We take a look at some of Norwegians most notorious mass killers (mass murderers, spree and serial killers), some of whom will be in prison until they die, with no chance of parole.
This is a list of notable mass killers (mass murderers, spree and serial killers) from Norway, ranked by number of proven victims (deadliest):
| # | Name: | Number of victims: |
| 7. | Fritz Moen | 2 ? |
| 6. | Peter Westerstrom | 4 |
| 5. | Thomas Quick | 8 – 15+ |
| 4. | Belle Gunness | 13 – 40+ |
| 3. | Arnfinn Nesset | 22 – 138+ |
| 2. | Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow | 63 |
| 1. | Anders Behring Breivik | 77 |
(See also 7 Myths About Serial Killers)
(See also The Last Words of 30 Famous Serial Killers)
(See also Top 30 Intelligent Serial Killers With Highest IQ)
(See also Top 30 Serial Killers By Number of Victims (20th century))
(See also Top 7 Famous Finnish Serial Killers)
(See also Top 15 Famous Swedish Mass Killers)
7. Fritz Moen (2?)
 |
| (Fritz Yngvar Moen) |
Fritz Yngvar Moen (December 17, 1941 – March 28, 2005) was a Norwegian man wrongfully convicted for two distinct felony murders, serving a total of 18 years in prison. After the overturn of the conviction an official inquiry was instigated to establish what had gone wrong in the authorities' handling of the case, and on June 25, 2007 the commission dealt a crushing blow to both the police, the prosecution and the courts in what was immediately termed the largest justice scandal in Norway of all time.
Moen was deaf with a severe speech impediment. He was also partly paralyzed, but had normal intelligence and good memory. In December 2005, it became known that Tor Hepsø, a convicted felon with a long history of violence, had made a deathbed confession that he had killed both Sigrid Heggheim and Torunn Finstad.
Classification: Murderer?
Characteristics: Deaf with a severe speech impediment - Wrongfully convicted for two distinct felony murders, serving a total of 18 years in prison
Number of victims: 2 ?
Date of murders: September 1976 / October 1977
Date of birth: December 17, 1941
Victims profile: Sigrid Heggheim / Torunn Finstad
Method of murder: Strangulation
Location: Norway
Status: Sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment on May 29, 1978. Sentenced to an additional 5 years on December 18, 1981. The court reversed the conviction and acquitted Moen for the attempted rape and murder of Sigrid Heggheim on October 7, 2004. On August 24, 2006, Frostating court acquitted posthumously Fritz Moen also for the rape and murder of Torunn Finstad
Initial conviction and sentencing
He was convicted for two separate rapes and murders, both in Trondheim:
● Torunn Finstad, who was reported missing on October 4, 1977 and was found dead on October 6, 1977, having been raped and strangled. Moen was indicted by a Frostating court for the crime on April 11, 1978. He was convicted and sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment on May 29 the same year. This sentence was reduced to 16 years on appeal.
● Sigrid Heggheim, who was found dead in September 1976. She had been strangled and an attempt had been made to rape her. The same court indicted Moen for murder and attempted rape on September 15, 1981, and on December 18 he was convicted and sentenced to an additional 5 years. An appeal was rejected.
The prosecuting authorities relied on Moen's confession to the murders, a confession that appears to have been coerced by way of intimidation.
Biological samples were collected at both crime scenes and tested with available technology at the time but the samples were then lost and destroyed for reasons that remain unclear.
When Moen was convicted, his defense lawyer, Olav Hestenes announced: "For the first time at this desk, I allow myself to say that a travesty of justice has been committed."
The judge, Karl Solberg, reacted furiously and later applauded the court's verdict. Solberg has become notorious in actions of miscarriage of justice, being instrumental in the wrongful incarcerations of Moen and Atle Hage, a father who was convicted of incest, took his own life after release, and was cleared ten years later when his children testified on his behalf.
Reversal
Moen's attorney requested a new trial for both cases on January 2, 2000. The court accepted the requests for the Sigrid Heggheim case, and on October 7, 2004 judge Wenche Skjæggestad announced that the court reversed the conviction and acquitted Moen for the attempted rape and murder of Sigrid Heggheim. The court found that the forensic evidence was exonerative of Moen, and that in any case reasonable doubt should have acquitted him in the first place. Among other things, he had an alibi for the most likely time of the crime. Also, the forensic evidence indicated that the perpetrator had pursued the victim across a field, knocked her down, and then tied her with her own clothes - Moen was partly paralyzed and physically incapable of these actions.
The court rejected the appeal for a resumption of the Torunn Finstad case, and on October 13, 2005, the Norwegian Criminal Cases Review Commission received a preliminary application for review of the case. When Moen died on March 28, 2005 of natural causes, it became known that he wanted the case on his behalf to continue.
In December 2005, it became known that Tor Hepsø, a convicted felon with a long history of violence, had made a deathbed confession that he had killed both Sigrid Heggheim and Torunn Finstad. On June 15, 2006, the Criminal Cases Review Board formally accepted the application, and on August 24, 2006, the Frostating court posthumously acquitted Fritz Moen for the rape and murder of Sigrid Heggheim as well. It was found that the preponderance of the evidence made the man with the deathbed confession a more likely suspect, and that Moen's confession was likely coerced and only included information that had been made public.
These two acquittals are widely attributed to the tireless work of his defense attorney John Christian Elden, and private investigator Tore Sandberg.
There is now[needs update] an expectation that Fritz Moen's estate will file a civil suit against the Norwegian government for several tens of millions of Norwegian kroner.
The case has attracted widespread public opinion in Norway. There are calls for a formal inquiry into the conduct of the prosecutors and police, and there is even talk of erecting a bust or statue of Moen in front of the Norwegian Ministry of Justice as a symbol of the responsibilities of the criminal justice system.
Inquiry
On June 25, 2007 a commission headed by Henry John Mæland, professor of law at the University of Bergen delivered its findings to the Norwegian Minister of Justice Knut Storberget. The commission stated that the principle of objectivity was violated repeatedly by both the police and the courts. The commission found that the most important lesson that can be learned from this case is that the presumption of innocence must be attended by both the public prosecutors and the courts. Chair of the commission Mæland stated that witnesses had been coaxed by the Trondheim police force while at the same time significant evidence proving the innocence of Moen had been withheld from the defence and the courts. "Some of the evidence has basically been hidden within the police reports," Mæland concluded. The justice minister commented during the press conference that "the commission's report shows that grave errors have been committed leading to grave results."
The commissioned was appointed on September 8, 2006 by the Norwegian cabinet. It consisted apart from professor Mæland of judge Inger Marie Dons Jensen and psychiatrist Ingrid Lycke Ellingsen. Its mandate was to "find out why Moen was wrongfully convicted and evaluate whether changes are needed in the criminal justice system to avoid wrongful convictions in the future".
Infringement (Overgrepet) by Tore Sandberg, the private investigator involved in Moen's case, was published in October 2007. The book names police officers and other public servants instrumental in Moen's criminal prosecution.
On 5 February 2008, the Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs of the Norwegian Parliament recommended that a commission be named to investigate and, if warranted, prosecute for impeachment three of the Norwegian Supreme Court Justices who presided over the Moen cases. The three were Magnus Matningsdal, Karin Maria Bruzelius and Eilert Stang Lund. However, when the case went to the Standing Committee on Justice, it was closed.
Justice:Denied, the only wrongful conviction magazine in the United States, published an article about Fritz Moen's case in its Spring 2008 issue: "Exonerated Of Two Murders, Fritz Moen Posthumously Awarded $4 Million".
The conclusion of the inquiry recommended there be no investigation in order to label responsibility to individual police or judicial officers since "such action would probably lead to the pulverization of responsibility".
6. Peter Westerstrøm (4)
 |
| (No Photo Available) |
Peter Westerstrøm (1778/1779, Ljungby, Sweden – October 27, 1809, Moss, Norway) was a Swedish mass murderer who gained notoriety for the Saksebøl Slaughter in Moss, Norway during the Napoleonic wars. Executed by beheading with axe on October 27, 1809
The Saksebøl Slaughter
Classification: Mass murderer
Characteristics: Robbery - Revenge
Number of victims: 4
Date of murder: January 1, 1809
Date of arrest: February 6, 1809
Date of birth: 1778/1779
Victims profile: Station manager Johannes Jensen and his three servants Lars Arvesen, Jens Svensen and Karen Olsdatter
Method of murder: Beating with an axe
Location: Saksebøl, Hobøl, Østfold county, Norway
Status: Executed by beheading with axe on October 27, 1809
Background
Peter Westerstrøm was born in Ljungby in Sweden around 1778. His father Jonas was the local sexton, but died when Peter was 8 years old. His mother died in 1804 and Peter was raised by her and her brother. He started his professional carriere as a man-servant; later on he started training as a tailor, but never became more than an apprentice.
