Talk:Tahvo Putkonen

Translation of source
What follows here is a translation of part of one of the sources, kindly translated by Hydrox at my request --Nuujinn (talk) 00:30, 16 December 2010 (UTC):

The Otonkoski article tells first Putkonen's story. This is basically what it says now in the wiki-article, so I won't duplicate it. In the end, there's some analysis of the sources, that I didn't write in the wiki-article:

Kansallisarkiston diarion ilmoittamasta paikasta ei löydy Staffan Putkosen aktia. ...

Staffan Putkonen's documents were not found, where National Archives' index claimed them to be at. (ed. During this period Swedish version of person's name was used in official contexts. Staffan is Swedish version of Finnish Tahvo) Vaasa's provincial archive has transcript copies of the District Court proceedings and pardon appeals from 1823 and 1824, but Appeals Court papers are missing. The index has also reference to an appeal for pardon from 1825, but the document could not be found. Execution certificate is missing as well, but it was attached to only two of the documents in question, so it was probably never archived. (ed. full documents were later found, see below)

Pieksämäki parish register has a remark that the verdict was put into action (ed. meaning Putkonen was executed) on 8 July, 1825. The Swedish-language parish register document says: "8/7 8/7 Suonenjoki Og. drg Staff. Staffs. Putkone death-sentenced to be executed"

This would therefore be the last death-sentence to be enacted for which documents could be found, for the time being.

Analysis

The insufficient documents don't contain "clergy document", which would show Putkonen'a background information. The available court proceedings documents or the death certificate don't show Putkonen's date of birth/age. No document about the victim's (Hirvonen) death was found either. (ed. Each of these documents were later found, as explained in this later article Lisäyksiä artikkeliini "Henkirikoksista kuolemaan tuomittujen kohtaloita vuosina 1824–1825 Suomessa" (Genos 1997:2), Additions to my article "Selected destinies of those executed for crimes in Finland 1824–1825" (Genos 1997:2). The documents were found by Seppo J. Kääriäinen from the National Archives with reference SOO pag. 124/1825)

The situation was strongly linked with alcohol and an aggressive outburst of violence for an unknown reason. A piece of firewood seems to have been quite an ordinary weapon at its time for murder. The sentenced's behavior after the event could show that he doesn't have full recollection of the events, and tried to move the blame on others.

During the police interrogations Mr. Putkonen made some quite extraordinary claims about his landlord Juho Lukkari. (ed. Lukkari, in whose house the murder/manslaughter took place. Also note that the time's law did not make distinction between a murder and manslaughter. In modern times the crime would have probably been a manslaughter.) Putkonen claimed that Lukkari had cut his late father's heart out of the dead man's chest. This begs the question, if Mr. Putkonen was quite mentally stable. The claims were clearly debunked during the police investigation.

Court proceedings show that Mr. Putkonen never pled guilty, but the court saw the witness testimony as sufficient proof. In a string of many similar cases, this was probably the last one, where no mitigation was granted. Could this have been affected by the accused's stubborn and unsympathetic behavior? Maybe Tahvo was not one of the locals, an "outsider", come from another village for work?

[...]

Last execution

Marttila's Tiipilännummi has a monument for the "last executed" Antti Hannula, executed on 22 October, 1824. Yrjö Blomstedt claimed that 3 May, 1825 executed Juho Hautimäki would have been the last. (ed. in "Viimeinen mestaus", book Suomen historia volume 5, 1986) But 1825 documents show one even later executed Tahvo Putkonen on 8 July, 1825, whose interrogation reports are not full, but on whom there's a clear marking in Pieksämäki parish documents about the execution.

Article name
There was a move to rename the article Execution of Tahvo Putkonen, citing WP:BIO1E as reason. However, I have reverted this because I don't agree with the reasoning. Putkonen as a person is notable because of his crime, the trial and his death. The execution was just the pinnacle that culminated and made all the previous events notable, but as this article is mostly a short biography of this person, it should be under his given name. Compare to eg. Eddie Slovik, an American WWII private who is only notable for his execution. --hydrox (talk) 05:35, 27 December 2010 (UTC)
 * This is one of those grey areas where it isn't exactly clear where one event stops and another begins, or how the coverage breaks down between covering the event or the person. I would say that the execution was part of the same event as the crime and the trial, making the notable portion of Puktonen's life a single event rather than multiple ones. The sources used seem to focus more on the execution as the point of interest and cover Putkonen in that context. We should probably start a formal move request to get some more input. Alzarian16 (talk) 20:53, 28 December 2010 (UTC)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

No consensus to move. Vegaswikian (talk) 23:44, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Tahvo Putkonen → Execution of Tahvo Putkonen — The majority of the coverage relating to this case seems to focus on the event (Putkonen's execution) rather than the person himself. WP:BIO1E suggests that in cases like this, an article on the event is preferable to an article on the person. --Alzarian16 (talk) 22:32, 4 January 2011 (UTC)
 * No, I don't think so, the actual execution is only a small part of the story. Maybe the article should be merged into Capital punishment in Finland, since that's the only context that makes this person noteworthy.--Kotniski (talk) 13:11, 13 January 2011 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.