Sweden's JFK style murder mystery: Olof Palme (Feature)

By Lennart Simonsson Feb 26, 2011, 4:06 GMT

Stockholm - The investigation, interest and conspiracies that the murder of Sweden's prime minister Olof Palme on February 28, 1986 spawned are sometimes compared to events surrounding the John F Kennedy assassination.

Palme was gunned down on a Stockholm street as he left a Grand Cinema. One bullet pierced his spine and vital organs, the other grazed his wife Lisbet who was with him at the time. Hours later, the leader of the neutral country who had no obvious enemies was dead, and Swedes were in shock.

Three years later a petty criminal, Christer Pettersson, was sentenced to life in prison for the murder. But the man who had been picked out in a police lineup by Palme's widow was later acquitted on appeal.

In 1998, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal to reopen the case against Pettersson on the basis that a conviction would require a confession - and a motive and murder weapon.

The search resumed for the killer who police say literally walked away from the scene that night, and what has become one of Sweden's largest murder investigations is again in full swing.

Like the Kennedy case, numerous theories on who was responsible have been put forward - ranging from plots by secret services in several countries, Kurdish separatists and extremists in Sweden.

Detective Superintendent Stig Edqvist has led the investigation since 1997. He is assisted by two police officers and a secretary. The team focuses on leads that involve a named person or mention a weapon.

According to Edqvist, 'almost 130 people have confessed' during the two-decade long investigation. All have proved false.

Both Edqvist and prosecutor Kerstin Skarp, also involved in the Palme case since 1997, have welcomed parliament's decision last year to abolish the 25-year statute of limitations for crimes such as murder.

'It would have been terrible if a decisive puzzle piece had come in and could not be used,' Skarp says.

Since Pettersson's acquittal, police have had to look at other lines of investigation that were dropped when all focus was on convicting him.

At the time of his death, Palme was prominent internationally, a vocal critic of the military junta in Chile and the apartheid system in white minority-ruled South Africa at the time. He had also served as mediator between Iran and Iraq.

At home he was regarded as a controversial politician by some and was on 'at least 20 death lists,' says Edqvist.

Investigators have found it difficult to explore leads pointing to the Central Intelligence Agency in the US and the KGB of the former Soviet Union, he says. 'You are never sure you get a complete answer.'

Every time the case is mentioned in the media, it generates tip-offs that police have to act upon. Often they can rule them out by simply looking in the records, but sometimes they require more attention.

Edqvist says he expects a flood of information from the public on and around the anniversary of the murder.

In a vault in the basement of the national police headquarters that constitutes the so-called Palme archives, information is contained in at least 3,600 binders. These include interview transcripts and forensic reports.

The long-running probe has cost at least 500 million kronor (77 million dollars). At least 425 handguns have been fired as part of attempts to secure the murder weapon, believed to have been a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolver.

The investigation got off to a poor start with many basic rules violated - bystanders retrieved the two bullets at the scene.

But Edqvist and Skarp are reluctant to say outright that the murder will never be solved.

'I wish I could say that it will be solved, but I will never say that it won't,' says Skarp.

Journalist Gunnar Wall, who was written several books on the case, says he hopes the anniversary will result in a new opening in the case, as well as fresh enthusiasm from police - to look at other leads.

His latest book, The Olof Palme Murder Riddle, charts the many police blunders in the initial investigation and argues for the need to study other groups that would have wanted Palme killed.

Palme's family on the other hand are convinced that the case is solved, his son Marten told Swedish television.

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