He later claimed to have tried to have started an enterprise refining cotton, but he had to borrow money and the enterprise failed. This story was never corroborated as there was a state of war between Norway and Sweden at the time and serious doubt was cast on his curriculum.
By 1806 he had moved to Norway, by his own confession the move was in order to avoid being thrown into the debtor's prison after his bankruptcy. An unconfirmed rumour stated that he had fled Sweden after having murdered and robbed his late employer, Lieutenant General Liljehorn. In Norway, he established himself as a tailor in the city of Moss, traveling around the local countryside to obtain work from the surrounding peasantry.
The crime
During the night between the 31st December 1808 and the 1st January 1809 he killed the four inhabitants at the station Saksebøl in Hobøl. The victims were the station manager Johannes Jensen and his three servants Lars Arvesen, Jens Svensen and Karen Olsdatter.
The murder weapon was an axe he had brought with him for the explicit purpose of murder. The motive was greed; the station manager's strongbox was forced and the house robbed of valuables. Westerstrøm fled with 20 daler in cash, some slothes, some silver spoons, a pair of boots and a pipe. After the crime he tried to reach Sweden but was hindered by foul weather.
The investigation
The autopsy was undertaken by dr Hans Munk. An investigative commission was established, consisting of Christian Magnus Falsen (judge i Follo), sheriff Jacob Wulfsberg in Christiania (now Oslo), Lieutenant Colonel Hans Jacob von Scheel and the judge in Moss, Ove Hiorth. A reward of 1000 daler was offered for information that would lead to arrest of the guilty. This reward lead to Westerstrøm being snitched upon by friends.
Monday 6th February 1809 Peter Westerstrøm was arrested at Moss and brought before the commission. He confessed to the murders after some attempts at denial. The case was open and shut, he was found in possession of much of the stolen goods and could lead the authorities to where he had hidden the rest.
As for the motive, Westerstrøm first claimed mental depression, stating that he wanted to commit suicide and this way he could get the state executioner to do the job. His second explanation stated that, as he was an unreformable criminal, he wanted to go down in history as the greatest crook in Norwegian history. His third confession stated that the murder was done out of revenge, as he believed the station manager had been instrumental in breaking up his engagement to a rich heiress.
Trial and execution
On the 24th July 1809 he was sentenced by the commission to be pinched five times with red-hot pincers by the executioner, after this his hand would be lopped off with an axe and finally he would be beheaded. The head, the hand and the body would then be publicly displayed on poles until they rotted. This was the punishment recommended for murders within the family (patricides, matricides, but also murders of employers).
On the 16th August 1809 this sentence was moderated in the Supreme Court. He was sentenced for premeditated homicide only, and the punishment was reduced to simple beheading with axe, the torture was dropped. Only his head would go on the pole.
On 23rd September 1809 king Frederik VI approved of the sentence of the Supreme Court.
On the 27th October 1809 Westerstrøm was executed in front of the prison in Moss. With him at the scaffold was his parson Niels Wulfsberg. The executioner was Anton Lædel, this being his fifth execution. After 24 hours the head was taken down again and buried next to the corpse.
5. Thomas Quick (8 – 15+)
 |
| (Thomas Quick, a.k.a. Sture Ragnar Bergwall) |
Thomas Quick (born Sture Ragnar Bergwall, 1950, Korsnäs, Falun, Sweden) is a child molester and alleged serial killer, with over 30 murder confessions (although only eight convictions). He has confessed to committing murder and rape, victimizing mainly men in Sweden and Norway, with the first known murder committed when he was 14. He changed his name after this, and adapted the first name from that of his first victim, Thomas Blomgren, and surname Quick, his mother's maiden name.
He was arrested in 1990 for attempting to rob a bank outside Falun, Sweden. During his years in Säter hospital (receiving treatment for being criminally insane), he started to confess to numerous murders, and he was convicted for eight of them.
Critics of the confessions and the trials claim that Quick never murdered anyone, but that he is a compulsive liar. Among the critics are the parents of a child he confessed to having murdered in the late 1970s. In response to these accusations, Quick himself wrote an article for the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter in 2001, where he said that he refused to co-operate further with the authorities concerning all open murder investigations.
In November 2006, Thomas Quick's trials were reported to the Swedish Chancellor of Justice by a retired lawyer, Pelle Svensson, on the behalf of two of the murder victim's relatives, who wish to have the trials declared invalid and, presumably, have Quick retried.
On 30 July 2013, Quick was acquitted of the last of eight murder convictions.
Sture Bergwall has been released from Säter's institution for the criminally insane and most of the treatment plan has been made confidential and subject to secrecy. However, from the uncensored portions released to the press, it is apparent that Bergwall has not taken medication for several years and is assessed as not requiring any.
Birth name: Sture Bergwall
A.K.A.: "Sätermannen"
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Juvenile (14) - Child molester
Number of victims: 8 - 15 +
Date of murders: 1964 - 1996
Date of arrest: 1996
Date of birth: April 26, 1950
Victims profile: Men, women and children
Method of murder: Several
Location: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland
Status: Sentenced to closed psychiatric confinement
Early life
Bergwall grew up in Korsnäs with his six siblings. He adopted his mother's maiden name, Quick, around 1991. After a history of delinquency (molestations of boys and stabbing a man), Quick was sentenced in 1991 for armed robbery.
Confessions and convictions of murder
After the robbery conviction, Quick was confined to care in an institution for the criminally insane. During therapy, he confessed to more than thirty murders committed in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland between 1964 and 1993. The therapy sessions were followed by police interviews. One of his confessions led to the solving of an 18-year-old murder considered to be unsolvable, and another to the informal solving of a murder in Växjö in 1964. This 1964 crime was outside the then 25-year statute of limitations in Sweden, but with the information given by Quick, the case was considered closed.
With no eyewitnesses or technical forensic evidence to connect him to the crimes, Quick was convicted solely on the basis of his own confessions while undergoing recovered-memory therapy on benzodiazepines followed by police interrogations. Details in the confessions were wildly wrong and Quick relied on hints and body language from his interrogators to guess the answers expected of him. Bergwall/Quick had been researching unsolved murders on microfilm in the Royal Library, Stockholm when he was on day release and confessing to a murder in Norway led to a Norwegian newspaper writing his story. Quick requested back copies including earlier reports of the story from Norwegian journalists and could include details hitherto unknown to the Swedish police that they concluded only the perpetrator knew. Nine-year-old Therese Johannessen had disappeared from Fjell in Drammen in 1988 and had not been found since. Ten years later Quick was convicted of murdering her. The crucial evidence was the discovery of burnt bone fragments from what should have been a child. In 2012 laboratory tests showed that the supposed bone fragments were composed of wood and glue fused together - probably hardboard. An analysis had not been performed before the evidence was presented to the court.
Examination of his answers showed that his initial attempts to provide answers to questions concerning, for example murder weapons and birthmarks, were wrong, leading questions were asked in police interviews, and the initial erroneous guesses edited out of the version presented to the court.
The involvement of therapists meant that Quick's early failure to provide anything more than a vague, confused and vacillating picture that gradually sharpened and focused was explained away as the result of repressed memories being retrieved as a result of therapy; e.g. In the judgment for the case of Therese one can read that the psychologist Christianson told the court that "Traumatic events are retained in the memory but there can be protective mechanisms that work in the unconscious to repress their recall." Similar arguments about Quick/Bergwall's "repressed" memories recur again and again in the judgments."
The credibility of Quick's confessions was widely debated in the Swedish media. Critics of these confessions, and the trials, including a policeman involved in one of the investigations, wrote that there was no evidence that tied Quick to any of the murders he had confessed, and that until he could show something he had taken that belonged to one of his victims, the probability was that he was a compulsive liar. In a December 2008 television interview with Hannes Råstam Quick denied taking part either in any of the murders for which he had been sentenced or in the more than 30 murders he had confessed to.
Because the only evidence to support the convictions were his own confessions, that he now retracted, and nothing else remained on which to base the judgments, Sture Bergwall changed his lawyer and the eight murder convictions handed down in six trials were all quashed on appeal, the last one in July 2013. Thomas Quick, who now reverted to his birth name of Sture Bergwall, was set at liberty after having been confined for more than twenty years in an institution for the criminally insane, with conditions that he refrain from alcohol and narcotics.
Between 1994 and 2001, Quick was convicted of eight murders (in chronological order) at six different District Court trials:
● Charles Zelmanovits, Piteå 1976, sentenced in 1994 – no forensic evidence, except for the confession – Sentence quashed: July 2013
● Johan Asplund, Sundsvall, 1980, sentenced in 2001 – no body, no forensics except for the confession. Sentence quashed: March 2012.
● The Stegehuis couple, Appojaure (Gällivare) 1984, sentenced in 1996 – no forensics, but Quick gave information regarding facts that had never been disclosed to the public. His confessions were later questioned, as Quick seemed to have been privy to all information before the trial – retrial granted by the Supreme Court. Sentence quashed: May 2013.
