Nilsen met the young Irish-boy in a pub, and invited him home. They continued to drink and eventually crawled into bed together to sleep. Nilsen woke up at dawn and realized that his new friend was now going to leave. Something he didn't want to happen, so he took his tie and slipped it around his victims neck and pulled tight. The boy woke up immediately. And they struggled off the bed onto the floor.

Nilsen tightened his grip, not about to let go and lose this battle to the death. His victim pushed himself with his feet, with Nilsen on top of him, along the carpet. When he came up against the wall, he lay there and grew limp, giving up. Nilsen relaxed, but realized the man was not yet dead, only unconscious. He ran into the kitchen and filled a plastic bucket full of water in order to drown the man. Nilsen lifted him onto some chairs, draping his head back, and pushed it into the bucket. The man did not struggle, although water splashed all over the carpet. After a few minutes, the bubbles stopped coming. Nilsen had just killed his first victim.

He saved the corps under the floorboards. It remained there for seven and a half months, until He took it out and burned the remains in a bonfire. He added rubber to the fire to mask the smell of burning flesh. He raked the ashes into the ground. Nilsen confessed to the murder in january 2006.

*****

Name: Martyn Duffey
Age: 16 years-old
Murdered: May, 1980
Location: 195 Melrose Avenue in London

Martyn Duffey was homeless and he accepted Nilsen’s invitation to spend the night. After two beers, he went to bed. Nilsen climbed on top, trapping his arms under the covers, and strangled him. He went limp, but was still alive, so Nilsen carried him into the kitchen and drowned him by pushing his head into a sink full of water. Then he took him to the bathroom and got into the tub with him. Duffrey went into the cupboard for two full weeks, and then was placed under the floorboards.

*****

Name: William 'Billy' Sutherland
Age: 27 years-old
Murdered: August 1980
Location: 195 Melrose Avenue in London

Sutherland slept with men for money. Nilsen did not even want to take him home, but he followed Nilsen after they went bar-hopping one night. Nilsen barely recalls strangling him and finding a body in his home the next morning.

*****

Name: Douglas Stewart
Age: ?? years-old
Attempted murder: August, 1980
Location: 195 Melrose Avenue in London

Stewart said that Nilsen had attacked him. He had fallen asleep in the armchair, waking to find his feet tied and Nilsen putting a tie around his neck. He fought back, knocking Nilsen over, and Nilsen told him to leave. He called the police to 195 Melrose Place on August 11, 1980, around 4:00 a.m., but they noticed that he had been drinking. They knocked at the door and Nilsen seemed surprised by what they said. They figured it to be a homosexual encounter, with both sides hiding some of the truth. They made a report, but Stewart failed to follow-up as required.

*****

Between november 1980 and may 1981
Nilsen killed seven men who were never indentified.

*****

Name: Malcolm Barlow
Age: 24 years-old
Murdered: September 18, 1981
Location: 195 Melrose Avenue in London

Malcolm Barlow was an orphan with mental problems. He was also a pathological liar. Nilsen found Barlow loitering outside his home, complaining of weakness from epilepsy, and he took him home and called an ambulance. When Barlow was released, he came back and sat on Nilsen’s doorstep to await his return from work. Nilsen invited him in and they drank together before Barlow fell into a deep sleep. Nilsen found his presence a nuisance, so he strangled him. The next day, he stuffed Barlow in the cabinet under the kitchen sink. He sat in the flat with a half dozen other bodies awaiting disposal. Some of them Nilsen had kept in bed with him for sexual purposes for as long as a week. Having control over these men thrilled him and the mystery of a dead body that would not respond fascinated him. It was his feeling that he appreciated them more deeply than they had ever been appreciated before.

*****

Name: Paul Nobbs
Age: 25 years-old
Attempted murder: November 23, 1981
Location: Cranley Gardens, Muswell Hill

On November 23rd, 1981-Nilsen’s 36th birthday--he took a nineteen-year-old gay student named Paul Nobbs back home with him and they sat drinking together. Then they went to bed and Nobbs woke up at 2:30 in the morning with a terrible headache. He woke again at six and went into the kitchen. In the mirror there, he saw a deep red mark across his throat. The white of his eyes were bloodshot and his face looked bruised. Nilsen commented that he looked awful and advised him to see a doctor. That day, Nobbs visited the university infirmary and learned that bruises on his throat indicated that someone had tried to strangle him. He declined to report the incident.

*****

Name: Toshimitsu Ozawa
Age: ?? years-old
Attempted murder: December 31, 1981
Location: Cranley Gardens, Muswell Hill

On New Year’s Eve, 1981, neighbors of Nilsen’s were invited to his flat, but they had plans. Besides, he appeared drunk, which disturbed them. They heard him leave the house and return home with someone. Then they heard a commotion upstairs. Someone came running down the steps, sobbing, and ran out the front door. That man was Toshimitsu Ozawa. He told police that he thought Nilsen had intended to kill him. He had approached Ozawa with a tie stretched between his hands.
There was no follow-up investigation.

*****

Name: John Howlett - Nilsen called him John the Guardsman
Age: years-old
Murdered: march 1982
Location: Cranley Gardens, Muswell Hill

Nilsen and Howlett had met once in a pub and had engaged in a long conversation. Then Nilsen was drinking alone one day when John walked in and recognized him. They chatted and then decided to go to Nilsen’s place, where after drinking awhile, John got into Nilsen’s bed. Nilsen tried to get him to leave, but he refused to go. Nilsen then found a length of loose upholstery strap on an armchair and used it to strangle the man.

At one point he feared he would be overpowered, so he tightened his grip as John fought for control. Then he struck his head and soon went limp. Nilsen kept the strap on him until he was sure he was dead, and then went shakily into the other room. He soon became aware the John was still alive. He lopped the strap around his neck again and held it for two or three minutes. However, John’s heart was still beating, so Nilsen dragged him into the bathroom and drowned him.

*****

*****

Name: Archibald Graham Allan
Age: years-old
Murdered: late 1982
Location: Cranley Gardens, Muswell Hill

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.

*****

Name: Steve Sinclair
Age: 20 years-old
Murdered: January 26, 1983
Location: Cranley Gardens, Muswell Hill

Steven Sinclair 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. He was Nilsen's last victim.