How the “Bank Drama” of 1973 Brought Us Stockholm Syndrome

The Party Has Just Begun

The bank (Sveriges Kreditbanken) was located in Stockholm’s upscale Norrmalmstorg square. The man was an escaped convict with one hand holding a loaded submachine gun and the other holding a briefcase full of ammo, explosives, rope, socks, sunglasses, walkie-talkies, and a knife and transistor radio.

Police officers take cover behind their vehicles during the Norrmalmstorg robbery.

Source: Pinterest

He pulled out the gun and fired it at the ceiling. Everything and everyone in the bank came to a sudden halt. They watched in terror as some man in makeup, with a brown wig and toy store glasses – whose mustache and eyebrows are dyed black – took control of the bank. In English, he yelled out, “The party has just begun!”

(Investigators later learned that the line was from an American movie about a convict on the loose.)

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