In 1977, while working at the Swedish National Police Board, Persson was the whistleblower who worked with journalist Peter Bratt in the so-called Geijer Scandal when he confirmed a classified memo sent by then National Police Commissioner Carl Persson to Prime Minister Olof Palme about the alleged ties of the Minister of Justice, Lennart Geijer, to a prostitution ring in Stockholm.
Between 2010 and 2018, he participated in the SVT television show Veckans Brott with Camilla Kvartoft, which is primarily about unsolved Swedish criminal cases both recent and cold.
[4] In 1990, Persson together with Jan Guillou and Pär Lorentzon appeared in a SVT program Grabbarna på Fagerhult, indulging in hunting, fishing, and other traditionally male leisure activities.
Among other things, he is a noted expert on the unsolved 1986 assassination of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme, and has been harshly critical of police and prosecutors.
Persson's disheveled appearance, biting wit, and characteristic manner of speech, replete with mumbling and grunting, has made him a cult figure often lovingly parodied in the media.
His extraordinary media stardom has in recent years been the theme of several journalistic investigations; at one point, Swedish public radio asked "How much Leif GW Persson can Sweden handle?".
In 2018, at age 73, he announced that his failing health would prevent him from fully resuming alcohol use, lamenting that he would henceforth be "unrecognizable" for an entire year instead of the usual six sober months.
In the early 2000s, he was forced to abandon a habit of "food orgies" – regular bouts of extremely lavish, high-end gourmet dining and drinking – with his friend, the media mogul Jan Stenbeck, after his physician warned that his heart could not take another year of it.
In the film Mannen från Mallorca (adapted from the novel Grisfesten) Jarnebring is played by Sven Wollter, and Johansson by Tomas von Brömssen.
Two TV mini-series featuring the characters were produced starring Rolf Lassgård as Johansson and Per Svensson as Jarnebring: En pilgrims död (2013) and Den fjärde mannen (2014-15).