The Lake Bodom murders are the most famous cases in Finnish
criminal history. On Pentecost, June 5, 1960, 15-year-old Maila
Irmeli Björklund and Anja Tuulikki Mäki and 18-year-old Seppo
Antero Boisman, who were camping on the shore of Lake Bodom in
Espoo, were killed while they were sleeping in their tent by
crushing their skulls, probably by hitting them with a large
stone. The fourth young person in the group, then 18-year-old
Nils Gustafsson, was found badly injured on top of the tent.
At the time, the murders remained unsolved despite an
extensive investigation, and several different theories were put
forward about the killer. Gustafsson, who survived, was arrested
on suspicion of the murders in 2004, but was acquitted the
following year. The perpetrator of the Lake Bodominjärvi murders
has not been found.
On Saturday, June 4, 1960, Maila Irmeli Björklund and Anja Tuulikki
Mäki, who studied at the vocational school, and foundry students
Nils Wilhelm Gustafsson and Seppo Antero Boisman went on a camping
trip on the boys' motorbikes to Espoo's Högnäs on the southern shore
of Lake Bodominjärvi, near the lands of the Oittaa manor. They set
up their tent in the early evening on a promontory near the local
beach. The young people spent the evening and went to sleep around
midnight, but apparently woke up again after a couple of hours of
sleep. The boys went fishing at that time, after which we went to
rest again.
The killer most obviously struck on Whitsunday,
June 5, early in the morning while the victims were sleeping. All
four received blunt force trauma to the head. In addition, Boisman
and Björklund were stabbed, the latter more than ten times. The
primary cause of death for both Boismani, Björklund and Mäki is
considered to be a skull fracture and the resulting contusion of the
brain. Gustafsson, the only survivor, had, among other things,
several fractures in the head area. He had apparently been hit on
the chin and back of the head with a stone. He too was suspected of
having a brain injury. Gustafsson spent weeks in the hospital and
recovered.
The victims and the collapsed tent were found at
the campsite on Sunday morning, when swimmers started arriving at
the cape again. The half-conscious Gustafsson was taken to the
hospital, and after the seriousness of the situation became clear, a
large number of police officers and equipment arrived. On the same
day, in order to reach the perpetrators, several raids were
organized on the roads of the area, as well as Finland's largest
ever ground raking in the surroundings, as a result of which 88
wanted persons were found in the forests of Espoo. The murderer was
still not caught.
Things had been taken from the victims,
including wallets and some clothes. Some of the clothes and Nils
Gustafsson's shoes were found half a kilometer away in a rock hole.
Other lost items, including Seppo Boismani's leather jacket, were
not found during the search.
The murder weapon was not found at the tent site. The victims also
lost a lot of goods, the whereabouts of which have remained unclear
to this day. No leads were found from these teams. Gustafsson said
that he remembered practically nothing of the night's events after
going to bed. In the morning, the herdsman who was working on the
opposite shore of the bay and the two bird-watching boys who had
come to the cape had seen movement on the cape, but the sightings
were far away. A 14-year-old angler boy, Olavi Kivilahti, who had
seen a blond man in a light sweater pass by about 50 meters away,
was nearsighted.
There were plenty of eyewitness observations
of those who moved in the Bodominjärvi region. By the end of July,
about 50 reports were received about the blond man. However, no
arrests were made as a result of the reports.
When the blood
work took time and the perpetrator was not found, the police also
used unusual methods to search for him. Gustafsson was hypnotized
from the 2nd to the 5th. July 1960, and Olavi Kivilahti, a fisherman
boy who saw a man moving near the murder site early on the morning
of Pentecost, was hypnotized for the last time six years after the
murders. Based on the descriptions they gave in hypnosis, detailed
drawings of the suspect were made, but no breakthroughs were made.
Under hypnosis, Gustafsson described a man who cut a hole in the
tent and beat them with a knife and an object assumed to be an iron
pipe.
The characteristics of the suspected perpetrator were:
age around 20–30 years, neither young nor old; length about 173–174
cm; body ordinary, sturdier than Gustafsson himself; round face;
long blond hair and combed back; ears normal, not protruding,
earlobe round; forehead: high ridge unevenly wrinkled, wrinkles
horizontally, also on the nose; eyes: large, color unknown; nose:
straight on all sides, neither long nor short; eyebrows: normal
blonde; thick lips thick; strong jaw; slightly protruding
cheekbones; short neck; white teeth, don't know if missing; hands:
thick and large fingers; skin: cheeks red; special features: pimples
on the forehead and cheeks; clothing: thick fabric checkered dark
blouse with small black buttons and blouse buttoned all the way up;
the blouse has many colors, at least black and green - and flapped
breast pockets.
