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The bank robbery that gave the world "Stockholm syndrome", but there is more to the story than that

2022-10-24 18:22:21Histori SHKRUAR NGA DAVID KING
The bank robbery that gave the world "Stockholm syndrome", but there
The bank robbery that gave the world "Stockholm syndrome"

"Come to Sweden," said the voice on the phone between a swig of rum and a puff of cigarette. "I will answer any question you want."

On the line was Clark Olofsson, one of Sweden's most notorious criminals of the 20th century. He had been in the tabloid headlines for some time for robbing banks, escaping from prison and mocking the authorities in his interviews, given after years spent in a cell reading history and philosophy. Handsome and charismatic, Olofsson had been an icon of counterculture in 1970s Sweden. He was, as one journalist described him, "an extreme Scandinavian mix of Jesse James and Warren Beatty."

I was interested in talking to Clark Olofsson because he had played a prominent role in a crime I was investigating. On August 23, 1973, a tall, muscular man walked into a bank in downtown Stockholm. He wore make-up, a women's wig and a pair of sunglasses. After entering, he took out a gun and shot at the ceiling, shouting: "Now the party begins!". A few minutes later, many people were his hostages, and the demand was clear: he wanted 3 million Swedish kroner (about $4,000,000 in today's dollars) and that Clark Olofsson, who was in prison at the time, t He was taken to where he was.

The police filled the square outside the bank, followed by reporters, photographers, film crews and within minutes a large crowd of spectators. The ongoing criminal event would be televised live.

Then, to the surprise of many, Olofsson was brought to the bank and handed over to the gunman, Jan-Erik or Janne Olsson. This was the first of many controversial decisions taken by the police as tensions rose and the situation became more volatile. How could they leave this dangerous criminal in a bank where employees were being held hostage at gunpoint? The whole country was amazed. Reports of the time in the Swedish media indicate that the event, at its peak, received the attention of no less than 73% of the television audience.

I was first fascinated by this story when I lived in Sweden in the 1990s and had passed by the site of the kidnapping on my way to the library, where I was studying what later became my first book. At the time, the story reminded me of the classic Sidney Lumet movie Dog Day Afternoon starring Al Pacino. But there were many differences, not only in the fact that the Swedish hostage case ended with the intervention of Prime Minister Olof Palme, but also opened a new window into the understanding of the complicated emotional relationship between the hostage taker and the hostage: the Stockholm syndrome.

Stockholm syndrome has traditionally been defined as the tendency of a hostage to sympathize with, identify with, or form strong bonds with his/her hostage taker. A psychiatrist assisting the Stockholm police, Nils Bejerot, studied the interactions of Olsson, Olofsson and the four hostages, and then presented his findings to the press. The theory he posited was later elaborated by psychiatrists, psychologists and negotiators in hostage situations in Sweden and the United States, particularly in the New York Police Department and the FBI. This concept of the "terror nexus" would be repeatedly invoked over the years to explain the behavior of victims in high-profile kidnappings and hostage cases from Patricia Hearst to Elizabeth Smart, and would find a place in movies and culture. popular.

But to my surprise, there were no English-language books on the original hostage crisis that inspired Stockholm syndrome. So, I decided to look deeper. In the end, I would spend more than three years with such research. I have read all the Stockholm police files and court documents related to the case, as well as the sensational media coverage in dozens of newspapers and magazines from Sweden and around the world. I watched Swedish TV news broadcasts, including raw footage, when camera crews left their cameras pointing at the bank or the car driving away, for fear of missing any developments in a crisis that could, at any moment, come to an end. suddenly and violently.

The Stockholm police, as it turned out, had also used the bank's cameras, from the points where they were placed. Furthermore, they had managed to place microphones near the safe, where Olsson, Olofsson and the hostages were positioned. The hour-by-hour record of these conversations provided an invaluable insight into the forces driving the event and revealed that there was much more to Stockholm Syndrome than had been said – and indeed, the popular conception of what the syndrome meant. of Stockholm was not part of the original story.

For me, archival work is always an important point of the research process. But this time, I also had the opportunity to ask my questions directly to the main characters. Not only Clark Olofsson, but also striker Janne Olsson, who had returned to Sweden after many years in Thailand. Many others agreed to speak about their experiences, including police, journalists and, above all, hostages who had previously been "diagnosed" with Stockholm syndrome.

At first, my intention was simply to tell a story of what happened in 1973 – a story that, in my opinion, needs to be told. As I dug deeper, however, I realized that this was more than the true story of a drama and moment of suspense that threatened to upset the balance of life. The hostage crisis would lead to police reform, inspire a vigorous debate about the role of the media in society, and, most of all, "bring to life" the Stockholm syndrome. The concept spread from a bank in Sweden and entered the realms of psychology, crisis negotiation and popular culture – but only by coming to terms with its origins can we better understand the real impact of such trauma on the human mind.

*David King is the author of the book "Six Days of August: The Story of Stockholm Syndrome".

The article was published in TIME magazine


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