The 1973 Stockholm bank robbery coined the term 'Stockholm syndrome' after hostages bonded with their captors during a five-day siege.
Key Facts
- Duration of siege
- 5 days
- Number of hostages
- 4
- Sentence for Olsson
- 10 years imprisonment
- Olofsson verdict
- Acquitted
- First in Sweden
- First crime covered by live television
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Jan-Erik Olsson, a convicted criminal who had absconded while on prison furlough, entered the Kreditbanken bank at Norrmalmstorg Square in Stockholm in August 1973, armed and intent on robbery. Swedish authorities allowed his former cellmate Clark Olofsson to join him in the bank during negotiations, hoping to ease the standoff.
Olsson held four bank employees hostage for five days in what became Sweden's first crime covered by live television. Negotiations stalled as the hostages appeared to align emotionally with their captors and refused to cooperate with police. The crisis ended when police deployed tear gas, forcing the robbers to surrender.
Olsson was sentenced to 10 years in prison while Olofsson was ultimately acquitted. The hostages' counterintuitive behaviour during captivity prompted extensive academic study and gave rise to the widely used psychological term 'Stockholm syndrome,' later depicted in a 2003 Swedish TV film, a 2018 Canadian film, and a 2022 Netflix series.