The murder investigation was quiet for a long
time.
Over the years, a few suspects remained in the
general discussion about the Lake Bodominjärvi murders.
Pauli
Luoma
At first, the police were looking for, among other things,
a black-bearded bicycle thief who was seen in the area carrying a
bag that looked like it belonged to the victims, and a man with a
blood-stained shirt who appeared from the forest in Klapinkylä. The
man was quickly revealed. He was Pauli Kustaa Luoma, a workhouse
escapee, who nevertheless had an alibi for the night of the murder.
He had been in Otaniemi at the time of the acts.
Pentti
Soininen (c. 1945–1969)
Prisoner Pentti Soininen, who was
convicted of several property and violent crimes, confessed at the
end of the 1960s at the age of 24 that he had committed the
Bodominjärvi bloodshed when he was in Kuopio County Prison. At the
age of 15, he was staying near Bodom on the night of the murder,
when he was on the run from school. The police interrogated him, but
little weight was given to his confessions. By nature, Soininen was
a psychopath who could act in an incomprehensible way, especially
under the influence of alcohol and drugs. Soininen's long criminal
record included thefts, assaults and robberies. Soininen hanged
himself at Toijala station during a break in prisoner transport in
1969.
Valdemar Gyllström (1909–1969)
One of the main
suspects in the murders was Karl Valdemar Gyllström, who ran a kiosk
in Oittaa. He was known to dislike campers and behave aggressively.
Gyllström, known as the "kioski man", drowned or was drowned in Lake
Bodom in 1969, and he is said to have drunkenly confessed the
murders to his neighbor before his death, saying: "I killed them".
Among other things, Gyllström has been said to have filled the well
in his backyard a few days after the murders, and that is why
Gyllström's house and yard were thoroughly investigated. However,
nothing aggravating was found. On the other hand, it is possible
that the looted goods were all disposed of. Among other things, the
kiosk man's son-in-law is said to have been sure that the murder
weapon was in the filled well. According to the police, the stall
owner had an alibi for the murder, which was given by Gyllström's
wife. The wife had said that she had been awake all night, and
according to her, the man had not left his house. However, the wife
who gave the alibi said before her death that the man had threatened
to kill her if she told the truth.
Espoo municipal politician
Ulf Johansson published the book Legenden om Bodom: Århundradets
mordmysterium in 2016, in which he claims that the locals knew the
stall keeper was a murderer.
Hans Assmann (1923–1998)
The
most suspicions have been directed at German-born Hans Assmann, who
was also considered a KGB spy, who was brought to the Helsinki
surgical hospital on June 6, 1960, behaving very peculiarly. We were
also surprised by the patient's untidy appearance, including black
under-nails and clothes full of red stains. Assmann lied to the
hospital staff about the reason for his shabby state, but he did not
lie about his residence information. He also feigned unconsciousness
and was aggressive and nervous. Assmann resembled the description of
a blond man down to the clothing. When the news reported the
identity of the wanted man, Assmann cut his blond hair short.
Assmann lived five kilometers from Bodom in Espoo, from where it was
only a short distance to the shore of Lake Bodom.
His
possible guilt was highlighted especially by the amanuensis of the
Surgical Hospital at the time, later professor of medicine Jorma
Palo, who treated Assmann at the hospital during that time. He was
convinced of Assmann's guilt, as was the rest of the hospital staff.
The police only went to see Assmann quickly, and did not want to
question the doctors, and did not take Assmann's red-stained clothes
for examination. Palo wrote three books about the murders and
Assmann. Former crime commissioner Matti Paloaro also connected
Assmann to five other murders, including the death of Kyllikki Saari
and even the death of minister Penna Tervo.
Assmann perfectly
matched the identifications of the murderer later given by Nils
Gustafsson and Olavi Kivilahti in hypnosis.
According to the
police, however, Assmann had a perfect alibi, which had not been
made public due to its sensitivity. The Central Criminal Police's
documents about Assmann became public in 2005. According to the
police, Assmann had been in his girlfriend's subtenanted apartment
on the night of the death, and her landlord and landlady saw him at
the breakfast table. The documents confirm that the then 36-year-old
Assmann spent the night of the death with his female friend in the
apartment of the female friend's sister and her husband in Helsinki.
