different realities and reactions When asked why he had wanted to commit that murder, Rosseel, is said to have answered: ”Pour être fussillé.”638 In Rome in 1581, an Englishman is said to have tried to commit sacrilege in order to die for his faith. According to his confession others had come to Rome together with him and knew of his plans. He was executed by fire. A story about another Englishman’s similar crime and execution dates from 1594. Around 1600 stories of individuals who came to Rome with similar plans circulated.639 From Amsterdam Pieter Spierenburg relates two seventeenth–century cases. Both Adriaan Struis in 1653 and Andries Jansen in 1665 claimed to have killed in order to be executed. Struis also had feared to be hanged for aburglary and had preferred beheading. In both cases the court found their confessions to be false and they were whipped for their lies.640 From Amsterdam we also hear of a Swedish sailor, Nicolaas Nordsten, who in 1787 confessed to the murder of the nineteen years old Jacob Bieselink. Nordsten also confessed other murders, both in the vicinity and in Philadelphia across the Atlantic Ocean. The murder and his confession of other murders should have served to ensure that he would be sentenced to die and executed.641 The court which, however, only considered the one evident and proven murder in the city, instead decided to send him to the Rasphuis as it had been determined that he had lost his mind – he lacked the use of his senses.642 One can wonder if Nordsten spoke the truth or if his confession of other murders was due only to his wish to be executed – was his insanity expressed in lies or in murders? Emperor Nicholas I of Russia in his role as Grand Duke of Finland on February 24th 1826 sent an Official Letter to the Governor-General of Finland Arseny Zakrevsky stating that all condemned to die in Finland, 638 ’To be shot.’ L’Indépendance belge 19 February 1848. 639 Puppi 1991 p 55. 640 Spierenburg 1984 p 95 sq. 641 P 223 7 December 1787 vol 459, archief 5061 SAA, For the archival references to this case I am grateful to Dr. L. J. Wagenaar, Amsterdam. The case is described in Hall en Hamelsveld 1798 p106 sqq and Moll 1825, p 352. On the uncertain notion that the victim in Amsterdam, Jacob Bieselink, had said that he wanted to die to go to heaven where his mother already was, see p 359 sqq 24 August vol 458, archief 5061SAA. 642 P 247 13 December 1787 vol 459, archief 5061SAA. 182
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