I watched a documentary on an early serial killer Juhani Aataminpoika -- I have read a book on him before and I knew that the documentary would distress me, not only because of his deeds, but also because of the way he died.

He killed 12 people and a psychologist said that his story does not fit the categories of the known serial killers, but belongs to its own category.

The saddest part of it is of course that he killed his 11-year old stepsister.

He experienced the fake execution -- typical in the Czarist Russia, similar to what Dostoevsky experienced -- and was then chained and bricked up alive in a cell that had a just a small hole on its ceiling; he was given a little food that way. His hands were chained so he could not scratch himself though he had an itchy skin and he was full of lice, he could not stand up or lie down but he had to doze in a half-sitting position, and he was cold day and night. He endured this torture for one and a half years and then died, though he was a young and strong man.

Though he was a serial killer this punishment makes me shudder.

A concentration camp prisoner was asked: which one was worse, hunger or cold? and he answered without hesitation: "Cold. You can forget the hunger for a brief moment, but you cannot forget cold even for a second."

This killer is not very famous in his country and there are no legends about him, probably because he was a completely unremorseful killer, and such legends require that the killer has at least some remorseful moments and a little empathy. He had none. The documentary said he probably had an inherent syphilis.