On the morning of August 23, 1973, a wanted convict named Jan-Erik Olsson (he had been sentenced to three years in prison for theft - he was an expert at breaking into safes - and did not return to prison, after being granted leave) entered Sveriges Bank Kreditbanken, in the center of Stockholm. He was holding a jacket in his hands. He had hidden a gun underneath, which he displayed after entering the store, to shoot at the roof of the building, shouting at the same time, in English “the party has just started ".
He then injured the first police officer who responded to the silent alarm notification and took four employees hostage. To let them go, he demanded $700,000, a getaway vehicle and the release of Clark Olofsson, who had been convicted of armed robbery and aiding and abetting the murder of a police officer in 1966. Within hours, authorities had taken Olofsson to the bank, the money and a blue Ford Mustang with a full tank of gas. Olsson then informed that he would take the hostages with him, to ensure that he would not be followed by patrol cars. This was something that the negotiators did not accept and the criminal was locked with the hostages in the vault. For four days. Space in which a special bond developed between them. The one that became the psychological phenomenon called 'Stockholm Syndrome'. The godfather was the Swedish psychiatrist and criminologist, Nils Bejerot, who acted as a consultant in the robbery.
According to History, Olsson covered a hostage (Kristin Enmark) with his jacket when he saw her shivering from the cold, woke her up from a nightmare, and gave her a bullet from his gun as a souvenir. When another (Elisabeth Oldgren) informed him that she was claustrophobic, he allowed her to walk outside the vault, after first tying her with a 30-foot rope. A year later she told the New Yorker that “even though I was tied up, I remember thinking that it was very nice of him to let me out of the vault ". The only male hostage (Sven Safstrom) confessed that "when he treated us well, we thought he was from a God machine ". On the second day they started using their first names and were more afraid of the police than Olsson, as was evident when a representative of the authorities entered to check on their health. “The hostages were hostile towards me and friendly with the gunman ” he had said, before adding that “the criminal will hardly harm the hostages, because they have developed a loose relationship ".
When Olsson suggested that he shoot Safstrom in the leg to blackmail the police into letting them go, he thought "how kind of him to choose my leg" , with Enmark trying to convince him that it's a fine idea. She spoke on the phone to Prime Minister Olof Palme to beg him to let the criminals take her with them on the run. She told him that she trusted them and that they had treated everyone very well. "What I'm afraid of is that the police will attack them and we'll all be killed that way " concluded.
On the evening of August 28, after more than 130 hours of hostage-taking, the police fired tear gas into the vault and shortly afterwards the perpetrators surrendered. When the authorities called for the hostages to come out, they refused, suggesting that the criminals come out first "because if we go first, you'll shoot them ". At the door of the vault they all hugged together, exchanged kisses and shook hands, and then the arrest took place, with the female hostages bursting into tears and begging the police not to harm the perpetrators "since they didn't harm us ".
This reaction was the reason why Enmark's collusion with Olsson was investigated, since no one understood how they could defend him. The perpetrators were just as confused, with the hostages later asking the psychiatrists who examined them “what is wrong with us that we don't hate them? ". Somehow, scientists began to link these reactions to those of soldiers held hostage in a war zone—and felt an emotional obligation to their captors for letting them live.
Stockholm Syndrome was later defined as a psychological disorder involving strong emotional bonds that develop between two individuals:the abuser, that is, the one who periodically harasses, hits, threatens, intimidates and abuses, and the victim. The symptoms include the victim's inability to stop the relationship, and the list of dominator-dominated relationships includes abuse of women, abuse of children, victims of incest, prisoners of war, and all other relationships dependent on power and fear.
The victim behaves unconsciously, in a way that an infant would (creates an emotional bond with an adult to care for), in order to survive. And therefore it develops positive emotions, as a defense mechanism.
Back to the Stockholm heist
During the years that Olofsson and Olsson spent in prison, their captors visited them regularly. The first was released, on appeal. The latter became free in 1980 and married one of the women who sent him letters of love and adoration, moved to Thailand and in 2009 published his autobiography, entitled Stockholm Syndrome. As a term, it appeared in dictionaries in 1974, when it was used by the lawyers of Patty Hearst, heir to the tycoon William Randolph Hearst, creator of the world's largest newspaper, magazine and motion picture business. He had been kidnapped by the far-left organization Symbionese Liberation Army. During her 19 months as a hostage, she helped her captors rob several banks.
Hearst was born on this day (20/2), in 1954.
She was kidnapped on 4/2/1974, at the age of 19, from her apartment in Berkeley. She happened to live near an SLA hideout, which she decided to use so that her family could lobby for the release of two members of the organization who had been arrested for the murder of Marcus Foster (the first black superintendent of a major city school district of the USA). After their 'want' was not met, they asked the Hearst family to distribute $70 million worth of food to the needy in California. The abductee's father took out a loan and donated $2 million worth of food to the impoverished Bay Area. When the distribution ended, the SLA refused to release Patty, who testified that she spent a week locked in a closet, with her hands tied. They also threatened her life daily. During meals, which he ate blindfolded, he began to participate in the political discussions of the perpetrators. They soon allowed her to read their manifesto.
From hostage to rebel
After another week in the closet, she was informed that she had two options:either kill her or join them. In another deposition she said the options were to release her or follow them. In any case, he replied that he would stay to fight with them. Then they removed the handkerchief covering her eyes and she saw the kidnappers for the first time. They followed daily lessons - for example how to use a gun - while, as her lawyer pointed out, she became a rape victim. She announced her membership of the SLA in a recorded message sent to authorities on 4/3/1974, two months after her abduction. She also informed that her new name was Tania. It was inspired by Che Guevara's companion, Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider.
This was followed by bank robberies (it turned out that she had organized some of them), a rescue attempt that she stopped and her arrest on 9/18/1975 in a San Francisco apartment. She declared herself 'Urban Guerilla' by profession, while asking her lawyer to tell everyone that "I'm smiling, feeling free and strong and sending my greetings and love to all the sisters and brothers out there ". The psychiatrist who examined her reported that she was “like a zombie, with a low IQ and 'vacation' of emotion a". Before the abduction her IQ was 130. After it was 112. She had massive memory lapses, had lost a lot of weight (up to 40), smoked heavily and had nightmares. Among the things her lawyer tried was to exonerate her on the grounds of brainwashing. It didn't 'catch'. What a psychiatrist specializing in brainwashing diagnosed were prisoner of war symptoms. After a few weeks in prison, he renounced the SLA and switched lawyers who invoked Stockholm Syndrome.
Her trial began on 1/15/1976. On 3/20 she was sentenced to 35 years in prison (after jurors rejected the brainwashing and Stockholm Syndrome allegations) which was quickly reduced to seven years. She came back to life at 22 months, following the intervention of President Jimmy Carter and after experiencing several health problems (eg a ruptured lung) and in March 1979 she married one of the 12 police officers her father hired to accompany her when she was released on bail - for security reasons - pending her appeal (in November 1976). Together they had two children. Remain under supervision