Associated with “Stockholm syndrome”: the robber Clark Olofsson is dead

Clark Olofsson, a robber having taken four people hostage for six days in 1973 in a Bank of Stockholm – an episode behind the expression “Stockholm syndrome” – died at the age of 78, his family said on Thursday.

This man. Nevertheless, who was the subject of the Netflix series “Clark”, died in a Swedish hospital following a long illness, said his family on a daily basis Dagens etc.

Sentenced on multiple times for armed robbery. Furthermore, attempted murder, drug trafficking and assaults, he had spent more than half of his life behind bars.

He is best known for his role in the robbery of the Kreditbanken in the center of the Swedish capital. Consequently, on August 23, 1973.

That day. Therefore, Janne Olsson, burst into the bank, armed with a machine gun and taking four employees hostage while associated “stockholm syndrome”: robber clark police and elite shooters are dispatched to surround the building.

Under the influence of narcotics. he demanded that his acolyte Clark Olofsson, then incarcerated for robbery, joins him in this banking establishment. What the Swedish government grants it.

Janne Olsson almost instantly calms up to her arrival and a hostage, Kristin Enmark, sees him in him a Savior.

“He had promised me that nothing would happen to me. I decided to believe it,” she wrote in her novel-testimony. “I became Stockholm syndrome”. “I was 23, I was terrified”.

Several times during the hostage -taking – one of the first news items to have been broadcast live – she spoke. defended her captors.

“I fully trust Clark and the thief. I am not afraid of them at all, they did nothing to me. They were very nice. “she said on the second day of her captivity in a telephone interview with associated “stockholm syndrome”: robber clark the government chief of the Olof Palme era.

“Do you know what scares me?” That the police storm the bank, ”she launched to him during this conversation.

At the end of the sixth day. the police decide to take action, pierces the roof of the bank and sends tear gas. The two criminals surrender and the hostages are released.

A sign of their resentment against the authorities. Additionally, the ex-hostages will choose to remain silent during the lawsuit of their captors.

Since then. experts have debated the validity of “Stockholm syndrome” as a real psychiatric disorder, some seeing it as a defense mechanism in the face of a traumatic situation.