The following is a strange true crime story from the history of Finland. The text is from the book Poliisi kertoo 1985, and was translated by Salla Juntunen.
The term “troll” is now widely used in reference to Internet harassment, and Internet “trolls” are everywhere.
This is the story of a particularly creepy “troll” from before the Internet age.
All names in this story have been changed, but the facts remain the same. Imagine how you would act if one day you received a letter in which you and your loved ones are insulted in every possible way. In addition, the letter threatens your life, the safety of your children on their way to school and threatens to set a bomb behind your door. Furthermore, the letter says your spouse has had intercourse with people you both know…
Out of anger and due to the feces included in the letter you might throw it away, but after reading the letter again and deeming the sender to be someone you know, possibly even a member of parliament, you keep it for now. You inspect the letter further and discover that its signature has been confirmed with a stamp. The letter has been paid for with a meter stamp, and, as far as you know, those cannot be owned by private persons, only institutions and companies.
The letter is in your possession for a few days. You wonder if there is some truth to the death threat. After your children get home from school you call them and ask if anything strange has happened to them. At the same time you hear of a mail delivery which can be picked up at the post office. Once you go to pick up the delivery, you see that it is a book set. You reproach your spouse for ordering more books; you have too many of them anyway.
Over the next few days you get more deliveries. You ask the post office to return them to the sender with notes that there must have been some mistake because you haven’t ordered anything. Magazines and comics start arriving daily. You also get phone calls telling you about for-sale ads posted in your name in nationwide newspapers. You also get letters from sexual deviants and in time you find out that your name has been used to seek company on the dating ad columns of men’s magazines.
Your patience begins to run out. You take the information you’ve gathered and go to your local police station. You hear that other people have also received similar letters and deliveries. You list the people you suspect, namely your neighbours and someone from work, because the first letters contained details about your family.
You go home, relieved, because you have given the police good leads and the matter will surely be handled in no time. Possibly already the next day the phone rings. The call, however, is from the collection agency of a large publishing house and the caller is asking about your unpaid orders. You begin to explain, but they don’t believe you and instead the caller threatens you with forcible collection unless you pay your bills by the due date. There are similar calls from many companies.
Years of suffering
This goes on for years. You get frustrated with the police who don’t seem to be doing anything about it. You still go to work the next day in high spirits. You get a call to go see your boss immediately. Your boss thinks you are playing dumb, but immediately informs you that you have sent a libelous and feces stained letter to the general director of the company. Your explanations are not believed and you have to give a written answer, and you offer to give a handwriting sample while you’re at it. Your coworkers hear that you had to give a written explanation for having insulted the higher-ups of the company.
The torment continues. You get called in to a clinic for AIDS testing and the appointment has already been booked. The phone rings and when you pick up you hear an angry parent threaten you with legal action and the police because according to a letter received by the caller you have molested their underage children. You keep trying to explain. The railway station calls to inform you that the 150 kilograms heavy weightlifting equipment you ordered have arrived. Matkahuolto informs you that the furniture you ordered have arrived. The phone even rings during the night, but once you pick up, the call disconnects.
In the morning the doorbell rings. Your spouse goes to open. An acquaintance of yours gives their condolences with flowers and leaves sympathetically. Only after receiving more condolences on the phone you find out that your obituary has been published in the day’s newspaper. The activity continues…
Foul, disgusting, sick…
The avenger kept sending letters containing extremely foul text. Often they also included feces. The avenger marked someone the recipient knew or should have known as the sender. The letters often mentioned that first the recipient would have items ordered for them, then they would be signed up for a sexual deviants’ clubs, then shot, etc. When the recipient began receiving deliveries and such, they would start to wonder whether the threats also come true as the letters said. After all, the first phase had already happened.
The letters also included pictures cut from porn magazines. The photos often featured comments about the resemblance between the recipient’s face and the private parts of the woman in the picture. The envelopes were clean and they had often been stamped with some company’s or community’s name or logo. Postage had mainly been paid by counterfeit meter stamps. The meter stamps were so well made that none of them were intercepted at the post office even though there were hundreds of deliveries. In addition, the avenger drew and pressed some stamps with plates they had made.
