Criminal - Hostage

Episode Date: April 26, 2019

In the summer of 1973, Clark Olofsson and Jan-Erik Olsson robbed the Kreditbanken in Stockholm’s Norrmalmstorg town square. They held four people hostage for six days. Swedish psychiatrist and criminologist Nils Bejerot coined the term “Stockholm Syndrome” to describe the response of the hostages. Bank robber Clark Olofsson told us, “It was fun.” Special thanks to Terence Mickey of the podcast Memory Motel, for allowing us to share audio from his interview with Kristin Enmark. Listen to the full Memory Motel episode here, and check out his new podcast, Self? Help!  Say hello on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts. Sign up for Criminal Plus to get behind-the-scenes bonus episodes of Criminal, ad-free listening of all of our shows, special merch deals, and more.  We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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When was the first time that you heard the term Stockholm Syndrome? It was this psychiatrist who is dead now, but he was a strange guy. The term Stockholm Syndrome was coined by psychiatrist Niels Bayerow. It became well-known in 1974 when newspaper heiress Patty Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, and instead of wanting to be rescued, she teamed up with the people who kidnapped her and began to help them rob banks.

But that's not where we get the term Stockholm Syndrome. One summer in 1973, two men robbed a bank in Stockholm. They held four people hostage for six days. The bank robbers had met one another in prison. Their names were Jan-Erik Olsson and Clark Olofsson. Here's Clark. The main thing was, take it easy, nobody is going to get killed. Because I was the good guy.

And the police was the bad guy. This is the beginning of the Stockholm Syndrome. By the time the two men met in prison, Clark had robbed a lot of banks. He'd been to prison many times. Clark became known all over Sweden when a robbery went wrong and his friend shot and killed a policeman. He'd become a kind of celebrity bank robber. Clark was 26 and Jan was 32.

So you met him in prison. What did you think of him when you met him? I thought he was an idiot. He was a youthful idiot. And he was a chicken thief, they met him. I thought he was an idiot. He was a youthful idiot. And he was a chicken thief, they call him. Small guy. Clark remembers that Jan wanted to hear all about

how to rob a bank, step by step. He was so interested in how to make it, how to make bank robberies, how to do this and that. So I tended to have like a fairy tale every evening before he went to sleep. He wanted to hear over and over again, it was taking hostages in the bank and blah, blah, blah, blah. I had never thought that it should happen. But when it happened,

I knew immediately it was him. On August 23, 1973, Clark was still in prison. He'd been moved to solitary confinement. Jan had escaped. Jan put on a wig and fake glasses, walked into a bank in Stockholm by himself, and pulled out a machine gun and shot at the ceiling. In a fake American accent, he said, the party has just begun,

and proceeded to take three bank employees, all women, hostage. This is the bank in Stockholm where the robber has barricaded himself. He is equipped with a machine gun, and he has several people as ransom in there. He has already shot one policeman in the hand while the policeman tried to overtake him, and the other ones had to escape and run for cover. And since then, nobody has really been able to see him.

They have policemen in the localities, and they are trying to get a hold to shoot at him. A bank employee later said, I believed I was seeing something that could only happen in America. Jan made three demands. He wanted $700,000 and a, quote, fast car. He also wanted Clark Olofsson to be released from prison and driven to the bank where Jan was holding the hostages.

So when did you hear about it? and driven to the bank where Jan was holding the hostages. So when did you hear about it? When the Minister of Justice called me in the prison. What did he say? He said, there is one man in Stockholm, in a bank in Stockholm, who demands you to be transported to him. What do you say? I said, yes, of course. I come immediately.

You knew exactly who was in that bank calling for you? Yeah, yeah. Did you want to go? Yeah, of course. I was in isolation. I was in deep shit. So everything, anything else was a paralyser. So his plan was, get me to the bank,

then he can relax, I will fix it. Of all the people we've talked to on this show, I think Clark Olofsson might have surprised us the most. We were surprised he agreed to the interview. We were surprised by the things he said. He's confident in a way that's hard to make sense of. But given what he did, maybe we shouldn't have been surprised. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. How did you get from the prison to the bank?

