Why the investigation of the murder of Swedish PM Olof Palme failed

Former police inspector and investigator Stig Johansson writes on the disaster of the investigation of the murder of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme. Inspector Johansson served for 18 years at the SÄPO (Swedish Security Police) and was in charge of some of the investigations made by SÄPO. Mr Johansson, for part of his service in the secret section of the Swedish police was surveying extreme right-wing groups.

The problems with the murder investigation was that it rapidly was taken over by the political community. Experienced police officers were kicked out and amateurs with social democratic credentials were put in charge. Worst so when Hans Holmér, administrative chief of the Stockholm police, personally took responsibility for the investigation. Mr Johansson states categorically that if Mr Holmér had not been in charge of the investigation for 341 critical days the case had been solved already in 1986.

Mr Johansson was responsible for questioning among others Anders Larsson, in media called the “47 year old right-wing extremist”. Mr Larsson, who actually voted for the social democrats, had left a letter to the government office just a week before the murder of Olof Palme with a quote from a local newspaper saying “Olof Palme dead”, referring to the uncle of the Prime Minister, who fell as a Swedish volunteer in the Finnish Independence war of 1917 at the battle of Tampere. Mr Johansson’s conclusion was that Mr Larsson (who now is dead) was mentally disturbed. Part of the questining had to be done when Mr Larsson was on leave from a mental institution.

Mr Johansson also discusses the problems connected with a stenographer in the Swedish parliament (and its most secret committee, the Committe on Foreign Affairs, chaired by the King). The stenographer was accused of links with right-wing extremists and was later given advance retirement by his left-wing opponents in the government. The “evidence” against the stenographer was a letter, claimed to be written on the paper of the Swedish Parliament, but Mr Johansson could easy prove that the letter was a fake, a photocopy made of several different parts put together to one letter.

The new face of fascism

Nine hen were “liberated” from a poultry farm north of Stockholm, this past winter. They died in the cold of the winter. The act, though minor, is typical of a new type of activism where minorities claim the right to impose their views on the majority through the use of violence. Vegetarians is only one of these groups, including militant feminists, gays, leftists and “anti-fascists”, prepared to throw Molotov cocktails at political opponents. All these groups actually represent a modern type of fascism, according to Contra publisher Tommy Hansson.

The many fatal questions for the political future of Sweden

The article is written by the recently elected chairman of the New Democracy party in Sweden, John Bouvin. New Democracy was the anti-tax party that had 25 seats in the 1991-1994 Parliament, but got no seats at all in the 1994 election.

Victor Kravchenko

In the series “Heroes of the Cold War”, one of the major defectors of Communism is presented.

Cyberwar

On the future of warfare ­ electronic systems as a battlefield