● Yenon Levi, tourist from Israel, Rörshyttan, 1988, sentenced in 1997 – no forensic evidence, but statements included in Quick's testimony such as his incorrect guesses at the murder weapon (in the police interviews, Quick/Bergwall guessed a camping axe, a spade and a car jack before arriving at the correct answer – a wooden club). The incorrect guesses were not mentioned in court. Sentence quashed: September 2010.
● Therese Johannesen, Drammen, Norway, 1988, sentenced in 1998 – bone fragments presented as forensic evidence turned out to be hardboard. Sentence quashed: March 2011.
● Trine Jensen, Oslo, 1981, sentenced in 2000 – no forensic evidence. Sentence quashed: September 2012.
● Gry Storvik, Oslo, 1985 – no forensic evidence, confession; the semen found in victim did not belong to Quick. Sentence quashed: September 2012.
In Sweden a defendant always gains access to the full police investigation prior to the trial. Quick's lawyer Claes Borgström has been criticised for failing to protect his mentally disturbed client's objective interest in being judged not guilty.
Confessions and subsequent withdrawals
In the years following 1990, when Quick was sentenced to closed psychiatric confinement, he confessed to several well publicised unsolved murders. His first murder, according to his own accounts, occurred in Växjö in 1964, when Quick was only 14 years old. The victim, Thomas Blomgren, was described by Quick as being the same age but not as strong and tall as himself. At the time of his confession, the murder was already subject to the statute of limitations which Bergwall/Quick later admitted was a reason for confessing; but later, it transpired that Quick had a watertight alibi. On the day of the murder he was attending his own confirmation with his family at the Pentecostal Church.
The second alleged victim was Alvar Larsson, whom Quick claimed to have murdered at Sirkön in the lake Åsnen outside the town of Urshult. According to Quick's sister, Quick never left Falun at the time of the murder.
The credibility of Quick's confessions had been widely debated in the Swedish media since 1993, up until 2008, when Quick withdrew all of his confessions. There have been consistent doubts about the reliability of his statements, and some of his confessions have been proven to be fabrications – The two African refugees Quick confessed to murdering in Norway were found to be alive and well.
A DNA sample from a crime in Norway was subsequently found to be a mismatch, and there was no technical forensic evidence to link Quick to any of the crimes. Another dubious circumstance is the fact that no witnesses have ever testified to seeing Quick in the proximity of any of the crime scenes, even though more than 10,000 people were interviewed for intricate details.
Critics of these confessions and the trials claim that Quick never murdered anyone, but that he is a compulsive liar. Among the critics are the parents of a child he confessed to having murdered in the late 1970s. In response to these accusations, Quick himself wrote an article for the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter in 2001 in which he said that he refused to cooperate further with the authorities concerning all open murder investigations.
In November 2006, Thomas Quick's trials were reported to the Swedish Chancellor of Justice by retired lawyer Pelle Svensson on behalf of the parents of a murder victim who wished to have the trials declared invalid. Several principals in the fields of law and psychiatry, among them Swedish criminologist and television crime commentator Leif G. W. Persson and two police officers involved in the investigation of the murders who refused to involve themselves further in the investigations [14] all claim that Quick has a history of mental illness, but it was unlikely he was guilty of any of the crimes to which he had confessed. The handling of the Quick cases has been described as the "most scandalous" chapter of Scandinavian crime history, branding it as glaring incompetence, naiveté, and opportunism within the police and judicial system.
Quick withdrew all of his confessions in 2008 during the recording of a TV documentary, made by prize-winning investigative journalist Hannes Råstam, who died shortly before his book version was published.
Quick's attorney contended that the prosecution withheld important investigative material from the defence (which the prosecution adamantly denied). Quick's attorney claimed that his client is mentally ill and was being given prescription drugs (benzodiazepine) when he confessed to the killings. These arguments were some of the grounds for quashing all the eight murder convictions in six trials and six appeals.
Thomas Quick, now having reverted to his birth name Sture Bergwall, recanted his confessions and requested the Svea Court of Appeal order a new trial for the murder case of Yenon Levi at Rörshyttan. In December 2009, the court of appeal granted a retrial of the Yenon Levi case. In the judgment, the court found that the lower court had heard that Quick correctly identified the murder weapon. However, information had been withheld from the court that initially, Quick had made many erroneous attempts to identify the murder weapon before finally giving an account that corresponded with police findings.
Quick moved for a judgment of acquittal, and was acquitted in September 2010. Quick's counsel also declared his intention to ask for a retrial of the Therese Johannesen case, claiming that Quick had an alibi for the day when Therese Johannesen was abducted and murdered. SKL (Statens kriminaltekniska laboratorium The Swedish State Forensic Laboratory) found in March 2010 that two exhibits claimed by the prosecution to be bone fragments were, in fact, pieces of hardboard. A retrial was granted, and Quick formally acquitted when the prosecutor dropped the charges.
On 30 July 2013, Quick was acquitted of the last of eight murder convictions.
Sture Bergwall has been released from Säter's institution for the criminally insane and most of the treatment plan has been made confidential and subject to secrecy. However, from the uncensored portions released to the press, it is apparent that Bergwall has not taken medication for several years and is assessed as not requiring any.
Film
A 2015 documentary film, The Confessions of Thomas Quick, recounted Bergwall's life and his murder confessions and retractions, including interviews with Bergwall and other participants in the events. In it Bergwall explained that he made the confessions to gain attention due to profound loneliness. The documentary claims that Bergwall knew little about each murder, but was fed details during questioning, enabling him to build up enough information to persuade people he had carried them out. It also claims that as a result of his confessions Bergwall was given privileged treatment in the hospital, including drugs and therapy on demand, his own office with computer and Internet access, and restaurant meals when going out to visit murder sites, and that this may have encouraged him to continue confessing to more and more crimes.
4. Belle Gunness (13 – 40+)
 |
| ((Belle Gunness with her children Lucy and Myrtle Sorenson, and Phillip Gunness, c. 1908)) |
Belle Sorenson Gunness (born as Brynhild Paulsdatter Størseth; November 11, 1859 – declared dead April 28, 1908) was a Norwegian-born serial killer who murdered her suitors and relatives in Indiana, USA.
Standing six feet tall (183 cm) and weighing over 200 pounds (91 kg), she was a physically strong woman. She killed most of her suitors and boyfriends, and her two daughters, Myrtle and Lucy. She may also have killed both of her husbands and all of her children, on different occasions. Her apparent motives involved collecting life insurance, cash and other valuables, and eliminating witnesses. Reports estimate that she killed between 25 and 40 people over several decades.
Born as Brynhild Paulsdatter Størseth
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Her apparent motives involved collecting life insurance, cash and other valuables, and eliminating witnesses
Number of victims: 13 - 42
Date of murder: 1880's - 1908
Date of birth: November 11, 1859
Victims profile: Men and children (She killed most of her suitors and boyfriends, and her two daughters, Myrtle and Lucy. She may also have killed both of her husbands and all of her children, on different occasions)
Method of murder: Poisoning (strychnine) / Bludgeoning
Location: Illinois/Indiana, USA
Status: On April 28, 1908 the bodies of Gunness' children were found in the home's wreckage, but the headless adult female corpse found with them was never positively identified. She was never tracked down and her death has never been confirmed.
Early years
Gunness' origins are a matter of some debate. Most of her biographers state that she was born on November 11, 1859, near the lake of Selbu, Sør-Trøndelag, Norway, and christened Brynhild Paulsdatter Størset. Her parents were Paul Pedersen Størset (a stonemason) and Berit Olsdatter. She was the youngest of their eight children. They lived at Størsetgjerdet, a very small cotter's farm in Innbygda, 60 km southeast of Trondheim, the largest city in central Norway (Trøndelag).
An Irish TV documentary by Anne Berit Vestby aired on September 4, 2006, tells a common, but unverified, story about Gunness' early life. The story holds that, in 1877, Gunness attended a country dance while pregnant. There she was attacked by a man who kicked her in the abdomen, causing her to miscarry the child. The man, who came from a rich family, was never prosecuted by the Norwegian authorities. According to people who knew her, her personality changed markedly. The man who attacked her died shortly afterwards. His cause of death was said to be stomach cancer. Having grown up in poverty, Gunness took service the next year on a large, wealthy farm and served there for three years in order to pay for a trip across the Atlantic.
Following the example of a sister, Nellie Larson, who had emigrated to America earlier, Gunness moved to the United States in 1881 and assumed a more American-style name. Initially, she worked as a servant.
First Victim
In 1884, Gunness married Mads Ditlev Anton Sorenson in Chicago, Illinois, where, two years later, they opened a confectionery store. The business was not successful; within a year the shop mysteriously burned down. They collected insurance, which paid for another home.
Though some researchers assert that the Sorenson union produced no offspring, other investigators report that the couple had four children: Caroline, Axel, Myrtle, and Lucy. Caroline and Axel died in infancy, allegedly of acute colitis. The symptoms of acute colitis — nausea, fever, diarrhea, and lower abdominal pain and cramping — are also symptoms of many forms of poisoning. Both Caroline's and Axel's lives were reportedly insured, and the insurance company paid out.
