A gripping new documentary about one of the UK's most infamous killers lands on Netflix today. Watch the trailer:
Memories of a Murderer: The Nilsen Tapes includes never-before-heard recordings of Dennis Nilsen, a man who brutally murdered a dozen young men and boys in the 1970s and 80s.
Advert
Directed by Michael Harte (Don't F***k With Cats), the heart-wrenching film offers us a deeper look into the mind of the man who preyed on the most vulnerable in society.
Using over 250 hours of tapes recorded from his prison cell, we hear from Nilsen himself.
The official synopsis reads: "Over a five-year period, he picked up vulnerable young men, lured them back to his home and strangled them, before disposing of their bodies under the floorboards.
"The truth about how and why he killed has been the subject of much speculation in books and documentaries over the decades since.
"Now, with unique access to a wealth of personal archive left in his cell after his death, including over 250 hours of never-before-published cassette tapes of his private recordings, this film will take us into Nilsen's world.
Advert
"From a young boy growing up in a quiet Scottish fishing village to a cold-blooded murderer prowling the streets of London."
As well as Nilsen, the film's makers also tracked down some of the people whose lives he destroyed, including one of his first-ever victims.
Martyn met Nilsen five years before he was eventually arrested for his heinous crimes.
The pair got chatting at an arcade in central London and went back to Nilsen's house at Melrose Avenue and listened to music.
Advert
Looking back, Martyn said the killer seemed 'quite caring', asking him about his family and where he grew up.
But a couple of hours after the pair went to bed together, Martyn woke up with Nilsen on top of him, pressing him down.
"He was straddled across me and he was pushing me backwards," he recalls.
Advert
"I said, 'What's happening, what's happening?' and he said, 'You knocked the fire off the wall'.
"I got water and I poured it over the floor and I left because I was really quite upset because I thought I'd caused that damage to his flat.
"But it didn't make sense, the fire wouldn't have been on, because it was a warm night. I realised that he was trying to kill me that night.
"I didn't know who to talk to, I didn't know where to turn. London at the time was extremely homophobic, the police certainly were, the press certainly were.
Advert
"So I stayed quiet, in my room, like I was used to when I was younger, in the dark."
He added: "Looking back now, I would have been his first victim, this was just the beginning for him."
Nilsen died on 12 May 2018, aged 72, and was a serial killer and necrophile who is believed to have brutally murdered at least 12 young men and boys between 1978 and 1983.
When he was arrested, however, he had claimed to have butchered as many as 16.
Memories of a Murderer: The Dennis Nilsen Tapes is available to watch on Netflix from today (18 August).
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: Police, Entertainment, crime, UK Entertainment, Documentary, Netflix, Murder, Prison, court