The financial institution theft and hostage scenario that led to the coining of the time period “Stockholm syndrome” started on this present day in historical past, Aug. 23, 1973.
On that date, Jan-Erik Olsson, an escaped prisoner who was sentenced to 3 years in jail for grand larceny, burst into Sveriges Kreditbanken, positioned in Stockholm’s Norrmalmstorg sq., armed with a submachine gun.
In an try to cover his id as a local Swede, Olsson placed on an American accent and mentioned, in English, “The celebration has simply begun,” in line with the web site of the Historical past Channel.
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Because it turned out, the “celebration” had certainly simply begun. After wounding a police officer, Olsson then held 4 staff of the financial institution hostage for 5 days.
Olsson demanded roughly $700,000 in Swedish and overseas forex, entry to a getaway automotive and the discharge of Clark Olofsson, a person Olsson had befriended whereas in jail.
Press photographers and police snipers crouch facet by facet on a roof reverse the Kreditbanken financial institution on Norrmalmstorg sq. in Stockholm on Aug. 24, 1973. The time period “Stockholm syndrome” was coined after the hostages had been freed. (ROLAND JANSSON/TT NEWS AGENCY/AFP through Getty Photos)
Whereas these calls for had been met by the Swedish police — together with a full tank of gasoline for the equipped Ford Mustang getaway automotive — Olsson didn’t launch the 4 hostages nor did he agree to truly depart the financial institution, mentioned the Historical past Channel.
The entire affair performed out on tv.
The hostage scenario was the primary Swedish crime to be aired in actual time.
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On August 28, the hostage scenario lastly ended after Swedish police fired tear gasoline into the financial institution. Olsson and Olofsson left the vault and had been arrested.
No bodily hurt was finished to any of the 4 hostages, however their conduct all through their ordeal intrigued psychological well being professionals.
Jan-Erik Olsson, seen right here in handcuffs, burst right into a Swedish financial institution and held 4 staff hostage on August 23, 1973. (BENT O NORDIN BON/TT NEWS AGENCY/AFP through Getty Photos)
“The captives shortly cast a wierd bond with their abductors,” famous the Historical past Channel.
Olsson gave one of many hostages a wool jacket when she was chilly, and “gave her a bullet from his gun as a souvenir,” the identical supply famous.
One other hostage, Elisabeth Oldgren, was allowed out of the financial institution vault, albeit connected to a rope, when she mentioned she was experiencing claustrophobia.
The hostages had been on a first-name foundation with their captors by the second day of their captivity.
“I keep in mind considering he was very variety to permit me to depart the vault,” Oldgren advised The New Yorker a 12 months after she was freed.
The hostages had been on a first-name foundation with their captors by the second day of their captivity — and had been even involved for his or her total welfare.
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Hostage Kristin Enmark advised Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme that she “absolutely belief(ed) Clark and the robber” and that she was “not determined.”
“They haven’t finished a factor to us. Quite the opposite, they’ve been very good. However, you already know, Olof, what I’m frightened of is that the police will assault and trigger us to die,” she mentioned.
Enmark additionally insisted that the police enable Olsson and Olofsson to depart the vault earlier than any of the hostages.
Gunnel Birgitta Lundbald (higher left), Kristin Enmark (higher proper), Elisabeth Oldgren (decrease left) and Sven Safstrom (decrease proper) had been all held hostage by Jan-Erik Olsson for 5 days starting on Aug. 23, 1973. Their sympathetic attitudes towards their captors could be dubbed “Stockholm syndrome.” (Getty Photos)
“No, Jan and Clark go first — you’ll gun them down if we do,” she mentioned.
Each of the robbers had been arrested with out incident and had been sentenced to years in jail.
Whereas in jail, they had been visited by their former hostages, mentioned the Historical past Channel. Each have since been launched.
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Olsson is believed as we speak to be in his early 80s (he was born in 1941).
Olafsson, born in 1947, is regarded as 76 years outdated.
“All well being care suppliers acknowledge behaviors that end result from a traumatic scenario,” mentioned the Cleveland Clinic.
The seemingly weird bond between the hostages and their captors led a criminologist and a psychologist to create the time period “Stockholm syndrome,” in line with the Cleveland Clinic’s web site.
These with Stockholm syndrome have “optimistic emotions towards the captors or abusers, sympathy for his or her captors’ beliefs and behaviors, (and) unfavorable emotions towards police or different authority figures,” mentioned the Cleveland Clinic.
Patty Hearst is believed by some to have developed Stockholm syndrome after she was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Military. Hearst took the identify “Tania” and took part in a financial institution theft on behalf of the group. (Getty Photos)
Whereas Stockholm syndrome will not be formally acknowledged by the American Psychiatric Affiliation, “all well being care suppliers acknowledge behaviors that end result from a traumatic scenario,” mentioned the Cleveland Clinic.
“The factors for PTSD or acute stress dysfunction and a few therapies are sometimes just like Stockholm syndrome.”
The time period “Stockholm syndrome” entered the American consciousness with the 1974 kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst.
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Hearst, 19, was kidnapped by armed members of the Symbionese Liberation Military (SLA), a leftist group, from her residence in Berkeley, California, on Feb. 4, 1974.
Lower than two months after her kidnapping, the SLA launched a tape of Hearst saying she had formally joined the group, taken the identify “Tania,” and had “joined their combat to free the oppressed,” mentioned the FBI.
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She was arrested 19 months after her kidnapping for her function in a financial institution theft on behalf of the SLA.
Hearst claimed she was brainwashed and abused by the group.
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Regardless of these claims, she was discovered responsible, famous the FBI.
President Jimmy Carter pardoned her in 1979, two years into her sentence.