Police escorted me all the way. But the police were instructed not to take Clark inside the bank, just to bring him so that Jan could see he was there. The Minister of Justice absolutely forbid them to bring me inside the bank, only to the bank. And used me as a bargaining chip. But, you know, the communication among the policemen inside the bank was so bad. So when I came down the stairs, one policeman thought I should never be able to go in.

The other one, he was sure I should go in. So I jumped. So I jumped over them. Why did you want to get in that bank? You know, I knew the Swedish system. I know the Swedish mentality. And 1973, it was a very soft, nice, human country. They should never shoot any hostage.

They should never shoot even a bank robber. 1973, it was that situation. And that I was playing along with. So I jumped over them. When Clark got inside the bank, he saw that Jan had taken three hostages and tied them up. And I calmed the situation immediately. I was joking with them, untie everybody, make order,

kick out all the police in the bank, and then start to negotiate. Were they terrified? What did they look like? Yeah, yeah, when I came, they were terrified. After five minutes, they were cool. I said, hey, take it just easy. We're going to fix this. He was calming everything down. He said, you can't have the girls tied up like

this, tie them loose. Kristen Enmark was one of the hostages. She was 23 years old at the time. Here's what she told the podcast Memory Motel in 2016. I think me and all the others were very, I was very glad that he came, because the situation became totally different.

In her memoir, which isn't translated into English, Kristen Enmark describes seeing Clark for the first time. She says he was, quote, a mix between Che Guevara and Jesus. She was very sweet. She was looking anxiously when I came. And she looks very grateful when I cut her ropes and everything. And then we became very, very near. She was a very, very sweet girl.

She was 23 years old. And I like girls. Was she scared of you at first? She was scared of everything. But after one minute, she felt better. And she still thinks that I saved her life. Kristen writes in her book, he talked to us, fixed things. After untying the hostages, one of the first things Clark says he did

was walk around the main banking floor to make sure that no police had gotten inside. He didn't find any police, but he did find a bank employee hiding in a closet. His name was Sven Sofstrom, and he became their fourth hostage. Meanwhile, the entire country was watching. It was Sweden's first televised crime and was being broadcast all over the country.

They called it the bank drama. Swedish citizens called the police to offer suggestions, especially elderly women, who suggested things like a concert of religious songs to soften the bank robber's resolve. Someone suggested putting bees inside the bank, sending them in through the air vents, so that everyone would have to come running outside. A third caller proposed putting soap all over the bank floor, so the robbers would slip, fall, and be easily arrested. The hostages had asked to make phone calls to their families.

They asked for tampons. Clark made these things part of the negotiation. So every time police did something, I'd say, look, the bastards, what they do against you. I'm going to take care of it. So, you know, the sympathy came slowly over to my side. So you were able to take these small little things that the police weren't doing and say,

hey, I'm going to get this for you. Yeah, sure. This was the plan. And they had no interest to talk to the hostage and to be nice to them or to comfort them. We did. I did. Clark and Jan took the hostages into the bank's small, windowless vault. The vault's ceilings were low. One of the hostages, Elizabeth Oldgren, was feeling claustrophobic. Jan tied a rope around her neck and let her step outside of the vault to get some air. They divided up food equally, slicing pears to make sure there was enough for everyone.

Kristen says she set up her bed next to the door to be near Clark. You're in this situation, and there comes a man who says, you can sit here beside me, I'm going to protect you, and, well, there's nothing to lose. I can't say that I felt safe, because that's not the word, but he meant very much to me. And I explained to the system, the mentality in Sweden, how the police are thinking, how the politicians, absolutely them, how they were thinking. These conversations meant a lot to Kristin. She felt like Clark cared about her, and that the police and the Swedish politicians

were only focused on arresting Clark and Jan, and weren't worried about the safety of the hostages. I was the one who was the victim, and I think maybe they could listen to what I wanted. The hostages were giving phone interviews to reporters all over the world, not only saying that they were okay, but that they wanted the police to back off. Kristen told the New York Times, why can't they let the boys drive off with us in the car? And I called all newspapers, all television stations, just to be sure that nobody could say we had to, because they are dangerous and they are so-and-so.

So the hostages were being quoted in newspapers. They were calming. They were letting the public know that they were okay. Yeah, and not only that. They said, we are not at all afraid of the robbers. We are afraid of the police. And they believed it. Were you manipulating them or did you care about them?

