Clark Olofsson

He has received sentences for attempted murder, assault, robbery, and dealing narcotics, and has spent more than half of his life in prison in Sweden.

Growing up amidst extensive alcohol problems, he endured the departure of his father and his mother's subsequent illness, which led to the placement of Olofsson and his two younger sisters in foster care.

Determined to escape an unhappy foster family, Olofsson forged his mother's signature at the age of 15 and enrolled in a sailors' school.

Embarking on the ship Ballade, he sailed around the world, gaining a unique perspective between Japan and South America.

Convicted for various offenses in the 1960s, including burglary and assault, Olofsson gained notoriety for his involvement in the killing of a police officer during a robbery.

Multiple prison escapes characterized his criminal career, with notable incidents like the Norrmalmstorg robbery, coining the term "Stockholm syndrome".

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Olofsson continued a pattern of escapes, criminal activities, and imprisonments, marked by a marriage in Kumla Prison.

The subsequent decades saw Olofsson's involvement in various criminal enterprises, leading to multiple arrests, imprisonments, and deportation.

His life story, filled with escapes, convictions, and legal battles, became the subject of films, documentaries, and a Netflix drama series in 2022, portraying the complex and notorious figure of Clark Olofsson.

When Clark was 11 years old, his father left the family and soon after, his mother fell ill and was admitted to Lillhagens psychiatric hospital in Hisings Backa.

[1] Olofsson was unhappy in his foster family and to get out of there, he forged his mother's signature and enrolled in a sailors' school.

[2] When he was 15, he disembarked from the boat and moved home to his mother,[2] who had regained control of her life, and started working in a shop.

[5] Olofsson and two other boys escaped from the institution in August 1965 and entered the country estate of Swedish Prime Minister Tage Erlander at Harpsund, where they stole grapes, cucumbers and tomatoes from the greenhouse.

[1] On 29 July 1966, police officers Ragnar Sandahl and Lennart Mathiasson responded to a burglary at a bicycle shop at Skjutsaregatan in Nyköping.

Olofsson had escaped from the apartment before police entered and managed to elude them for two weeks but was eventually arrested on 25 August in Grimmaredsskogen in Västra Frölunda.

Via telephone tapping, the police found out that Olofsson and his 20-year-old girlfriend were to meet at a special mountain hill in Grimmaredsskogen.

Two policemen disguised as orienteers, Bertil Brosved and Ulf Högenberg, tried to arrest him at the same time as Olofsson pulled a pistol out of his waistband and fired two shots.

[10] He then flew on to Frankfurt am Main where he met a girl he was living with when he was arrested by the German police after Olofsson entered West Germany on a fake passport.

[1] In late 1973, Olofsson was incarcerated at the Norrköping Prison when bankrobber Jan-Erik Olsson took hostages at Kreditbanken at Norrmalmstorg, Stockholm.

With the help of Inger and Mikael von Heijne from Djursholm, on their way home from the Caribbean, Olofsson got on the right course and finally reached Ireland.

[15] On 24 March 1976, Olofsson robbed Handelsbanken on Östra Hamngatan 27[16] in Gothenburg of SEK 930,000 - at the time the largest robbery in Swedish criminal history.

In November 1984, he was arrested in the port city of Blankenberge in Belgium, suspected of having tried to smuggle 25 kilograms of amphetamine into Sweden with the so-called Televerksligan ("Televerket Gang").

[17][14][18] On 10 October 1991, Olofsson was released, changed his name to Daniel Demuynck,[7] and moved to the Belgian countryside, 80 km outside Brussels.

[7] On 15 April 1998, he was arrested in Tenerife as the head of drug smuggling after being wanted internationally via Interpol for several months.

Norrmalmstorgsdramat inifrån (2003) is an interview with the bank-robber Jan-Erik Olsson, who demanded for Olofsson to be allowed to come to the bank.

The documentary was criticized for portraying Olofsson like an idol, and because it had been produced by Alexander Eriksson, one of the convicted robbers from the Västberga helicopter robbery.