#bodom

The Mystery at Lake Bodom

On 4th of June 1960 vocational school students Maila Irmeli Björklund (15) and her friend Anja Tuulikki Mäki (15) accompanied their mutual friends Nils Wilhelm Gustafsson (18) and Seppo Antero Boisman (18) and went camping to the shore of the lake Bodom, located in Högnäs Espoo. It wasn't a long time after the murders that happened in the Tulilahti camping site (only one year) so the parents of the girls weren't exactly happy to let their daughters going to the trip, but they let them go on the last minute. They went with the boys’ motorcyckles and set their camp and tent near a local beach. They hung out and went to sleep around 12 am. After only couple hours of sleep however they woke up and at that time the two guys went fishing. After that they all went back to sleep.

Little is known what happened next, but on 5th of June early in the morning someone attacked the youngsters hitting them in the head with something heavy and blunt. Boisman and Björklund were also stabbed, Björklund over 10 times. The murderer stabbed them through the tent fabric. The primary cause of death for Boisman, Björklund and Mäki was skull fracture. Nils Gustafsson was able to flee from inside the tent, but the killer hit him on the head possibly with a rock. He was the only one to survive the attack but he had multiple fractures on his skull as well. Gustafsson was found laying on top of the collapsed tent and he spent weeks in a hospital and made full recovery.

The victims were found on the next morning after people started to arrive at the beach. Gustafsson was alive like previously stated, but he was barely conscious. The police was quickly on the scene and during the same day they were able to conduct multiple stop checks and the biggest ever terrain exploration around the area. During this exploration the police were able to find 88 wanted people but were unable to find the killer.

The victims were missing their belongings, including their wallets and some of their clothing. Some of the clothing and shoes belonging to Gustafsson were found about a half a kilometers away from the scene, hidden away behind a rock. Other belongings and a jacket belonging to Boisman were never found during the investigation.

The murder weapon was never found. Gustafsson told the investigators that after they went to sleep he doesn't remember anything. There were eye witnesses, but what they were able to see were just some movement on the shore. 14 year old Olavi Kivilahti saw a blond man wearing a light colored shirt walking past the camp about 50 meters away, but Olavi was nearsighted and he wasn't wearing any glasses so his sighting is questionable. The police received over 50 notices of the blond man to the end of July but none of those resulted in an arrest.

After some time had passed and the police still had no idea who had murdered the youngsters, they decided to hypnotize Gustafsson. It was conducted on 2nd to 5th of July 1960. The 14 year old boy Olavi was also hypnotized couple times. During the hypnosis both of them described the suspect and drawings were done based on the descriptions, but it didn't lead to anything. Gustafsson described a man who cut a hole on the tent and hit them with a knife and with a metal pipe.

The description for the killer was: aged around 20 to 30 years old, not young nor old, height about 173-174 cm (5'8), normal body type (heavier than Gustafsson though), round face, red cheeks, long blond hair combed back, normal ears with round earlobes, high wrinkled forehead, big eyes (color unknown), straight nose (not long nor short), normal light eyebrows, bold lips, strong jaw, short neck, white teeth (unknown if some are missing), big and thick fingers; special characteristics: pimples on forehead and cheeks. Clothing: plaid shirt with black buttons (buttoned up all the way), shirt contains many colors, at least black and green.

Suspects

Pauli Luoma

At first the police were searching a man that had been spotted in the area carrying a bag belonging to the victims. He had black beard and he was walking with a bicycle. He had also been spotted coming out from the forest wearing a bloody shirt. He was Pauli Kustaa Luoma, a runaway from a labor camp who had an alibi for the night. He had been in Otaniemi, Espoo during the murders. Otaniemi is 19 kilometers (11 miles) away from the lake Bodom which is about 23 minute trip.

Pentti Soininen (b. around 1945, d. 1969)

At the end of 1960, 24 year old Pentti Soininen confessed while in Kuopio prison that he murdered the youngsters. During the murders he was 15 years old and it was true that he had been near the lake during the murders, because he had run away from approved school. The police interrogated him but they did not give much weight to his confession. Soininen was described as a psychopath who could act in a very peculiar ways especially under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Soininen had a long list of crimes under his name: thefts, assaults and robberies. Soininen committed suicide by hanging in Toijala train station while he was being transferred to a prison in 1969.

Valdemar Gyllström (b. 1909, d. 1969)

Karl Valdemar Gyllström was a suspect for a long time. He was known to hate campers and he often acted aggressively. His nickname was "Kiosk-man" because he apparently had a kiosk. He drowned himself to the lake Bodom in 1969 and people said he confessed murdering the youngsters before this. His neighbor told that he had said: "It was me who killed them". Gyllström had apparently filled and closed his well on his yard couple days after the murders and that led to his house and yard being carefully searched. However nothing was found, though it is possible all the stolen belongings had been discarded. Gyllström's son-in-law has been told to be certain that the murder weapon lies at the bottom of the closed and filled well. According to the police, Gyllström had an alibi for the night, an alibi that had been confirmed by Gyllström's wife. His wife had told that she had been up all night and according to her, Gyllström hadn't left the house. However, shortly before the wife died she told that Gyllström had threatened to kill her if she told the truth. What truth? Who knows.

Hans Assman (b. 1923, d. 1998)

One of the most known suspect was German-born Hans Assman, who has also been suspected to being a KGB spy. On 6th of June 1960 Assman was brought to Helsinki surgical hospital where he acted in a very weird way. People in the hospital also noticed how unkempt Assman was: his fingernails were very dirty and his clothes were full of red stains. Assman lied to the hospital staff the reason for his condition but he told the truth about his way of living (he lived about 5 km (3 miles) away from the lake). He also pretended to being unconscious and he was aggressive and nervous. Assman's description reminded a lot of the description of the suspect. When the news informed the characteristics of the suspect, Assman cut his hair short.

