History Daily - The Origins of Stockholm Syndrome

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

August 28, 1973. The end of a five-day hostage crisis that followed a bank raid in Sweden originates the term “Stockholm Syndrome". This episode originally aired in 2024. Support the show! Join Into History for ad-free listening and more. History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser.Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.

It's August 28, 1973 in Stockholm, Sweden. An armed police officer slowly edges along a wall near the vault to the bank Credit Bankin. He's trying to keep his movements as quiet as possible, but it's a tough task to move silently when he's wearing a gas mask and can't see where he's stepping. Five days ago, a robbery went wrong at this branch of Credit Bankin, and the thief didn't get away before police arrived, so he retreated into the vault with an accomplice.

and four hostages. Now, the whole of Sweden is watching the siege unfold on television, and authorities have decided it's time to bring the hostage crisis to an end. The police officer checks his weapon as loaded with tear gas canisters and is ready to fire. The plan is to force the robber into surrendering without provoking a firefight that might risk the hostage's lives. The officer then takes his place next to a hole in the bank vault that's been patched up with wood from the other side. He raises the weapon, then signals to a colleague who's standing by with a sledgehammer. The other officer swings the hammer, smashing through the wood and opening the hole back up.

Before anyone on the other side can respond, the officer fires his weapon and sends a tear gas canister into the bank vault. Then his colleague clamps a panel against the hole to stop the noxious fumes from escaping. After a few seconds, the tear gas begins to take effect on the other side of the wall. The police officers rarely watch the vault door until finally it swings open, and the robber and his accomplice stumble out, their eyes streaming tears and almost swollen shut. After five days, the armed siege at the bank is finally at an end. The hostage crisis at credit bank and grips Sweden for days,

but what happens next is even more extraordinary. When the police try to move the hostages to safety, they refuse to leave. Instead, they insist on embracing and shaking hands with the men who held them at gunpoint for five days. This unexpected behavior puzzles those who witness it, but psychiatrists will claim to have the answer, diagnosing a condition that will become famous as Stockholm syndrome. But the supposed victims of the condition will dispute the claims, and the debate over their actions and the very existence of Stokholm,

Stockholm Syndrome will continue long after the hostage crisis came to an end on August 28, 1973. Hello, History Daily listeners. The live show I've been telling you about for a few weeks has a new date, October 23rd at the Plaza Theater in Garland, Texas. This is my Days that Made America Tour, a thrilling evening of history, storytelling, and music with me and a band live on stage. So if you're in the North Texas area or anywhere close, be sure to come out and see me live. More shows will be announced soon, too. So for information on tickets and upcoming dates, go to historydailylive.com. That's historydailylive.com.

Come see my Days at Made America Tour live on stage. Go to historydaily.com. From Noisor in Airship, I'm Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily. History is made every day. On this podcast, every day, we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world. Today is August 28, 1973, the origins of Stockholm Syndrome. It's August 23, 1973, 1973, at Normand's Tor, a square in the center of Stockholm, five days before the end of the credit bank and hostage crisis.

32-year-old Jan Eric Olson checks his appearance in the window of a store. He's drawing some stairs from passers-by, and it's little wonder. He's wearing a woman's wig and oversized sunglasses. But Jan Eric doesn't mind attracting a few eyes. odd looks as long as no one recognizes him through his disguise, because he's about to attempt the most audacious crime of his life. Jan Eric has been a petty criminal since he was 16 years old. He's been arrested for breaking into houses and shops several times and served years in prison. Today, Jan Eric is about

to break the law once again, only this time he's going to up the stakes by robbing a bank. Satisfied that his disguise will prevent anyone from identifying him, Jan Erich is, Eric crosses a square and walks through the doors of credit banking. He approaches the middle of the bank, pulls a submachine gun from under his coat, and fires into the ceiling. As the echoes of the gunshots die away, Jan Eric orders the customers and staff to lie down on the floor. Then he directs the tellers to fill bags of cash

as he watches the nearest customers to ensure no one tries to be a hero. But Jan Eric can't do anything to stop one of the tellers from pressing a silent alarm button under the counter. And within a minute or two, Jan Eric hears the sirens of police cars roaring into the square behind him. Jan Eric knows he needs to get away fast. He grabs a few bags of cash and rushes toward the exit,

but he's a moment too late. A police officer burst through the door. The two men stop and momentarily stare at each other before Jan Eric lifts his gun and fires. He misses his target, but the police officer runs back outside for cover. Now, though, Jan Eric's escape route is blocked. He can't flee through the square with the police already on the scene,

and more squad cars are arriving by the minute. So instead, Jan Eric moves behind the bank counters and tells the customers to run. He hopes they're fleeing into the square will delay the police from entering the bank. And as the civilians start rushing for the door, Jan Eric orders the three tellers on duty to stay with him and ushers them deeper into the bank. On the way, Jan Eric finds a number. another staff member hiding in a storeroom.

