Toivo Koljonen

Who is Toivo Koljonen?

Toivo Harald "Kirves" Koljonen was the last Finn executed for a civilian crime. He was executed by firing squad for a sextuple murder.

Koljonen was born 1912 in Lahti, Finland. He had been sentenced to prison and had been incarcerated at Riihimäki prison, where he had been moved to Huittinen auxiliary prison. He escaped from prison in 1943 and attempted to hide from the searchers.

He found a nearby farmhouse, where a family of six - mother, grandparents and two children - lived; the father and eldest son had been conscripted into the army. Koljonen first hid in the stable, where he killed a daughter of the family with an axe. He then broke in the living quarters, where he killed the other five people with the same axe. He also killed the wife of the neighbour, who was visiting the family. Koljonen escaped, but was caught at Valkeakoski.

According to the law in force during the war, Koljonen was sentenced to death for the six murders. He was shot together with convicted Soviet infiltrators at Kärsämäki quarry, near Turku 1943.

Koljonen was the last Finn to be executed for a civilian crime in Finland. All subsequent executions were for military crimes. After Koljonen, a handful of Finns were sentenced to death for murder. Their sentences were commuted to life imprisonment in 1945. Capital punishment was abolished for civilian crimes in Finnish law 1949.