Lake Bodom murders

Lake Bodom murders

The Kioskman

Valdemar Gyllström, the Kioskman, was one of the major suspects. He was known for his dislike towards tourists visiting Lake Bodom, he was verbally abusive towards them, threw rocks at their tents or cutting ropse so the tents would collapse. The theory was that Gyllström finally snapped or the teenagers done something that lead to his attack.

Facts that are supporting the theory:

he had mental problems,
he supposedly confessed, but police (due to his mental problems) did not took him seriously,
he was in the past violent towards tourists,
he was obsessed with outsiders invading what he saw as his space (village, street, woods),
he was violent towards his wife,
he knew the area well, so would have no problem to hide items, observe the campers or sneak close to their tent,
he committed suicide (although it is debatable, also some people attach this to his guilt for murders, but it is far-fetched theory).

Facts that oppose the theory:

his violence towards tourists was far from level needed to stab and stone people to death, which does not mean that he was unable to commit such crime,
all of his actions described by locals suggest that he only took up fights when he had advantage (beating his wife, attacking tourists or their equipment), taking on four teenagers, where he could lose the advantage suggest he would not risk the confrontation, unless he knew that the two boys were so drunk they would not put up fight,
it would take more strength and determination to take up attack on four teenagers than to throw rocks or cut ropes (which the Kioskman has done before according to locals),
if birdwatchers described the real killer he looked nothing like Gyllström, not to mention local people knew Gyllström well, so most likely would be able to identify him,
his suppose suicide took place about 9 years after murders, which would be quite a long time to link this to guilt, not to mention that it was not excluded that he drowned accidentally.

Gyllström seems like typical "usual suspect" in such cases - he lived locally and was weird, supposedly with mental problems, which is enough to place him on the list. His previous actions do not suggest he had the mental structure to move from harassing tourists to brutal attack and hiding all the evidence so they would never be found.

Just like in case of other suspects the informations about him are scarce: he had mental problems, but we don’t know what kind of mental problems, he was violent, but we don’t exactly know in what way, he was attacking tourists, but we don’t know how many times, was he ever provoked, was it constant dislike towards tourists or were they just incidents, etc. Without more background it is hard to determine if he was violent enough to be behind the Lake Bodom attack.