I cared about them and I was manipulating them very much. Because for the sake. Not just for fun. For the sake. And it should be much more safe if we are playing for the same team. Because then we don't need to watch out for something. They were watching out for themselves. So they were their own guards. Kristen and Mark spoke to the Swedish prime minister on the telephone. They talked for nearly an hour.

It was recorded. She said, I think you're sitting there playing checkers with our lives. I fully trust Clark and the robber. They haven't done a thing to us. What I'm sorry. series worth your attention, and they call these series essentials. This month, they recommend Wondery's Ghost Story, a seven-part series that follows journalist Tristan Redman as he tries to get to the bottom of a ghostly presence in his childhood home. His investigation takes him on a journey involving homicide detectives, ghost hunters, and even psychic mediums, and leads him

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AI Basics, How and When to Use AI, a special series from Pivot sponsored by AWS, wherever you get your podcasts. On the morning of the third day, a police officer snuck into the bank and shut the vault door, locking Jan, Clark, and all of the hostages inside. Well, I remember hearing the door shut, and then I said, okay. Now we're closed in. We can't get out if the police doesn't open the door. But that's, if you'll excuse me, that's when the shit really hit the fan.

The police were done negotiating. No more food or water. They began to drill holes into the walls of the vault. Police started drilling. And Janne says, and Clark too, they're drilling because they want to put in gas. The drilling was day and night for I don't know how many hours, how many days.

And the light went out, so it was dark about, I said, about 12, 13 hours. And then I mean dark, you know, it was dark, dark. Water used to cool the drills began to flood the vault. They tried to drink the water off the floor. Looking back, Kristen writes, we were tired, both mentally and physically. We lived in something you could call the valley of death.

The situation had transformed us entirely. And then, on the sixth day, the police began to pump tear gas into the holes they'd drilled. When that happened, Kristen remembers Jan telling them to get up. He said, get up, girls. Then I thought he was going to kill me. I really did, but he didn't. He said, I surrender. I remember shouting, he surrender, he surrender, because I was so afraid that he would regret that. And then the police opened the door, and when I look out, I see these two guys looking like Rambo. They want us to come out first, the hostage. Jan said no. He thought that if the hostages left first, that the police would kill

him. He wanted to leave first, with Clark. So we said, let the guys go out first. Jan and Clark were seen hugging and shaking hands with the hostages. The women kissed them, and then all six people walked out together, with Jan and Clark in front. They were immediately arrested. The hostages were put on stretchers. There's a video of the exit, and you can see Kristen, sitting upright on her stretcher, looking around for Clark. She yelled, Clark, I'll see you again. The hostages spent ten days in the hospital, being evaluated by psychiatrists.

Jan was charged with violent robbery, kidnapping, and attempted murder. Clark was charged with violent robbery. He pleaded his own case and argued that he was forced into participating in the whole ordeal, first by the police, then by Jan. Kristen refused to testify against Clark. She lied and said she'd never seen Clark hold a gun. It was very clear to her that Clark shouldn't be punished. She wrote, But over the years, she's been both supportive and critical of him. For everything kind she writes about him in her book, she also writes, his plan was only his

and contained only his needs and wishes. The rest of us were just bricks in his game. Jan was sentenced to ten years in prison. Clark didn't go to prison at all. People have often speculated over the years that the two men had to have planned it together. Do you feel bad that he went to prison and you didn't? No, no, no, no, no.

No, no, no. I never feel bad when I'm not in prison. No, it was not. You know, I don't feel guilty at all about it. Because he tried even to use me then. Even then. He is a real shitty ass. Egoistic.

Money hungry. Betrayer. Traitor. A year after the robbery, Jan told the New Yorker, quote, I had lives for assets. What could be more valuable? After he was released from prison, Jan moved to Thailand and married a woman

with whom he'd become pen pals while he was in prison. Clark has been back to prison many times since 1973. He was just released again a few months before he spoke with him for involvement in drug smuggling. The apparent friendly relationship between Clark and Jan and the hostages was confusing to psychiatrists. In the days after they were released, they continued to speak highly of the two men who'd kidnapped them. Niels Bayreuth said, He came up with the term Stockholm Syndrome to describe some kind of unconscious defense mechanism

that bonds hostages to their captors. As popular as the term is, there still isn't much academic research on it. Some researchers have called it an urban myth. When you hear the word Stockholm Syndrome, what do you think? No, I laugh every time. And you hear it so often. I was in Antigua on my boat and met an American there.

