Nothing new in new book about the murder of Olof Palme

Published 27 August 2024 at 07.03

Book. There is something strange about the positive reviews that the major newspapers are currently publishing about journalist Jon Jordås' newly published work The Last Book on the Murder of Olof Palme. The book is downright inferior, writes Jonas De Geer.

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Journalist and author Jon Jordås has written The last book on the murder of Olof Palme. Judging by the title, one might think it is satire; a drift with the Palmemorde's peculiar world of more or less tricky private detectives and sleazy policemen.

Although it is not humor the author engages in here, at least that is not the intention. He is serious about presenting, if not conclusive evidence, then at least convincing arguments for who murdered the prime minister at the end of February 1986.

He initially writes that he did not delve into the Palm murder before chief prosecutor Krister Petersson's live press conference in June 2020 when Stig Engström, the “Skandia man”, was named as the likely culprit. Now, unfortunately, there was no evidence and since he had been dead for twenty years, there was nothing more to do, explained Petersson, and thus dropped the preliminary investigation that had been going on for 34 years.

Few, if anyone, were convinced of the prosecutor's reasoning about Engström's guilt. Many thought rather that it was extremely strange, not to say shameful, to put the blame in that way on a long-dead man, who did not even have any survivors to defend him.

An enormous preliminary investigation material was then made available and Jordås has looked into it. In this way, he claims to have discovered that there was another suspect who – according to Jordås – had until now been unknown outside a narrower circle of investigators and private detectives. The more he finds out about this person, the more convinced he becomes – he has found Palme's killer.

Christer Andersson, in the book as well as the investigation called Christer A, was born in 1952. He never acquired any real education, lived alone, does not seem to have had any friends. He was a member of a shooting club, was not badly liked, but even there kept himself on the edge. A loner.

In the early 80s, Christer A won a million on the trot, which enabled him to buy a condominium in Vasastan in Stockholm, a boat, some guns and camera equipment (photo was his other big hobby), but most of it he invested in shares. Over time, however, his share dealings would go from bad to worse. He was forced to sell his apartment, his more expensive things, moved out to a southern suburb and went on welfare. He shot himself in 2008 in connection with a police visit, which had nothing to do with the Palm murder; the police had, ironically enough, been contacted by a relative who feared he was suicidal.

So what has convinced Jordås that Christer A was Palme's killer?

– He sues into a perpetrator profile that was drawn up eight years after the murder.

– He lived near the scene of the murder.

– He was convicted of kicking his neighbour's dog.

p>- He resembles a phantom image of the Grandman that was never released by the police.

– He owned a revolver of the same type suspected to have been used in the murder, and did not turn it in at the request of the police after the murder.

– He had on one occasion fired a shot that hit his own TV.

– The day before the murder, the Palme government had decided to raise the tax on stock transactions.

Jordås writes: “It wasn't that the share tax made Christer bankrupt overnight. He certainly didn't lose everything. But like many others, he must have been pissed.”

The starting point for the perpetrator profile from 1994 is that it was probably not a professional killer, as one would not have used such a large and unwieldy weapon. Therefore, one should find him in the category of chaotic, as opposed to organized, perpetrators. A chaotic offender is typically a loner, without a partner or children, who has difficulty holding down a job or prefers rather solitary work, who may start studying but fails to keep up with it, is often depressed, etc.

That may agree with Christer A, but – seriously – with how many others, in this day and age?

That he lived “within easy walking distance” is a truth with modification. Hälsingegatan is closer to half an hour's walk from Tunnelgatan, a radius that actually covers most of the inner city north of Slussen.

The grandfather then? On the evening of the murder, Olof and Lisbeth had the idea to go to the cinema together with their son Mårten and his girlfriend. It was the Mozart Brothers at the Grand, by Sveavägen. Mårten remembers that when the movie was over and he and his parents went their separate ways, a man with a “staring look” had stood outside the cinema wearing some kind of headdress and a dark half-length jacket. There are many witnesses who have seen a man with a medium length, thick jacket/coat and a cap/knit hat on his head in the neighborhoods around Grand this evening. For example, the Skandian man must also have been dressed like that. It's not exactly unusual clothing in Sweden in winter.

