Julie Bentley, the sister of Carl Stottor
(Picture: BBC/Wall to Wall)Filmmaker Michael Ogden has set out on a simple mission: to bring colour to the 16 victims of infamous serial killer Dennis Nilsen. Until now, the dead have been known as little more than “down and outs”, “homosexuals” and “rent boys.”
“As a gay man,” Ogden says in his comforting narration which runs throughout this documentary, “I want to know why so little is known about the victims.” The Nilsen Files opens with clips of the plumber called out to fix a pipe at 23D Cranley Gardens in Muswell Hill, North London. His gruesome discovery of hacked-up body parts led to its resident, Nilsen, confessing to up to 16 further killings. Promptly, horror rushed across the UK and the red top tabloids, and Nilsen was ultimately convicted of six murders in 1983. The investigation was then closed due to expenditure.