A May 7, 1908 article in The New York Times states that two children belonging to Gunness and her husband Mads Sorensen were interred in her plot in Forest Home cemetery.
On June 13, 1900, Gunness and her family were counted on the United States Census in Chicago. The census recorded her as the mother of four children, of whom only two were living: Myrtle A., 3, and Lucy B., 1. An adopted 10-year-old girl, identified possibly as Morgan Couch but apparently later known as Jennie Olsen, also was counted in the household.
Sorenson died on July 30, 1900, reportedly the only day on which two life insurance policies on him overlapped. The first doctor to see him thought he was suffering from strychnine poisoning. However, the Sorensons' family doctor had been treating him for an enlarged heart, and he concluded that death had been caused by heart failure. An autopsy was considered unnecessary because the death was not thought suspicious. Gunness told the doctor that she had given her late husband medicinal "powders" to help him feel better.
She applied for the insurance money the day after her husband's funeral. Sorenson's relatives claimed that Gunness had poisoned her husband to collect on the insurance. Surviving records suggest that an inquest was ordered. It is unclear, however, whether that investigation actually occurred or Sorenson's body was ever exhumed to check for arsenic, as his relatives demanded. The insurance companies awarded her $8,500 (about $217,000 in 2008 dollars), with which she bought a farm on the outskirts of La Porte, Indiana.
Suspicion of murder
In 1901, Gunness purchased a house on McClung Road. It has been reported that both the boat and carriage houses burned to the ground shortly after she acquired the property.
As she was preparing to move from Chicago to LaPorte, she became re-acquainted with a recent widower, Peter Gunness, also Norwegian-born. They were married in LaPorte on April 1, 1902; just one week after the ceremony, Peter's infant daughter died (of uncertain causes) while alone in the house with Belle. In December 1902, Peter himself met with a "tragic accident". According to Belle, he was reaching for his slippers next to the kitchen stove when he was scalded with brine. She later declared that, in fact, part of a sausage-grinding machine fell from a high shelf, causing a fatal head injury. A year later, Peter's brother, Gust, took Peter's older daughter, Swanhilde, to Wisconsin. She is the only child to have survived living with Belle.
Her husband's death netted Gunness another $3,000 (some sources say $4,000). Local people refused to believe that her husband could be so clumsy; he had run a hog farm on the property and was known to be an experienced butcher; the district coroner reviewed the case and unequivocally announced that he had been murdered. He convened a coroner's jury to look into the matter. Meanwhile, Jennie Olsen, then 14, was overheard confessing to a classmate: "My mama killed my papa. She hit him with a meat cleaver and he died. Don't tell a soul."
Jennie was brought before the coroner's jury but denied having made the remark. Gunness, meanwhile, convinced the coroner that she was innocent of any wrongdoing. She did not mention that she was pregnant, which would have inspired sympathy, but in May 1903 a baby boy, Phillip, joined the family. In late 1906 Belle told neighbors that her foster daughter, Jennie Olsen, had gone away to a Lutheran College in Los Angeles (some neighbors were informed that it was a finishing school for young ladies). In fact, Jennie's body would later be found buried on her adoptive mother's property.
Between 1903 and 1906 Belle continued to run her farm. In 1907 Gunness employed a single farm hand, Ray Lamphere, to help with chores.
The Suitors
Around the same time, Gunness inserted the following advertisement in the matrimonial columns of all the Chicago daily newspapers and those of other large midwestern cities:
Personal — comely widow who owns a large farm in one of the finest districts in La Porte County, Indiana, desires to make the acquaintance of a gentleman equally well provided, with view of joining fortunes. No replies by letter considered unless sender is willing to follow answer with personal visit. Triflers need not apply.
Several middle-aged men of means responded to Gunness' ads. One of these was John Moe, who arrived from Elbow Lake, Minnesota. He had brought more than $1,000 with him to pay off her mortgage, or so he told neighbors, whom Gunness introduced him to as her cousin. He disappeared from her farm within a week of his arrival. Next came George Anderson from Tarkio, Missouri who, like Peter Gunness and John Moe, was an immigrant from Norway.
During dinner with Anderson, she raised the issue of her mortgage. Anderson agreed that he would pay this off if they decided to wed. Late that night, Anderson awoke to see her standing over him, holding a guttering candle in her hand and with a strange, sinister expression on her face. Without uttering a word, she ran from the room. Anderson fled from the house, soon taking a train to Missouri.
The suitors kept coming, but none, except for Anderson, ever left the Gunness farm. By this time, she had begun ordering huge trunks to be delivered to her home. Hack driver Clyde Sturgis delivered many such trunks to her from La Porte and later remarked how the heavyset woman would lift these enormous trunks "like boxes of marshmallows", tossing them onto her wide shoulders and carrying them into the house. She kept the shutters of her house closed day and night; farmers traveling past the dwelling at night saw her digging in the hog pen.
Ole B. Budsberg, an elderly widower from Iola, Wisconsin, appeared next. He was last seen alive at the La Porte Savings Bank on April 6, 1907, when he mortgaged his Wisconsin land there, signing over a deed and obtaining several thousand dollars in cash. Ole B. Budsberg's sons, Oscar and Mathew Budsberg, had no idea that their father had gone off to visit Gunness. When they finally discovered his destination, they wrote to her; she promptly responded, saying she had never seen their father.
Several other middle-aged men appeared and disappeared in brief visits to the Gunness farm throughout 1907. Then, in December 1907, Andrew Helgelien, a bachelor farmer from Aberdeen, South Dakota, wrote to her and was warmly received. The pair exchanged many letters, until a letter that overwhelmed Helgelien, written in Gunness' own careful handwriting and dated January 13, 1908. This letter was later found at the Helgelien farm. It read:
To the Dearest Friend in the World: No woman in the world is happier than I am. I know that you are now to come to me and be my own. I can tell from your letters that you are the man I want. It does not take one long to tell when to like a person, and you I like better than anyone in the world, I know. Think how we will enjoy each other's company. You, the sweetest man in the whole world. We will be all alone with each other. Can you conceive of anything nicer? I think of you constantly. When I hear your name mentioned, and this is when one of the dear children speaks of you, or I hear myself humming it with the words of an old love song, it is beautiful music to my ears. My heart beats in wild rapture for you, My Andrew, I love you. Come prepared to stay forever.
In response to her letter, Helgelien flew to her side in January 1908. He had with him a check for $2,900, his savings, which he had drawn from his local bank. A few days after Helgelien arrived, he and Gunness appeared at the Savings Bank in La Porte and deposited the check. Helgelien vanished a few days later, but Gunness appeared at the Savings Bank to make a $500 deposit and another deposit of $700 in the State Bank. At this time, she started to have problems with Ray Lamphere.
In March 1908, Gunness sent several letters to a farmer and horse dealer in Topeka, Kansas named Lon Townsend, inviting him to visit her; he decided to put off the visit until spring, and thus did not see her before a fire at her farm. Gunness was also in correspondence with a man from Arkansas and sent him a letter dated May 4, 1908. He would have visited her, but did not because of the fire at her farm. Gunness allegedly promised marriage to a suitor Bert Albert, which did not go through because of his lack of wealth.
Turning Point
The hired hand Ray Lamphere was deeply in love with Gunness; he performed any chore for her, no matter how gruesome. He became jealous of the many men who arrived to court his employer and began making scenes. She fired him on February 3, 1908. Shortly after dispensing with Lamphere, she presented herself at the La Porte courthouse. She declared that her former employee was not in his right mind and was a menace to the public. She somehow convinced local authorities to hold a sanity hearing. Lamphere was pronounced sane and released. Gunness was back a few days later to complain to the sheriff that Lamphere had visited her farm and argued with her. She contended that he posed a threat to her family and had Lamphere arrested for trespassing.
Lamphere returned again and again to see her, but she drove him away. Lamphere made thinly disguised threats; on one occasion, he confided to farmer William Slater, "Helgelien won't bother me no more. We fixed him for keeps." Helgelien had long since disappeared from the precincts of La Porte, or so it was believed. However, his brother, Asle Helgelien, was disturbed when Andrew failed to return home and he wrote to Belle in Indiana, asking her about his sibling's whereabouts. Gunness wrote back, telling Asle Helgelien that his brother was not at her farm and probably went to Norway to visit relatives. Asle Helgelien wrote back saying that he did not believe his brother would do that; moreover, he believed that his brother was still in the La Porte area, the last place he was seen or heard from. Gunness brazened it out; she told him that if he wanted to come and look for his brother, she would help conduct a search, but she cautioned him that searching for missing persons was an expensive proposition. If she were to be involved in such a manhunt, she stated, Asle Helgelien should be prepared to pay her for her efforts. Asle Helgelien did come to La Porte, but not until May.
