Reijo Juhani Hammar (now known as Andreas Hammar, born 1953) is a Finnish

criminal In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

. He has been called Finland's most dangerous prisoner. On 10 July 1986 Hammar

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

ed Antti Johannes Eljaala, a 44-year-old businessman from

Tampere Tampere is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Tampere is approximately , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately . It is the most populous mu ...

, onboard the ship '' Viking Sally'' on its voyage from

Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...

, Finland 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 ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. Near the end of the trip, Hammar and Eljaala had gone into Eljaala's cabin. According to the newspaper '' Iltalehti''s report of the event, Hammar had stolen money from Eljaala's wallet and Eljaala had intended to report this to the police. As Eljaala was leaving the cabin, Hammar had struck him on the neck with a knife and strangled him with a piece of cloth he had torn from the bedcovers. An assistant of Hammar had also participated in the deed. Hammar received a

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

sentence for murder. In July 1988 Hammar escaped from the Turku Prison (known as "Kakola") with two other prisoners, Aaro Petteri Tenhunen and Martti Orajärvi. During the escape, Hammar shot a guard in the arm with a sawn-off

shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, peppergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which discharges numerous small ...

. In Lapland the escapees got into an argument ending in Hammar killing Tenhunen by hitting him on the head with an

axe An axe (; sometimes spelled ax in American English; American and British English spelling differences#Miscellaneous spelling differences, see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for thousands of years to shape, split, a ...

. The escape ended in August 1988 when Hammar and Orajärvi got caught in Stockholm and were returned to Finland. During their escape the two prisoners made several bank robberies. The press dubbed Hammar "the escapee from Kakola".

President of Finland The president of the Republic of Finland (; ) is the head of state of Finland. The incumbent president is Alexander Stubb, since 1 March 2024. He was elected president for the first time in 2024 Finnish presidential election, 2024. The presi ...

Tarja Halonen pardoned Hammar in December 2004. Hammar received media attention the next time on 24 February 2007 when he went to the pub Oluthuone in

Vuosaari Vuosaari () is a Subdivisions of Helsinki#Neighbourhoods, neighbourhood in the city of Helsinki, Finland. It is located by the sea in East Helsinki and with its area of is geographically the largest district in the city. It also has two Helsi ...

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

carrying a

pistol A pistol is a type of handgun, characterised by a gun barrel, barrel with an integral chamber (firearms), chamber. The word "pistol" derives from the Middle French ''pistolet'' (), meaning a small gun or knife, and first appeared in the Englis ...

and released his wife, who had caused a disturbance at the pub, from the grip of the bouncers. Hammar and his wife left the pub before the police arrived. Hammar was caught in the next evening from his car at a parking lot in Vuosaari. The police held Hammar and his wife until the next day when they were released. The district court of Helsinki sentenced Hammar to 360 day-fines in October 2007. On 25 September 2011 Hammar stabbed his acquaintance at a private apartment in Helsinki because of a disagreement. The stabbed man managed to flee into another apartment, after which Hammar went to a nearby pub. The police caught Hammar at the pub and brought him to be interrogated. During the interrogation, Hammar could not produce a motive for his deed.Ex-elinkautisvanki Reijo Hammarille neljä vuotta tapon yrityksestä
'' Ilta-Sanomat'' 7 December 2011. On 7 December 2011 the Helsinki district court sentenced Hammar to four years in prison for attempted manslaughter and to pay compensation to the victim.Hammar vankilaan
''

MTV3 MTV3 (, ) is a Finnish commercial television channel owned and operated by the media company MTV Oy, originally launched on 13 August 1957 as a programming block, becoming its own channel on 1 January 1993. It had the biggest audience share ...

'' 7 December 2011. Accessed on 7 December 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hammar, Reijo 1953 births Living people Finnish murderers Finnish people convicted of manslaughter Finnish prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment