Olof Palme

Last Updated on June 24, 2026

Olof Palme was a prominent political figure in Sweden who was assassinated in 1982.

Palme was the leader of Sweden’s left-wing Swedish Social Democratic Party.

He was also the Prime Minister of Sweden from 1969 to 1976 and from 1982 until his death.

In June 2020, Chief State Prosecutor Krister Petersson declared that Stig Engstrom was likely his killer.

He made this declaration after a thorough investigation.

However, many consider that the case is still unsolved and Engstrom was not his killer.

There are many conspiracy theories surrounding his death.

Assasination of Olof Palme

On 28th February 1986, Olof Palme was shot in the back at point-blank range.

He was shot whilst walking home from the Grand Cinema with his wife, Lisbet Palme in Stockholm, Sweden.

Palme was declared dead upon arrival at the hospital from two bullet wounds to the stomach.

A second shot was fired as the killer fled the scene, and the shot grazed the back of Lisbet.

She was wounded but survived the gunshot.

Numerous witnesses allowed police to track the timeline of the murder and of that of the killer.

Crime Scene Errors

The crime scene was not fully cordoned off, allowing members of the public to contaminate the crime scene.

They contaminated the scene whilst laying flowers.

One of the recovered bullets was found outside the cordoned-off crime scene.

It was discovered by a passerby who reported the find to the police.

A number of witnesses were also allowed to leave the scene before statements were taken.

Vital testimony from these witnesses may have been missed.

The crime scene and later the investigation errors are covered in Blood on the Snow: The Killing of Olof Palme (AD*)

Investigation

There was little forensic evidence left at the scene.

No witness was able to give an accurate description.

The bullets were recovered and identified as .357 magnum bullets.

It was discovered to have likely been fired by a Smith & Wesson .357.

The police collected and test-fired over 500 revolvers to match the bullets found at the scene, with no luck.

The investigation turned to ten revolvers that had been reported stolen shortly before the murder.

Nine of the revolvers were recovered by police and ruled out of the investigation.

One revolver was never recovered, a revolver stolen from the home of Arne Sucksdorff, a filmmaker.

The thief was an acquaintance of drug dealer Sigvard Cedergren.

Cedergren, during his deathbed confession, claimed that he had given Christer Pettersson a revolver two months before the shooting.

Another weapon to feature in the investigation was the Mockfjard gun, a gun used in a robbery in Mockfjard.

The gun was legally purchased but was stolen, along with a box of bullets, from the owner’s home in 1983.

A bullet from the scene of the robbery was compared with the bullet from the Olof Palme assassination.

Both were found to have been manufactured at the same time and had the same chemical composition.

The gun was recovered from a lake in 2006 and identified by the serial number.

However, due to the rust on the gun from being underwater, it was unable to be test-fired.

Over 10,000 people have been interviewed in connection with the case.

There are thousands of case files, and there have been over 100 false confessions.

In 2010, Sweden changed the limitation on murder cases to allow investigators to continue working on solving the case.

Suspect – Christer Pettersson

Christer Pettersson was arrested and charged with murder after he was picked out of a line-up by Mrs. Palme.

He was known to the police and had been imprisoned for manslaughter.

At trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

He was later acquitted of the murder upon appeal due to the lack of a murder weapon.

Other reasons include a lack of motive for the murder and questions about the reliability of the police lineup.

Pettersson later confessed to the crime, according to statements by criminal associates.

The prosecutor decided the evidence was not strong enough to reopen the case against him.

His criminal associates claim that he confessed to having murdered Olof.

It was a case of mistaken identity, and he had intended to murder Sigvard Cedergren.

Sigvard dressed in a similar manner and was known to frequent the area.

Christer Pettersson died in September 2004 due to a brain haemorrhage following an epileptic seizure.

Declared Guilty – Stig Engstrom

Stig Engstrom, aka the Skandia Man, was considered a suspect as he was first on the scene.

His office was next to the crime scene.

Many people believe that they were wrong to drop him as a suspect.

He had lied numerous times during the investigation and changed his story.

Engstrom was known to have had a dislike of Palme’s government policies.

He would have had the motive and claimed he was present shortly after the shots.

Engstrom also matched descriptions given by witnesses of the man who fled the scene.

No witnesses have placed him where he claimed to be.

He made several media appearances and gave many interviews.

The police dismissed him as a witness as his testimony was unreliable and he was unable to stick to one story.

Stig Engstrom committed suicide in 2000.

In June 2020, Chief State Prosecutor Krister Petersson declared that Stig Engstrom was his killer after a thorough investigation.

More Suspects and Conspiracies

There were numerous suspects and conspiracy theories linked to the assassination of Olof Palme.

Many of the theories are covered in The Man Who Played with Fire: Stieg Larsson’s Lost Files and the Hunt for an Assassin (AD*)

A recent theory was published by a German magazine in 2011.

They claimed that interrogation records showed that the assassination was by an operative working for the Yugoslavian security service.

Victor Gunnarsson was considered a strong suspect as he was connected to extremist groups.

Police discovered hate literature about Palme in his home.

He was arrested for the murder but released after a dispute between the police and prosecutors.

Shortly before his murder, Palme attended a rally in Stockholm.

He had spoken out against apartheid in South Africa, calling for it to be abolished.

In 1996, a former police officer gave evidence that he was murdered in retaliation for the rally.

Many suspects within and known to the South African security service were named.

Investigators were unable to find any evidence to confirm these claims.

Another popular theory is that the murder was linked to the Bofors scandal.

Palme was involved in the negotiations of the arms deal due to his close relationship with the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Unknown to him, Bofors was using another company to bribe Indian officials.

It is alleged that he discovered what Bofors was doing on the morning of the assassination.

During his term as prime minister, he offered political asylum to several left-wing Chileans following the overthrow of Salvador Allende in 1973.

This was the theory of a Swedish journalist, Anders Leopold, published in 2008.

Other theories include a police conspiracy with the murder being committed by a police officer, the PKK being responsible, and involvement from the CIA.

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