In recounting the story of Thomas Quick, Hannes Rastam has produced one of the best true crime stories that I have read for a long time.

Thomas Quick was a Swedish psychiatric patient who, in the course of his therapy, began to recover memories of having murdered people. His therapists worked with police and prosecutors to elicit further memories. In the end, Quick confessed to 30 murders. He was prosecuted and convicted of eight of then, making him Sweden's first and most notorious serial killer.

What bothered a lot of people, including Rastam, was that there was never any evidence presented at Quick's trials other than his confessions. The pattern of his confessions was that he originally got nearly everything about the murder in question wrong, but gradually converged on a story close to the known facts under further police questioning. Only the last version of his confessions were heard by the courts, and his earlier, wildly inaccurate statements never saw the light of day in his trials. His defense lawyer never questioned this and never tried to seriously contest the prosecution.

Then, after many years, Thomas Quick recanted in an interview with Rastam. This presented Rastam with a problem. How could a man who was a mental patient, proven liar and convicted serial killer be believed? The only solution was for Rastam to investigate every detail of every murder, and try to dispel every piece of evidence ever presented against Quick.

This is a huge book, 700pp in the large print version, although it reads very quickly. I do think that it still could have done with a bit of editing down; there were frequent occasions where I felt like the author was repeating ground covered before, and not adding much to the story in doing so. If not for this, I probably would have given this jaw-dropping crime story 5 stars. ( )

Måste säga att jag var extremt opåläst om det här fallet, förutom att jag kände till det absolut mest basic (dvs att han frikändes) och såg My Favourite Murder live när Karen berättade om det, så jag hade ingen riktig aning om vad jag förväntade mig. Det jag fick, däremot, var FUCKING amazing.

Alltså jag önskar att jag varit äldre och mer insatt i fallet när jag var liten, för jag tror inte Thomas Quick betydde någonting för mig (mer än att jag kan ha vetat att han var nån skurk) innan han började frikännas och grejer, och det är ju nice och så men det blir inte som att man liksom levt med fallet då. Det hade ändå varit liiite nice att få uppleva hela grejen på riktigt, kan jag känna.

Men att läsa om det i den här boken är nästan lika bra. Den är sjukt välskriven, trots alla insane twists and turns är den enkel att följa med i, och man blir på samma gång imponerad av hur Hannes Råstam ORKAR nörda ner sig så fullständigt i detta, som man blir chockad över att ingen annan verkar orkat. Samtidigt lät det ju som att det fanns en del skeptiker hela tiden, så någon kanske orkade.

Dog förresten lite när jag insåg att det var samma muppiga expert på falska minnen som i Kevinfallet. Ooohh no, liksom.

Bra jävla bok i alla fall. Rekommenderar som fan. ( )

História real de 25 confissões de assassinatos que jamais foram julgados.
história real de uma trajédia juridica quase inacreditavel. ( )

A riveting true life drama that reveals the crimes of Thomas Quick and the biggest injustice in Scandinavian history. This man-made monster could never have existed if not for the bad choices that a mentally ill man made in order to get more drugs from a psychiatrist who didn’t find him interesting enough to help before he started confessing to heinous crimes. Thomas Quick could never have existed if the detective in charge wasn’t preoccupied with the glory of being the person that got “the worst serial killer in Scandinavian history” to confess. Thomas Quick would never have been convicted of 8 murders if someone simply checked the facts and the inconsistencies of the confessions. Thomas Quick would never have been Thomas Quick if someone, anyone, just did their job…

Thomas Quick: The Making of a Serial Killer by Hannes Rastam is a fantastic book that follows the story of how easily it is to blame someone for something they never did, simply to close a case and move on to the next file. It’s a textbook case of how medical malpractice, lazy law enforcement, negligent representation in a court of law and bad journalism can lead to the downfall of a man who never killed anyone. Written in first person, we follow Hannes Rastam – an award-winning journalist – on his journey to find out the truth of Thomas Quick and the murders he allegedly confessed to. We see what he sees as he goes through every fact, retraces every step of a man who was deemed a monster, and finally we read about the inner-conflict that he faces as the story unravels. Is Sture Bergwall innocent? Is he lying again? Can the facts prove one way or another?

I found this book to be a delightful treat that was intelligently written, yet incredibly raw. As far as non-fiction is concerned, I rarely take the time to read about true crime, but this isn’t just true crime, it’s a testament of how deep the lies can go if you don’t do your job right. It’s a book that will make you rethink all of your prior armchair verdicts when high-profile murderers are on trial. It will make you realise that nobody’s perfect and that sometimes false-confessions can ruin lives…

Thomas Quick: The Making of a Serial Killer by Hannes Rastam is a must-read for everyone in my opinion and would make an excellent case-study for criminal lawyers, psychiatrists in training and journalists that likes to sensationalize stories to sell more papers. You will not be disappointed!

(review originally posted on www.killeraphrodite.com) ( )

Sverige på afveje afdækket af hvad der synes at være en gravende journalist i en klasse for sig. Politimænd, advokater, psykiatrere, videnskabsmænd, journalister, myndigheder bliver skånselsløst afdækket af Råstam. Jävla bra. ( )