Yon Eric orders him out at gunpoint and then forces the four hostages into the bank's vault. A few minutes later, the vault telephone rings. Jan Eric answers and finds himself speaking to a police negotiator who tells him that the bank is now surrounded. Jan Eric doesn't know how to extract himself from the botched robbery and decides he needs backup. So he demands the release of Clark Oliveson,

a criminal currently serving time for armed robbery and accessory to murder. Jan Eric met Clark during a recent stint in prison, and the two became friends. Now, Jan Eric hopes Clark will be able to come up with a scheme to get him out of this mess. It takes several hours for Clark to be released from his cell

and delivered to the bank. And after he arrives, Clark and Jan Eric devise a plan to escape, though it's not a sophisticated plot. They want the equivalent of 700,000 U.S. dollars in a mixture of Swedish and foreign currency. They want to get a little. car, and they want the hostages to accompany them as they leave the bank to ensure that the police

don't try to seize them as soon as they set foot outside. But the police refused to consider any deal that doesn't result in the immediate release of the hostages. So instead, the negotiators try a different approach. When the hostage situation began, police weren't sure who they were dealing with. But by the second day of the crisis, they think they've identified their man. Authorities are sure that the bank robber turned hostage-taker is Kai Hansen, a fugitive with a history of committing armed robberies. So they rushed to collect Kai's brother, asking him to come to the bank and plead with his sibling to end the siege. But the police have got it wrong. When Kai's brother arrives at the bank, Jan Eric has no idea who he is. He thinks it must be some kind of ruse to distract

him, so Jan Eric fires wildly into the air, and the man claiming to be his brother scurries back behind the police line. After this mistake by the police, negotiations will grind to a halt. The hostage crisis will slide into a stalemate and the chances of a peaceful resolution will fade as Jan Eric becomes convinced that police are trying to trick him and that his only escape will be to shoot his way out. It's August 24, 1973, in the credit bank and vault in Stockholm, one day after Jan Eric Olson's robbery went wrong. Twenty-three-year-old hostage Kristen Enmark, is on the cold, hard floor. Since the initial trauma of being taken hostage has worn off,

Kristen's biggest struggle has been how to get comfortable. The walls of the bank vault are lined with metal safety deposit boxes, and there's nowhere to sit or lie down except the floor. Kristen's stomach lurches as Jan Eric rises to his feet and moves toward her, but her fear turns to surprise when Jan Eric takes off his coat and drapes it over her shoulders. This chivalrous seeming deed isn't Jan Eric's only act of kindness, though. When a fellow hostage becomes agitated and complains of claustrophobia in the

vault, Jan Eric ties a rope loosely around her waist and allows her a walk in the hallway outside. Jan Eric doesn't dare go with her because he'd be an easy target for police snipers. But Jan Eric trusts the claustrophobic hostage to come back. And after she calms down, the woman does return and then thanks Jan Eric for his thoughtful gesture. Over the next few days, Jan Eric continues to treat the hostage as well. When Kristen has a nightmare, it's Jan Eric who sues her. He allows the hostages to phone their families, to reassure them that they are safe. When one of the hostages becomes upset after her family doesn't answer the phone,

Jan Eric is almost tender in his response, promising her that she can try again later. Yon Eric also allows Stockholm's police chief to enter the vault to check that the hostages are being well-treated. Trying to defuse the tension of the situation, Kristen deliberately lightens her mood and tries to appear positive to reassure him, but the police chief seems to take little interest in the hostages. Instead, his eyes flit around the bank vault as though memorizing every detail. Kristen suspects he's really there to gather intelligence for a raid. The prospect of a gunfight in the confines of the vault fills Kristen with horror, so she offers to speak to the authorities on Jan Eric's behalf.

