unsuccessful.
For my own part, that photograph and what Sture had just told me had another significance. Gry Storvik , I thought to myself. The woman working as a prostitute in Norway, who had been murdered and dumped in a car park with a man’s sperm inside her body. That woman in the photo is not Gry Storvik! With whom you claimed you had intercourse.
So why had Sture told me this intimate detail? Had he given himself away? Or was he consciously leading me down this train of thought? No, we had never spoken of either Gry Storvik or any other murder, so why would he think I knew about his claim to have had sexual intercourse with Gry? My thoughts swung back and forth along these lines as we continued looking through the photographs.
As my visit started drawing to a close I asked, in a slightly absentminded way, ‘Do you think you could lend me a few of your photos?’
‘Of course,’ he said. ‘I’d be happy to.’
I made do with five photographs: Sture in the kiosk; Sture and the guys on a hard rock outing; Sture looking with mock alarm intohis empty wallet; Sture at the kitchen table; Sture posing outside the Olofssons’ holiday cottage, where allegedly Yenon Levi was murdered.
That Sture let me take the five photographs was a clear indication of trust. As we parted, I knew that Sture would participate in my documentary. One way or another.
A DISCOVERY
BY THE END of the summer of 2008, both Gubb Jan Stigson and Leif G.W. Persson were becoming irritated with me.
‘If you still haven’t twigged what this is about you must be bloody stupid!’ said Persson petulantly.
Stigson thought my mental faculties were just as impaired, since I hadn’t understood that Quick really was the serial killer he had been convicted as.
‘Take the murder of Therese Johannesen, for example. Therese was nine years old when she disappeared from a residential neighbourhood known as Fjell in Norway on 3 July in 1988. Seven years later Thomas Quick confesses to the murder. He’s in Säter Hospital by then, he’s capable of describing Fjell; he’s shown the police to the spot, he’s told them there was a bank there in 1988, he knew that the balconies had been repainted – all completely correct! He’s said there was a children’s playground being built and there were wooden planks scattered about on the ground. How could Quick know all that?’ he asked rhetorically.
‘If what you’re saying is right, then I suppose at least he must have been there,’ I admitted.
‘Oh yes, of course,’ said Stigson. ‘And then he showed the police a wooded area where he murdered her and hid the body. That’s where they found pieces of bone that proved to be from a human aged eight to fifteen. In one of the fragments there was a groove from a saw blade! Thomas Quick was able to show where he had hidden a hacksaw blade which fitted into the groove in the bone.’
Stigson shook his head.
‘And then they say there’s no evidence! I mean, the evidence is absolutely overwhelming, which is exactly what the Chancellor of Justice, Göran Lambertz, wrote after he’d reviewed all of Quick’s verdicts.’
‘Sure, it sounds convincing,’ I said.
Gubb Jan Stigson had such a rabid, unshakeable and one-eyed view of Thomas Quick that I was reluctant to argue with him. Even so, I was grateful to him. He was a well-informed and invaluable person to talk to, who had also generously supplied me with material from the extensive investigations.
On one occasion he photocopied all three hundred articles he had written on the subject.
But his most important contribution was probably that he put in a good word for me with his allies – Seppo Penttinen, Christer van der Kwast and Claes Borgström. I don’t know exactly who he spoke to, but I do know that he opened many doors for me.
Penttinen wasn’t dismissive when I phoned him, despite his great suspicion of journalists who wanted to talk about Thomas Quick. He made it quite clear to me that
For my own part, that photograph and what Sture had just told me had another significance. Gry Storvik , I thought to myself. The woman working as a prostitute in Norway, who had been murdered and dumped in a car park with a man’s sperm inside her body. That woman in the photo is not Gry Storvik! With whom you claimed you had intercourse.
So why had Sture told me this intimate detail? Had he given himself away? Or was he consciously leading me down this train of thought? No, we had never spoken of either Gry Storvik or any other murder, so why would he think I knew about his claim to have had sexual intercourse with Gry? My thoughts swung back and forth along these lines as we continued looking through the photographs.
As my visit started drawing to a close I asked, in a slightly absentminded way, ‘Do you think you could lend me a few of your photos?’
‘Of course,’ he said. ‘I’d be happy to.’
I made do with five photographs: Sture in the kiosk; Sture and the guys on a hard rock outing; Sture looking with mock alarm intohis empty wallet; Sture at the kitchen table; Sture posing outside the Olofssons’ holiday cottage, where allegedly Yenon Levi was murdered.
That Sture let me take the five photographs was a clear indication of trust. As we parted, I knew that Sture would participate in my documentary. One way or another.
A DISCOVERY
BY THE END of the summer of 2008, both Gubb Jan Stigson and Leif G.W. Persson were becoming irritated with me.
‘If you still haven’t twigged what this is about you must be bloody stupid!’ said Persson petulantly.
Stigson thought my mental faculties were just as impaired, since I hadn’t understood that Quick really was the serial killer he had been convicted as.
‘Take the murder of Therese Johannesen, for example. Therese was nine years old when she disappeared from a residential neighbourhood known as Fjell in Norway on 3 July in 1988. Seven years later Thomas Quick confesses to the murder. He’s in Säter Hospital by then, he’s capable of describing Fjell; he’s shown the police to the spot, he’s told them there was a bank there in 1988, he knew that the balconies had been repainted – all completely correct! He’s said there was a children’s playground being built and there were wooden planks scattered about on the ground. How could Quick know all that?’ he asked rhetorically.
‘If what you’re saying is right, then I suppose at least he must have been there,’ I admitted.
‘Oh yes, of course,’ said Stigson. ‘And then he showed the police a wooded area where he murdered her and hid the body. That’s where they found pieces of bone that proved to be from a human aged eight to fifteen. In one of the fragments there was a groove from a saw blade! Thomas Quick was able to show where he had hidden a hacksaw blade which fitted into the groove in the bone.’
Stigson shook his head.
‘And then they say there’s no evidence! I mean, the evidence is absolutely overwhelming, which is exactly what the Chancellor of Justice, Göran Lambertz, wrote after he’d reviewed all of Quick’s verdicts.’
‘Sure, it sounds convincing,’ I said.
Gubb Jan Stigson had such a rabid, unshakeable and one-eyed view of Thomas Quick that I was reluctant to argue with him. Even so, I was grateful to him. He was a well-informed and invaluable person to talk to, who had also generously supplied me with material from the extensive investigations.
On one occasion he photocopied all three hundred articles he had written on the subject.
But his most important contribution was probably that he put in a good word for me with his allies – Seppo Penttinen, Christer van der Kwast and Claes Borgström. I don’t know exactly who he spoke to, but I do know that he opened many doors for me.
Penttinen wasn’t dismissive when I phoned him, despite his great suspicion of journalists who wanted to talk about Thomas Quick. He made it quite clear to me that
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