Incest does not get better than Anna Månsdotter, the last woman to be executed (beheaded 1890 -ax man missed and left her jaw attached) in Sweden
An immoral relationship between mother and son.
The mother kills the son's wife.
Twisted confessions.
Mother executed.
Son imprisoned.
A Swedish classical tale of dark-winter-nights.

The Ballad of Per Nilsson and His Beloved Mother From Hell

It was one o´clock on Christmas Eve
When a killer serving life was set free
Wiven mercy by the swedish government
After spending thirty-three years in jail

But the story shouldn´t start there
Let´s go back to where it all begun
The day of Per Nilsson´s confirmation
When his mother made herself his bride

They said she took her son for a lover
Although her husband he was still alive
A few years later her man was dead ,money gone
And she was forced to find a wife for her son

It sure is hard to find a willing bride
When someone has a reputation of a devil
Tall handsome Per Nilsson they all liked
But his mother Anna she would scare them

But seek and you will find they say
And they found a rich man´s daughter
Poor sweet Hanna innocent and only twenty-one
Fell for the way he sung and played accordian

They became man and wife but only on paper
Not one night poor Hanna had him as a lover
She didn´t know of this promise to his mother
Anna made him swear never to be with another

Once she left travelled back to her parents
But her father said they belonged together
Hasty words that he would later much regret
Some said they drove him to an early grave

Hanna still trying to win Per Nilsson´s love
Brought a used pillow-case to an old witch
A few days later got from Per her first kiss
A happy day in life but next to last for her

They found her lying dead at the cellar stairs
Thought she had fallen until they saw her neck
A red stripe showing made the court believe
That Anna strangled Hanna with just one hand

At the trial Per tried to take all the blame
Claimed his mother was not present at the scene
But admitted the devil helped him kill his wife
Then to dress the corpse and carry it downstairs

Several trials followed different stories told
Finally they found themselves sentenced to death
Soon after wrote the king asking for his mercy
Can you guess which one of them that got lucky

Anna thought she needed a whole life to repent
Salvation she would not find if killed too soon
Hoped to live long enough to find peace of mind
But Per with help from friends he was the one

Fifty men wrote the king in support of him
Everyone believed his mother was to blame
Per wasn´t an angel,but Anna was the devil
He was sentenced to life,his mother to death

Sent to jail first three years in a single cell
Poor Per never got to meet his mother again
She spent two months waiting for her death
A young priest tried hard to save her soul

Of the holy communion she didn´t want to hear
Of sin and God´s forgivness she wouldn´t speak
Although in court she had admit to everything
In front of God you would not see her kneel

Six weeks fighting for a soul that he lost
No wonder the priest he looked like a ghost
When pale he lead Anna towards the scaffold
The executioner with his axe behind the back

He´s got a brand new uniform with gold stripes
His first kill, has practised chopping in wood
The spectators are smoking cigars to calm down
The priest ready to faint, he was never the same

The reporters they wrote from the sad event
Said she was beautifully dressed in white
With big eyes that glowed and looked around
Sobbed like a child when she bowed her head

Leaving Anna now the last woman to be killed
Early one august morning in the year of 1890
Time to get back where the ballad started
With Per Nilsson and the time of his release

He left jail on Christmas Eve headed right home
Just to see the early service on Christmas Day
Then settled for a new life in a little village
Forgiving neighbours helped him build a house

Binding books for a living,spare time in his garden
In church he lead the choire and he played the organ
Just like he did in prison serving time for murder
Of that he never spoke and neither of his mother

Died five years after his release from prison
Suffering from a lung disease like his father
The people in the village had treated him good
With reverence thinking he had suffered enough

Many came to say one last farewell at his funeral
They all brought many flowers and held cermonials
Everyone seemed to pity him and before his death
He even received forgivness from Hanna´s parents

The last years he often visited his wife´s grave
He talked of an inner force that drove him there
It could be read in his diary that they found
More than fifty years after that he had died

Sad were the words he wrote about the first time
That he stood by her stone and read what it said
"...murdered by her husband Per Nilsson and his mother....
The poor woman's prayers and tears didn´t move them at all"

(a personae who uses the name "Polarbear" states that he has been translating Swedish poetry into English...so of course it does not scan/rhyme.)

www.allpoetry.com/poem/4992891-The_ballad_of_Per_Nilsson_and_his_beloved_mother_from_Hell.-by-polarbear

www.bangkok-life-susanna.blogspot.com/2009/06/yngsjomordet.html

Sincerely,

Gargoyle

WONDERFUL - film clip - close to the original photographic recordWARNING - Not for the squemish

Yngsjömordet (1966) from VaulKeeper

www.youtube.com/watch?v=crwYOJfnc0A