Assmann had been having this extramarital affair for years. Assman
slept with his 33-year-old female friend in the same bed. The door
to the other couple's room was open all night and, according to
those present at Assmann, it was impossible to leave without being
noticed. Sisarenmies woke up early at 6 o'clock and Assmann was
woken up for coffee at 9 o'clock. The killings had already been done
by then, and the first passers-by had seen the overturned tent. The
landlord couple was a female friend's sister and her husband, so
they were close to Assmann. According to the police, the red marks
on Assmann's clothing that Jorma Palo noticed at the hospital and
his confused behavior were due to the fact that Assmann had been
painting with red paint and was drunk at the work site. He also had
stomach problems caused by some kind of infection. Jorma Palo
suspected that Assmann was a KGB agent and that he was being
protected for foreign policy reasons. The police have publicly
claimed that Jorma Palo's books are fiction, i.e. a product of the
imagination.
Two anglers
The two young men who fished on
Lake Bodominjärvi on the night of the murder remained unidentified.
The men never reported to the police despite several requests. It
was also strange that the men left the perches of their fishing rods
on the beach rocks.
Nils Gustafsson
Nils Gustafsson, the
sole survivor of the camping trip, was suddenly arrested as a
suspect 44 years after the murders, in 2004. The investigations and
the trial received a lot of attention in the media. Nils Gustafsson
was acquitted in the district court the following year. The
prosecutors did not appeal the verdict to the Court of Appeal, so
the district court's decision gained legal force.
At the end of March 2004, the police unexpectedly
arrested the only survivor of the attack, Nils Gustafsson, now a
pensioner, on suspicion of the Bodominjärvi murders. On April 2, 2004,
the district court of Espoo ordered Gustafsson to be imprisoned on
suspicion of three murders. The next day, the press reported the name of
the prisoner.
The Central Criminal Police announced in October
2004 that the analysis of the blood samples taken from the tent supports
the information the police have about the suspect, Nils Gustafsson's
involvement in the murder. Around the time of the arrest, the police
also said that the now-known DNA technology, which was not yet available
in 1960, had brought out important new facts in the case. However, in
the court proceedings that followed, no essential new evidence was
obtained from the blood or DNA samples, either for Gustafsson or against
him.
Gustafsson's position has consistently been since the
events, that he has no memories of them. In his view, the abuse
inflicted on him caused brain damage, resulting in amnesia. The question
of whether Gustafsson's skull had really been hit with a strong enough
blow to cause amnesia was central to the court. Prosecutors tried to
downplay the damage Gustafsson suffered and claimed he exaggerated his
injuries.
Views of the prosecution
According to the
prosecutors, Seppo Boisman and Nils Gustafsson had argued after
consuming alcohol. In addition, the prosecutors claimed that Irmeli
Björklund would have rejected Gustafsson's attempt to approach her
sexually, as a result of which Gustafsson would have become angry and
completely lost his self-control. The claim is connected to the fact
that, according to medical records, Björklund's body had been struck
fifteen times – presumably with a knife.
Processing in Espoo
district court and verdict
In the trial that started on June 8, 2005
and started on August 4, 2005, the prosecutors demanded a life sentence
for Gustafsson for three murders. Gustafsson denied the charge and
demanded that it be dismissed.[10]
The district court was chaired
by layman Heikki Mikkola, another member with a legal background was
district judge Juha Lehto, and in addition, there were four board
members. The district court thus acted in its natural maximum
composition in relation to the relevance of the case. The leading
engagement district prosecutor Tom Ifström and engagement district
prosecutor Heli Haapalehto are the prosecutors in the case. Gustafsson
was defended by lawyers Riitta Leppiniemi and Heikki Uotila. There were
eleven interested parties in the case, six of whom joined the
prosecution and demanded punishment for Gustafsson.[10] The attorney
Heikki Lampela assisted the interested parties.
The trial was
huge. The preliminary investigation material was extensive and contained
dozens of blood and DNA post-test statements from the crime laboratory.
The blood-stained tent used by the young people during the event was set
up in the courtroom. In a very exceptional way, the court conducted an
on-site inspection in the terrain, during which the police cordoned off
the area. Three doctors of different professorial level were heard as
witnesses about the quality of the injuries sustained by Gustafsson.
The district court dismissed all the charges and other demands
presented in the case with its verdict of October 7, 2005. According to
the district court, nothing showed that Gustafsson was guilty of the
act. In the decision, the theory put forward by the prosecutors about
Gustafsson's jealousy was rejected, and the evidence did not even fully
prove him guilty. In addition, the external eyewitness observation spoke
for the external perpetrator.