Anyway, during the night after the murder, the police together with Mårten made a phantom image of the man. For some reason it was never released to the media and the public when it happened, but Jordås has seen it and reacted that it resembled Christer Andersson. To be safe, he consulted an AI program that said Andersson has similarities to the phantom image.

First, the similarity isn't actually striking, AI in all its glory. Secondly, it is precisely a phantom image, a reconstruction of someone else's memory image, which may be helpful in reconnaissance work, but is hardly an exact science. Thirdly, there is nothing to say that the man Mårten Palme claims to have seen outside the cinema was the killer. In addition, after the official designation of Stig Engström, Mårten said that it was probably him he saw, just as he once said about Christer Pettersson.

Christer A owned a Smith & Wesson 357 Magnum, the same type of revolver that the police believe was used in the murder. He was called to the police several times about the weapon, but did not listen. When the police finally managed to catch him, he no longer had the revolver in his possession. He claimed that he had sold it to some “semi-scum” person he met at Café Opera. The police didn't believe that and neither did Jordås.

A bizarre incident concerning the weapon that is given quite a lot of space in the book is that a few years before the murder, Christer A had fired a shot that hit his TV set. Jordås attaches quite a lot of importance to the fact that a relative of his (who was not present) speculated that it might have been because Palme was on TV at the time. Now it is true that Christer A was not a known “Palme hater”, but still.

That a ruined person in desperate need of money, depressed and with nothing to lose would sell a weapon black to get a little more for it is therefore dismissed as extremely unlikely. That he, who was not psychotic or had substance abuse problems, would, on the other hand, shoot up his own TV because Palme appeared in the box, you can imagine that.

Christer A himself claimed that it was a dangerous shot when he was cleaning the revolver. It certainly sounds strange that he would have done that with a loaded gun. In the light of the fact that Christer A would actually shoot himself much later, it is not unbelievable that it was an aborted suicide attempt, but it is irrelevant speculation anyway.

That Christer A is the only suspect who actually owned a magnum revolver is Jordå's strongest argument. But that's not entirely true either. In March 1986, a letter was sent to Finance Minister Kjell-Olof Feldt in which a group claiming to fight for road safety took responsibility for the murder, or “execution” of Olof Palme. Attached were two empty casings from ammunition of the same type that the prime minister was shot with.

The police never managed to identify the sender, but in December 2021, SvD was able to reveal that it was a known law breaker with a fixation on road safety, whom they call “the engineer”. He, like Christer A, was the registered owner of a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum and also skilled competition shooter. Since the man's “Palme hat” was documented and he also had a history of writing threatening letters to those in power and authorities, would he be at least as likely a candidate as Christer A? The newspaper contacted prosecutor Krister Petersson, but he was not interested – he had already decided that Stig Engström would do.

The engineer may have escaped the Palme investigation, but SvD's report cannot reasonably have escaped Jordås, who chooses not to pretend about it; nothing must distract from his thesis.

Jordå's claim to have been basically the first to highlight Christer A is also rather childish, not to say dishonest. Christer A has been mentioned several times as a possible perpetrator by various authorities in the Palm Murder, who however did not stick to him as the killer. Let it go, but already in 2012 the Danish book Palmes morder: er mordgåden löst? by Paul Smith, whose cover is adorned with an (unmasked) photo of Christer Andersson. The undersigned has not read it. However, Jon Jordås should have done that, but he doesn't even mention it. Why?

It is actually remarkable that this – in every sense – thin book is published by the prestigious publisher Natur & Culture, is given a lot of space in the media and generally receives very positive reviews, even though it is downright substandard. Is it because Jordås belongs to the “journalist corps”, which, with a few exceptions, grossly mishandled their task regarding the Palm murder, at least as much as the police, for 38 years?

The peculiarly fruitless investigation that never ended can not just blamed on bad luck and incompetence. Behind the murder of Palme and its strange aftermath, there is obviously a deeper rot, a rot that did not allow itself to be buried with Stig Engström.

Jordå's book is essentially just another attempt to bury all that trouble with a new perpetrator, also in this case a long-dead one with no survivors, again completely without evidence, or even circumstantial evidence worthy of the name.

It is a very neat little volume, it must be said, so kudos to the designer. Unfortunately, that is the only positive thing that can be said about this book, which will definitely not be the last about the murder of Olof Palme.

JONAS DE GEER

Jonas De Geer is a freelance writer