What comes to mind when you hear the word 'vampire'? Dracula, Nosferatu, Strigori, Salvatore brothers, Edward Cullen, Lestat...maybe Vamperilla or Count Duckula? I'm sure you could add some more to the list. Whichever you may think of first...or the most...these are all fictional characters...because vampires aren't real...right?
Back in 1932, Stockholm, Sweden, people thought maybe a vampire was a real thing as they were unable to explain things about the death of Lilly Lindeström. Let's start with who is Lilly Lindeström.
Lilly was a 32-year-old sex worker who lived in the Atlas area of Stockholm, Sweden. In the apartment building that Lilly lived in, she ended up having the only apartment with a phone. That worked out nicely for Lilly as she was able to "entertain" her clientele instead of having to work on the streets.
Lilly became good friends with her downstairs neighbor, 35-year-old Minnie Jansson. Minnie was also a sex worker but worked the streets. Minnie and Lily kept in touch with each other often and many times Lilly would go to Minnie's apartment asking for condoms. This repetitive behavior made Minnie the last person to see Lilly alive.
Around May 1, 1932, Lilly had stopped down at Minnie's apartment to ask for condoms as she had a client coming over. Minnie told police that the last time she saw Lilly was at 9:00 PM that night. Lilly had come downstairs asking Minnie for some more condoms, but this time naked wearing only a coat.
Minnie got worried the next morning when she had not seen nor heard from Lilly. Minnie eventually contacted the Stockholm Police who showed up to check on Lilly. The police entered Lilly's apartment on May 4, 1932, and found her dead. She was found lying face down on her own bed completely naked. Lilly had suffered severe blunt force trauma to her head. Sexual activity was discovered with a condom protruding from the anus. I'm not judging what anybody wants to do sexually, I just never expected to read that type of information in any story I've come across so far. The anus part just took me a little bit by surprise, but overall discovering sexual activity didn't surprise me seeing as how she was a sex worker and this could've been done by one of her clients. The overall question is did one of her clients meet with her, have sex with her, kill her and leave or did she finish up with a client and somebody else either known or unknown to her arrive and kill her? Surprise, surprise... this case is still unsolved to this day.
The perpetrator in this case became known as the Atlas Vampire. And why, you may ask? Well, the Atlas part comes from the area she lived in... the Atlas area of Stockholm. The vampire part came from the fact that her body was found to be drained of most, if not all, of her blood. Near the body detectives found a gravy ladle that they believe was used to drink Lilly's blood. Reports state that besides the severe head trauma Lilly suffered, there were no other marks on the body showing punctures or cuts that would've helped drain the blood, and the overall status of the apartment showed a fairly clean crime scene. So how did the perpetrator drain the body of blood and where did all the blood go? Was it an actual vampire? Do vampires really exist? Or was it just some John Doe who had luck on his side and got away with murder? My personal opinion is it was some, unfortunately, lucky guy who got away with murder.
The police did interrogate nine clients of Lilly, but none of them were actually ever charged with her murder. It is not known if Lilly's ex-husband was ever talked to or believed to be a suspect. The police collected evidence of semen samples, saliva samples, hair samples and fingerprints. Back in 1932, there wasn't much they could do as far as DNA testing. The evidence was saved, but overtime everything has degraded or become contaminated, so DNA testing would probably be useless. Not to mention the perpetrator would have to have a relative today with their DNA on file. The evidence is currently on display in the Stockholm police museum.
Lilly Lindeström lost her young life to the Atlas Vampire. This case still remains unsolved and I'm not sure we will ever find the answer to who was the Atlas Vampire.
-- Audre
Photo by: Mystery & Crime Amino
Sources:
Commentaires