Historical murders and executions in Stockholm

One of Stockholms tänkeböcker, the logs of all court cases in the Stockholm City Court.

A section of the Country Law of Magnus Eriksson begins with an illustration depicting a hanging.

According to the Stockholm tänkeböcker, it is fair to assume that violence with a deadly outcome was up to a hundred times more common during the Middle Ages compared to today.[2] Usually, most cases of manslaughter involved two intoxicated men fighting each other, resulting in either party's death. If the surviving party were to report the event and turn himself in, his punishment would be less grave. Murder was a more serious crime, especially if the perpetrator would attempt to hide the fact.[3]

Hostility between German merchants and the populace of Stockholm led to the so-called Käpplinge murders. On 14 June 1389, German hättebröder, soldiers and merchants marched towards Stortorget and gathered near Kåkbrinken. The Germans read aloud a list of the names of 76 Swedish "traitors" who were to be taken into custody. A number of them were locked inside Tre Kronor Castle, and others were taken to Gråmunkeholmen (Riddarholmen). The captives were tortured with saws. On 17 June the prisoners inside Tre Kronor castle were ferried over to Käpplingeholmen (Blasieholmen) where they were locked inside a building which was set on fire. The smallest number of victims of the Käpplinge murders was noted as 15, the highest was 76.[4]

A quite harsh legislation composed of the Magnus Erikssons stadslag and Magnus Erikssons landslag, which made the death penalty legal for thieves still did not manage to deter criminals. 140 persons were executed between 1474 and 1492 in Stockholm. 50 persons had been convicted of violent crimes such as manslaughter, murder and assault. 90 were thieves and robbers. The chapter addressing thievery in Magnus Erikssons landslag is introduced with a picture depicting a hanging. The text promotes corporal punishment against children in order to prevent them turning into criminals.[5] A human life was not worth much during the Middle Ages. If Sweden were to exercise the death penalty at the same level today, around 1 560 persons would be executed yearly, or four people daily.[6]

The most common incidents were fights between two men who were usually intoxicated. The most common murder weapon was a knife, as almost every man carried one. Less common weapons included wooden logs, stein (beer mugs), axes, hammers and furniture.[6] Insulting ones honor could also be a justification to deadly violence. A third of all cases of murder and manslaughter during the 1500s usually involved honor-related conflicts.[7] Minor conflicts sometimes triggered murder. On 9 June 1589, a knight known as Anders was accused of the murder of the farmhand Bengt Persson. They had been shooting darts and when Anders missed the target, Bengt mocked him by whistling. This was enough for Anders to draw his knife and stab Bengt in the head. The court ruled that a murder for such a minor reason was not right and therefore sentenced Anders to the death penalty.[8]

Some of the courts sentences are today difficult to comprehend. Persons who committed murder or manslaughter were not always sentenced to death, an example would be when a flayer known as Henrik was charged with manslaughter on 18 June 1492 for killing his servant. But Henrik was later freed from all charges since it turned out that the servant was envious of Henrik, which was considered sinful. On 17 December 1498, Klas Larsson from Utsunda village was accused of murder. He was sentenced to death, simply because the jury stated that they could see in his eyes that he was guilty.[9]

Besides murder and manslaughter among the general population, political murders were not uncommon occurrences in Stockholm. The most common cases were politicians who desired to get rid of competitors or punish critics. The oldest documented cases of this category goes back to 1280, when King Magnus Ladulås ordered the execution of three members of the privy council, who had been accused of several "traitorous acts against the throne".[10]

Another notable case is the execution of Torkel Knutsson on 10 February 1306. After being sentenced to death, he was killed by decapitation on Pelarbacken (Götgatsbacken) and buried in Greyfriars Monastery. The capture and subsequent execution of Torkel was the result of an agreement between King Birger Magnusson and his brothers in order to stop Torkels dominance of the government.[11]

Karin Månsdotter, Erik XIV and Jöran Persson, painted by Georg von Rosen in 1871.