The Avenger also ordered items. It was easy and cheap because nearly every magazine has mail order coupons whose postage is paid by the recipient. There are also coupon booklets containing dozens of coupons. Items ranging anywhere from pens to washing machines were sent. The recipient of the orders was left in the lurch with cancellations, and companies suffered losses from postal charges, packaging, etc.
The Avenger posted newspaper ads under other people’s names. One person’s apartment, for example, was visited by approximately 200 people seeking to rent it on a Sunday.
The Avenger also made packages. They filled them with tights, bloody tampons, metal junk, pieces of cord and shell casings, among others. They took the packages to the neighbouring stairways of the recipient. Often the packages were handled as bombs, because they truly looked like ones when x-rayed.
Foul, disgusting or sick. Whichever it is, the things recounted here happened to several dozens of Finns between the years of 1974 and 1984. The full number of the targets may never be discovered as some who received only singular letters disposed of the materials they received and never reported it to the police. There is, however, knowledge of several hundreds of victims.
Leaker of information
Tiina Kiviharju was one of the people who did report the events. Tiina was working at a branch office of a major banking group in the outskirts of Helsinki. As a teller, Tiina was extremely conscientious and exact at her job and as such was well liked among her coworkers. Tiina’s home life was also doing fine. She was happily married and was expecting her first baby, which was due to arrive in June 1978.
The leader of said office was bank manager Riipinen who one morning received a letter that on the outside appeared to be perfectly normal. Upon opening the envelope, however, Riipinen changed his mind. He read the letter slowly and carefully seeing the seriousness of the matter. The letter insinuated that mrs Kiviharju had sold information covered by bank secrecy about the bank’s clients to third parties. The evidence was airtight, according to the letter. The letter stated that the writer considered it their duty to report the crime to the police and make a complaint to the bank’s general director. The letter was signed, but so illegibly that one couldn’t make out the name. Riipinen could already see his career development grinding to a halt.
Kiviharju was immediately called in to the office manager’s room amd after a serious discussion they came to the conclusion that there was no cause for such a letter. The matter was eventually forgotten.
When approximately three weeks had passed, office manager Riipinen received an official and valuable looking letter with his morning mail. Riipinen’s name was stamped on the envelope and the name of a certain Finnish registered party was marked as the sender. The office manager opened the letter and saw immediately that the letter was written in its entirety with stamps of separate letters. The letter read: “Because I have discovered the bank’s secrets through mrs Kiviharju, I intend to report you unless you pay 3000 marks to our party. We will give the press information of your clients unless you agree to our demands”.
And so Kiviharju ended up explaining herself in the manager’s office yet again. After the workday they held a meeting at the bank’s office regarding the letter and potential measures that could be taken. The matter was reported to the police.
Time passed and Tiina was distressed by the thought of a person who wanted to sully her reputation. She considered her options and filed reports, but investigations yielded no results. Summer of 1978 began and Tiina gave birth to her firstborn. The letters were forgotten during her maternity leave, and family bliss showed all its good sides to Tiina and her whole family.
In July of the same year, once Tiina was home from the maternity ward, a letter arrived to her home appearing to be sent by Mauri Kuhala, a member of the parliament. Kuhala represented the same party that had sent the blackmail letter to office manager Riipinen. Tiina’s heart leapt. She opened the envelope carefully and found her fears confirmed. The letter demanded “the Kiviharju whore” to pay the party 5000 marks or Tiina’s throat would be slit. The letter also stated that Tiina was “pure shit” and that the feces smeared on the letter was indeed much purer than Tiina had ever been.
Tiina was afraid. She couldn’t sleep all night and the police could give no other aid than “we’ll do our best”.
The next day Tiina got another letter. This time the sender was marked as Kerstin Granlund from Vaasa. Tiina didn’t know such a person and could anticipate the contents of the letter. Still she opened it and read: “Your time is almost up. Pray the Lord. Dying young is to be your part. God’s knives are sharp. You will soon have your last meal. You will die ugly”.
Likely as a consequence of giving birth, Tiina was more sensitive than usual. The threats deeply upset her. Tiina felt that the threats were also aimed at her baby, who was only about a week old. Locks were added until there were three on the front door.
