Alfred Ander

Johan Alfred Andersson Ander (27 November 1873 – 23 November 1910) was a convicted Swedish murderer and the last person to be executed in Sweden.

The only person to be executed in Sweden following the instatement of the guillotine, he remains the only person executed by this means in Swedish history (before 1907, capital punishment was executed through manual beheading).

Born in Ljusterö, Ander performed his military service duties from 1893 to 1894 at the Vaxholm Artillery Corps of Vaxholm. When his military service was over he got married and tried to make a living as a waiter and hotel owner. Most of the businesses failed however (both in Strängnäs in 1898 and in Helsinki in 1903). There have been claims that Ander's excessive drinking and mistreatment of his wife were, at least partially, the reasons for the economic failures. In 1900, he was imprisoned for a few small crimes but managed to escape. In all, by the time of his final conviction, he had been sentenced three times for theft (tredje resan stöld). In 1909, the couple moved back to Ander's parents' house in Karlsudd.

Ander sought a way to find a solution to his money problems, and for weeks he had been seen observing an exchange agency, Gerells Växelkontor on Malmtorgsgatan 3 in . On 5 January 1910, he robbed the agency and beat the clerk, Victoria Hellsten, so severely that she died. He managed to steal 6,000 Swedish kronor in Swedish and foreign notes at the agency (nearly 200,000 SEK in 2010 equivalent).

Staff at a hotel named Temperance, which was located near the exchange agency, reported to the police that one of their guests had been behaving in a very strange and anxious manner, and that this guest had left the hotel with an oblong package. The guest turned out to be Alfred Ander. A large suitcase found in his hotel room contained numerous items that could be connected to the murder, among them the murdered clerk's wallet as well as most of the stolen money, partially blood-stained.

Ander was subsequently arrested during nighttime near Vaxholm, in his father's house, after some inquiries to workers on the ferries, who recognized Ander and remembered where he went. The oblong package which had been observed by hotel staff was also found during the arrest and contained the apparent murder weapon, a steelyard balance.

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