Nordlund had gotten used to thieving during his time on the road and in 1891 he was arrested and sentenced to four months in prison for cattle rustling by a court in Ljusdal.

Due to unruly behaviour in prison and other things he was to serve four years and according to letters written by himself in 1900, it was here his plan for the future took its final and drastic shape.

The 20 April 1900, Nordlund was released from Långholmen and with the help of his younger brother, who was now living in Stockholm and working as a clerk, he went home to Gävle.

As an ex-convict he had difficulties getting a job, so soon he returned to his old life, but this time with a disastrous plan of one final big hit that would solve his problems.

On the night of 16 and 17 May 1900 Nordlund committed the act that would make him the bogeyman of several years to come, and reserve a place for him in the criminal history of Sweden.

Still he managed to commit one of the worst murder sprees in known Swedish history by killing four and wounding nine (of whom 8 survived) and a partly trashed ship.

The victims of Nordlund's rampage included the ship's captain (Olof Rönngren), a butcher, an old lady, a farmer and a cattle merchant.

The next day he was arrested by three police officers at the train station in Skogstorp near Eskilstuna, where he had bought some new clothes earlier and avoided detection.

In court he never tried to act in a manner which would result in a lighter sentence; he never pleaded insanity, he showed no remorse saying only that he regretted not having killed everyone on the ferry.

Strangely enough, he took the time to write a letter to the Supreme Court complaining about the fact that he had been wrongfully sentenced for robbery of people that he did not rob.

On the morning of 10 December Nordlund was escorted to the prison yard of Västerås County Jail where he was strapped to a stretcher-resembling block and beheaded by the high executioner Dahlman using a manual blade, rather much resembling a meat cleaver.