A 1973 incident in Stockholm gave its name to a psychological condition in which kidnapping victims develop an attachment to their captors.
One of the two charismatic criminals involved in the bank robbery and hostage-taking that gave rise to the term “Stockholm syndrome” has died aged 78 after a long illness.
The BBC reports this, citing the family of the deceased.
Clark Oloffson became world famous in 1973 after robbing a bank in the Swedish capital, which was organized by another man, Jan-Erik Oloffson.
Taking three women and one man hostage, he demanded that Oloffson, whom he had previously befriended in prison, be taken from prison to the bank.
Swedish authorities agreed to his request, and Oloffson entered the bank, which was surrounded by law enforcement officers.
During the six-day siege, Oloffson's hostages began to sympathize with him and his accomplice, defending the criminals' actions while becoming increasingly hostile to the police outside.
Olofsson convinced one of the hostages, Kristin Enmark, to speak on the phone to the Swedish prime minister on behalf of the robbers.
She begged to be allowed to leave the bank in the getaway car with the kidnappers, insisting that she trusted Clark completely and that the criminals had done nothing wrong to the hostages.
“On the contrary, they were very nice… Believe it or not, we had a wonderful time here,” she said.
The hostage-taking ended six days later when police broke through the roof and used tear gas to subdue two of the gunmen.
At first, the hostages refused to leave their captors, fearing that they would be shot by the police. Later, the hostages also refused to testify against Oloffsson and Olsson.
This incident gave its name to a psychological condition in which kidnapping victims develop an attachment to their captors.
Since then, experts have debated whether Stockholm syndrome is a real mental disorder. Some argue that it is a defense mechanism for coping with traumatic situations.
Let us recall that recently in the USA they executed 65-year-old Gregory Gant, who spent more than three decades on death row and until the very end did not admit his guilt in the murder.
