The Killer Pine at Otostorp

Lappland · Sweden · Natural site

The murder weapon hung on its nail in the pine for a hundred and fifteen years, re-tarred at intervals to preserve it – and the cross in the bark was cut the year after the deed.

In July 1906 a vaccinator named Lundmark travelled from Puottaure between the villages of the Jokkmokk district to vaccinate children. By a pine beside a small brook at Otostorp he ran into two men fleeing from justice, who had just botched a robbery at Kåbdalis. They believed he carried a large sum in his bag and beat him to death – with knives and a long leather strap, the brace from a horse sled. He carried almost no money at all. When the vaccinator failed to appear in the villages, people searched and found him by the pine, which has been called the Killer Pine ever since. The murder weapon, the leather strap, hung on a nail in the tree for a hundred and fifteen years and was re-tarred at intervals to preserve it; it was taken into the county museum's collections in 2021. In the blazed bark of the trunk is a cross, cut the same year or the year after the killing, in memory of the dead man.

FAQ

Where is The Killer Pine at Otostorp located?

The Killer Pine at Otostorp is in Lappland, Sweden.