Hilda Nilsson was sentenced to death in Helsingborg, in southern Sweden, on June 13, 1917, for killing eight small children she had taken in as foster children. The city's own encyclopedia, Helsingborgs stadslexikon, describes her as the last person in Sweden convicted as an änglamakerska, the Swedish term usually rendered in English as "angel maker." The sentence was never carried out. While her appeal was pending she was held in the women's prison at the citadel in Landskrona, and there she took her own life.
Her case belongs to the history of a paid foster trade. Unmarried mothers in early twentieth century Sweden could place a child with a foster mother for a single sum meant to cover its keep, and if the child died, the money stayed with the foster home. Helsingborg's city archive has put her case on public display, and it remains a subject of local debate more than a century later.
Nilsson was born in 1876 in Tirup, in what is now Svalöv Municipality in Skåne, into a large and poor family, according to an account compiled by Helsingborgs stadsarkiv, the city archive, for Domstolenshistoria.se, a court history site linked to Helsingborg District Court. She did well at the folk school and went first into service as a maid.
Her early adult life was marked by loss. The same account says she had a son who died shortly after he was born. Later she was left by the father of another child, gave birth to a daughter alone, and the daughter also died soon after birth. Nyheter24, a Swedish news site, reports that she bore both children as a teenager and that both died within days.
She worked at Dunker's rubber factory in Helsingborg, known locally as "Galoschan," then took a cookery course and worked in restaurants, according to the archive's account. In 1902 she married Gustaf Nilsson, a fireman. Nyheter24 reports that he later suffered an eye injury and had to take lower paid work. The couple ran into money trouble, and the city archive's account says they eventually went bankrupt. SVT, the Swedish public broadcaster, described her in 2017 as a woman with debts who took in children born outside marriage in return for payment.
Children born outside marriage carried a heavy stigma in Sweden in the early 1900s, and their mothers were looked down on, the city archive's account says. A market in foster care grew up to meet the demand. A mother could pay a single lump sum, known as "allt i ett," that was meant to cover the child until the age of 15; wealthier families paid more. Many foster children were neglected or mistreated, and when a child died, the foster home kept the money.
Nyheter24 adds that a 1911 law had banned the spread of information about contraception and that abortion was already strictly prohibited. Mothers, often from middle class or wealthier families, found foster homes through newspaper ads. Nilsson's well kept apartment, Nyheter24 reports, made her look like a trustworthy choice.
According to the city archive's account, Nilsson took in foster children when she was in her forties and short of money. Her husband was against the idea but went along with it.
Over a few years, 13 children passed through her care, the archive's account says. Some were placed elsewhere or adopted out. Eight of them were killed. She told no one, and the money paid for them was soon spent.
Nyheter24 dates the first killing to 1915, when she took in a girl who was ten months old, and reports that seven more children followed. The children's names have not been published. Their mothers are known only in outline, as women who had paid to place a child and, in at least one case, kept trying to stay in touch with him.
The case unraveled because of one mother. According to the city archive's account, a woman who had given up her son came to regret it and asked to see him. By then he was already dead. She began to make inquiries of her own, and the case came apart.
Nyheter24 gives more detail. It reports that this mother had paid extra so that she could keep in contact with her son, and that Nilsson had collected the boy from a foster agency while posing as an aunt of his under a false name. Nilsson then produced a forged letter claiming that this "aunt" had moved to Gällivare, in the far north of Sweden. When the mother came to Nilsson's home, she was told the boy had died of whooping cough and had been buried in the north. The mother wrote to the parish priest in Gällivare and learned that no child of that name had been buried there. She then went to the police, and their inquiry led to Nilsson's arrest.
The police inquiry in Helsingborg was led by a detective named Stjernström, according to the city archive's account, and it was thorough. Nilsson confessed to more with each interrogation. Nyheter24 reports that after long questioning she admitted killing eight children.
The case files give no real explanation for why she killed the children, the city archive's account says. Several examinations of her mental state found no mental illness. She remained calm and composed through the trial.
On June 13, 1917, Hilda Nilsson was sentenced to death for killing the eight children, the date given both by Helsingborgs stadslexikon and by the city archive's account on Domstolenshistoria.se. Nyheter24 describes the judgment as covering seven murders and one manslaughter.
The verdict was appealed, though the city archive's account judges that her chances were small. Nyheter24 describes her as the last person in Sweden sentenced to death without the possibility of a pardon, while the city archive's account calls her the last woman in Sweden sentenced to death.
After the judgment she was moved to the women's prison in the citadel at Landskrona, which the stadslexikon describes as a compulsory labor institution. Before the appeal was decided, she was found hanged in her cell. The stadslexikon says she used a strip of linen sheeting tied to the cell window.
Nyheter24 dates her death to August 10, 1917, when she was 41, and reports that her death sentence had been converted to life imprisonment that same day, without her knowing it. The city archive's account and the stadslexikon do not mention a commutation; they say only that the sentence was never carried out and that the appeal was still pending when she died.
Helsingborg has returned to the case more than once. On Archives Day in November 2017, the new city archive building let visitors into its depots under the theme "synd och skam," sin and shame, and Nilsson's story was shown in a screen exhibition. SVT reported that the archive's head, Sophia Hydén, called it a truly frightening story ("en riktigt läskig historia") and said that people walking along the street in central Helsingborg where Nilsson had lived might now think of her.
Two years later her inclusion in Kvinnokarta Helsingborg, a three year city project that mapped nearly 30 women who mattered to local history, drew strong reactions on social media, SVT reported in October 2019. The project leader, Camilla Bergvall, said the project did not hold Nilsson up as a role model or romanticize what she did ("Vi lyfter inte fram henne som en förebild, vi romantiserar inte hennes gärningar"). Its aim, she said, was to show the conditions that made the crimes possible, and it had chosen not to feature only people who had done good things. One critic quoted by SVT asked whether a person who murders children could be called important, while agreeing that women have too small a place in written history.
Commutation. Whether her sentence was commuted before she died is reported differently. Nyheter24 says it was converted to life imprisonment on the day of her death. The stadslexikon and the city archive's account say only that the sentence was not carried out, and the archive's account places her death before the appeal was decided.
Counts. The stadslexikon and the city archive's account describe a death sentence for killing eight children. Nyheter24 describes the judgment as seven murders and one manslaughter.
Last of her kind. Accounts use different phrases: the last person in Sweden convicted as an "angel maker" (stadslexikon), the last woman in Sweden sentenced to death (the city archive's account), and the last person sentenced to death in Sweden without the possibility of a pardon (Nyheter24).
Her own explanation. The court files, the city archive's account says, give no real answer to why she killed. Several examinations found no mental illness.
1876: Hilda Nilsson is born in Tirup, Skåne, into a large and poor family.
Before 1902: She works as a maid, at Dunker's rubber factory in Helsingborg and in restaurants; two infants of hers die shortly after birth.
1902: She marries Gustaf Nilsson, a fireman.
1915: She takes in a ten month old girl, the first of the children killed, according to Nyheter24.
1915 onward: Thirteen foster children in all pass through her care; eight are killed.
By December 1916: A mother who wants to see her son learns he is dead and goes to the police; Nilsson is arrested and confesses over a series of interrogations.
June 13, 1917: She is sentenced to death for killing eight foster children; the verdict is appealed.
1917: She is moved to the women's prison at the citadel in Landskrona.
August 10, 1917: She is found dead in her cell, before the appeal is decided (date per Nyheter24).
November 2017: The Helsingborg city archive shows her case in an Archives Day exhibition.
October 2019: Her inclusion in the Kvinnokarta Helsingborg project draws public criticism.