We had some drinks. We were living in my boat for a week. And it happens that his mother in Texas was a was a one of the best experts on Stockholm syndrome she's when she he called her she got crazy she wanted to come then I had to leave you know but people psychiatrists and psychologists they use that, in so many ways, it was not meant, and it is not... But it's a, you know, it's a combination of everything. But if you say Stockholm Syndrome, everybody knows what it is about.

The hostages are connected or tied with the robber. And in this case, Kristen, in particular, did have a connection with Clark. In her book, she says it's important that people know she didn't fall in love with him in the vault. In the vault, she says, she liked him, she trusted him. And then later, she writes,

something more did develop between them. You had a relationship with her that was more than friends. Yeah, yeah, yeah, much. We had fun like hell. Did you kiss her when you were in the vault? No, no, no, no, absolutely not. But I said to her, hey, we take all that afterwards. It all happened after.

So she knew what I meant. And that we did. Clark and Kristen are still in touch. They're just friends now. He calls her Kiki. Over the years, Kristen has been vocal about her frustration with journalists and psychiatrists who present her as too traumatized to recognize what happened to her. She's sick of the term Stockholm Syndrome.

Syndrome is a condition of illness, she said. I became stamped as ill and thus not credible. She isn't the only one who felt a connection with her captors. Elizabeth Oldgren accused the doctors of trying to brainwash away her regard for Jan and Clark. Sven later said, when Jan treated us well, we could think of him as an emergency god.

The fourth hostage, Brigitte Lundblad, was the first to visit Clark in prison. What is it about you, do you think, that makes women and makes people go to your side, not be afraid of you? I'm a nice guy. I am. A nice guy even if you're holding a gun?

Even then. Even then. You know, I have robbed banks. Half of the bank personnel don't even know that something happens. And once anyone's ever said, Hey, hold on, stop telling everyone else they're the bad guy, you're the bad guy. No, no. I never heard one. I never heard a person say one bad word in my ears in all my life. Never.

What do judges say to you now when you get in trouble? They don't like me. This is the only place, one of the few places I should not be in. Because they think I'm an arrogant son of a bitch who has a bad attitude and he doesn't care. That's what I know they think. And we will teach him a lesson. And that they do. Are you an arrogant

son of a bitch? Yeah, yeah. Do people recognize you now? Yeah, and they like me. And it always ends with almost kissing. Handshakes and now they start, oh, my father he was there and there when you robbed after that bank. And he tried to take you and all kinds of stories. Everybody has a story.

And you once saw tourists viewing the old bank, huh? What? You once saw a group of tourists viewing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did that. What did you do? I heard him. He was telling the story of what happened inside the bank. And I went into the group.

It was about 20, 30 Americans. And I started to say, hey, no, no, no, no, no. This is not what happened. He thought I was an idiot, normal guy from... But the group, some of the people in the group, they started to, I believe, understand. So they Googled when I was standing there. And in the end, you know, he understood it was me. And he was...

I even let him talk to Kiki, the hostage, in the telephone. His day was done, I promise you. Looking back on it all now, Clark told us that he was never nervous in that bank. He says he always knew that it would all work out. He said, it was a joyful period. I had fun. Thank you. for allowing us to air excerpts of his 2016 conversation with Kristen and Mark. We have a link to their full episode in the show notes. And he's got a new podcast called Self-Help. Check it out. Thanks also to Susanna Robertson, Matilda Erfolino, and Alba Mogensen.

Julian Alexander creates original illustrations for each episode of Criminal. You can see them at thisiscriminal.com. We're on Facebook and Twitter at Criminal Show. Criminal is recorded in the studios of North Carolina Public Radio, WUNC. We're a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a collection of the best podcasts around. One of those shows is ZigZag. They've just kicked off a brand new season. We now look at our own personal worthiness

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