Per Petter Christiansson Steineck

Per Petter Christiansson Steineck, (Per Petterson Christensson Steijnech) was a Swedish executioner. Per Petterson Christensson Steijnech was born in Malmo, Sweden on 7 October 1822.

Career

Steineck became an executioner in 1861. Between 1864 and 1887, he performed six executions. Steineck carried out one of the two last public executions in Sweden and is infamous for that. On the 18th of May 1876 he executed Konrad Petterson Lundqvist Tector (1838–1876) for murder in Visby in Gotland County. Steineck made a poor job of the execution. He failed to kill Tector with the first strike (actually taking two more strikes to sever the head from the body), and is alleged to have been drunk during the execution.

After the execution of Tector he was enlisted to carry out one more execution, that of the Glimminge killer (Glimmingemördaren), Nils Peter Hagström, (1853–1887) on the 29th of March 1887 in Kristianstad, in Skåne County.[1]

Three months later he emigrated to the United States with his wife. The couple emigrated from Kristina parish, Jönköping County through the port of Gothenburg to New York City. Their sons had already emigrated to the United States.

Media portrayals

Drömmen om Amerika, a Swedish film from 1976, depicts the events of the last public executions in Sweden.

References