Anders Lindbäck

Anders Lindbäck (22 December 1803 – 20 November 1865) was a vicar who committed three murders and is thus the first documented Swedish serial killer. He was caught and convicted in 1865.

Childhood and education Lindbäck was born in Bredtvet near Brålanda to the farmer Sven Andersson (1774-1822) and his mother Lisa Olsdotter (d. 1821). The family was extremely poor, and Sven was at times forced to steal to feed his family, his father received the derogatory moniker of "Ham-Sven", for supposedly being caught stealing a ham at one point. While growing up, Anders received many taunts and jeers from the people around him due to the crimes of his father.

The family made ends meet mostly through gifts of food from around the parish community, until his maternal uncle, vicar Johan Nordahl from the parish in Nössemark (now part of Dals-Eds parish) sponsored Lindbäck with enough money to attend school in Vänersborg. Later on, in 1824, he attended one of Sweden's oldest Upper Secondary Schools, the Cathedral School in Skara.

Murders As Lindbäck tried to find ways to cut costs for the parish, he saw the poor and sick as too much of a drain on the church coffers. Thus, he came up with an economically beneficial solution that would also decrease the number of supplicants; by poisoning them as they received their Holy Communion.

In the latter half of 1864, he made several home visits to people to deliver food and his blessings as the local vicar to those who were sick. However, after some of his visits, the people he visited would end up getting worse than they were before. Then, on 19 October that year, a widow by the name of Karin Persdotter was the first to be killed by the spiked wine and wafers. A little over a month later on 30 November 1864, a farmer named Nils Pettersson was the second person to die after a visit by Lindbäck, followed by Anders Lysén on 15 December 1864. Furthermore, four others are known to have been poisoned severely enough that they suffered serious symptoms.

Capture Lindbäck's last victim Anders Lysén had indeed been of poor health when he was visited by the vicar, however, he wasn't poor, nor was he without friends or family. His sudden death led to his relatives suspecting foul play.

In February of 1865, Lysén's relatives demanded that his grave be opened and an autopsy conducted on his corpse, this was promptly done and a month later, in March, it was concluded that Lysén had indeed died from being poisoned with arsenic.

Suspicion quickly landed on Lindbäck, as he had been one of the last people to be in close proximity to Lysén before his death, and it was also discovered that several burials at the local church had been conducted unusually fast.

Trial and death

Lindbäck was arrested and brought to stand trial at the Nordmark district court where he confessed to his crimes but attempted to defend his actions by saying they were intended as an act of mercy.

Known victims Murders 19 October 1864: Karin Persdotter 30 November 1864: Nils Pettersson 15 December 1864: Anders Lysén

Attempted Murders Daniel Andersson Daniel Danielsson Nils Danielson Per Olsson