Inez Magnusson (; 1897–1953), also known as Inez Johansson, was a Swedish

fraudster In law, fraud is intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover mone ...

. She was convicted on 22 October 1941 of fifteen cases of fraud. Magnusson is estimated to have defrauded her victims of three million kronor (the equivalent of sixty million US dollars in 2005). The trial lasted for nine months and became a cause celebre in the press; Magnusson was referred to as ''Vampyren'' ("the

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and c ...

") and ''Iskalla Inez'' ("Ice Cold Inez"). She was sentenced to 15 years of

forced labor Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...

and fined 75, 000 kronor in damages. She has been referred to as the "most successful woman fraudster in Swedish history."Svenska turistföreningens årsbok, 2007

Life

Inez Magnusson was born as Nicolina Theresia Johannesdotter to the poor farmer Johannes Olsen Gudding in the parish of Ås outside the city of

Östersund Östersund (; ) is an Urban areas in Sweden, urban area (Stad (Sweden), city) in Jämtland in northern Sweden. It is the seat of Östersund Municipality and the capital of Jämtland County. Östersund is located at the shores of Sweden's fifth-larg ...

, in the centre of Sweden. In 1918, she moved to

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

to work as a maidservant. She took the name Inez Johansson. She had a son in 1920 and a second son in 1921 and was given an allowance for her sons by their fathers.

Blackmail

She left her employment and became a sex worker, working from the boarding house of Hanna Hedman. Inez Johansson became active in

blackmail Blackmail is a criminal act of coercion using a threat. As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a thr ...

in cooperation with Hedman. The process of blackmail had a common pattern. After a sexual encounter with a rich man, she would inform him that she had become pregnant and ask him for money for an abortion, which was illegal at the time. Having received the money, she would ask the man for further money to take care of the injuries she had received during the abortion and to pay for the silence of people who had found out about the illegal abortion.Eriksson, Bengt (2009). Nicolina Teresia: en svindlande historia. Östersund: Budrik. Libris 11648036. ISBN 978-91-633-5518-9 In parallel, Hanna Hedman would photograph the sexual activities and then threaten the man with publishing the photograph unless he paid her. Their blackmail operation was very lucrative for a number of years. Among her clients were reportedly

Ivar Kreuger Ivar Kreuger (; 2 March 1880 – 12 March 1932) was a Swedish civil engineer, financier, entrepreneur and industrialist. In 1908, he co-founded the construction company Kreuger & Toll Byggnads AB, which specialized in new building techniques. B ...

. Her companionship with Hedman ended when Hedman began a lesbian love affair with the journalist Thyra Peterson. Peterson was herself an active blackmailer, and when informed about the Johansson-Hedman operations, she started to blackmail Johansson herself.

Fraud

In 1929, Inez Johansson married Charles Magnusson, who was able to buy the Eden Hotel AB in Stockholm and begin a successful career as a hotel owner (the couple did not live together and divorced in 1939). She thus became known as Inez Magnusson. In 1936, Inez Magnusson managed to acquire the Ima AB business company. She used the company to defraud a number of clients through investment fraud. She performed several successful and lucrative investments in the following years. During her career as an investment fraudster, she made attempts to defraud both the state of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

as well as its Jewish victims. She unsuccessfully attempted to defraud Nazi Germany on a purported contract for them to buy Swedish iron ore, which was highly sought after by the German regime. In parallel, she also attempted to defraud German Jews wishing to escape Nazi Germany by offering to sell them false Swedish passports; this operation also failed, however.

Trial

In 1940, she was finally reported for investment fraud and arrested. The trial was intensely covered by the press and became a scandal that attracted much attention . Referring to the many rich people that had been blackmailed by Magnusson, the press reported that "half the noble calender is passing by," and Inez was called "The Vampire." Most of the names of her upper-class victims were, however, kept out of the press. During the trial, she was claimed to be suffering from "moral insanity." She was sentenced to 15 years of forced labor and fined thousands of kronor. She served only six years before she was released in 1947. She died of cancer in 1953.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Magnusson, Inez 1897 births 1953 deaths Swedish fraudsters Swedish prostitutes 20th-century Swedish women 20th-century Swedish criminals 1940 in Sweden People from Krokom Municipality