The Atlas Vampire: The Gravy Ladle That Drank a Woman Dry

The Atlas Vampire: The Gravy Ladle That Drank a Woman Dry

May 4, 1932 – 3:00 p.m. Atlasmuren 11, Stockholm.

The spring sun was bright over the Atlas district, a working-class maze of red-brick tenements just north of the city centre. Inside apartment 3B, a tiny one-room studio with a single window facing the courtyard, 32-year-old Lilly Lindeström lay dead on her stomach. Naked. Her blonde hair matted with dried blood.

Three crushing blows had caved in the back of her skull. But the real horror was what was missing: nearly every drop of blood from her body.

On the floor beside her right hand lay an ordinary household gravy ladle. It was crusted dark red. The killer had used it – again and again – to scoop blood from the gaping wounds in her head and drink.

He had stayed in that tiny flat for hours. Maybe days. And he had come back.

Who Was Lilly Lindeström?

Known to friends and clients simply as “Kall-Lilly” (Call Lilly), she was a divorced, independent sex worker who advertised in the newspapers. She was cheerful, well-liked, and meticulous. Her clothes were always neatly folded, even on the day she died.

She lived alone in the Atlasmuren building, a place where many women in her profession rented rooms. The walls were thick. Screams rarely travelled.

Walpurgis Night – The Last Time She Was Seen Alive

May 1, 1932 – Walpurgis Night. Sweden’s traditional night of bonfires and revelry.

At around 7 p.m., Lilly knocked on the door of her friend Minnie Johansson, 35, who lived directly below her. She borrowed a packet of condoms and laughed: “I’ve got a gentleman coming tonight.”

That was the last time anyone saw Lilly Lindeström alive.

The Discovery

Minnie knocked repeatedly on May 2 and 3. No answer. On the afternoon of May 4, worried, she called the police.

Two officers forced the door. The stench hit them first. Then the sight.

Lilly lay face-down on the bed, legs slightly apart. Her clothes were folded on a chair exactly as she always left them. A used condom lay in the wastebasket – sex had occurred after death. Blood smears on the sheets, but almost none on the floor.

And the gravy ladle. Crusted with dried blood and still wet with it in places.

The Killer’s Ritual

Pathologist Dr. Ivar Hult performed the autopsy the next day:

• Three devastating blows to the occipital bone with a blunt object (never found).
• Time of death: approximately 36–60 hours before discovery.
• Blood volume: less than 100 ml remaining (a healthy adult has 8 and 12 pints of blood, which is about 4.5 to 6.8 liters).
• Traces of semen – intercourse had taken place post-mortem.
• Blood on the ladle was licked clean between uses.
• Blood traces on a coffee cup and a towel in the bathroom.

The killer had not just murdered Lilly. He had camped beside her corpse, drinking her blood over at least two, possibly three days, returning whenever he needed more.

The Investigation – A Ghost in the Building

Lead detective: John Eriksson, Stockholm homicide.

Findings that still haunt Swedish criminologists:

• No footprints in the blood on the wooden floor.
• No blood trail leading out of the apartment.
• Door was locked from the inside when police arrived.
• Neighbours heard nothing. No screams, no struggle, not even the death blows.
• No fingerprints recovered anywhere.
• Building residents all knew each other. No strangers reported being seen.

“The murderer must have been covered in blood. Yet he left the apartment spotless. It is as if he vanished into thin air.”
– Detective John Eriksson, May 1932

The Prime Suspect: Sigvard Thurneman

One name surfaced quickly: Sigvard Thurneman, a married 38-year-old salesman who had visited Lilly on April 30 or May 1. Police pulled him in for questioning.

He admitted knowing her but claimed their last meeting was weeks earlier. No blood on his clothes, no weapon, no alibi that could be broken. Released without charge.

In the 1940s Thurneman was convicted of several violent assaults on women. He died in 1973. Most Swedish researchers today believe he was the Atlas Vampire.

Why It Terrifies

This was not a frenzied attack. It was intimate. Patient. Ritualistic.

The killer:

• Bludgeoned her from behind while she was distracted
• Waited for her to die
• Used her body sexually
• Stayed in the flat, drinking coffee, washing himself
• Returned repeatedly to drink more blood with a household ladle
• Left without spilling a drop outside the room

He knew the building. He knew Lilly’s habits. He knew exactly how long he could stay.

Timeline

Sources

1. Stockholm City Archives – Original 1932 police files & photographs
2. “Vampyrmordet i Atlas” – contemporary newspaper reports (Dagens Nyheter, May 1932)
3. Leif GW Persson – “Sveriges mest kända olösta mord” (2015)
4. Swedish National Forensic Centre – 1990s re-examination notes
5. “Famous Swedish Murders” – Jan-Olof Bengtsson (1974)

Final Verdict

STILL UNSOLVED. In a quiet Stockholm building, a woman was murdered and slowly, deliberately, drunk dry with a kitchen ladle. The killer sat beside her corpse for days, sipping her blood from the ladle, waiting, and then returning multiple times. They were never once seen by the other residents of the building. The killer folded her clothes neatly in a scene of absolute horror. He then locked the door behind him and simply vanished into thin air.

Was it Sigvard Thurneman or was it something much more sinister. We may never know.