Tiina’s husband’s work shifts changed into evening shifts. After dark Tiina sat with the baby in her arms waiting for the threats to come true. The torment grew in Tiina’s mind and eventually the situation got so bad that she no longer dared to spend nights alone and had to go with her husband on his nightly calls. Finally the Kiviharjus decided to change apartments and eventually the thing began to fade from memory. Not entirely, however.
Approximately five years had passed since the letters when Tiina received mail containing materials for attending a marketing conference. Around the same time several items were ordered for Tiina from various stores. The orders were written and from them could be concluded that the writer hadn’t forgotten Tiina. The fear returned; how long would this continue before…
The forger of stamps – deceased
Riitta and Rauno Stenström were an ordinary middle-aged family from eastern Helsinki. Both had jobs and they lived comfortably in their cosy two-room apartment. In 1978 they received an announcement, according to which Rauno had ordered some items by mail. Rauno wondered about this and asked Riitta if she had possibly ordered something. They came to the conclusion that it must have been a mistake. Rauno called the post office and informed them that he had not made the order and that it could be returned.
In the following days similar activity continued; they received more announcements and both Riitta and Rauno cancelled orders as often as they remembered. They naturally forgot to cancel some and received reminders and collection letters about them.
The doorbell rang at the Stenströms. Riitta opened the door and two men carried in a washing machine, asking where it should be placed. After what felt like an endless explanation the men believed her and took the machine away with them.
Now they also began receiving letters that insulted Rauno in strong terms. The letters also contained threats of getting shot at their door, gasoline being poured in the mail slot and being lit and getting tortured by nailing one’s tongue to the table, etc. The letters were often sent in the name of some celebrity. The Stenströms even delivered some letters to the police, who “helped” by telling them that this had happened to several people lately.
A letter arrived to the police station. It contained forged stamps similar to those used to send the so-called defamation letters. The letter also contained a couple of pencil sketches of a man from whom the writer had allegedly bought the forged stamps, and the address where he supposedly lived down to the corridor and floor number. It was the Stenströms’ apartment and the sketch portrayed Rauno. Therefore the writer knew the Stenströms.
Summer of 1981. Riitta Stenström received a phone call. The tearful voice of someone Riitta knew gave their condolences. Riitta was so confused that at first she couldn’t explain that Rauno was still alive. After hearing this it was the caller’s turn to be amazed. They also received flowers with condolences from their relatives. Riitta took a closer look at the newspaper and saw that according to the paper, Rauno Stenström was dead. It was very challenging to get Rauno back to the land of the living. They were disgusted.
Riitta picked up the phone: “I would like to give my condolences to Rauno Stenström’s widow. We have some very affordable tombstones…” It was very hard to get these callers to believe that they had no use for their services at this time. The cruelest part of these obituaries was their effect on other people. The police inspected and mapped out the situation. Clues were collected, but no facts.
Gasoline thief, adulterer
Alpo Kankare drove a bus in Northern Finland. Alpo was a family man whose life was no different from that of any average citizen. That, however, was about to change. At the end of the 1970s Alpo received a letter containing photocopied ten mark bills. According to the letter, Alpo had ordered them to use them on fuel dispensers. The letter mentioned that Alpo was stealing gas from the bus company by taking some from the tanks of the cars, little by little, to make it seem like they had a higher mileage. Alpo pondered. This had happened nearby recently. That letter was sent by Hojo-Hojo-Pena. Alpo ignored the letter, it was simply the work of some nutcase.
Some time passed and Alpo got called into questioning at the police station. He was confused. At the station Alpo discovered that he was suspected of sending an obscene letter to an editor-in-chief from Tampere. The letter had called the editor-in-chief “a parasite and a crab louse in the crotch of Maiden of Finland”. The letter also threatened to slit the editor-in-chief’s throat. The letter had been covered with feces, because, according to the letter, giving better food to a louse would be a waste. It was sent in the name of Alpo Kankare, with his correct phone number and address. It was immediately made clear that Alpo had nothing to do with the letter. What kind of rumours would start to spread, Alpo wondered.
