Anders Lindbäck (vicar)
Anders Lindbäck (22 December 1803 – 20 November 1865) was a Swedish vicar who committed three murders; he is the first-known serial killer in Sweden. He was revealed and convicted in 1865.[1]
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Childhood and education
Lindbäck was born in Brålanda. His father Sven Andersson (1774-1822) was a poor farmer in Dalsland and his mother Lisa Olsdotter (died 1821) was a housewife. During his childhood the whole family was moving from one parish to another asking for alms. At this time he was reading a lot which gave him a nickname "reading-Anders". His parents died when he was a teenager and his wealthy uncle Johan Nordahl took care of him afterwards. In the year 1820 he helped him with the money for studies. Anders was studying in Vänersborg first and starting from 1824 in Katedralskolan in Skara. The 2 February 1829 he came in to the University of Uppsala and there he was ordained a priest, 19 December 1831. It was a huge social mobility upward for that time.
The first 30 years as a priest he spent in Dalsland, specifically in Skållerud's parish. At the beginning of the 1860s he finally got a chance to be a vicar in the small parish Silbodal in Värmland. Silbodal parish was poorer than Skållerud and that is why Anders's work was focused mainly on poverty and criminality in the region. During his stay in Skållerud he started a campaign against alcoholism and continued with it when he moved to Silbodal.
Time in Silbodal
He was accepted as a vicar in Silbodal in 1861. He got more power in this position: an opportunity to go through with his own conceptions and ideas. The main goal was to create a parish free from poverty, full of hardworking people who has education opportunities. His vision was about making an order in both economy and existence of poor people in the parish. At that time there were 40 people that the church was supporting and it was a heavy burden for such a small parish.
Lindbäck wanted to minimize the costs that the church was bearing. He established an advice board of nine people and together with them he set new strict rules about taking care of the poverty in the region. One of the decisions they made was that only their own parishioners could receive help from the church. In general, the rules which frames the list of those who could receive the help became more strict, some of them might have been even illegal.
Murder series
Lindbäck had the idea that poor and ill people are too costly for the commune. He came up with the solution that was economically beneficial and at the same time minimized the number of people who required the support. Lindbäck had a small bottle of wine, a cup, a sacramental wafer and an access to arsenic which he was adding to the wine. He was making lots of home visits to people to give them blessings and supper during autumn and winter in 1864. He made it look like an act of mercy. After a while after his visits some people felt even worse than before. The first person who died 19 October 1864 was a widow Karin Persdotter. Then 30 November died Nils Pettersson, farm-worker. The last person was Anders Lysén who died 15 December 1864. Moreover, four other people were poisoned.
Disclosure
The last murder struck the killer. Anders Lysén was ill but not poor. He was a wealthy businessman(?) and his sudden death made his relatives suspect that something was wrong. At the beginning of 1865 Anders Lysén's brother demanded that the grave should be opened. In March 1865 on the request of the local sheriff it was concluded that Anders Lysén died because of an arsenic poisoning. More graves were opened and it was noted that two more parishioners died of arsenic poisoning.
Anders Lindbäck was under suspicion partially because the funerals were made in a rush and another reason is because he had granted 10000 Swedish krons to estate.
Trial and death
After this, Lindbäck was brought to justice. A person named Daniel witnessed. Daniel's mother died after the priest's visit while Daniel himself had survived the poisoned supper five times. The reason may have been that he did not like wine.
During the first trial, which was held by the District Court on 11 June in Långelanda Courthouse, Anders Lindbäck confessed three murders and three murder attempts. In his long defense speech he explained that he had done this in order to free those people from plagues. This speech did not help him and he was sentenced to death. The case was passed on to the Court of Appeal, which gave the District Court more time to revise the case and the legal process. The District Court investigated the case again but the penalty remained the same.
Before the sentence was executed, Anders Lindbäck hanged himself in the prison in Karlstad on 20 November 1865.[2]
References
- Carl-Olof Bernhardsson (red): Brottets krönika del II, Medéns förlags AB, Stockholm 1955
- Arv. NIF publications. 64: 163. 2008. Missing or empty
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