Abstract Four executions and one pardon The executioner’s sword and the newspaperman’s pen in Sweden 1874 – 1910 This study examines how three murder cases who lead to a death penalty sentence for the five accused persons are covered in selected contemporary Swedish newspapers. Four of the five condemned persons, three men and one woman, were executed. One man was pardoned. The circumstances in each case are unique. The 1874 murders of Mauritz Upmarks and Johan Larsson in Malmköping, by Gustaf Adolf Eriksson Hjert and Conrad Pettersson Lundqvist Tector, led to the last public executions in 1876 in Malmköping and Visby simultaneously. The murder of Hanna Johansson by her husband, Per Nilsson, and her mother-in-law, Anna Månsdotter, led to the last execution of a woman in Sweden. Her son Per was pardoned. Finally I examine the robbery and murder of Victoria Hellsten at the Gerell exchange office in Stockholm in 1910 by Alfred Ander that led to the only time a guillotine was used in Sweden. It was also the final execution in Sweden. My aim is to examine how selected national and local newspapers covered these crimes, trials and finally the executions. Are there any traceable differences regarding the treatment of the woman on trial in the articles compared to that of the men? Do local and national mewspapers differ in their reporting? I found that there is a great similarity between the local and the national newspapers with a few exceptions. The woman was not subject to favoritism, but rather more critically judged by the writers and the population in her village. Previous studies and literature with connections to my study complete the materials that are used in this examination. My conclusion is that all newspapers that I selected have a negative attitude towards the capital punishment and describe the executions as something horrendous in varying degrees. The descriptions of the perpetrators are matter – of – fact while the victims are treated with sympathy. The newspapers differ in some details but generally their coverages of the murders, trails and executions are of the same pattern. A few newspapers present surprising opinions and individual thoughts. I found that while one cannot claim that the newspapers were demanding a banning of the capital punishment they contributed to the ongoing debate on the subject. There is no favoritism displayed in the articles. The woman and the men are treated equally. My conclusion is that the answers to my questions were found in the selected material. / Sammanfattning Undersökningen omfattar omständigheterna kring fyra mord vid tre tillfällen samt rättegång och avrättningar av fyra av de fem gärningspersonerna, Hjert, Tector, Anna Månsdotter och Alfred Ander och hur dessa skildrades i samtidens tidningar. Förutom tidningar har avhandlingar och böcker varit underlaget för uppsatsen. De fall som granskats är signifikativa i så motto att det handlar om de sista offentliga avrättningarna i vårt land, den sista avrättningen av en kvinna i Sverige och enda gången giljotinen användes i Sverige. Hur beskrevs dessa kriminalhistoriska händelser i pressen? 1876 avrättades Hjert och Tector, i Lidamo, Södermanland, respektive Visby, Stenkulla backe, Gotland, för morden på Upmark och Larsson som begicks i Malmköpingstrakten 1874. År 1890 avrättades Anna Månsdotter för mordet på svärdottern 1889 Hanna Johansdotter i Yngsjö i Skåne. Den medskyldige sonen Per Nilsson benådades och satt i fängelse till 1918, då han släpptes. Alfred Ander avrättades 1910 i Stockholm för rånmordet på Victoria Hellsten på Gerells växlingskontor i Stockholm samma år. Tiden för undersökningen omfattar 1874 - 1910 och är inriktad på de nämnda fallen. Tidningsbevakningen av mordfall under den period jag undersökt var en annan till omfånget än idag. En- och tvåspalters reportage, utan illustrationer, var normen. Ett referat från en riksdagssession kunde få lika stort utrymme då som ett mord, till skillnad från idag. Texterna är ibland förvillande lika, inte minst bland lokaltidningarna, som inte hade sin utgivningsort i händelsernas centrum. Men det finns också avvikande artiklar. Skedde brott, eller avrättning, på utgivningsorten, eller i direkt anslutning till detta, kunde lokaltidningarna bli väl så individuella skildrare som rikspressen. Dessutom påverkade det antalet artiklar. Ett tema är om kvinnor och män behandlades olika i samband med denna typ av brott där svaret blir att inget visar på att så var fallet. Förutom offren och gärningspersonerna tar uppsatsen upp prästens roll liksom skarprättarens, polisens och domstolarnas. Men fokus ligger på tidningarnas skildringar av de ämnen uppsatsen behandlar: tidningarnas skildringar av fyra mord, gripande av de skyldiga, rättegångar och avrättningar.

The purpose of this thesis is to study the court narratives of serious crimes in the district courts of Jämtland-Härjedalen in the latter half of 17th century. This is done by studying the negotiated aspects of criminal court proceedings; how did stories of crime, guilt and character come together in the records to form narratives that became accepted truths by the local community and the authorities? Investigations of serious crime have been sampled from the collected records of five district courts in the period 1649–1700. These records have been analysed by identifying the different actors and voices of the narratives, the social stratification of the participants, their speech acts and how they were depicted by the court and by other participants. The analysis of the social stratification of accusers, defendants and witnesses shows evidence of a deeply hierarchical and patriarchal society: men and women of lower social status were not only grossly overrepresented as defendants in criminal investigations, they were also mostly excluded from participating as a witness. The inverse could be said about local elites and landed peasantry. Women were more often accused of crime, and while they were allowed to testify as witnesses, they were less so than men. The negotiation of the truth took place in three parallel and intersecting spheres of discourse, differing in what kind of questions were asked and what problems were being discussed between different categories of participants. The nature of crime was negotiated when accusers, defendants and witnesses debated the presented narratives; the accepted narrative of the crime was found by the assessment of the honesty of the individual participants, by considering their reputation and standing in the local community. While the word of the law was unrelenting and impossible to legally negotiate at the district court level, a kind of negotiation was done by the local community and sometimes also the district court taking the side of the defendant, pleading and petitioning the Royal High Court to find mercy for the convicted criminal.

Archives can tell us many things about the past. The purpose of this guide is to facilitate the work of those who want to know more about the documents associated with death sentences. The guide gives a brief introduction to the history of the death penalty in Swedish legal history, to the legal process and to the judicial authorities. It also adresses the relationship between the various bodies and the relationship between law and jurisprudence. The guide presents primarily the archives of Nedre justitierevisionen and of Svea hovrätt. The guide presents what kind of information can be found and provides guidance as to how these documents are sought. Through a case study, we learn that records can give answers to many questions regarding a person sentenced to death.