Alpo came home from work and his wife seemed oddly tense. Alpo checked the mail and could guess the reason. With the mail had arrived an open card with the text: “Dear Alpo. I have a surprise for you. I’m pregnant. So it would be good if you got in touch immediately, my love. Last time you said something about posting banns, but it was left unclear to me. This was a surprise for me as well and so I await your reply. Your beloved Kirsti”. Explanations…
This was only the beginning. Alpo caught wind that various complaints about him had been made to the bus company’s supervisor in Helsinki. Alpo had refused to pick someone up from the bus stop and had sometimes driven past stops on purpose, etc. All the letters were clean and seemed genuine; they were signed by people living in the northern hinterlands who were not easily reached by phone. Alpo’s new job became rectifying the management’s conceptions of him.
After a while, a letter arrived to the home of the Kankares, addressed to Mrs Kankare, in which Riitta Sivonen wrote that she had received a peculiar letter from Alpo. In it, Alpo suggested sexual intercourse for a monetary compensation. Riitta wondered in her letter if Alpo could not satisfy his animalistic instincts with his wife since he was thusly harassing other people. Perhaps there really was something to it, Alpo’s wife pondered.
More was to come. The avenger had written a letter in Alpo’s name in which Alpo asks the National Board of Health for a castration due to the fact that when driving a bus and seeing a beautiful woman, Alpo gets a strong erection and ejaculates, leading to embarrassing situations with wet trousers. Alpo asks the board to send their response to the company’s garage’s address. What’s more, the avenger has replied to the castration request in the name of a doctor working for the National Board of Health and manufactured the board’s stamps etc. in the reply. Included was “Alpo’s” original request letter, and these were then sent to the garage.
The avenger ordered Alpo items by mail. He was sent, for example, penis enhancing equipment, ring seals, insoles and all sorts of other things.
Lovely nights – forgotten pants
Ritva Suomaa, a member of parliament, is a well-known woman. Ritva also has a job elsewhere and therefore she is not just an MP. Ritva had received numerous letters in which she had been called every offensive name in the Finnish language. Ritva is a strong woman and didn’t care much about the letters although they caused some bother, as did the orders that kept coming for years and years. Sometimes people she knew would call Ritva and she’d find out that more similar letters had been sent in her name to these people.
Ritva arrived to her workplace and discovered that she had been sent a package, which had had to be opened at the office since only the company’s name and address were written on it. The package contained a pair of women’s panties and a letter to Ritva. The letter communicated that Pasi Kuitunen, a known TV personality, was sending Ritva her underwear that she had forgotten at Kuitunen’s place after a lovely night.
Risto Sahra, the leader of a certain union, had over the years gotten used to the fact that someone was ordering things in his name. He had also received some foul letters smeared with feces to his home and place of work. Upon bringing the mail to their boss, there was something peculiar in the behaviour of the secretary. The secretary uneasily announced the arrival of a package, which was at the bottom of the pile. Sahra looked at the package and found it opened, as it was only labelled with the name and address of the union. The contents were something else. The package contained a pair of men’s feces stained underwear and a letter to Risto Sahra. The sender was Ritva Suomaa, a member of parliament, who in the letter insinuated that Risto had left his underwear at Ritva’s house last time and apologised for the pants getting stained in the throes of passion. Outrage and disgust overtook him. The letter was written in the same hand as the previous ones.
Pekka Pelkonen from Kontiolahti received his first letter in late 1980. The letter was sent from Helsinki. Known to be a calm man, Pelkonen was not upset by the first letters. But when various magazines and mail order items began arriving almost daily, Pelkonen went to the police. Pelkonen worked as the foreman at a large company and he had at best a couple hundred subordinates. Pelkonen suspected one of them to be the writer, as he had been forced to punish some with dismissals. Pelkonen could not name other enemies.
Newspapers, magazines, comics
Between the years 1980-1984 foreman Pelkonen received nearly 40 different deliveries in addition to various newspapers, magazines and comic books. In addition, obscene letters had been sent to other people in Pelkonen’s name.
Sometimes newspaper ads claimed Pelkonen was selling a villa property by Saimaa, sometimes a log cabin by Koitere. There were dozens of calls from interested buyers and even an offer from abroad.
