsen was convicted on all counts and sentenced to life in prison eligible for parole in 25 years in 1994 his sentence was changed to life in prison with no possibility of parole nielsen died on may 12 2018 following complications from surgery dennis nielsen was 72 years old now moving to my analysis nielsen appeared to be a sexual domination serial killer much of his activity was restricted to postmortem on many occasions he posed the bodies he thought of them as beautiful he shaved off hair to make them more attractive to him he would put makeup on them and bait them ultimately he would masturbate next to them he would say that no other sexual activity occurred post-mortem because he did not want to be offensive to the bodies ilson would keep the bodies for these activities for as long as he could when the body started bloating and the smell became unbearable he would dispose of them to cope with the horrible smell nielsen would drink until he was intoxicated what about the mental health factors during his trial three mental health professionals testified there was quite a bit of disagreement as to what was going on was nielsen one professional said that nielsen was abnormal but he did not have any mental disorder a second professional said that nielsen had unspecified personality disorder nielsen was only capable of expressing anger no other emotions he was able to view people as objects he was narcissistic and had an unstable self-image it sounds as though this professional believed that nielsen had cluster b personality features although the clinician was not able to narrow it down to have just a distinct disorder or multiple distinct disorders that's why there was this choice to go with unspecified cluster b is the dramatic erratic cluster it contains four personality disorders anti-social narcissistic borderline and histrionic the third clinician diagnosed nielsen with both borderline and narcissistic personality disorder so here we see a more definitive diagnosis he went on to say how nielsen had occasional episodic breakdowns which were predominantly schizoid the clinician describes schizoid as containing violent and impulsive features which of course is not what schizoid is schizoid personality is characterized by bizarre and isolating behavior so what's really going on with the mental health factors there is no way to know for sure nielsen would say that he was able to move between two worlds his real life and his fantasy life he said he could do this easily like at will he could just decide to journey from one to the other nielsen also said that killing people temporarily gave him relief from feelings of inadequacy and that he only had attempted murders on his resume because of alcohol he claimed that the reason he was not successful in killing every victim was due to that drinking not due to the fact that he didn't want to kill them nielsen would say that he enjoyed every single part of the homicidal process the seduction convincing the victim to come to his house the murder itself and the subsequent disposing of the body so even the part that he viewed disgusting when he was doing it he fondly remembered when he was in prison i think that nielsen was narcissistic manipulative and self-centered he did not know how to have a healthy romantic relationship he was obsessed with beauty he formed this image in his mind of perfect beauty which he observed in many victims he wanted a sexual experience with a beautiful person but did not want the other person to actually do anything he simply wanted use of their body he didn't want a relationship it was all about satisfying his own sadistic needs therefore he started killing in order to get this ideal sexual experience in order to increase his chances of not being caught nielsen targeted victims who no one would miss or who he believed no one would miss as it turns out when people survived his attacks they were reluctant to go the authorities because of the attitudes toward homosexuality in britain at that time i don't know if this was something that nielsen was counting on considering he meant to kill every victim he attacked so it wouldn't matter if they were afraid to report anything to the police or not but it is something that allowed him to avoid arrest for some time as far as what mental disorders his behavior is aligned with as i mentioned there is disagreement he appeared to have a number of symptoms from several cluster b personality disorders mostly from anti-social narcissistic and borderline it doesn't appear as though he had too much from histrionic specifically looking at the anti-social aspect he appeared to have factor 1 psychopathy he was manipulative deceptive grandiose he had no remorse or empathy and had superficial charm as far as the schizoid theory from the one mental health clinician that really doesn't make any sense to me i agree that nielsen appeared to have bizarre and isolating behavior even though the clinician described schizoid in a different way i don't know if nielsen's behavior really rose to the level of schizoid and the whole part about schizoid episodes doesn't really line up with our understanding of personality pathology there's nothing episodic about schizoid behavior there's no such thing as episodic personality disorder rather these disorders are persistent in nature one of the defining characteristics of a personality disorder is that it remains essentially the same way over a long duration like in many cases the entire life span i think what stands out about nielsen is that it was always the same it was always dangerous he was always looking to kill somebody he was continually unsatisfied nielsen killed when he had the opportunity to do so not because of some episodic personality anomaly now moving to my thoughts on the documentary on netflix memories of a murder the nielsen tapes as far as the positives on this documentary it emphasized recordings that nielsen made in prison he was casual nonchalant arrogant and petty information that was not clear in the absence of the recordings so in that way it was quite helpful the documentary discussed how nielsen targeted people that he thought would not be missed which i talked about i think this is an important aspect of the case a few people with first-hand knowledge of the case were interviewed in the documentary as well so a number of positives as far as the negatives serial killers are challenging to cover in a relatively short documentary i think their stories are better suited to a docu-series the documentary really didn't get into nielsen's thought processes it would be interesting to hear an analysis of the recordings he also wrote a book that really wasn't mentioned too much in the documentary and the book was massive there was a lot of content in there it felt as though the documentary was a little bit disorganized and disjointed which is a common complaint i have of documentaries on true crime the various elements they presented could have been woven together a little better they could have synthesized the information in a way to make it easier to understand and really just more straightforward and helpful overall though i think the documentary was worth watching it was okay so what lessons can we learn from the dennis nielsen case one thing that stood out for me in this case was how whenever society marginalizes any group of people those people can easily become victims of various types of crime whenever a group is afraid to approach the police it's the criminals who notice and take advantage of those circumstances those are my thoughts on the case of dennis nielsen please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always i hope you found my analysis on this topic to be informative thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

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Id: 23IZ7hWeDIs

Length: 18min 40sec (1120 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 25 2021