Christer Pettersson, who was tried, convicted and then acquitted on appeal for the 1986 murder of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, died Wednesday, hospital officials said. Pettersson, 57, had been in a coma since Sept. 16 at the Karolinska Hospital. A convicted criminal with a history of substance abuse, Pettersson was the only person tried for Palme's murder, after being identified by Palme's wife, Lisbet, as the killer. He was convicted in 1988, but acquitted on appeal after police failed to find the gun used to kill the popular prime minister. Palme was gunned down in downtown Stockholm on Feb. 28, 1986, as he walked home from a movie theater with his wife. His killing, which stunned the country, remains unsolved.
I'm still waiting for Hallmark to get back to me on my idea for an apathy card. Something along the lines of "Not thinking of you," and "I barely noticed that you're dead."
I don't think Palme's killing is actually "unsolved," since Mrs. Palme fingered Petterson. The fact that he got off because he tossed the gun into the drink is more of an indictment of the Swedish judiciary than it is of the Swedish cøps. |
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