Jorma Palo who at the time worked in the hospital as an amanuensis was very certain Assman was the killer. Many people from the hospital's staff also agreed with Palo. The police met with Assman very briefly and they did not want to discuss with the hospital staff. They also did not take Assman's stained clothes for inspection. Palo later wrote three books about the murders and about Assman. Former detective inspector Matti Paloaro connected Assman to five other murders as well, among them the murder of Kyllikki Saari and even the death of minister Penna Tervo. Assman was a perfect match for the description given by Gustafsson and Olavi. However according to the police Assman had a perfect alibi. It wasn't revealed for the public that time though, because it had a sensitive nature. 

The documents about Assman became public in 2005. According to them Assman had been with his girlfriend during the night. She lived as a subtenant and her landlord and -lady saw Assman sitting eating breakfast in the morning. The documents verify that then 36 year old Assman did spent the night in the apartment (located in Helsinki) during the murders. Assman had had this affair going on for years (he had a wife). Assman slept in the same bed with his 33 year old girlfriend. The bedroom door had been open for the entire night and no one noticed Assman leaving at any point during the night (apparently if he would’ve left, it would have been noticed). Assman woke up at 9 am and at that time the murders had already been committed and the first passerby's had noticed the collapsed tent. According to the police the red stains on Assman's clothing were paint that he had used while at work. Jorma Palo was the one who suspected Assman being a KGB agent and that he was being protected. The police has been saying that Palo's books were pure fiction.

Two people fishing

The two young men who were fishing on the lake during the murders were never identified. They never came forward to the police even though it was asked multiple times. What was weird is that the two men left the fish they caught behind. Nothing is known of them.

Nils Gustafsson

44 years after the murders in 2004 the lone survivor Nils Gustafsson was suddenly arrested as a suspect. The blood samples gathered from the tent supported Gustafsson being the perpetrator. The police also informed that DNA technology revealed things that couldn't be found back in the 60s. However during the trial nothing significant was uncovered from the samples.

Gustafsson has been saying he doesn't remember anything about the murders since the day one and that hasn't changed. He thinks he got brain damage from the attack and that resulted to amnesia. During the trial an important point was to find out whether the blows to his head were strong enough to result to amnesia. The prosecutors tried strongly to belittle the injuries Gustafsson suffered and they claimed he exaggerated them.

According to the prosecutors Gustafsson and Seppo Boisman had been drinking on the night of the murders and then started to have an argument. The prosecutors also claimed that Maila Björklund had turned down Gustafsson's sexual advances and this would've led to Gustafsson losing his temper. The claim is supported by the stabbing wounds on Björklund's body: according to the coroner she was stabbed 15 times.

The district court excluded all the charges on 7th of October 2005. According to it nothing proved that Gustafsson murdered his friends. They disqualified the jealousy claims also. They excluded everything because the eye witness sightings were pointing to an outsider perpetrator.

The investigation and trial got a lot of attention but Gustafsson was freed in 2005. The prosecutors did not complain about the verdict to the court of appeals.

Gustafsson gave one very rare press conference. During it journalists were very aggressive with their approach and pointed out the illogical things in the things he had said: it was weird he claimed he didn't remember anything but at the same time he remembered that he for sure wasn't the one who murdered his friends. Gustafsson didn't explain himself further though, he stated: "I am innocent and that's that."

The National Bureau of Investigation had an investigator who testified something very interesting. He claimed that after Gustafsson had been arrested he had said: "What is done is done, I got fifteen years", which was seen to be a confession. This testify wasn’t told immediately though, it was only told during the trial. Gustafsson himself said he doesn't remember saying anything like that and if he did, it was simply a joke. The district court stated that it wasn't investigated properly. They also said: "The fact that the saying did not lead to any action points to the fact that even if Gustafsson would've said it, it wasn't a confession and even the investigator who heard it in the first place did not think that way either during the time."

I have no words to describe the emptiness that I have in my heart.

As some of you know, my name is Rocío, I’m 27 years old and I'm from Argentina. In 2011 I opened this blog dedicated to the band Children of Bodom, mainly because I am a big fan of Alexi Laiho. Since I was little, his music has seen me through good moments and especially through my darkest moments as a teenager. I met very good people from many countries through their music and through this blog but due to a lack of time, since I was working and studying at the same time, I had to leave Tumblr as my blog ate up a lot of time that I didn’t have. Now, I have already graduated, and being a mature person and working as I am, helping to improve people's health in a hospital, I decided to enter this blog again just to give it an end. As a fan, I am completely devastated, I can't believe Alexi Laiho left us so young. He was, is and will always be a great influence on me. He will forever be remembered in my memory. Thank you all for having accompanied me through this blog for so long.

As a lifelong and avid fan of music, it was among the first of many things I planned to become completely submerged in and reacquainted with when I got out of the Marine Corps.

Even through my tour of deserts during deployments, I would write letters to my Mom and have her send me new records released by my favorite bands or new acts of which I would hear good things about in reviews from whatever magazines I could get my hands on.

In the first week or so after returning home to the civilian world in the Summer of 2006, a couple of my metalhead friends introduced me to Children of Bodom and In Flames in the same sitting.

Upon listening to those records that night, it struck me, and has always stuck with me - how complex and beautiful metal can be and how international it has become.

Alexi Laiho was and is without question one of the greatest guitarists to ever do it. We shall never see his light again, long may he reign. One Love, Flame on.

🤘🖤🔥🖤🤘

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