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Clark Olofsson, the captivating bank robber who inspired the term “Stockholm syndrome,” has died at the age of 78, his family announced.
Olofsson, who became a legend in the Nordic country for multiple prison breaks, gun-toting bank robberies, and larger-than-life charm, died at Arvika Hospital, in Holm, on Tuesday following a lengthy illness, Dagens ETC reported.
The Swede became a headline item in 1973 when he and former cellmate Jan-Erik Olsson held-up the Kreditbanken Bank in Stockholm in what was the first-ever live crime broadcast in Sweden.
Olofsson and his mate were so entrancing over the course of the multi-day standoff that the bank employees being held hostage began to express more trust and concern for their captors than the police officers attempting to save them.
This affection grew despite the two criminals threatening to kill the hostages on several occasions and holding them against their will for five days.
Towards the end of the nationally televised crisis, cops directed the hostages to leave the bank before Olofsson and his partner in crime, prompting protests from the hostages.
“Jan and Clark go first — you’ll gun them down if we do!” 23-year-old hostage Kristin Ehnmark exclaimed to Swedish cops.
A police report even said that a semen stain was found on the carpet of the bank indicating that some sort of sexual interaction occurred during the five-day standoff.
Olofsson was convicted on robbery charges for what was called the “Normalmstorg robbery” and inspired the term “Stockholm syndrome” in the process — which is the psycho-social phenomenon of captives becoming emotionally attached, and sympathizing with, their captors.
Two years later in 1975, Olofsson would escape from Norrkoping prison and went on to rob a bank in Copenhagen with a pistol in each hand, sail the Mediterranean with the stolen loot, and evade police for years when he finally returned to Denmark.
Then on March 24, 1976, he conducted what at that time was the largest bank robbery in Sweden’s history, stealing 930,000 kronor from a bank in Gothenberg — but cops were able to arrest him that same night and he was eventually sentenced to 10 years in prison, according to Swedish sources.
Olofsson’s criminal exploits would continue into the 21st century with the infamous marauder completing his last stint in prison in 2018, following a 2009 conviction on drug smuggling.
His exploits during the Normalmstorg robbery, and its influence over pop-psychology, would go on to inspire a film “Stockholm” (2019) starring Ethan Hawke and Noomi Rapace.
Olofsson was also depicted in the 1977 Swedish film “Clark,” for which the criminal has a writing credit.
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