Olof Palme was the Prime Minister of Sweden for nearly four years prior to his murder in 1988, at age 59 years old. The murder shocked Sweden and much of the world because homicide is uncommon in Scandanavia and no motive was apparent. It’s assumed the murder was politically motivated, but no one knows for sure. Palme’s death was the first murder of a national leader in Sweden since Gustav III in 1792.
(Olaf Palme, photo courtesy Wikimedia)
Prime Minister Palme was the leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. Palme was murdered at night after he, his wife and son left the cinema. Palme had chosen not to have a bodyguard with him as he was not worried about his safety (obviously a bad call in retrospect). The killer shot him in the back at close range near the corner of Sveavägen and Tunnelgata streets in Stockholm. Palme was pronounced dead at the scene.
This marker is found on the spot where Palme was killed:
(The translation reads, “Here, Sweden’s Prime Minister Olof Palme was
murdered, on 28 February 1986.”)
Palme was buried in the Adolf Fredrik Church cemetery, only a few blocks from where he was killed. The current church was built in 1768–1774, replacing a wooden chapel which was dedicated to Saint Olof.
After 34 years of investigation, including 10,000 interviews and 134 murder confessions, it seems the crime was finally solved. In June 2020, Chief State Prosecutor Krister Petersson identified the killer as Stig Engström. No charges were brought against Engström as he died of an apparent suicide in 2000. It is believed that the killer disagreed with Mr. Palme’s politics.
I knew of this assassination when I visited Stockholm a few years back and with the help of my guidebook, visited the spot of the assassination and Mr. Palme’s gravesite — a calm and peaceful resting place.