She lifts the vault phone and asks to speak to whoever is in charge and is surprised when she's put through to the Swedish Prime Minister, Olaf Palmet. Kristen pleads with him to give in to Jan Eric's demands, saying that she would rather take her chances as Jan Eric's hostage than be killed in a police raid. But the prime minister won't budge. The authorities will not accept any deal that doesn't immediately free the hostages. Kristen fears that the police are mismanaging the crisis.

and that their ineffectual response will only provoke a deadly firefight. Her worries only increase when Jan Eric spots a hole being drilled into the vault's wall from outside. Yon Eric considers this to be another police trick, and he fires two shots through the hole before patching it up with a piece of wood. Then, five days after the hostage crisis began, on August 28, 1973, the police finally make the move that Kristen has feared. They fire tear gas canisters into the chamber and call for Jan Eric and Clark Oliveson to surrender.

But Kristen suspects that Jan Eric won't go down without a fight and she hasn't sat in this vault for days only for the crisis to end in bloodshed. So she and her fellow hostages ignore the police demand that they come out first and instead they wait in the choking fumes believing that the police won't open fire while the hostages are still inside.

The hostages then push Jan Eric and Clark out ahead of them and then refuse all offers of help until they're sure that Yon Eric and Clark are safe. When the standoff ends without bullets being fired, Kristen is so relieved that she even hugs Yon Eric and Clark as handcuffs are snapped over their wrists. But over the next few months, the behavior of the hostages after the robbery will become a topic of fascination for psychiatrists. They'll conclude that the freed hostages acted irrationally because they formed an emotional attachment with their captors. They'll name this phenomenon Stockholm syndrome. But Kristen and the other hostages will push back, claiming they didn't bond

with her abductors and instead say their actions were motivated by a lack of confidence in the police and by the hostage's relief that the crisis came to a peaceful end. Whatever the truth behind the hostage's unusual attitude to Jan Eric and Clark, the curious behavior that followed the credit bank and robbery will not be an isolated incident. And soon a second abduction will result in another odd relationship developing between a hostage and their captors. And the high-profile nature of the new case will push Stockholm syndrome into public consciousness around the globe. It's 9 p.m. on February 4, 1974, in Berkeley, California. Five months after the hostage crisis at Credit Bank and gave birth to the idea of Stockholm syndrome.

19-year-old college student Patty Hurst groans at the sound of the doorbell. and pushes her boyfriend out of bed to answer it. She continues watching her favorite television program until shouting from the hallway drowns out the TV. A moment later, two men burst into Patty's bedroom with guns drawn. But Patty is no ordinary college student. She belongs to one of the wealthiest families in America. Her grandfather, William Randolph Hearst,

was a publishing tycoon who founded one of the largest media companies in the world. Thanks to the family's vast fortune, Patty lives a person. privileged lifestyle, and it appears these kidnappers want a piece of the Hearst wealth as well. After Patty is shoved out of her apartment and into the trunk of a car, she's whisked away to a safe house. And over the next few weeks, Patty discovers that she's been abducted by a left-wing terrorist group known as the Symbianese Liberation Army or SLA. But when her family is unable to raise the $400 million ransom that the SLA demands, Patty decides that if she's going to survive, she needs to ingratiate herself with her captors. So two months after her abduction,

Patty joins the SLA in an armed robbery of a San Francisco bank in which two people are shot. Patty also tapes a recording that the SLA sends to the police. On April 15th, my comrades and I expropriated $10,660.2 from the Sunset Branch, the Hibernia Bank. casualties could have been avoided had the persons involved cooperated with people's forces and kept out of the way until after our departure. When the tape is played on the news, Patty's excuses for the group's violent crime turned public opinion against her. A month later, Patty and the rest of the SLA take part in a second armed robbery, but this time they're captured. During the trial that follows, Patty will claim that she was brainwashed by the SLA and coerced into committing armed. robbery, but the jury won't believe her.

They'll conclude that Patty bonded with her captors and voluntarily joined their criminal enterprises. She'll be found guilty and sentenced to 35 years in prison. This strange case will further popularize the idea of Stockholm syndrome. But for decades afterwards, psychiatrists will continue to debate whether there is a genuine condition in which hostages form emotional bonds with their captors or whether Stockholm syndrome is an oversimplification of more complex events, as the hostages at credit banking insisted after their five-day ordeal came to an end on August 28, 1973.

Next on History Daily, August 31, 1997, a fatal car crash brings a sudden end to the highly publicized life of Diana, Princess of Wales. From Noisor and Ayrship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham. Audio editing by Mohamed Shazim, sound designed by Gabriel Gould, music by throng. This episode is written and research by Scott Reeves, edited

by Joel Callan, managing producer Emily Burke. Executive producers are William Simpson for airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.