Magnus Birgersson, son of Birger Magnusson, did not die a natural death either. He was a prince and was capable of threatening the throne. On 21 October 1320 he was sentenced to death and executed a week later at Helgeandsholmen. He received an honorable funeral at Riddarholm Church.[12]

The knight Broder Svensson Tjurhuvud was forced to pay with his life in 1436 after he had publicly expressed his dismay against the king. He had insulted King Charles VIII with harsh words, when he had not received a castle as a fief. He was arrested and executed on Brunkebergstorg.[13]

Betrayal against the king was not acceptable either and was punishable by death. Måns Bryntesson Lilliehöök, one of Sweden's most eminent men in the 1520s, suffered the death penalty in 1529 when he participated in the Westrogothian rebellion against King Gustav Vasa. The rebellion failed, and the king offered Lilliehöök mercy. But, in his belief that all evidence incriminating him had been destroyed, Lilliehöök declined and demanded that a trial be held. Authorities did have evidence, and in 1529, the Riksdag at Strängnäs sentenced him to death. Lilliehöök attempted to escape custody, but fell and broke his femur. After crawling his way out of the city, he was found hiding in a field. On 7 September 1529, Lilliehöök was executed by decapitation on Södermalmstorg. His head was impaled on a spear and his body was buried at Riddarholm Church.[14]

In some cases, kings have personally murdered people. In 1568, King Eric XIV beat his secretary Martin Olai Helsingius to death with a stove poker. Martin had allegedly advised the king against pardoning his former secretary Jöran Persson,[15] who was a very trusted advisor and friend of the king, but whom the Swedish people despised. Persson had been accused of causing the looting of Svartsjö Palace in 1567 and the Sture murders the same year. He received his verdict on 28 September 1568 and was punished "as an honorless, faithless and perjurous traitor, rogue and villain". Martins punishment was cruel. Both of his ears were nailed against the gallows, along with his patent of nobility. He was later hinged onto the gallows, but before his death he was brought down again. and subjected to breaking wheel torture at Brunkebergstorg. He was eventually beheaded and his body was nailed to a stake, where his body could be observed in public. This was a regular practice during the Middle Ages in Sweden, until it was outlawed in 1841.[16]

Two scenes from Blodbadstavlan. To the left, two bishops are beheaded; to the right, the grave of Sten Sture the younger's is being dug up.

The largest group of political murder cases in Stockholm is undeniably the Stockholm Bloodbath, which revolves around the looting and subsequent executions between 7 November och 9 November 1520. The events took place three days following the coronation of Christian II as King of Sweden. when the coronation party guests were called to a meeting at Tre Kronor Castle. Archbishop Gustav Trolles demands of economic compensation for the demolishing of his castle led to the question if the previous regent Sten Sture the Younger and his followers should be found guilty of heresy or not. Supported by canon law, approximately 82 persons were executed during the following days. The executions were performed on Stortorget and commenced in the afternoon of 8 November with the beheadings of bishops Mattias och Vincent. 15 members of the nobility were thereafter also beheaded by sword, thereafter the mayor of Stockholm, along with his advisors, were killed by hanging. On 9 November, the servants belonging to the now executed parts of the nobility were also executed. Bonfires were lit on Södermalm in the same area where Katarina graveyard would be laid out on 10 November. The grave of Sten Sture the Younger in the Black Friars' Monastery was dug up and thrown in the bonfire on Pelarbacken.[17] The events were immortalized in 1524 on Blodbadstavlan (literally "The Bloodbath Painting") which also contains one of the oldest known depictions of the city of Stockholm.

Even though Gustav III was known as "the mild monarch" at the time, he was the victim of an assassination attempt on 16 March 1792, which led to his death thirteen days later.

Gustav III and the nobility had gone through numerous disputes during his reign. Parts of the nobility did not approve of the King cutting their privileges. Other parts did not agree with his politics, and certain parts simply had personal grounds for hatred against Gustav III. This led to a conspiracy against his life, led by Jacob Johan Anckarström, whose goals were both personal and political.[31]

Anckarström, along with Carl Fredrik Pechlin, Adolph Ludvig Ribbing, Clas Fredrik Horn af Åminne, among others, conspired together against the King at Huvudsta gamla slott. Gustav III's own theater, Gustavianska operahuset was chosen as the crime scene.

On 16 March 1792, Anckarström entered the theater during a masquerade, which granted him inconspicuous concealment, and shot Gustav III. The bullet was fired at close range and hit the King in the back, near his left hip. The King's company, a member of the Von Essen family, immediately ordered all exits to be closed, and Polismästare Nils Henric Lilljensparre had all party guests demasked and their names noted. Anckarström was arrested the day following the murder.

