Antti Veikko Ilmari "Jammu" Siltavuori (29 October 1926 – 9 March 2012) was a Finnish child murderer and sex offender, and was commonly known by the nickname Uncle Jammu.
Early life and previous crimes
Veikko Siltavuori was born in Vaasa, Finland. There is little information about his early childhood. According to some sources, Siltavuori's childhood was difficult because of an alcoholic father who frequently physically abused him. He was bullied in school and called a weasel because of his dirty clothing. Before the murders, he became "fairly wealthy" despite his described shabbiness and had inherited a large fortune.
Siltavuori previously had a wife and had a son and an adopted daughter. Prior to the murders, he had been convicted of raping a five-year-old girl, sexual harassment, and attempted murder for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment in the 1960s, but was later paroled.
Murders
On 3 March, 1989, Siltavuori lured two 8-year-old girls, Päivi-Maria Hopiavuori and Tanja Johanna Pirinen, from their homes in Myllypuro to his car where he then drove to his cottage in Vihti. Upon arrival he attempted to bribe the girls with money in exchange for them not to tell anyone that they had met him, however due to the girls young age, the money held no worth to them. He first murdered Pirinen by giving her a lethal dose of pentobarbital before strangling Hopiavuori to death, eventually setting fire to their bodies by putting them in barrels and dousing them with gasoline, neighbours to the cottage witnessed Siltavuori burning the bodies but mistook the remains as trash. After burning their bodies, he packed the remains of the fire in the trunk of his Ford Granada and drove back to Helsinki.
Investigation and arrest
Hopiavuori's mother became concerned when she had not heard from the girls by evening, and called emergency services at approximately 10:46 p.m. Based on internal investigations and archival research conducted by the Criminal Police Office of Violence, a group of police investigators were sent on 5 March to investigate Siltavuori's apartment, which was located a couple of kilometers from Myllypuro. Within his refrigerator, in which a total of 300 chocolate bars were found, which police suspected that he used to attract children, although he himself claimed to be diabetic and to keep the chocolate bars in case his blood sugar dropped too low. There were also many children's films in the apartment.
Police searched his Ford Granada and within the trunk they found ash and teeth, which they used to determine that the remains were of the two girls, there were no signs that the girls had been raped however fibres from the other girl's clothes were found in Siltavuori's underwear.
Media publicity
The murders led to widespread media publicity, during which hundreds of letters to the editor were written about Siltavuori. An interview with Siltavuori was published in the April 1991 issue of Rikosposti, in which he said that he believed he was the most hated person in Finland. There were demands for him to receive death penalty and castration as punishment.
Antti Siltavuori, an industrial designer from Kirkkonummi, was the target of a telephone terror because of his name, and an old man was beaten in a restaurant in Helsinki because he resembled Siltavuori in appearance.
References
Literature
- Markkula, Hannes: Kuusi suomalaista murhaa. 1996.