Still worse was yet to come, however. An obituary of Pekka Pelkonen was posted in the local newspaper. The elegy read: “his burden has been lifted and he has found eternal peace”. This obituary of course referred to foreman Pekka Pelkonen from Kontionlahti. However it contained one noteworthy detail: According to the obituary, Pelkonen was born in 1950, when in fact he was born much earlier. Condolences were once again sent to Pelkonen’s “widow”.
Gay, AIDS-patient
For some reason that at the early stages of the investigation could not be explained, the avenger sent a lot of letters to the small village of Tohmajärvi. There are a dozen known recipients, two of whom, teacher Matti Manninen and security guard Kari Kelo faced the worst of the harassment. Teacher Manninen had worked in the municipality for over 25 years. He, too, is a family man and known in the area as a sympathetic and conscientious person. Matti was modest, he never made a big deal of himself.
Upon first opening the libelous letter in 1980, Manninen could not anticipate all that he would come to experience. As in most other cases, a few initial letters were followed by an onslaught of mail deliveries. When the deliveries didn’t appear to be ceasing, he asked the post office to automatically return all deliveries to the stores that sent them. The letters of complaint proved to be the most troublesome for Manninen.
In late 1983 the avenger had sent a letter to the National Board of Health in Manninen’s name. In it, Manninen casually mentions that he is a teacher in Tohmajärvi. He also tells that he has AIDS and that he has had homosexual relations with a male student of his. In the letter Manninen asks what actions he ought to take.
Manninen himself never received a reply, but the board, sensing that something was unclear about the whole thing, sent the letter to the bailiff of Tohjmajärvi.
Things didn’t end so well with a letter that was sent in the name of another Tohmajärvi teacher to the board of education. It told of teacher Manninen’s homosexual relations with his male students. It also mentioned that Manninen had AIDS. The board sent a letter containing this information to the department of education of the provincial government of North Karelia and asked for an investigation to the matter. The department did as requested, and in turn asked Manninen himself to give a written explanation. To be safe, Manninen asked for a statement from a local police officer. The rumour mill was churning once again.
The avenger sent many letters to different public utilities in the name of the National Board of Health in early 1984. The letters mentioned Manninen’s homosexual relations and informed that he had AIDS. The letters asked for information and observations of his comings and goings. The letters were equipped with the signature stamps of the board and a doctor who used to work there. The rumours escalated.
The avenger also sent a letter in teacher Manninen’s name to a sexual health clinic in Helsinki. The letter requested an appointment to get tested for AIDS. A letter arrived in response informing Manninen of the appointment.
Feces to the general director
Security guard Kari Kelo faced similar treatment. Kelo, just like Manninen, received letters and mail deliveries, for-sale ads of various items and of course an obituary. The nastiest situation Kelo ended up in when a feces stained letter was sent in his name to the general director of the company in Helsinki. No more than two hours after the general director opened the letter in Helsinki, Kelo was in his boss’s office in Tohmajärvi giving a handwriting sample. And there was talk…
The avenger
The avenger and his targets were being mapped from the beginning. It was established that most of the targets had been public figures at some stage of their lives. There were exceptions, however, and based on tips from those cases some strong leads could be gathered. For example, it was established that the avenger could draw and etch.
The contents of the letters always referred to political affiliations and that aspect was examined. It could only be stated that the avenger’s range varied from one extreme to another, however with an emphasis on the right wing.
The harassment focused on an area covering, among others, the cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen. The entire Finland got their share of the letters, however, all the way up to Inari. During the investigation, another point of focus was located in the North Karelia province. At the centre of this point was the small municipality of Tohmajärvi. This was chosen as the starting point for the investigation, as it was suspected that the avenger had at some point lived in the area and had possibly moved away. Other more promising leads could not be forgotten, however.
Letters delivered around 1978 made many references to an already disbanded extreme right wing political movement, which had been found guilty of burning down a left wing printing house. So they searched for a person fitting the avenger’s framework among the members of the disbanded movement. House searches were conducted as well as forensic investigation, but they seemed to yield no results.