Gustav III did not die instantly, but instead continued to function as head of state, until his wound became infected which he died from thirteen days later, on 29 March. Unaware that he was dying, he gave the order that the lives of all 40 persons involved in the conspiracy were to be spared, except for the murderer.[32]

Anckarström was sentenced to public humiliation and the death penalty. His right hand was cut off, he was publicly whipped for three days on Riddarhustorget until he was beheaded on 27 April 1792. Parts of his body were nailed to the execution spot, as part of tradition.

In 1756, Maria Rial Guntlack, together with her lover Johan Wilhelm Falcker, poisoned her husband Abraham Guntlack. Falcker's punishment was the decapitation of his right hand followed by his beheading on 16 July 1756. Maria Rial received similar punishment, with the exception of her burning on 21 February 1757. Owing to her being pregnant with Falcker's child, the execution had to be postponed for a few months. Abraham and Maria's firstborn son Jacob Guntlack was 12 years old when his mother was executed. Jacob would grow up to become a thief and swindler. He was sentenced to death on four occasions, but managed to escape custody three times. In the fall of 1769 he was recaptured and finally executed on 16 January 1771. He spent the two years prior to his execution writing his biography, while imprisoned at Nya smedjegården.[33]

The biography was supposedly written by Jacob himself, but no proof has been presented to support this. The book was widely famed at the time and was translated into other languages.[34] Guntlack was executed on 16 January 1771 in public.

Between 1751 and 1765, 138 people were executed for infanticide while 132 persons were executed for murder.

The average killer of a child at the time was generally a young woman in her late 20s who did not have either the will nor the means to keep the child.[35]

Usually, if the victim was an infant, the mother would state that the child was a stillborn, such was the case in the winter of 1765 when a Brita Engström was suspected of the crime. Her neighbors had noticed that Brita had grown fatter and then suddenly she was very thin. Brita confessed that she had in fact had a child, but it was a stillborn. But when the authorities examined the corpse of the infant, they found evidence that the infant was alive at the time of its birth. The infant's neck had blue bruises which indicated that it had been strangled. Simson, the father, stated that he did not know anything, even though he and Brita lived together. The court did not believe the couple, and Simson was sentenced to 14 days in prison, while Brita was sentenced to death.[36]

In order to combat the issue, Gustav III passed the Infanticide Act in 1778, a law which allowed unmarried mothers to give birth anonymously. Nurses were now prohibited from asking for the name of the father. The idea was to prevent infanticide by letting the woman travel to another town and give birth there instead of having to state her name.

Under the law, the death penalty was abolished for unintentional infanticide.[37]

Axel von Fersen is beaten to death, 1810

The bloody 19th century in Stockholm starts with the lynching of Marshal of the Realm Axel von Fersen on 20 June 1810 outside of the Bonde Palace in Gamla Stan. The story behind the event could be seen in the political disorder which occurred following the death of Gustav III and the exile of his heir Gustav IV Adolf. As Marshal of the Realm, von Fersen had a close relationship with Gustav III, and was subsequently beaten to death by an angry mob, following the death of the new Crown Prince Charles August. The guards posted outside the palace did not intervene.

Axel von Fersen and his sister Sophie von Fersen were Gustavian loyalists, who sought to install the exiled Prince Gustav, son of Gustav IV Adolf as Crown Prince. When Crown Prince Charles August suddenly died of a stroke in 1810, the position was yet again vacant. The parts of the nobility who had exiled Gustav IV Adolf did not wish to see the exiled King's son as successor. When Charles August died, rumors were spread regarding the possible poisoning of Charles August, and that the von Fersens were responsible.[40]

The 1861 murder of 34-year old Anna Sofia Forrsberg was greatly sensationalized at the time, due to no small part of the fact that 21-year old guardsman Per Victor Göthe defiled the woman's body. Forssberg was stabbed to death by Göthe in her store at Hornsgatan, where she also resided, on Easter Day in 1861. Göthe was sentenced to death and executed on 8 February 1862. The execution was witnessed by 4000 onlookers. Göthe was said to have been calm and compliant throughout his execution. Per Victor Göthe was the last convict to be executed below Galgbacken in Hammarbyhöjden.[41]

The 20th century begins with the deadliest mass murder in Swedish history at the time. The incident didn't occur in Stockholm, but it illustrates how incidents at the time were printed on broadside ballads. The massacre took place on the night of 16 May 1900 aboard the steamer Prins Carl, which was en route to Stockholm from Arboga. 25-year old John Filip Nordlund had recently served his sentence at Långholmen prison. Now a free man, he desired money in order to live a luxurious life, he therefore started plotting a heist to rob and kill all travellers aboard the Prins Carl.

