June 10, 2020

"Bedeviled for over 34 years by the mysterious killing of Olof Palme, the Swedish prime minister who was shot in the back by an unknown assailant on a quiet Stockholm street..."

"... Sweden’s judiciary finally made its case on Wednesday. At a news conference in Stockholm, the prosecutor Krister Petersson said that there was 'reasonable evidence'that the assailant was Stig Engstrom, a graphic designer at an insurance company, who killed himself in 2000, at the age of 66....It was hardly a surprise, however, as the Swedish case was widely considered solved in 2018 by a freelance journalist, Thomas Pettersson, whose reporting led to Mr. Engstrom.... There has been widespread criticism about the way the Swedish judiciary and the police have handled the case over the past decades. The mystery endured through six investigations and three commissions over the years, but Mr. Engstrom eluded suspicion though he had presented himself to the police as a witness to the killing.... At the time of the killing, investigators were focused on the suspected complicity of Kurdish militants, and Mr. Engstrom was not taken seriously, according to Mr. Pettersson.... 'He has the right timing, the right clothing; he has unique information, he lied, he had close access to guns of the right type,' Mr. Pettersson said. 'He was right-wing and Palme unfriendly,” he added. “He had a deep political interest and a deep anti-Palme sentiment.'"

The NYT reports.

16 comments:

JackWayne said...

Right wing? Sounds like a dog whistle to me.

Darrell said...

Right wing. Right.
More like "not Left."
And btw, the theory that Engström was the assassin of Olof Palme was first brought up in the Lars Larsson book Nationens Fiende (Enemy of the State) in 2016. Pettersson just repeated it two years later.

Bob Boyd said...

"Palme unfriendly"

It went beyond just being standoffish.

Quaestor said...

I just finished reading The Man Who Played With Fire last weekend. The incompetence of Sweden's Social Democratic government -- about as left-wing as a national administration can be and remain slightly to the right of Mao and Stalin -- was sadly not as shocking as Jan Stocklassa tried to portray in prose, but to be expected as ludicrously routine. We see it every day on nauseating display in Minneapolis and other shithole Democrat-dominated cities.

Rick said...

So they couldn't match the gun but he was a right winger so he's probably guilty. Sounds like the policing model we'll be evolving into.

Big Mike said...

Right wing? Well that settles it, then.

rhhardin said...

It's probably the screenplay of some Swedish noir film. Malmö detective investigates cold case.

Sally327 said...

In the article, Engstrom's ex-wife rejected the notion that he did it, claiming he was too much of a coward. And I thought, well ok but Palme was shot in the back, which would be the coward's way of doing it. So she didn't offer much of a defense there.

I wonder why the Kurds were suspected. The article doesn't really say. I don't wonder enough to research it though so that's okay. I read a novel about the Palme assassination, "Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End" by Leif G.W. Persson, or at least the assassination was a part of that, there was a lot of other stuff going on as well. I have the impression from that book (and elsewhere) that Sweden is far more complicated than one might think. ABBA is the sunny, happy face of a much darker place. And not just in wintertime.

Wince said...

'He was right-wing and Palme unfriendly,”

Surprise, the NYT jumps at the chance to Palme this one off on the "right-wing".

Fernandinande said...

The police killed him. Case closed.

ga6 said...

There were, and still are, many facts the establishment did/does not wanted known. Not the least of which is Palme's back channel activities with the Soviet Union.

Stephen Taylor said...

Conveniently dead, of course.

Yancey Ward said...

Looking at the evidence, I would say there is about a 1 in 5 chance Engstrom did it. If he could only be described as left-wing, then I don't think you see today's story being printed.

Michael K said...

I read a pretty good book about the assassination some years ago.

"Blood on the Snow." I've forgotten if he named a suspect.

MD Greene said...

Can't read the New York Times anymore.

effinayright said...

And I'll bet he was wearing a Hawaiian shirt.

Dead giveaway---right, Inga?