Lamphere represented an unresolved danger to her; now Asle Helgelien was making inquiries that could very well send her to the gallows. She told a lawyer in La Porte, M.E. Leliter, that she feared for her life and that of her children. Ray Lamphere, she said, had threatened to kill her and burn her house down. She wanted to make out a will, in case Lamphere went through with his threats. Leliter complied and drew up her will. She left her entire estate to her children and then departed Leliter's offices. She went to one of the La Porte banks holding the mortgage for her property and paid this off. She did not go to the police to tell them about Lamphere's allegedly life-threatening conduct. The reason for this, most later concluded, was that there had been no threats; she was merely setting the stage for her own arson.
Lamphere suspected of arson and murder
Joe Maxson, who had been hired to replace Lamphere in February 1908, awoke in the early hours of April 28, 1908, smelling smoke in his room, which was on the second floor of the Gunness house. He opened the hall door to a sheet of flames. Maxson screamed Gunness' name and those of her children but got no response. He slammed the door and then, in his underwear, leapt from the second-story window of his room, barely surviving the fire that was closing in about him. He raced to town to get help, but by the time the old-fashioned hook and ladder arrived at the farm at early dawn the farmhouse was a gutted heap of smoking ruins. Four bodies were found inside the house. One of the bodies was that of a woman who could not immediately be identified as Gunness, since she had no head. The head was never found. The bodies of her children were found still in their beds. County Sheriff Smutzer had somehow heard about Lamphere’s alleged threats; he took one look at the carnage and quickly sought out the ex-handyman. Leliter came forward to recount his tale about Gunness' will and how she feared Lamphere would kill her and her family and burn her house down.
Lamphere did not help his cause much. At the moment Sheriff Smutzer confronted him and before a word was uttered by the lawman, Lamphere exclaimed, "Did Widow Gunness and the kids get out all right?" He was then told about the fire, but he denied having anything to do with it, claiming that he was not near the farm when the blaze occurred. A youth, John Solyem, was brought forward. He said that he had been watching the Gunness place and that he saw Lamphere running down the road from the Gunness house just before the structure erupted in flames. Lamphere snorted to the boy: "You wouldn't look me in the eye and say that!"
"Yes, I will", replied Solyem. "You found me hiding behind the bushes and you told me you'd kill me if I didn't get out of there." Lamphere was arrested and charged with murder and arson. Then scores of investigators, sheriff's deputies, coroner's men and many volunteers began to search the ruins for evidence.
The body of the headless woman was of deep concern to La Porte residents. C. Christofferson, a neighboring farmer, took one look at the charred remains of this body and said that it was not the remains of Belle Gunness. So did another farmer, L. Nicholson, and so did Mrs. Austin Cutler, an old friend of Gunness. More of Gunness' old friends, Mrs. May Olander and Mr. Sigward Olsen, arrived from Chicago. They examined the remains of the headless woman and said it was not Gunness.
Doctors then measured the remains, and, making allowances for the missing neck and head, stated the corpse was that of a woman who stood five feet three inches tall and weighed no more than 150 pounds. Friends and neighbors, as well as the La Porte clothiers who made her dresses and other garments, swore that Gunness was taller than 5'8" and weighed between 180 and 200 pounds. Detailed measurements of the body were compared with those on file with several La Porte stores where she purchased her apparel.
When the two sets of measurements were compared, the authorities concluded that the headless woman could not possibly have been Belle Gunness, even when the ravages of the fire on the body were taken into account. (The flesh was badly burned but intact). Moreover, Dr. J. Meyers examined the internal organs of the dead woman. He sent stomach contents of the victims to a pathologist in Chicago, who reported months later that the organs contained lethal doses of strychnine.
Morbid Discovery
Gunness' dentist, Dr. Ira P. Norton, said that if the teeth/dental work of the headless corpse had been located he could definitely ascertain if it was she. Thus Louis "Klondike" Schultz, a former miner, was hired to build a sluice and begin sifting the debris (as more bodies were unearthed, the sluice was used to isolate human remains on a larger scale). On May 19, 1908, a piece of bridgework was found consisting of two human canine teeth, their roots still attached, porcelain teeth and gold crown work in between. Norton identified them as work done for Gunness. As a result, Coroner Charles Mack officially concluded that the adult female body discovered in the ruins was Belle Gunness.
Asle Helgelien arrived in La Porte and told Sheriff Smutzer that he believed his brother had met with foul play at Gunness' hands. Then, Joe Maxson came forward with information that could not be ignored: He told the Sheriff that Gunness had ordered him to bring loads of dirt by wheelbarrow to a large area surrounded by a high wire fence where the hogs were fed. Maxson said that there were many deep depressions in the ground that had been covered by dirt. These filled-in holes, Gunness had told Maxson, contained rubbish. She wanted the ground made level, so he filled in the depressions.
Smutzer took a dozen men back to the farm and began to dig. On May 3, 1908, the diggers unearthed the body of Jennie Olson (vanished December 1906). Then they found the small bodies of two unidentified children. Subsequently the body of Andrew Helgelien was unearthed (his overcoat was found to be worn by Lamphere). As days progressed and the gruesome work continued, one body after another was discovered in Gunness' hog pen:
● Ole B. Budsberg of Iola, Wisconsin, (vanished May 1907);
● Thomas Lindboe, who had left Chicago and had gone to work as a hired man for Gunness three years earlier;
● Henry Gurholdt of Scandinavia, Wisconsin, who had gone to wed her a year earlier, taking $1,500 to her; a watch corresponding to one belonging to Gurholdt was found with a body;
● Olaf Svenherud, from Chicago;
● John Moe of Elbow Lake, Minnesota; his watch was found in Lamphere's possession;
● Olaf Lindbloom, age 35 from Wisconsin.
Reports of other possible victims began to come in:
● William Mingay, a coachman of New York City, who had left that city on April 1, 1904;
● Herman Konitzer of Chicago who disappeared in January 1906;
● Charles Edman of New Carlisle, Indiana;
● George Berry of Tuscola, Illinois;
● Christie Hilkven of Dovre, Barron County, Wisconsin, who sold his farm and came to La Porte in 1906;
● Chares Neiburg, a 28-year-old Scandinavian immigrant who lived in Philadelphia, told friends that he was going to visit Gunness in June 1906 and never came back — he had been working for a saloon keeper and took $500 with him;
● John H. McJunkin of Coraopolis (near Pittsburgh) left his wife in December 1906 after corresponding with a La Porte woman;
● Olaf Jensen, a Norwegian immigrant of Carroll, Indiana, wrote his relatives in 1906 he was going to marry a wealthy widow at La Porte;
● Henry Bizge of La Porte who disappeared June 1906 and his hired man named Edward Canary of Pink Lake Ill who also vanished 1906;
● Bert Chase of Mishawaka, Indiana sold his butcher shop and told friends of a wealthy widow and that he was going to look her up; his brother received a telegram supposedly from Aberdeen, South Dakota claiming Bert had been killed in a train wreck; his brother investigated and found the telegram was fictitious;
● Tonnes Peterson Lien of Rushford, Minnesota, is alleged to have disappeared April 2, 1907;
● A gold ring marked "S.B. May 28, 1907" was found in the ruins;
● A hired man named George Bradley of Tuscola, Illinois, is alleged to have gone to La Porte to meet a widow and three children in October 1907;
● T.J. Tiefland of Minneapolis is alleged to have come to see Gunness in 1907;
● Frank Riedinger a farmer of Waukesha, Wisconsin, came to Indiana in 1907 to marry and never returned;
● Emil Tell, a Swede from Kansas City, Missouri, is alleged to have gone in 1907 to La Porte;
● Lee Porter of Bartonville, Oklahoma separated from his wife and told his brother he was going to marry a wealthy widow at La Porte;
● John E. Hunter left Duquesne, Pennsylvania, on November 25, 1907 after telling his daughters he was going to marry a wealthy widow in Northern Indiana.
● Two other Pennsylvanians — George Williams of Wapawallopen and Ludwig Stoll of Mount Yeager — also left their homes to marry in the West.
● Abraham Phillips, a railway man of Burlington, West Virginia, left in the winter of 1907 to go to Northern Indiana and marry a rich widow — a railway watch was found in the debris of the house.
● Benjamin Carling of Chicago, Illinois, was last seen by his wife in 1907 after telling her that he was going to La Porte to secure an investment with a rich widow; he had with him $1,000 from an insurance company and borrowed money from several investors as well; in June 1908 his widow was able to identify his remains from La Porte's Pauper's cemetery by the contour of his skull and three missing teeth;
● Aug. Gunderson of Green Lake, Wisconsin;
● Ole Oleson of Battle Creek, Michigan;
● Lindner Nikkelsen of Huron, South Dakota;
● Andrew Anderson of Lawrence, Kansas;
● Johann Sorensen of St. Joseph, Missouri;
● A possible victim was a man named Hinkley;
Reported unnamed victims were:
● a daughter of Mrs. H. Whitzer of Toledo, Ohio, who had attended Indiana University near La Porte in 1902;
● an unknown man and woman are alleged to have disappeared in September 1906, the same night Jennie Olson went missing. Gunness claimed they were a Los Angeles "professor" and his wife who had taken Jennie to California;
● a brother of Miss Jennie Graham of Waukesha, Wisconsin, who had left her to marry a rich widow in La Porte but vanished;
● a hired man from Ohio age 50 name unknown is alleged to have disappeared and Gunness became the "heir" to his horse and buggy;
● an unnamed man from Montana told people at a resort he was going to sell Gunness his horse and buggy, which were found with several other horses and buggies at the farm.
