Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - Everyone LOVES This Criminal - The Jan-Erik Olsson Story

Episode Date: October 1, 2025

Jan-Erik Olsson was a Swedish convict who, on August 23, 1973, attempted to rob the Kreditbanken in Stockholm's Norrmalmstorg Square. During the robbery, he took four bank employees hostage and demanded the release of his former cellmate, Clark Olofsson, who was serving a prison sentence at the time. The Swedish authorities agreed to his demand, and Olofsson was brought to the bank to assist in negotiations. The hostage situation lasted for six days, during which the hostages developed an unexpected bond with their captors, a phenomenon that was later termed Stockholm syndrome.

Disney Plus wants to know, are you ready? Yes! For Marvel Studios, Thunderbolts, the New Avengers, now streaming on Disney Plus. Let's do this. One of the best Marvel movies of all time is now streaming on Disney Plus. Hey, you weren't listening to me. I said, Thunderbolts, the New Avengers is now streaming on Disney Plus. Meet the New Avengers.

That's cool then. Marvel Studios, Thunderbolts, the New Avengers rated PG-13. Now streaming on, you guessed it, Disney Plus. Disney Plus. So this guy might be the nicest criminal in the world. The guy's name is Yon, and Yon is 32, and he's kind of a turd. Like, he's already been in prison in Sweden for grand larceny. And Yon, he doesn't really like prison.

Like, it's not for him. He wants to get out. And one day, in the early 70s, he gets that chance, because he becomes friends with this guy, Clark. And Clark is also an inmate in the prison, and he also hates being there. And so they come up with a plan, a plan to not only bust Yon out, but to rob a bank once he's on the outside. And as he's robbing that bank, he'll take some hostages and he'll demand that they let Clark out. That's a perfect plan. What could possibly go wrong?

Now, at some point in 1973, Yon is let out of the prison on furlough. Because I guess prisoners in Sweden get furloughed? But of course, after his break, he's scheduled to come back to the prison and he just like, doesn't. Like, that's how he escapes. He's just like, no, I'm not coming back. So now he's out and he's on the run. But then the big day comes, the day of the bank robbery.

And Jan, he gets a disguise and he puts on a wig and some sunglasses and stuff, and he gets a submachine gun. Once he's already, he walks into this local bank in the middle of Stockholm. And he pulls out that submachine gun and he fires into the ceiling. And of course everyone in the bank is all freaking out and panicking. And even though he's Swedish, he's trying to do his best American accent in order to disguise who he is. So he's like guns and apple pie and fat kids or whatever. And so this whole bank is now in chaos. And a nearby officer sees what's happening and he pulls his gun on yawn.

But yawn, he's not gonna let this cop ruin his plan. And so, blam, Yon. He shoots the officer in the hand, because he doesn't want to kill him. Then, Yon clears everyone out of the bank, and he lets most people go. But he keeps three women as hostages. He ties them up and he drags them into the vault, and he stays there where it's safe for him. Now, as Yon probably predicted, within minutes, police surround the place, and they're trying to negotiate with him to figure out what he wants.

And so, Yon lays out his demands. He says to release Clark from prison, give him 3 million cronar, which is about 700,000 US dollars during this time, provide a fast getaway car, and then let him and Clark leave with the three hostages. Now, police, they're not stupid. This isn't their first rodeo. They know Jan could easily use the hostages as cover to get away and then murder them later. So they play it carefully. They let Clark out of prison and they deliver him to the bank and they also deliver. the money. They even parked the getaway car outside for him, but they keep the keys. So now Clark is there in the bank with Yon. And Clark, he starts searching the place looking for hidden cameras

or anything that might get them caught. And he finds another man hiding. So now they got to take this guy hostage too. So they've got four hostages total. Here's a picture of some of the hostages in the vault and that looks like Clark standing there. Here's the thing about Clark though. He's actually a pretty nice guy. Like he unties to hostages and he gets them a phone to call their families so that they can talk to them and feel better. And like I said, Yon's a nice guy too. Because when one of the hostages starts crying because she can't get through to her family,

Yon comforts her and tells her, you know, it's okay and they can try again. And so now both of these guys are being really nice to the hostages and of course the hostages notice. And their opinion of these armed bank robbers holding them captive, starts to get more favorable. And about a day passes. And by this point, Jan, he's really frustrated. I mean, the police, they aren't completely cooperating with him.

I guess they're not giving him the keys to that getaway car or whatever. And he's worried that his plan is falling apart. And so he comes up with another idea. He's going to force one of the hostages to call the prime minister directly. And I don't know what the prime minister of Sweden looks like in 1973, but I assume he looks like this. And so Jan has a hostage, call the prime minister, and this hostage begs the prime minister to allow Jan and Clark to leave the bank safely with all the money.

She even says that she trusts them and that they've treated her really well and they're nice, and she's more afraid of the police than she is of Yon and Clark. But the prime minister, he's like, nerd and her. He says he's not going to allow armed criminals to roam the city with innocent people as hostages. So that plan failed. Now at this point, Jan and Clark are running out of options, and they're starting to think that they may not make it out of this bank alive. And so they wait. And strangely, during this wait, they become kind of closer to the hostages.

Like they play tic-tac-toe with them. Yon brags to them about how he picked up knitting and sewing and even rug making back in prison. They listen to the radio and Yon shows off some of his dance moves whenever. music comes on. And at one point, one of the hostages claims that she's claustrophobic. So Jan actually lets her out of the vault to walk around. Later, when she's cold, Jan takes off his jacket and he puts it on her. And four more days go by. And we're still in this standoff. Now this whole time, Jan has been having police deliver food and water and supplies to them so that the hostages don't have to starve. And, you know, police, they've been doing this. And at this point,

The news media is there reporting on this whole situation. And so the whole country is watching. And they're all expecting the police to figure out a way to rescue the hostages inside. And so the pressure is on. And so police, they got to come up with a rescue plan. And they finally do. When Jan and Clark aren't paying attention, an officer sneaks into the bank and boom, he locks them all in the vault, the robbers, the hostages, all of them.

And this cuts them off from food and water. and the police, they start refusing to give them any more food and water. So now the hostages are going hungry and thirsty, and they're all pissed off at the police. The next day, police start drilling holes into the vault, because they're going to throw some tear gas in there. And pretty quickly, Yon realizes what they're up to. And so he puts nooses around the hostages necks, tying the ropes to the top of the safe deposit boxes. And he warns police that if tear gas knocks them out, the hostages will end up hanging, and it'll be police's fault. But police are like, whatever bitch, and they keep going. They drill even more

holes. And after a couple of days, they've finally drilled enough holes and they start pumping tear gas into that vault. Now, the hostages, they aren't actually in a noose. So they're fine. But the gas hits them all and everyone drops to their knees and they're coughing and they're choking and their eyes are burning. And that is when Jan finally gives up and he yells out, we give up. Let us out. And the police, they open up the vault and they order the hostages out first, but the hostages refuse to come out because they're afraid the police will shoot Yon and Clark if they leave them in the vault alone. And so Yon and Clark, they step out first, followed by the hostages,

and then something that no one expects to happen happens. Some of the hostages hug them goodbye. Some of them even kiss them. One of them even tells Yon, write me when all this is over. So like what the hell is going on? And so, bam, Yon is arrested. Here's his mugshot. Also, bam, Clark is arrested too.

And here's a picture of him. And Clark, he has to go back and finish his previous sentence, while Yon, he gets 10 extra years in prison. And all of this happened in Stockholm, Sweden, so this is actually where the term Stockholm syndrome comes from.