They also endeavoured to find an explanation for the fact that several letters had been sent in envelopes of company called Kustannus Oy. Where had the avenger gotten these envelopes? Did he perhaps work at the company? It turned out that Kustannus Oy had printed 6000 such envelopes at Painopaikka Oy in 1977. From there the envelopes had been sent to the mail service Postitusosakeyhtiö Saari, who had, according to the contract, mailed 5877 of these envelopes to the clients of Kustannus Oy. Where were the remaining 123 envelopes? The employee directories of Postitusosakeyhtiö Saari from nearly a decade were reviewed and the backgrounds and handwritings of suspicious individuals were inspected. It was futile. The envelopes could also be from Painopaikka Oy, but the company had gone bankrupt and the employee directories were no longer available.
We recall the letter sent to the police in which the avenger had included a drawing of Rauno and informed that he had bought fraudulent stamps from the man in the picture. Rauno had never appeared in the public eye so how did the avenger know him? Rauno himself suggested some options but upon investigation they yielded no results. It was established, however, that Rauno had begun receiving letters after changing jobs in the summer of 1978. Employee directories containing hundreds of names were procured from Rauno’s old and new workplaces. Suspicious persons found on these lists were investigated, but once again to no avail.
The investigators tried to fit hundreds upon hundreds of people into the “framework of the avenger”, but they always came away empty-handed, as they say. When taking some things to the cellar storage, a musician had heard hurried footsteps from the stairway and, upon going to see who it was, had found a package left by the avenger. Based on the sound of the footsteps as well as other factors, it could be deduced with some certainty that the avenger was a man. Some progress was made.
Tohmajärvi in focus
Tohmajärvi was once again put under the microscope, and one by one they began going through names of men who had gone to school in the area and were born between 1948 and 1952. The year of birth was narrowed down to this period due to the the fact that upon inspecting the local recipients of the letters it was noted that eight of them were born in 1950. Furthermore, they all had been in the same class in primary school in 1964. They all had at some point been taught by Matti Manninen and one of the students was Pekka Pelkonen.
Student registries were found in the municipal archive and each person was interviewed in their turn. No one could name certain suspects. There appeared to have been no general victim of mockery or such in the school. Manninen also didn’t recall having to discipline any one student in particular. Over twenty years had passed and no one could recall specific events any longer. The question arose whether the avenger could’ve been a student’s brother, current spouse or something similar.
The case of Pekka Pelkonen was addressed. There was foreman Pekka Pelkonen, who had received letters, and chauffeur Pekka Pelkonen, who was in the category of people born in 1950. The avenger had apparently targeted the wrong man. However, the real Pekka Pelkonen could not name anyone likely to be the perpetrator either.
The selection of men born between 1948 and 1952 was narrowed down to those who had moved to the metropolitan area. Approximately 50 names remained and hopes were high. An arduous phase followed. There was still no certainty that the avenger was among this group of 50 people, so other leads were continuously being followed on the side. Several binders of material were gathered and based on the facts discovered the group had been narrowed down to approximately 20 people. Among the material there was a handwriting sample from one Asser Niinistö, who had moved away from Tohmajärvi already in 1965, but there seemed to be no similarities.
Asser
The dead end seemed to open up when an official of the North Karelian garrison contacted the investigators. He had received libelous letters and mail deliveries. The officer was from Tohmajärvi and he was presented with the narrowed down list of names. The man immediately picked out Asser Niinistö, who had been his neighbour back in the day. According to the man, Asser had been a very quiet young man and enthusiastic about building “infernal machines” and other such devices. The man also told that Asser had served his military service in the North Karelian garrison as late as 1975 due to postponements.
Asser Niinistö was taken under close inspection. No fact based on which he could be suspected more than anyone else seemed to surface. Besides, there were many better leads to examine. What’s more, Asser was established to be a man with a job and a family and therefore wasn’t likely to have the time to do all the things that had come to light.
The very next day Asser’s former neighbour from the garrison called the investigators and told them that the garrison’s matron had received a similar letter as the one he had received. Upon inspection the letters were found to contain things that no outsider could know about. It was discovered that Asser Niinistö had worked in the garrison’s kitchen. Having drawn their conclusions, they decided to conduct a house search at Asser’s home and workplace the next day.
