Unexplained

Who was the mysterious and grisly killer?

It seemed that Lilly Lindstrom was doing well for herself.

She was 32, and had a flat in Atlas, a newly-constructed district of Stockholm, Sweden.

It was crammed with mod-cons – even a telephone. Quite something in the 1930s, and her neighbours nicknamed her the ‘call girl’.

And that was exactly how Lilly made her living – she was a prostitute.

Men would call her, she’d invite them over…

So when the police broke into her flat and found her body, they thought one of her clients had done it. Bludgeoned poor Lilly Lindstrom to death.

It was 4 May 1932. Two days before, Lilly had invited one of her callers over.

She’d asked her friend Minnie Jansson if she had a spare condom. Minnie was a prostitute, too, lived in the same building.

At about 9pm that night, Lilly had knocked on Minnie’s door for the second time. She wasn’t wearing anything and had just pulled on a coat to cover her naked body.

She asked Minnie for another condom. And that made Minnie the last-known person to see Lilly Lindstrom alive.

When Minnie didn’t see her friend for the next two days, she started to worry.

She called her phone – no answer. She knocked on Lilly’s door – no answer.

So she contacted the police… and they forced open the door to her flat.

Lilly was found face down on her bed. She was naked, her clothes folded neatly on a chair.

There was a used condom inside her, saliva all over her neck and body. She’d already been dead for two days.

The cause of death was repeated blows to the head from a heavy, blunt object.

But, horrifyingly, Lilly’s body had been drained of blood. A ladle found near her body was stained with it

Someone had spooned Lilly’s blood like soup from a bowl, then drunk it.

Whoever had done it had known what he was doing. Not a drop had been wasted, not a drop spilled. Not a drop was on the floor, walls or furnishings.

The police questioned Lilly’s neighbours.

None had seen anyone coming or going from her flat, even though they knew Lilly had had a caller… Why else would she need condoms?

But how had her caller entered and left the building without being seen?

More baffling still, why

If he were an ordinary man, he’d be dead by now...

would anyone drain, then drink her blood?

Soon, the killer had a nickname – the Vampire of Atlas. For who else could leave a building unseen? Who else would’ve gorged on her blood?

Anyone who’d called Lilly for sex was a suspect, but there was no evidence against any of them.

The police believed the way in which Lilly had been killed, the way her clothes had been folded, the way her blood had been drunk, seemed to indicate the work of a serial killer.

But where and when would the Vampire strike next? Days, weeks, months passed and the Vampire of Atlas never killed again, he just vanished.

If he were an ordinary man, he’d be dead by now and have got away with his crime...

But if he were a vampire, is he out there still, sleeping in a coffin… waiting to one day return? Waiting for a woman like Lilly – and for her blood.