Nilsen ‘insulted’ by Hindley comparison
Serial killer: I’m better as I confessed
SERIAL killer Dennis Nilsen moaned that he was “insulted” to be compared to Moors Murderer Myra Hindley.
Nilsen died aged 72 after serving 35 years in high-security prisons after murdering and dismembering at least 12 men.
His controversial autobiography reveals he viewed himself as above his fellow members of the “ranks of the damned”.
He was proud of his crimes and felt it “insulting in the extreme” to compare his “attitude” to his offences to that of Hindley.
Nilsen wrote: “On her arrest, Hindley denied the charges.
“On my arrest, I furnished the police with the full evidence against myself and gave information which they would never have discovered by themselves.
“I was also a willing collaborator in my own prosecution, while Hindley didn’t offer any assistance whatsoever.”
Former soldier and civil servant Nilsen committed a series of barbaric murders at his two North London homes between 1978 and 1983 when he was arrested.
He was sentenced to life – later extended to a whole life tariff – and remained behind bars until his death at the age of 72 in 2018.
Offering further thoughts on Hindley, Nilsen added: “She stayed in denial for about 20 years, still firmly denying responsibility for some murders and deciding to ‘come clean’ only many years later, when she could see some light at the end of the penal tunnel.
“When I was informed of my whole life tariff, I felt that it was as just as I could hope to expect. There would be no remission for my victims, nor their relatives.”
Nilsen typed 6,000 pages in his prison cell, detailing life growing up as a young boy in Scotland through to his career in the Army, and describing his horrific crimes in graphic detail.
He wrote: “The State, through the agency of the judicial system, made its pronouncement on me.
“The flashbulbs popped and the wolves howled and, in the universal public consciousness, I joined the ranks of the damned alongside Crippen, Heath, Haigh, Brady, Hindley and Sutcliffe.”
Nilsen met many of Britain’s most extreme offenders during his stay at prisons including HMP Wakefield, HMP Whitemoor and HMP Full Sutton.
He revealed how he befriended quadruple murder Robert Maudsley, 67, now the longest serving British con, who passed him rollups when they were locked in a punishment block at Wakefield.
And he claimed even depraved killers displayed normal “human strengths and weaknesses”.
History of a Drowning Boy by Dennis Nilsen, published by Reddoor Press, is out tomorrow.