different realities and reactions Another solution came to be to defer to a psychiatric interpretation of the situation. Maria Johansdotter lived in the village of Nygård in the parish of Södra Sandsjö in the county of Kronoberg in the south of Sweden. In the spring of 1845 she was twenty-three years old and at present she was at home with her parents. She had worked as a farm maid but had left her latest position due to illness. In recent months she had been a diligent churchgoer, but this Whitsunday, May 11th 1845, she stayed at home and drowned the four months old daughter Johanna of the neighbours. Maria Johansdotter did not try to conceal her crime and later said that she had planned to report it herself but had been prevented by the discovery of the body. When confronted with her crime, she immediately showed remorse and sorrow and shed tears.565 She was brought to the gaol in Växjö May 14th and kept there.566 A few weeks later the district court of Konga started its investigation. The basic facts of the case were clear-cut, she had made no attempt to cover her tracks and she admitted the crime. Already at the first hearing June 2nd she fully renounced her action and her earlier ideas. She described how she had seen herself as a great sinner and therefore visited two nearby curates, Carl Fredrik Rosengren in Linneryd and Fredrik August Lengquist in Urshult, but not her own parish priest. The advice of the priests had however not helped her. She had not mentioned the idea to commit a crime to them because it had only appeared in her some two weeks before the deed. She had thought that she due to her sins could not attain salvation as long as she lived in this world together with others. The murder of a small child would also have the effect to help both herself and the child to salvation and heaven. In choosing between two 565 The events are related according to records 2 June 1845 p 8 sqq AIa 132 Konga häradsrätts arkivVaLAwith enclosed documents, see also Wexiö-Bladet 16 May 1845. Maria Katharina Johansdotter was born 9 March 1822 and baptised 17 March and Johanna was born 9 January 1845 and baptised 15 January, note p 162 March 1822 and p 652 january 1845 C:3 Födelse- och doplängd 1813–1847 Södra Sandsjö kyrkoarkivVaLA. See also Bergman 2010. 566 Note 14 May 1845DIIId:1a Kyrkobok 1844–46 Kriminalvårdsanstalten i Växjö arkivVaLA and note 14 May 1845DIIIa:13 Fångrulla 1846 Kriminalvårdsanstalten i Växjö arkivVaLA. 161
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