[1][2] The three perpetrators were active neo-Nazis and the robbery spree before the murders was committed as part of their plan to collect money to fund and create a "revolutionary" Nazi organization.
[3][4] Of the three criminals, Andreas Axelsson was a computer instructor with only fines and social service on his record,[5] whereas Tony Olsson was already serving a prison sentence at the time of the crime, but had received furlough from incarceration at Österåker Prison to participate in Lars Norén's play 7:3.
He said that he heard a foreign male voice who shouted "Snutjäveln ligger gömd här nere i kärret!"
[citation needed] At 15:18 (CET) Olsson, Axelsson and Arklöv left the Saab and changed to a Toyota Avensis.
[citation needed] While trying to stop the robbers, Swedish policemen Olov Borén (42) and Robert Karlström (30) were killed on a country road, with their own service pistols by shots to their heads.
[citation needed] Axelsson, who was injured in the shooting, was captured at a local medical centre in Boxholm shortly after the murders.
Olsson and Axelsson confessed to the bank robbery and admitted that they were present at Malexander, but denied committing the murders.
[16] At the time, the longest fixed sentence was 10 years in Swedish law (14 for cumulative offenses) which may have influenced the verdict.
Arklöv, who received a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether he could be sentenced to prison or psychiatric care, was later sentenced for war crimes, including the torture of Bosniak Muslim prisoners, which he had committed during the civil war in the former Yugoslavia as part of a Croatian paramilitary group.