Sweden: Man who murdered Israeli 'pathological liar'
Book claims that Thomas Quick who made headlines as one of Scandinavia's most brutal serial killers, including murder of Israeli Yanon Levi in 1988, deceived police, not guilty
He was called Sweden's most dangerous serial killer making front page headlines for over a decade, but a new book is now claiming that Thomas Quick, who was convicted of the murders of eight people, including one Israeli, and who claimed responsibility for the deaths of 25 missing people, is a pathological liar who succeeded in deceiving Scandinavian law enforcement authorities.
Britain's Daily Mail reported on Thursday that Swedish police have come under fire after revelations about the notorious serial killer.
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Among Quick's victims was Israeli Yanon Levi, 24, from Kiryat Binyamin who was killed in Sweden. Levi was backpacking in Europe in 1988, his body was found in a remote forest 150 kilometers north of Stockholm a month after he went missing.
Quick was jailed in 1990 for armed robbery and during his compulsory psychotherapy sessions he confessed to murders in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. He has been convicted of eight murders between 1976 and 1885 and confessed to another 25.
Now, investigative journalist and author Hannes Rastam claims that Quick, 62, collected details about unsolved murders across Scandinavia from a Stockholm library while on day release and began confessing to crimes.
With his research Quick was able to describe details such as murder weapons, details about victims’ clothes and their appearance. According to Rastam, the police who were eager to close the unsolved murder files took his confessions as fact.
Cases to be reopened?
When he was formally charged, Quick and his lawyers were given access to even more detailed information from prosecution documents enabling him to cultivate his confessions further.
Now the families of victims are calling for a parliamentary commission, demanding police find the real killers who remain unpunished.
Bjoern Asplund, whose 11-year-old son disappeared in 1980, said regulations are needed to prevent this happening again.
Quick claimed to have strangled the boy and was convicted of his murder but has since been acquitted. Johan’s body has never been found.
According to The Times Asplund said: "The parliamentarians have got to get to the bottom of why and how so much went wrong."
Quick became the most ruthless murderer in Scandinavian history after he told psychotherapists in several therapy sessions how he strangled, raped and stabbed victims, even chopping some up and eating them.
While it is unclear why he confessed to such horrific crimes, Quick says he was often affected by strong, mood-altering drugs during police interrogations.
Psychiatrists say he was a compulsive liar who believed he was a hero for helping grateful police close many unsolved murders.
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