Matti Haapoja

[Howard Brown]

https://killer.cloud/serial-killers/.../matti-haapoja

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matti_Haapoja

[Matt Hood]

Ooh interesting! The only Finnish serial/spree killer that has been mentioned to me since I moved here was Hans Assmann, the most popular suspect in connection with the Lake Bödöm murders.

[R. J. Palmer]

Howard, I came across the following article by accident. Sheffield Telegraph 28 October 1890. Same guy. Although the wiki article you linked mentions only one woman, this claims Haapoja was linked to several such murders, and, of course, he is claimed to be an imitator of 'the Ripper.' From the photo he appears to have had a Bonaparte complex.

[Howard Brown]

Thanks for that, Rajah....that's probably the first article I've seen that mentions him by name.

[Robert Linford]

"His skeleton was kept in the Museum of Crime in Vantaa for a long time, until, it being unsuitable for conversion into surstromming, it was finally buried in Ylistaro in 1995."

[Anna Morris]

"His skeleton was kept in the Museum of Crime in Vantaa for a long time, until, it being unsuitable for conversion into surstromming, it was finally buried in Ylistaro in 1995."

They should have shipped it to Pennsylvania. ANYTHING can be chopped or liquefied into scrapple....

[Robert Linford]

You're right there! Eagleville is the recycling capital of the world.

[Howard Brown]

The poor guy probably went nuts from smelling surstromming, propelling him into becoming a serial killer.
I heard that stuff smells like the inside of a dumpster.

[R. J. Palmer]

I heard that stuff smells like the inside of a dumpster.

It's all relative. A dumpster in hyperborean Finland has a subtler scent than one baking away in some alley in South Philly in mid-July.

Anyway, I thought it was humane for the Finn coppers to remove Haapoja's manacles so he could strike his favorite pose.

I don't know why I remember this, Howard, but years ago didn't David Radka get excited when a poster suggested that the Ripper may have had a Napoleon Bonaparte fixation? (Mary Kelly crime scene).

Perhaps Dr. Louhelainen should dig up Haapoja's molars and test his DNA. I always thought that Eddowes' shawl looks like a Finnish wall hanging.

[Howard Brown]

I don't remember if Radka reacted to that, R.J.