Jurists praised the reasoning of the
Bodom judgment and speculated that a clear judgment might influence the
prosecutor's assessment of whether it is worth appealing the judgment to
the Court of Appeal. The unanimous decision of the district court was
not appealed, so it became legally binding.
Gustafsson's press
conference and the position of the Central Criminal Police
As the
trial began, Gustafsson held one of his rare press conferences. At the
event, the journalists raged at the contradiction in his logic when, on
the one hand, he announced that he doesn't remember anything about the
events, but on the other hand, he remembers with certainty that he
didn't kill his three travel companions. Gustafsson did not begin to
explain his logic, but said: "I'm innocent and that's an onion."
The Central Criminal Police would have liked to keep Gustafsson in
custody for the duration of the trial due to the risk of flight and for
investigative reasons. However, the District Court rejected the request
of the Central Criminal Police on May 28, 2004, so Gustafsson's
deprivation of liberty lasted only 59 days, and not the entire trial.
When the sentence was announced, 524 days had passed since Gustafsson's
imprisonment, which began on March 28, 2004.
From the case
investigator's testimony
However, perhaps the most attention was
received by the testimony of the investigator of the Central Criminal
Police. He came to the court as a witness and said - contrary to
everything officially recorded in the preliminary investigation material
- that Gustafsson, after being imprisoned and going to the cell section,
said: "What's done is done, fifteen years have come", which the
investigator stated in the district court that he understood as a
confession of the murders.
According to Gustafsson, he himself
did not remember saying the way the researcher claimed and that if this
has happened, it could have been a matter of lip service.
However, the district court considered that the exact content and
context of the statement made by the investigator remained unclear. In
addition, the court stated: "The fact that the alleged statement has not
led to any measures shows that even if Gustafsson had said the
statement, it was not a real admission of guilt and that [the
investigator] also understood the matter that way at the time."
Compensation for loss of liberty
Gustafsson applied for compensation
for the suffering caused to him by the loss of freedom. The state would
have agreed to compensation of 19,200 euros. In the negotiations between
the state and Gustafsson, the parties reached an agreement on a
compensation of 44,900 euros.
The compensation Gustafsson
received is based on the law on the right of innocent prisoners to
receive compensation from state funds due to the loss of liberty (Law
31.5.1974/422). There has been considerable variation in the amount of
compensation paid under the law. The amount of compensation has hardly
been decided as an independent issue in the higher courts, but only as
an accessory to other legal issues, for example in cases KKO 1991:128,
1993:63 and 1993:152. In these cases, the main issue has been whether
the applicant was entitled to the same compensation at all, and only
because of that, the question of the amount of the compensation has been
discussed. The question of the reasonableness of the amount of
compensation Gustafsson received is therefore difficult in the absence
of points of comparison.
Gustafsson's trial in the media
Ilta-Sanom prepared 24 different stories from April 3, 2004 to October
8, 2005, for a story that has reached almost as much public interest as
the Kyllikki Saari murder. Iltalehti was also well received. The
headlines included: "Imprisoned: I am innocent!" (April 5, 2005) and
"Police staged Bodom murders" (June 2, 2004), which referred to the
police setting up a death tent for the court to explain bloodstains, and
"Police are sure: Bodom murders solved" (October 2, 2004 ). Former
prosecutor Ritva Santavuori also made sharp statements in the afternoon
newspapers, according to which the district court did not have the
capacity to weigh both pros and cons in its decision, but that the
decision is poorly justified. Santavuori criticized the decision as
remarkable, especially in that the district court thought that the
director of the investigation had not considered the statement "done
what was done" as a real statement of guilt.
Gustafsson demanded
compensation from the media for defamation, but the engagement
prosecutors Heikki Poukka and Simo Kolehmainen decided not to press
charges against the media representatives.
Bodom, which premiered in 2016 and was directed by
Taneli Mustonen, is about the murders in Lake Bodominjärvi. In the film,
four young people of today go camping on Lake Bodominjärvi to
reconstruct the Lake Bodominjärvi murders that took place there in 1960.
The film stars Mimosa Willamo, Nelly Hirst-Gee, Santeri Helinheimo
Mäntylä and Mikael Gabriel.
The Finnish metal band Children of
Bodom was named after Lake Bodom.
The TV series Murhan dna, which
premiered in 2020, follows how world-renowned DNA researcher Jari
Louhelainen and taxi driver Kenneth Cederberg, who is passionately
interested in the Bodom murders, solve the mystery of the Bodom murders.