Nordlund's first victim was the ship's captain Olof Rönngren. When Johan Filip stabbed a woman, he was allegedly so forceful that the blade snapped. He escaped in a lifeboat, leaving behind five dead and nine injured. Nordlund was arrested a day later and was sentenced to death. He was executed in Västerås on 10 December 1900 by executioner Gustaf Dalman.[44]

The incident was interpreted in several broadside ballads, such as "Mälaredramat: en sångbar berättelse om de gräsliga ogerningarna å ångbåten Prins Carl"[44] and "En alldeles ny visa om det hemska Mälaredramat".[45]

Johan Alfred Ander was the last person to be executed in Sweden and the only Swede to be executed by guillotine,[46] as capital punishment prior to 1907 was executed through manual beheading. On 5 January 1910, Ander robbed Gerells växelkontor, a cash exchange agency at Malmtorgsgatan, near Gustav Adolfs torg. During the robbery, the clerk, Victoria Hellsten, was severely beaten, and she later succumbed to her injuries. Ander managed to steal at least 5 200 crowns in cash, bank notes which would later be used as evidence against him, as some of the notes had been covered in blood. The murder weapon, a steelyard balance was connected to Ander, in addition to a box that Ander had left at Hotel Temperance which contained some of his loot, blood, a photography of Ander as well as his form of identification. On 14 May 1910, Ander was sentenced to death for murder, and he was executed at 8 a.m. on 23 November. Ander never admitted to his crimes.[46]

On 7 March 1932, politician Hjalmar von Sydow is found beaten to death along with two female employees in von Sydow's apartment at 24 Norr Mälarstrand. The bodies had been discovered by the young niece to von Sydow's late wife. The testimony of the niece, who had been living at von Sydow's residence, led police to suspect von Sydow's son and his wife, Fredrik and Ingun von Sydow as the perpetrators. The couple were tracked down and found at a restaurant in Uppsala around 8 p.m. The restaurant staff were instructed to ask Fredrik von Sydow to enter the hallway where police were waiting. As the couple entered the hall, Ingun sat down. Her husband bent down, seemingly in order to kiss her, whereupon Fredrik shot his wife, and subsequently himself. The couple died immediately, and a clear motive for the incident has never been established.[47] The weapon used in the murder of Hjalmar von Sydow, an iron pipe, is today part of an exhibition at the Swedish Police Museum.

The late 1900s and the early 2000s are overshadowed by two notorious political assassinations: the 1986 assassination of Olof Palme and the 2003 murder of Anna Lindh.

The assassination of Olof Palme has still not been solved as of 2018, despite it being the subject of one of the most significant criminal investigations in the world. Mijailo Mijailović, Anna Lindh's killer, was, however, arrested two weeks after the murder, and was sentenced to life in prison, due to significant evidence from surveillance cameras and DNA matching.

The 1975 West German Embassy siege occurred on 24 April in Diplomatstaden when members of the far-left militant organization Red Army Faction barricaded themselves inside the embassy and demanded the release of a number of imprisoned RAF members in West Germany. In order to convey the seriousness of their demands, military attaché Andreas von Mirbach and trade official Heinz Hillegaart were both shot and killed. Two of the embassy's occupiers were killed in an explosion at the embassy. The surviving terrorists were arrested when they attempted to flee the embassy and were all sentenced to two consecutive life sentences each.[48] They were eventually pardoned and released between 1994 and 1996.

The 2010 Stockholm bombings took place on 11 December 2010 when two explosions occurred at Olof Palme's street and on Bryggargatan. Thousands of Christmas shoppers were present near the places where the detonations occurred. The explosion at Bryggargatan killed lone terrorist Taimour Abdulwahab, and no other injuries were reported. The incident sparked debate around chemical production regulations[49] as well as the seemingly flawed Swedish system of preventing violent extremism.[50]

At around 3:53 p.m. on 7 April 2017, a hijacked lorry was deliberately driven into crowds along Drottninggatan before crashing through a corner of an Åhléns department store, killing five and seriously injuring 14. Rakhmat Akilov, a 39-year old rejected asylum seeker born in the Soviet Union and a citizen of Uzbekistan, was apprehended the same day suspected on probable cause of terrorist crimes through murder. Akilov, who has expressed sympathy with extremist organizations such as ISIL,[51] was sentenced to life in prison and lifetime expulsion from Sweden on 7 June 2018.[52]

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