Swedish police red-faced after 'nation's most dangerous serial killer' revealed as a compulsive liar who made up confessions to 30 murders

Swedish police have come under fire after revelations that the nation’s most dangerous serial killer is a compulsive liar who made up confessions to 30 murders.

Seen as exceptional crime solvers thanks to the fictional Swedish detective Inspector Wallander, Swedish police have been left red-faced after a book about notorious serial killer Thomas Quick claims he simply made up his confessions and police took his word.

Quick was jailed in 1990 for armed robbery and during his compulsory psychotherapy sessions he confessed to murders in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. He has been convicted of eight murders between 1976 and 1885 and confessed to another 25.

Investigative journalist and author Hannes Råstam claims that Quick, 62, collected details about unsolved murders across Scandinavia from a Stockholm library while on day release and began confessing to crimes.

With his research Quick was able to describe details such as murder weapons, details about victims’ clothes and their appearance. According to Råstam, the police who were eager to close the unsolved murder files took his confessions as fact.

When he was formally charged, Quick and his lawyers were given access to even more detailed information from prosecution documents enabling him to cultivate his confessions further.

Now the families of victims are calling for a parliamentary commission, demanding police find the real killers who remain unpunished.

Bjoern Asplund, whose 11-year-old son disappeared in 1980, said regulations are needed to prevent this happening again.

Quick claimed to have strangled the boy and was convicted of his murder but has since been acquitted. Johan’s body has never been found.

According to The Times Mr Asplund said: ‘The parliamentarians have got to get to the bottom of why and how so much went wrong.’

As the tide of public opinion has turned, Swedes have been lining up to buy the book The case of Thomas Quick: the creation of a serial murderer, to discover how a judicial system could be so easily and badly be misled. The book was published this month not long after the author died of cancer.

Quick became the most ruthless murderer in Scandinavian history after he told psychotherapists in several therapy sessions how he strangled, raped and stabbed victims, even chopping some up and eating them.

While it is unclear why he confessed to such horrific crimes, Quick says he was often affected by strong, mood-altering drugs during police interrogations.

Psychiatrists say he was a compulsive liar who believed he was a hero for helping grateful police close many unsolved murders.

But during TV interviews with Råstam in the mental institution where Quick was serving his life sentence in 2008, the convicted killer retracted his many confessions leaving many unsure whether to believe him or not.

In the description of Råstam’s book The case of Thomas Quick: the creation of a serial murderer, the author’s research made him uncertain about Quick’s confessions. It reads: ‘The answer to the mystery of Thomas Quick turned out to be more terrifying than the man himself.’

According to The Times, Mr Quick is now hoping for an early release from the institution. He said: ‘It has been liberating to tell the truth.’

Original report here




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