History Of A Drowning Boy by Dennis Nilsen

 

In the 1970's, Dennis Nilsen was convicted of killing twelve young men, but his true number of murders is probably sixteen or more.  For that, he was convicted and given a life sentence and served thirty-four years before his own death.  This is Nilsen's autobiography.

He was born in Scotland and lived with his mother, siblings and grandparents.  Some of his earliest memories were of his grandfather molesting him, an act that extended across years.  When he was old enough, Nilsen joined the army and was well thought of but left due to the impossibility of being openly gay.  He was a policeman for a short time and then started his murderous acts.  He would invite the men home with him from a bar, drug them, strangle them, then use their bodies in his fantasy ritual.

While this was an interesting look into his mind, in the end it was a basically self-serving exercise.  The majority of the book was of his life in prison which is inevitably a very limited viewpoint as not much occurs differently from day to day.  Even after years, he admits to having fantasies about various men he sees and thinks about how he would kill them.  Would his life have been different if he hadn't had a history of early molestation and if the laws about homosexuality had been different as he grew up?  Perhaps but the reality is we each most live with the situation we find ourselves in and most do not use others in such a way to satisfy their own needs.  This book is recommended for true crime readers.