Monday, May 09, 2005
On this day:

Return of an anti-hero

One of Sweden's most infamous sons, bankrobber (and former journalist) Clark Olofsson has been freed from jail in Denmark where he served seven years of a 14 year sentence for drug smuggling. Olofsson, now known as Daniel Demuynck, is set to rejoin his wife and family in Belgium. Demuynck/Olofsson gained notoriety for his role in the 1973 Norrmalmstorg bank siege in the Swedish capital, in response to which the term 'Stockholm Syndrome' was coined to describe the process by which hostages identify with and defend their captors.
Olofsson is one of those interesting figures who are notorious in their own country, yet virtually unheard of elsewhere. A web search for the terms, Olofsson "Daniel Demuynck" brought up more than 100 responses in Swedish, three dozen in Danish, but none in English, French, Dutch or German. Putting "Clark Olofsson" into Google brings up about sixty English pages, almost all dedicated to explaining the origins of 'Stockholm Syndrome'. A couple of the better ones are this Reuters Health story from a couple of years ago and this Wikipedia entry.
For those of you who can read Swedish, here is a story on Demuynck/Olofsson's release from jail. According to this later report, he has a contract with a Belgian publisher for his autobiography.

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