Friday, December 12, 2008

And I thought THE DEVIL'S REJECTS was Fiction

Five family members jailed for axe attack - The Local: "Five members of the same family were found guilty on Friday of involvement in a vicious axe attack against a 47-year-old man last spring near Haparanda in northern Sweden."

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This reminds me a bit of IN BROAD DAYLIGHT, a made-for-TV movie which for reasons unknown pops up on Swedish cable from time to time. Pretty good flick, actually, starring Brian Dennehy as the patriarch of closely-knit family that terrorizes their neighborhood.

Totally unrelated fact: Haparanda has the northernmost Ikea store in the world.

Unknown said...

That one's based on a true story. I read the true-crime book, in fact, long ago.

Unknown said...

And, by the way, I believe the movie was shot in a small town near Austin, Texas.

Anonymous said...

I bet you own a paperback of that book, Bill.

Totally unrelated fact #2 (and some more): Haparanda is the Swedish part of a genuine across-the-border bi-lingual twin town, the Finnish part on the other side of the river being Tornio. You can actually pay with Euros in Haparanda, though I'm not sure if Swedish money is OK in Tornio. During WW1 this area was apparently a hotbed of espionage and international intrigue, since it was located on the border between neutral Sweden and czarist Russia. Not bad for a sub-arctic town that today has a population of around 5,000.

Unknown said...

Not bad at all.

I used to have the hardback. Read it for the fact-crime Edgar committee.

Anonymous said...

Lots of good stories in that paper:

School hires teacher convicted of sexual harassment

Dutch woman barred from borrowing books

Boys blocked from bearing 'girls-only' Lucia crown