Most of the remains found on the property could not be identified. Because of the crude recovery methods, the exact number of individuals unearthed on the Gunness farm is unknown, but is believed to be approximately twelve. On May 19, 1908 remains of approximately seven unknown victims were buried in two coffins in unmarked graves in the pauper's section of LaPorte's Pine Lake Cemetery. Andrew Helgelien and Jennie Olson are buried in La Porte's Patton Cemetery, near Peter Gunness.
The trial of Ray Lamphere
Ray Lamphere was arrested on May 22, 1908 and tried for murder and arson. He denied the charges of arson and murder that were filed against him. His defense hinged on the assertion that the body was not Gunness'.
Lamphere's lawyer, Wirt Worden, developed evidence that contradicted Norton's identification of the teeth and bridgework. A local jeweler testified that though the gold in the bridgework had emerged from the fire almost undamaged, the fierce heat of the conflagration had melted the gold plating on several watches and items of gold jewelry. Local doctors replicated the conditions of the fire by attaching a similar piece of dental bridgework to a human jawbone and placing it in a blacksmith’s forge. The real teeth crumbled and disintegrated; the porcelain teeth came out pocked and pitted, with the gold parts rather melted (both the artificial elements were damaged to a greater degree than those in the bridgework offered as evidence of Gunness' identity). The hired hand Joe Maxson and another man also testified that they’d seen "Klondike" Schultz take the bridgework out of his pocket and plant it just before it was "discovered". Lamphere was found guilty of arson, but acquitted of murder. On November 26, 1908, he was sentenced to 20 years in the State Prison (in Michigan City). He died of tuberculosis on December 30, 1909.
On January 14, 1910, the Rev. E. A. Schell came forward with a confession that Lamphere was said to have made to him while the clergyman was comforting the dying man. In it, Lamphere revealed Gunness' crimes and swore that she was still alive. Lamphere had stated to the Reverend Schell and to a fellow convict, Harry Meyers, shortly before his death, that he had not murdered anyone, but that he had helped Gunness bury many of her victims. When a victim arrived, she made him comfortable, charming him and cooking a large meal. She then drugged his coffee and when the man was in a stupor, she split his head with a meat chopper. Sometimes she would simply wait for the suitor to go to bed and then enter the bedroom by candlelight and chloroform her sleeping victim. A powerful woman, Gunness would then carry the body to the basement, place it on a table, and dissect it. She then bundled the remains and buried these in the hog pen and the grounds about the house. Belle had become an expert at dissection, thanks to instruction she had received from her second husband, the butcher Peter Gunness. To save time, she sometimes poisoned her victims' coffee with strychnine. She also varied her disposal methods, sometimes dumping the corpse into the hog-scalding vat and covering the remains with quicklime. Lamphere even stated that if Belle was overly tired after murdering one of her victims, she merely chopped up the remains and, in the middle of the night, stepped into her hog pen and fed the remains to the hogs.
The handyman also cleared up the mysterious question of the headless female corpse found in the smoking ruins of Gunness' home. Gunness had lured this woman from Chicago on the pretense of hiring her as a housekeeper only days before she decided to make her permanent escape from La Porte. Gunness, according to Lamphere, had drugged the woman, then bashed in her head and decapitated the body, taking the head, which had weights tied to it, to a swamp where she threw it into deep water. Then she chloroformed her children, smothered them to death, and dragged their small bodies, along with the headless corpse, to the basement.
She dressed the female corpse in her old clothing, and removed her false teeth, placing these beside the headless corpse to assure it being identified as Belle Gunness. She then torched the house and fled. Lamphere had helped her, he admitted, but she had not left by the road where he waited for her after the fire had been set. She had betrayed her one-time partner in crime in the end by cutting across open fields and then disappearing into the woods. Some accounts suggest that Lamphere admitted that he took her to Stillwell (a town about nine miles from La Porte) and saw her off on a train to Chicago.
Lamphere said that Gunness was a rich woman, that she had murdered 42 men by his count, perhaps more, and had taken amounts from them ranging from $1,000 to $32,000. She had allegedly accumulated more than $250,000 through her murder schemes over the years—a huge fortune for those days (about $6.3 million in 2008 dollars). She had a small amount remaining in one of her savings accounts, but local banks later admitted that she had indeed withdrawn most of her funds shortly before the fire. The fact that Gunness withdrew most of her money suggested that she was planning to evade the law.
Aftermath and Belle's fate
Gunness was, for several decades, allegedly seen or sighted in cities and towns throughout the United States. Friends, acquaintances, and amateur detectives apparently spotted her on the streets of Chicago, San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles. As late as 1931, Gunness was reported alive and living in a Mississippi town, where she supposedly owned a great deal of property and lived the life of a doyenne. Smutzer, for more than 20 years, received an average of two reports a month. She became part of American criminal folklore, a female Bluebeard.
The bodies of Gunness' three children were found in the home's wreckage, but the headless adult female corpse found with them was never positively identified. Gunness' true fate is unknown; La Porte residents were divided between believing that she was killed by Lamphere and that she had faked her own death. In 1931, a woman known as "Esther Carlson" was arrested in Los Angeles for poisoning August Lindstrom for money. Two people who had known Gunness claimed to recognize her from photographs, but the identification was never proved. Carlson died while awaiting trial.
Burial, exhumation and DNA analysis
The body believed to be that of Belle Gunness was buried next to her first husband at Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois.
On November 5, 2007, with the permission of descendants of Belle's sister, the headless body was exhumed from Gunness' grave in Forest Home Cemetery by a team of forensic anthropologists and graduate students from the University of Indianapolis in an effort to learn her true identity. It was initially hoped that a sealed envelope flap on a letter found at the victim's farm would contain enough DNA to be compared to that of the body. Unfortunately, there was not enough DNA there, so efforts continue to find a reliable source for comparison purposes, including the disinterment of additional bodies and contact with known living relatives.
Legacy
● Damon Runyon based a 1937 short story, "Lonely Heart", on the Gunness case, including the handyman.
● Belle Gunness' notoriety was formidable enough to inspire a folk song in 1938.
● Her story was fictionalized on the radio show Nick Harris, Detective under the name, "The Female Ogre." Her character was named "Mrs. Ruth Cooper." It was first broadcast on April 7, 1940.
● The character of Bessie Denker from the 1954 novel The Bad Seed (later adapted into a Broadway play and a film) is based roughly on Belle Gunness.
● The 2004 movie, Method, was inspired by and loosely based on the Belle Gunness murders.
● In 2005, Anne Berit Vestby directed the 50-minute documentary Belle Gunness- a serial killer from Selbu.
● In 2007, Rob Zombie/ex-Marilyn Manson guitarist John 5 released the album The Devil Knows My Name, including the track "Black Widow of La Porte," a direct reference to Gunness. This song is a playable track in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.
● E. L. Doctorow based a short story, "A House on the Plains," on the Gunness case.
● Backroad Brewery, a microbrewery located in La Porte, Indiana produces an Irish style dry stout named after Belle Gunness.
● The Steve Alten book "Meg 4: Hell's Aquarium " features a megalodon pup name Belle after Gunness.
● The song "Bella the Butcher" featured on the band Macabre's album Grim Scary Tales is based on Belle Gunness.
● The series True Nightmares on Investigation Discovery, which aired October 14, 2015, profiled Belle Gunness. The episode was called "Crazy Love".
3. Arnfinn Nesset (22 – 138+)
 |
| (Arnfinn Nesset) |
Arnfinn Nesset (born October 25, 1936) is a Norwegian former nurse, nursing home manager and convicted serial killer. His crimes include the murders of at least 22 people, as well as attempted murder, document forgery and embezzlement. He may have murdered up to 138 people. In 1983 he was convicted of poisoning 22 patients and sentenced to 21 years in prison. Released in 2004, he is presumed to be living at an undisclosed location in Norway, under a new name.
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Nurse - Poisoner
Number of victims: 22 – 138+
Date of murders: 1977 - 1980
Date of arrest: January 1981
Date of birth: October 25, 1936
Victims profile: Men and women (geriatric institution patients)
Method of murder: Poisoning (Curacit, a muscle relaxing drug)
Location: Orkdal, Norway
Status: Sentenced to 21 years in prison in 1983; the maximum punishment possible by Norwegian law. Released in 2004
Early life
Born in Trøndelag, Norway in 1936 out of wedlock, Nesset was raised by his mother and remained with her throughout his upbringing and adulthood, living at her childhood home. His father was absent from his life and he never established contact with him. He was educated as a registered nurse and by 1977 he was hired as a head nurse at a larger nursing home in Orkdal municipality.
