shot

On February 28, 1986 at 23.21 on Friday evening, Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot on Sveavägen in Stockholm, after having been at the cinema with his wife Lisbet Palme. He dies at the scene and is pronounced dead about half an hour later at Sabbatsberg Hospital.

The killer fires two shots, one of which just misses Lisbet Palme. Then he disappears up a flight of stairs on Tunnelgatan.

33-year-old

Quickly, the suspicions are directed at a man who will be called the "33-year-old" - a well-known Palm hater who was in a cafe on Kungsgatan during the murder night.

He was arrested in March 1986 but released on release less than a month later. The investigation against him is now closed.

PKK groove

Early on, the so-called PKK track became central to the investigators, mainly for investigative leader Hans Holmér. It is a theory that it would be the Kurdistan Workers' Party PKK that was behind the murder, in revenge that the Swedish government, with Palme at the forefront, terrorized the organization.

In January 1987, 200 police officers attacked 20 Kurds in various locations in the country. However, the hearings give nothing and it is already announced on the same day that all the detainees will be released.

The PKK track ended in a political as well as a police scandal where both ministers and police chiefs were forced to leave, following the disclosure that the book publisher Ebbe Carlsson had access to secretly stamped documents to investigate the track on his own.

Christer Pettersson

When the PKK track is run at the bottom, the suspicions are directed at a known addict who was previously convicted of knife-killing - Christer Pettersson. He is arrested and arrested in December 1988. Lisbet Palme points out Christer Pettersson, a designation that will however fall flat. Lisbet Palme had been told that the police officer was alcoholic, and during the appointment of Pettersson she said that "you can see immediately who is an alcoholic".

Pettersson is sentenced for the murder in the District Court, but is released by the High Court after Lisbet Palme acknowledged that she had prior knowledge before the appointment. Christer Pettersson dies in 2004 after slipping on the street. Several media have speculated that he must have acknowledged the murder of relatives before leaving.

police track

The so-called police track has occurred many times over the years. In short, the track is about a conspiracy within the police to be behind the murder or to have helped the perpetrator to get away.

The police were criticized early for carelessness during the first days of the hunt for the killer. The fences around the murder scene were extremely small during the first night, and it took several hours for national alarms to be triggered. Communication around the police liaison center also worked poorly, leading to theories of deliberate behavior.

It also emerged that there were Palme-hating right-wing groups within the Stockholm Police, including the gun-loving Baseball League, which is said to have celebrated after Olof Palme died. Witnesses have also stated that they have seen several men with walkie-talkies not far from the murder scene during the murder night. An investigation commission has investigated and dismissed the police trail as a conspiracy throughout the police force, but says it cannot be ruled out that individual police officers have been involved.

South Africa track

Ten years after the murder, the light is directed at the so-called South Africa Track. During a trial in South Africa, South African agent Eugene de Kock points out agent colleague Craig Williamson as Palme's killer. The motive would be that Palme engaged in the Apartheid movement.

Tips on South Africa came early in the investigation but became hot again when de Kock talked about the deaths of the then fallen Apartheid regime's death patrols. "They got the same death as Olof Palme" became the words that made the Palmegroup go to the other side of the earth to interrogate people from the South African Security Service - interrogations that yielded zero.

inquiry

Today, the Palm investigation is one of the world's most extensive and most expensive murder investigations. Several traces and theories have been relevant to the investigation over the years. One by one has been dismissed. About 130 people have admitted the murder but have been able to write off the investigation.

The murder weapon

The search for the murder weapon has been central to the investigation - presumably a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum. Several different revolvers have been interesting and have been tested over the years. Police and the media have repeatedly fled for missing weapons but with no results.