Hans Holmér
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (May 2017) |
Hans Holmér | |
|---|---|
| Born | Hans Gillis Åke Holmér 28 December 1930 Stockholm, Sweden |
| Died | 4 October 2002 (aged 71) Alstad, Sweden |
| Occupation(s) | Civil servant, author |
| Known for | Investigation of the assassination of Olof Palme |
| Parent |
|
Hans Gillis Åke Holmér (28 December 1930 – 4 October 2002) was a Swedish civil servant and author. Holmér served as Chief of the
Early life
Holmér was born on 28 December 1930 in Stockholm, Sweden, the son of Gösta Holmér, a national sports instructor, and his wife Aslög (née Roos).[1] He was younger brother of Gustaf Holmér (1921–2004), professor of Romance languages, especially French.[1] Hans Holmér studied at Norra Latin and passed studentexamen in 1950. The same year he did military service at the Army Ranger School in Kiruna, where he also underwent cadet training and later became a captain.[2]
Career
Holmér attended a police management course between 1955 and 1956, and served as deputy district police superintendent (landsfiskal) etc in
After the assassination of Palme, Hans Holmér, then the Chief Commissioner of Stockholm County police, personally took charge of the investigations (and without actually being designated as such, which would lead to later accusations of a breach in operative routines). Holmér assumed that the murder was of a political nature, but not related to the domestic political scene. No analysis was ever made of whether the deceased PM's political positions could have created motives to kill him, either from within the Swedish political scene or on the part of foreign governments or secret agencies. Instead, Holmér proposed to look for the assassins within certain immigrant groups living in Sweden, notably the
During press briefings up to this point, Holmér had insisted, with considerable panache, that the investigations were making steady progress and that, before too long, the crime would be solved. After the raid on the Kurds, things backfired. Although the hunt suddenly turned into failure, Holmér demanded further investigations along the same lines. This rapidly created a rupture between Holmér and the prosecutors who were critical of him for not respecting the demands of the law in making searches and arrests (they were also getting support from the media, now turning against the mesmerizing police chief). At this point, Holmér resigned from the investigations in February 1987. He would continue to follow the Kurds track, though, outside of the formal police inquiry, resulting, in 1988, the sensational Ebbe Carlsson affair.
Later life
Holmér spent the remainder of his life writing crime novels; he was also appointed to a UN-related police job in Vienna, overseeing the countering of drug trafficking. In one of his books, Olof Palme är skjuten! ("Olof Palme has been shot!"), Holmér describes his experiences leading the special investigation unit and goes on to blame the prosecution for the failure of the investigation. Holmér, on the other hand, has been strongly criticized by later commissions looking into the conduct of the investigations and also by journalists and independent investigators, owing to his singleminded pursuit of the Kurds track, the neglect of other leads, as well as for his use of photofit images of the suspected killer and his insistence that Palme was shot with a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum gun (brandishing that model during an early press briefing) which is considered to have locked the investigations of possible weapons onto that model only for many years after.
Fringe conspiracy theorists have occasionally claimed that Holmér had engaged in deception about his movements on the night of the assassination - the generally accepted view is that he got the news in the morning, hundreds of miles out of Stockholm, having driven up to Dalarna to take part in the cross-country skiing race, Vasaloppet, and then got into his car and turned back towards Stockholm at high speed. These theorists hint, without evidence, that he, with other policemen, were involved in the murder plot.
The Chief of the Secret Police in
Death
Hans Holmér died in his home in
References
- Hans Holmér, Olof Palme är skjuten!, Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand, 1988. ISBN 91-46-15682-8
- ^ SELIBR 3681533.
- ^ Rydén, Carl-Olof (6 March 1987). "Han har alltid gått sin egen väg". Aftonbladet (in Swedish).
- ^ "Hans Holmér död". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). TT. 5 October 2002. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