Crimes
During the summer and autumn of 1981, a series of suspicious deaths was uncovered at the nursing home in Orkdal, Sør-Trøndelag where Nesset was working as manager. When questioned by police, Arnfinn Nesset initially confessed to the murders of 27 patients who he claimed to have killed by injecting them with suxamethonium chloride, a muscle relaxing drug. He was charged with 25 counts of homicide, but later retracted his confession and denied all charges throughout the rest of his five-month-long trial.
Nesset was convicted in March 1983 of poisoning 22 patients with suxamethonium chloride. He was also convicted of one count of attempted murder and acquitted on two other counts. Nesset may have killed as many as 138 of his patients.
He was sentenced to 21 years in prison, the maximum term available under Norwegian law at the time, to be followed by ten years of preventative detention. However he was released after serving 12 years of this sentence for good behaviour and 10 years supervision, is now reported to be living in an undisclosed location under an assumed name. The chief prosecutor at his trial, Olaf Jakhelln described Nesset as "an ambitious man, who wanted complete control over life and death [of his victims]."
2. Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow (63)
 |
| (Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow) |
Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow (1990, Mogadishu, Somalia – 22 September 2013) was a Norwegian Islamist terrorist and Al-Shabaab-member who was one of four perpetrators of the 2013 Westgate shopping mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya that killed 63 people. He is considered Norway's worst terrorist after Anders Behring Breivik.
Early life
Dhuhulow came to Norway from Mogadishu, Somalia as a refugee in 1999, settling with what were claimed to be relatives in Larvik. Later, several of the claimed family relations have been exposed as false, including an alleged sister who has been prosecuted for false testimony in connection with the Westgate attack. Dhuhulow and the alleged sister were granted Norwegian citizenship in 2003 on grounds of their family relations. His parents and several other relatives reportedly died or were killed in Somalia.
While described as hot-headed and as having anger issues during his first school years, he had reportedly become a kind and hard-working model student by tenth grade. Although well-liked, he was described by himself and by others as being lonely, and he became very religious as a practicing Muslim who prayed five times a day and started bringing a prayer rug with him during upper secondary school. He regularly attended the Larvik Mosque, where he became acquainted with Mohyeldeen Mohammad.
He was a prolific user on web forums, at times displaying clear jihadist sympathies, including on a site hosted by the Islamic Association with 2,500 comments from 2006 to 2008. His activities, including contacts with central members of Profetens Ummah led him to be brought in for talks with the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST).
Westgate shopping mall attack
Dhuhulow returned to Somalia in 2009, where he got married, staying there except for a brief trip back to Norway in 2010. In 2012 he was arrested, suspected of the murder of radio journalist Hassan Yusuf Absuge in Mogadishu. He was eventually acquitted from the charges, while another member of Al-Shabaab was sentenced to death. Dhuhulow reportedly attended an Al-Shabaab training camp in El Buur, and was involved in operations in Mogadishu and Kismayo, eventually becoming part of a 'martyrdom brigade'.
After the Westgate shopping mall attack in September 2013, it was reported that what appeared to be Dhuhulow was seen firing an AK-47 in CCTV footage, as one of four terrorists affiliated with Al-Shabaab who took part in the attack in which 67 people were killed (including all four terrorists), and almost 200 wounded. Dhuhulow's cell phone traffic suggests he may have been the leader of the terror cell during the attack. His presence at the scene was later confirmed through forensic dentistry.
An estimated 20 to 30 Norwegians have reportedly travelled to fight for Al-Shabaab. Al-Shabaab commander Ikrima lived for several years as an asylum seeker in Norway, and is believed by Kenyan intelligence to have masterminded the Westgate attack. The perpetrators of the attack were publicly hailed by Ubaydullah Hussain, spokesperson of the Norwegian Islamist group Profetens Ummah.
Dhuhulow is the subject of the 2015 book En norsk terrorist. Portrett av den nye ekstremismen (A Norwegian terrorist. Portrait of the new extremism) by journalist Lars Akerhaug, who has directed strong criticism towards Norwegian authorities for their failed handling of Dhuhulow and "cowardice" prior to the attack, requesting a fact-finding commission similar to the one after the 2011 Norway attacks, believing that the victims of the Westgate attack deserve an explanation from Norwegian authorities. Researcher Stig Jarle Hansen has voiced similar concerns, holding that the issue of Norwegian Al-Shabaab-fighters is taken too lightly in Norway (the number of fighters is the same as the United Kingdom despite many more Somalis living there). Dhuhulow was the subject of a BBC Newsnight report that aired on 17 October 2013, and of the NRK Brennpunkt documentary Terroristen fra Larvik (The terrorist from Larvik) aired on 21 October 2014. He is considered Norway's worst terrorist after Anders Behring Breivik.
1. Anders Behring Breivik (77)
|
| (Anders Behring Breivik) |
Anders Behring Breivik (born 13 February 1979) is the perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks. In a sequential bombing and mass shooting on 22 July 2011, he bombed government buildings in Oslo, resulting in eight deaths, then carried out a mass shooting at a camp of the Workers' Youth League (AUF) of the Labour Party on the island of Utøya, where he killed 69 people, mostly teenagers. He was convicted of mass murder, causing a fatal explosion, and terrorism in August 2012.
Breivik described his far-right militant ideology in a compendium of texts entitled 2083: A European Declaration of Independence, which he distributed electronically on the day of the attacks. In it he lays out his worldview, which includes Islamophobia, support of Zionism and opposition to feminism. It regards Islam and "cultural Marxism" as "the enemy", and argues for the violent annihilation of "Eurabia" and multiculturalism, and the deportation of all Muslims from Europe based on the model of the Beneš decrees. Breivik wrote that his main motive for the atrocities was to market his manifesto. Breivik had been active on several anti-Islamic and nationalist blogs, including document.no, and was a regular reader of Gates of Vienna, the Brussels Journal and Jihad Watch.
Two teams of court-appointed psychiatrists examined Breivik prior to his trial; in the first report Breivik was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and a second evaluation was commissioned following widespread criticism of the first report. The second psychiatric evaluation was published one week before the trial, concluding that Breivik was not psychotic during the attacks nor during the evaluation; he was diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder. His trial began on 16 April 2012, and closing arguments were held on 22 June.
On 24 August 2012, Oslo District Court found Breivik sane and guilty of murdering 77 people. He was sentenced to 21 years of preventive detention, a special form of prison sentence, with a minimum of 10 years and the possibility of extension for as long as he is deemed a danger to society; he will probably remain in prison for life. This is the maximum penalty in Norway. Breivik announced that he does not recognize the legitimacy of the court, and therefore does not accept its decision—though he claims he "cannot" appeal, as this would legitimize Oslo District Court.
2011 Norway attacks
Classification: Mass murderer
Characteristics: Bombing and mass shooting
Number of victims: 77
Date of murders: July 22, 2011
Date of arrest: Same day
Date of birth: February 13, 1979
Victims profile: Anne Lise Holter, 51 / Hanne Ekroll Løvlie, 30 / Ida Marie Hill, 34 / Jon Vegard Lervåg, 32 / Hanna Endresen, 61 / Tove Åshill Knutsen, 56 / Kjersti Sandberg, 26 / Kai Hauge, 32 / Monica Elisabeth Bøsei, 45 / Christopher Perreau, 25 / Tore Eikeland, 21 / Havard Vederhus, 21 / Hanne Kristine Fridtun, 19 / Anders Kristiansen, 18 / Tarald Kuven Mjelde, 18 / Guro Vartdal Håvoll, 18 / Jamil Rafal Yasin, 21 / Ismail Haji Ahmed, 19 / Karar Mustafa Qasim, 19 / Bano Abobakar Rashid, 18 / Mona Abdinur, 18 / Gizem Dogan, 17 / Lejla Selaci, 17 / Henrik André Pedersen, 27 / Sverre Flåte Bjørkavåg, 28 / Gunnar Linaker, 23 / Tamta Lipartelliani, 23 / Diderik Aamodt Olsen, 19 / Lene Maria Bergum, 19 / Andreas Edvardsen, 18 / Henrik Rasmussen, 18 / Simon Sæbø, 18 / Carina Borgund, 18 / Ingrid Berg Heggelund, 18 / Monica Iselin Didriksen, 18 / Tina Sukuvara, 18 / Espen Jørgensen, 18 / Sondre Furseth Dale, 17 / Sondre Kjøren, 17 / Syvert Knudsen, 17 / Torjus Jakobsen Blattmann, 17 / Håkon Ødegaard, 17 / Ronja Søttar Johansen, 17 / Eva Kathinka Lütken, 17 / Isabel Victoria Green Sogn, 17 / Silje Merete Fjellbu, 17 / Aleksander Aas Eriksen, 16 / Steinar Jessen, 16 / Andrine hills Espeland, 16 / Margrethe Bøyum Kløven, 16 / Elisabeth Trønnes Lie, 16 / Kevin Daae Berland, 15 / Karin Elena Holst, 15 / Johannes Buø, 14 / Trond Berntsen, 51 / Rune Havdal, 43 / Hanne Balch Fjalestad, 43 / Porntip Ardam, 21 / Bendik Rosnæs Ellingsen, 18 / Even Flugstad Malmedal, 18 / Fredrik Lund Schjetne, 18 / Silje Stamneshagen, 18 / Synne Røyneland, 18 / Andreas Dalby Grønnesby, 17 / Ida Beathe Rogne, 17 / Maria Maagerø Johannesen, 17 / Victoria Stenberg, 17 / Thomas Margido Antonsen, 16 / Åsta Sofie Helland Dahl, 16 / Marianne Sandvik, 16 / Eivind Hovden, 15 / Emil Okkenhaug, 15 / Birgitte Smetbak, 15 / Modupe Ellen Awoyemi, 15 / Ruth Benedicte Vatndal Nilsen, 15 / Sharidyn Svebakk-Bøhn, 14 / Snorre Haller, 30
Method of murder: Bombing / Shooting
Location: Oslo/Utøya island, Norway
Status: Sentenced to containment—a special form of a prison sentence that can be extended indefinitely—with a time frame of 21 years and a minimum time of 10 years, the maximum penalty in Norway, on August 24, 2012
Biography
Early life
Breivik was born in Oslo on 13 February 1979, the son of Wenche Behring (1946–2013), a nurse, and Jens David Breivik (born 1935), a civil economist, who worked as a diplomat for the Norwegian Embassy in London and later Paris.
