"Cold Case Sweden - Hunt For Killer Of PM Palme Goes On"
http://www.euronews.com/newswires/1484236-cold-case-sweden-hunt-for-killer-of-pm-palme-goes-on/
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Wanted: a cop to solve Sweden’s most notorious crime and bring the killer of Prime Minister Olof Palme to justice after 26 years.
In February 1986, Palme was gunned down on a street in central Stockholm after an evening at the cinema with his wife and son. The killer has never been found.
The police were widely accused of bungling the investigation and, like the assassination of U.S. President John F Kennedy, the killing has spawned a legion of conspiracy theories.
“There’s the Prime Minister, he is going home one night. There is a man standing on the corner, he shoots, and then he disappears and he’s gone forever. It is fascinating,” said Gunnar Wall, a journalist who has written two books about the killing.
“Like the Kennedy murder … there is something that is so astonishing that you can’t stop wondering about it.”
Detective Lennart Gustafsson, one of two police still working on the case – and the only one who has been involved since 1986 – also believes the investigation was flawed.
But he says some of the faults were a result the shock over Palme’s death felt by those tasked with finding his killer.
“I think it was a result of a kind of trauma, even within the Swedish police,” he said.
Gustafsson also says the investigation was complicated by the intense feelings Palme gave rise to in Sweden, where he was hated and loved in equal measure.
“You could suspect half the Swedish population,” he said, adding that 160 people have confessed to the crime over the years.
“You must not forget that there were people who drove around in cars with stickers saying ‘use a condom or you might give birth to a new Palme’.”
Never-the-less, hope remains that Sweden can put a three decade-old mystery to rest.
Detective Gustafsson, who retires in a couple of years, pointed to advances in DNA techniques which could allow police one day to determine the identity of the killer even long after all the witnesses are dead.
Wall does not expect much from the official investigation, but hopes someone who knows what happened may yet step forward, wanting to set the record straight before they die.
“It wouldn’t completely surprise me if we did get an answer one fine day, but I don’t think that it will be so much because the investigators have done much about it,” he said.
He believes it is important that Sweden digs further into its greatest unsolved crime for the good of its own soul.
“I think that in the long run, the only way to strengthen trust in Sweden’s authorities would be if … the authorities were really willing to turn over the stones,” he said.
“What was dangerous to investigate in 1986 maybe isn’t dangerous anymore.”
(Reporting by Simon Johnson, editing by Paul Casciato)
http://www.euronews.com/newswires/1484236-cold-case-sweden-hunt-for-killer-of-pm-palme-goes-on/
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Wanted: a cop to solve Sweden’s most notorious crime and bring the killer of Prime Minister Olof Palme to justice after 26 years.
In February 1986, Palme was gunned down on a street in central Stockholm after an evening at the cinema with his wife and son. The killer has never been found.
The police were widely accused of bungling the investigation and, like the assassination of U.S. President John F Kennedy, the killing has spawned a legion of conspiracy theories.
“There’s the Prime Minister, he is going home one night. There is a man standing on the corner, he shoots, and then he disappears and he’s gone forever. It is fascinating,” said Gunnar Wall, a journalist who has written two books about the killing.
“Like the Kennedy murder … there is something that is so astonishing that you can’t stop wondering about it.”
Detective Lennart Gustafsson, one of two police still working on the case – and the only one who has been involved since 1986 – also believes the investigation was flawed.
But he says some of the faults were a result the shock over Palme’s death felt by those tasked with finding his killer.
“I think it was a result of a kind of trauma, even within the Swedish police,” he said.
Gustafsson also says the investigation was complicated by the intense feelings Palme gave rise to in Sweden, where he was hated and loved in equal measure.
“You could suspect half the Swedish population,” he said, adding that 160 people have confessed to the crime over the years.
“You must not forget that there were people who drove around in cars with stickers saying ‘use a condom or you might give birth to a new Palme’.”
Never-the-less, hope remains that Sweden can put a three decade-old mystery to rest.
Detective Gustafsson, who retires in a couple of years, pointed to advances in DNA techniques which could allow police one day to determine the identity of the killer even long after all the witnesses are dead.
Wall does not expect much from the official investigation, but hopes someone who knows what happened may yet step forward, wanting to set the record straight before they die.
“It wouldn’t completely surprise me if we did get an answer one fine day, but I don’t think that it will be so much because the investigators have done much about it,” he said.
He believes it is important that Sweden digs further into its greatest unsolved crime for the good of its own soul.
“I think that in the long run, the only way to strengthen trust in Sweden’s authorities would be if … the authorities were really willing to turn over the stones,” he said.
“What was dangerous to investigate in 1986 maybe isn’t dangerous anymore.”
(Reporting by Simon Johnson, editing by Paul Casciato)
