Tore Hedin

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Tore Hedin (1927 - 1952-08-22) was a Swedish mass murderer and police officer, born in Stora Harrie, near Kävlinge.

Hedin committed his first crime in September, 1943 when he broke into a local brewery near his parental home to steal some oats. To avoid detection, he then burned down the brewery to hide his crime; this was a method he used later to cover his tracks when he committed far more serious crimes.

In 1951, more precisely on 28th of novembre at 2.30 AM^[1], he committed his first murder. He robbed and murdered his friend John Allan Nilsson after a poker game at Nilssons home in Tjörnarp. To cover his tracks he burned down the crime scene. Being the police representative that was stationed in the area he took part in the investigation and even answered questions from the national media concerning the crime.

Almost a year (the night 21/22 august of 1952) after the first murder he went on a killing spree after he had been dumped by his girlfriend, Ulla Östberg. The first stop was his parents house (in Saxtorp), where he killed them both and set the house on fire sometime before midnight. 30 minutes later (according to his suicide note) he arrived at the retirement home in Hurva, where his ex-girlfriend worked and lived. He climbes a fire escape ladder and enter the room where Östberg usually slept. This night, however she was not sleeping there but in the matrons (Agnes Lundin) room. He discovers this, enters the room and kills them with an axe. After killing Östberg and Lundin he blocades the entrance to the retirement home and set it on fire. Four elderly people dies in the flames and a fifth dies some days later suffering from severe burning. The committed act at the retirement home in Hurva makes Hedin the worst mass murderer in known swedish history (the only comparable acts being the ones of John Filip Nordlund and Mattias Flink).

It is unclear wheter he had decided to take his own life before the events of august 22:d. The police that has realised who were behind the killing starts a manhunt after Hedin. They find his car parked near a cabin by the lake. In the frontseat they find a suicide note, his jacket and wallet. The suicide note contains a full confession of all crimes that he committed, some remarks about him being good a only one thing (tracking other criminals) and ends with his name, occupation (murderer), whereabouts (unknown) and an explanation to why he hade killed his parents (so that they would not have to suffer for his crimes). Somewhat later he is found dead in the lake where he had drowned himself with the help of a couple of weights.

When Hedins body finally were found it was transported to the Institution of Anatomy at Lund University. His body was stored at the institution until 1974 when it was cremated.

[edit] TV-series

an episode in the mini-series "Skånska Mord" with the title "Hurvamorden" was made about these tragic events. Ernst-Hugo Järegård played the role of Tore Hedin in this episode which was originally aired in 1986.