The thirtieth anniversary of something I don’t remember
Sunday is the thirtieth anniversary of the assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme. He was walking home from the movies with his wife when he was approached by a gunman and shot dead.
Sometimes I like to play a game with True Crime books: I shuffle to the picture section and, without reading the captions, try to figure out from their faces who’s the victim, who’s the perp and who’s the policeman. In this case, though, it’s easy — dude on the right is a druggy who was picked up for the murder three years later after Mrs Palme picked him out of a lineup. That’s about all the evidence against him, though, so the case is classed as unsolved. A hundred and thirty people have confessed to the murder and been dismissed.
It’s officially the biggest murder investigation in history — bigger than JFK’s, bigger than Lockerbie. And it’s still active. Sweden even scrapped their 25-year statute of limitations on murder to keep it going (which is fine. There shouldn’t really be a statute of limitations on murder).
He was a hard left anti-Imperialist, pro-Revolutionary, the first Western head of state to visit Cuba and speak in favor of Cambodia’s revolutionaries. So you can imagine the prevailing theories.
The Turks say the Kurds did it, the Kurds say the Turks did it. There was a Yugoslavian, and a LaRouchie. Indian gunrunners. Chilean fascists. The Masons. The CIA. I’m not even kidding. If you like this sort of thing, this is just the sort of thing you’d like.
Not me. I hate the unsolved ones. Good weekend, all!
Posted: February 26th, 2016 under history, international, personal.
Comments: 9
Comments
Comment from Ric Fan
Time: February 26, 2016, 9:48 pm
Who in their right mind would support the Khmer Rouge??
What am I saying? A lot of people since he was voted into office. smh
Comment from Rich Rostrom
Time: February 26, 2016, 11:33 pm
Ric Fan: Who?? Various demented far-lefties and mush-headed lefties. (There are some lefties who without being far left are suckers for the left shtick and won’t believe anything against a leftist government or personality.)
Comment from gebrauchshund
Time: February 27, 2016, 1:50 am
Aliens…has anybody suggested aliens did it?
Comment from Anonymous
Time: February 27, 2016, 2:10 am
They both look like their faces are melting though, neh?
Comment from Uncle Al
Time: February 27, 2016, 8:01 pm
As we’re told the Texans say, some folks simply need killin’. If Palme’s support of the beastly Cambodian killers doesn’t firmly put him in that category, it comes might damned close.
Comment from Deborah HH
Time: February 27, 2016, 8:43 pm
Off topic but was previously a topic: Blue pigment
Comment from Ric Fan
Time: February 28, 2016, 7:54 pm
Ahhhh, Father Jack died. FECK!
Comment from AliceH
Time: March 1, 2016, 2:35 am
I remember seeing a Forensic Files type program re: Victor Gunnarsson, who was another Olof assassin suspect. He was murdered in North Carolina in 1993 by a former cop. Unfortunately, Wikipedia isn’t showing pics of either murderer-who-was-a-policeman or victim-who-maybe-was-a-murderer, so guess we can’t play the game on this one.
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