Fainted
On a winter morning in 1984 the police arrived at Asser’s workplace and the foreman was asked to fetch Asser. Asser was asked to open his desk drawers and his locker.
Having done this, Asser fainted.
In the locker there were several pre-filled mail order coupons and letters. The avenger’s journey had come to an end. Asser was searched and a loaded, self-made .22 caliber revolver was found in his possession.
Asser was arrested and in the interrogation he confessed everything. He said that from the year 1974 onwards he had sent hundreds of libelous letters mainly to people in leadership positions. He also said that he had made at least 1500 orders of items. In addition there were the packages, harassing phone calls and newspaper ads.
A capable man
Asser was a capable man. Three more handguns were found at his house, two of which were self-made. According to a statement from the laboratory, they could all be labelled as firearms. In addition, there were paintings at Asser’s house that were painted by him. Asser had also worked as a touring musician, but had stopped touring for his family’s sake. During the house search they found equipment used to make the counterfeit meter stamps, and offset printing plates with pictures of 100 mark bills. The police had already previously procured a brass sheet with a lion themed stamp carved on it, with which Asser had manufactured some stamps.
A detailed index
So how did Asser remember the hundreds of people that he had sent letters and items to? To this there are to answers: Firstly, Asser had a detailed index of approximately 1000 names with addresses. The index was divided in sections such as National Coalition Party members, Centre Party members, the military and the police together, Christians and miscellaneous. Secondly, Asser had a very good memory and upon hearing a name he could recall off the top of his head why he had chosen that particular person as a target.
There were some people who were targeted for personal reasons. They had at some point in their lives said or done something bad or hurtful to Asser. Among these people were Tiina and Rauno, for example. However, these people didn’t make up even one percent of the targets.
Why?
Why did Asser do this, then?
Excerpts from Asser’s interrogation transcript: “… I was a small child and perhaps had a tendency for being nervous … Also there was a teacher with a very authoritarian and militant approach to teaching … (Matti Manninen) … I developed a hatred towards authoritarian and aggressive people … Then there were some housing concerns due to illegal dismissals when I wouldn’t agree to illegal rent increases … The pressure was at its peak and the knowledge that I would have to join the army triggered it all. I remembered my pistol and decided to go outside to shoot at everyone and everything. I abandoned that thought, however, because I couldn’t have hurt another person physically. Since my own troubles were psychological, I decided to avenge the wrongs I had experienced psychologically …”
(Pens used in creating the letters. Police photo.)
Asser’s wife never knew or suspected what his husband was up to late in the evenings. Asser also had other good opportunities to do his avenging work, as his wife did shift work. Excerpts from the wife’s interrogation: “… My husband is very quiet. Sometimes it’s like he’s in a different world. He also has a very strict stance on what is right and what is wrong”.
Asser also had detailed notes of all the letters and his other doings. There were some two dozen notebooks and the parts about the avenger’s actions Asser had written down in a cipher he had invented. The notebooks, as well as the other avenger material, were in a locked cupboard to which others had no access and no keys. The locks Asser naturally made himself.
(Some of Asser’s “tools” he used to create counterfeit papers and documents. Police photo.)
Asser was arrested for his deeds and he is accused of frauds, counterfeiting a private document, illegal possession of a firearm, making and using counterfeit stamps, illegal threats, defamation, libel via printed documents, attempts of fraud, slander, etc. Now Asser is in prison, waiting for the court’s ruling on the matter. [Article written in 1985; see post scriptum for an update. -admin]
(Pistol found among Asser’s possessions. Police photo.)
Asser is a good worker and possesses a very demanding set of skills. He owns an apartment, has a wife and a kid, a job.
But why all this?
Post Scriptum, 2018, written by Teemu from Mysteries, Crimes, Curiosities
As far as I know, this is the only photo of Asser publicly available. I took this photo from an old issue of Alibi, a Finnish true crime magazine:
“Asser” was sentenced to prison time, but only did a short portion of it, as he was deemed by the court to have been in a mentally unstable state during the crimes.
After his prison sentence, “Asser” returned to his old job. As far as I was able to determine through my research, he never committed any more crimes.
