Forsete
Gold Member
Tonight is the 30-year anniversary since the Swedish prime minister Olof Palme was assassinated at the crossing of Sveavägen and Tunnelgatan at 23:21 on the 28th of February 1986.
This is what happened:
Olof Palme and his wife Lisbeth Palme decided to go the cinema where they would meet their son Mårten and his girlfriend, Olof dismissed his bodyguards which were provided by the Security Police.
The group met at the cinema Grand on Sveavägen in Stockholm. After the showing had ended they parted ways, Olof and Lisbeth started walking home, making their way to the subway entrance at the crossing Sveavägen-Tunnelgatan.
At approximately 23:21 just a few meters from the subway entrance, a man standing by the window of the art shop Dekorima stepped out behind the couple grabbing Olofs shoulder with his left hand and fired two shots from a .357 Magnum revolver using metal piercing ammunition. The first shot hit the prime minister in the back severing his spine and ripping his aorta, he was dead before he hit the sidewalk. The second shot was aimed at his wife Lisbeth but because she was pulled down by her falling husband the bullet only graced her back.
Windows of Dekorima, here is where the gunman stood. Some people have thrown roses into the blood
The gunman stood for a few seconds looking at the couple who were now on the ground, then he started jogging up the street Tunnelgatan.
There were a few witnesses, but because the murder occurred at night and with poor lightning the description of the gunman were vague. He was around 180 cm in length, had a dark blue or grey/black coat reaching the knees, and possibly a hat or cap.
The first police car arrived within a few minutes, and an ambulance was flagged down shortly thereafter. The police started searching in the direction of which the gunman had escaped, but they didnt find anything, the gunman had escaped.
These were the stairs which the gunman escaped
Olof Palme, prime minister of Sweden was pronounced dead at 00:06 at Sabbatsberg hospital.
Murder suspect
In 1988 after having followed various leads a drunkard and drug user by the name of Christer Pettersson became the main suspect, the motive of the murder was supposed to be that Christer had mistaken Olof for a drug dealer. He was convicted in the district court but was later freed by the royal court. He is still considered as the main suspect by many, including many who have worked in the investigation. Christer Pettersson died in 2004.
Christer Pettersson
Many things speak against Christer being the gunman. It is not certain he was at the location at the time of the murder, only witnesses place him around the cinema Grand. He was however known to hang around in this area.
The gunman kept his cool, Christer who at the time was using amphetamine was the opposite.
One witness, hiding between building barracks in Tunnelgatan when the shots were fired and who saw the gunman run past him said it was definitely not Christer, as he was familiar with him.
The gunman used metal piercing ammunition perhaps suspecting that the prime minister was wearing a bulletproof vest.
If the second shot had hit Lisbeth, it would have been placed in the same location in which it hit Olof.
Christer was convicted of manslaughter when he killed a man by using a bayonet, he was never known to use a pistol. One witness who saw the whole event from across the street said his impression of the gunman was that he knew how to handle a weapon and that his stance reminded him of a military.
Christer claims he was asleep on the subway train riding home.
It was known in various places that the prime minister was going to visit the cinema and that he was not going to have bodyguards.
Some people believe that either the police or the military were involved. Many witnesses reported seeing men with walkie-talkies around the area of the murder, this was never fully investigated by the police, but recently the police have started showing interest in these reports.
Two of the few pieces of evidence from the murder, two badly damaged bullets.
Hans Holmér lead investigator holding up two revolvers of caliber .357, the police were very interested in gathering these for testing, over 1000 revolvers have been analyzed by the police.
Olof Palme was considered to be a traitor in some circles, selling out to the Soviet Union, for example he wanted to make the Nordic region (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland) a nuclear free zone, diminishing NATOs power in the Nordic countries.
An official state visit to the Soviet Union was planned in April of 1986 to meet its new leader, Michail Gorbatjov.
Palme made lots of powerful enemies since he didnt think twice about criticizing other countries, he was a leading opponent of the Vietnam war (his famous speech comparing the bombing of Hanoi with the holocaust and other acts of terror), Soviet aggressions in Europe, South Africas apartheid regime and Pinochet.
Since no one has been convicted of this murder the investigation is ongoing now, one of the largest in the world, this is very much an open wound here in Sweden.
Placard reads: On this spot the Swedish prime minister Olof Palme was murdered, on 28th of February 1986