He spent the first year of his life in London until his parents divorced when he was one year old. His father, who later married a diplomat, fought for his custody but failed. When Breivik was four, two reports were filed expressing concern about his mental health, concluding that Anders ought to be removed from parental care.
One psychologist in one of the reports made a note of the boy's peculiar smile, suggesting it was not anchored in his emotions but was rather a deliberate response to his environment. In another report by psychologists from Norway's centre for child and youth psychiatry (SSBU) concerns were raised about how his mother treated him: "She 'sexualised' the young Breivik, hit him, and frequently told him that she wished that he were dead."
In the report Wenche Behring is described as "a woman with an extremely difficult upbringing, borderline personality structure and an all-encompassing if only partially visible depression" who "projects her primitive aggressive and sexual fantasies onto him [Breivik]". The psychologist who wrote the report was later forbidden from giving evidence in court by Ms Behring who herself was excused from testifying on health grounds.
Breivik lived with his mother and his half sister in the west-end of Oslo and regularly visited his father and stepmother in France, until they divorced when he was 12. His mother also remarried, to a Norwegian Army officer. His family name is Breivik, while Behring, his mother's maiden name, is his middle name and not part of the family name. His family name comes from Breivika in Hadsel, and literally means "broad vik".
Anders Breivik has criticised both of his parents for supporting the policies of the Norwegian Labour Party, and his mother for being, in his opinion, a moderate feminist. He wrote about his upbringing: "I do not approve of the super-liberal, matriarchal upbringing as it completely lacked discipline and has contributed to feminising me to a certain degree."
Breivik attended Smestad Grammar School, Ris Junior High, Hartvig Nissens Upper Secondary School and Oslo Commerce School. A former classmate has recalled that he was an intelligent student who often took care of people who were bullied. Breivik chose to be confirmed into the Lutheran Church of Norway at the age of 15.
When he reached adolescence Breivik's behaviour was described as having become rebellious. In his early teen years he was a prolific graffiti artist, part of the hip hop community in Oslo West. He took his graffiti much more seriously than his comrades and was caught by the police on several occasions; however, Child Welfare Services were notified only once. He was also fined on two occasions.
According to Breivik's mother, after he was caught spraying graffiti on walls in 1995, at the age of 16, and fined, his father stopped contact with him. They have not been in contact since then. The opposite view is claimed by Breivik's father, that it was his son who broke off contact with him and that he would always have welcomed Anders despite his destructive activities. At this age he also lost contact with his closest friends, when he was expelled from the gang. On 23 March 2013 Breiviks mother Wenche Behring Breivik died from complications from illness. At the last visit to her son, she was granted permission to give him a consoling hug. Breivik has asked for permission by the prison officials to attend his mother's funeral service; the request was rejected.
School
Breivik attended Smestad Primary School and Ris middle school in the west of Oslo, and Hartvig Nissens school and Oslo Commerce School (1995–98). A classmate said that Breivik was perceived as an intelligent person, physically stronger than others of the same age; he took care of people who were bullied.
Since adolescence, Breivik had spent much time on weight training, and started using anabolic steroids. He cared a lot about his own looks and about appearing big and strong. In his early twenties he underwent cosmetic surgery, according to friends, in the chin, nose and forehead, and was very satisfied with the result.
Adulthood
Breivik was exempt from conscription to military service in the Norwegian Army and has no military training. The Norwegian Defence Security Department, which conducts the vetting process, say he was deemed "unfit for service" at the mandatory conscript assessment. In 1997, at age 18, he lost 2 million krone ($369,556) in the stock market.
After the age of 21 Breivik was in the customer service department of an unnamed company, working with "people from all countries" and being "kind to everyone". A former co-worker described him as an "exceptional colleague", while a close friend of his stated that he usually had a big ego and would be easily irritated by those of Middle Eastern or South Asian origin.
Planning attacks
Breivik claims that in 2002 (at the age of 23) he started a nine-year-plan to finance the 2011 attacks, founding his own computer programming business while working at the customer service company. He claims that his company grew to six employees and "several offshore bank accounts", and that he made his first million kroner at the age of 24. The company was later declared bankrupt and Breivik was reported for several breaches of the law. He then moved back to his mother's home, according to himself to save money. The first set of psychiatrists who evaluated him said in their report his mental health deteriorated at this stage and he went into a state of withdrawal and isolation. His declared assets in 2007 were about NOK 630,000. (US$116,410), according to Norwegian tax authority figures. He claims that by 2008 he had about NOK two million (US$369,556) and nine credit cards giving him access to €26,000 in credit.
In May 2009 he founded a farming company under the name "Breivik Geofarm", described as a farming sole proprietorship set up to cultivate vegetables, melons, roots and tubers.
Also in 2009 he visited Prague in an attempt to buy illegal weapons. He was unable to obtain a weapon there, and Breivik decided to obtain weapons through legal channels in Norway instead. He obtained one semi-automatic 9 mm Glock 17 pistol legally by demonstrating his membership in a pistol club in the police application for a gun licence, and the semi-automatic Ruger Mini-14 rifle by possessing a hunting licence. Breivik's manifesto included writings detailing how he played video games such as World of Warcraft to relax, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for "training-simulation". He further told a court in April 2012 that he trained for shooting using a holographic device while playing Call of Duty. He claimed it helped him gain target acquisition.
Breivik had no declared income in 2009 and his assets amounted to 390,000 kroner ($72,063), according to Norwegian tax authority figures. He states that in January 2010 his funds were "depleting gradually". On 23 June 2011, a month before the attacks, he paid the outstanding amount on his nine credit cards so he could have access to funds during his preparations.
In late June or early July 2011, he moved to a rural area south of Åsta in Åmot, Hedmark county, about 140 km (87 mi) northeast of Oslo, the site of his farm. As he admits in his manifesto he used the company as a cover to legally obtain large amounts of artificial fertiliser and other chemicals for the manufacturing of explosives. A farming supplier sold Breivik's company six tonnes of fertiliser in May. The newspaper Verdens Gang reported that after Breivik bought a small quantity of an explosive primer from an online shop in Poland, his name was among 60 passed to the Police Security Service (PST) by Norwegian Customs as having used the store to buy products. Speaking to the newspaper, Jon Fitje of PST said the information they found gave no indication of anything suspicious. In his manifesto Breivik described his first experiments with explosives, and details a successful test detonation at a remote location on 13 June 2011. He sets the cost of the preparations for the attacks at € 317,000 – "130,000 out of pocket and 187,500 euros in lost revenue over three years." [sic]
Breivik's farmer neighbour described him as looking like a "city dweller, who wore expensive shirts and who knew nothing about rural ways". Breivik had also covered up the windows of his house. The owner of a local bar, who once worked as a profiler of passengers' body language at Oslo airport, said there was nothing unusual about Breivik, who was an occasional customer at the bar.
2011 attacks
On 22 July 2011, Breivik allegedly bombed government buildings in Oslo, which resulted in eight deaths.
Within hours after the explosion he arrived at Utøya island, the site of a Labour Party youth camp, posing as a police officer and then opened fire on the unarmed adolescents present, reportedly killing 69. The youngest victim was Sharidyn Svebakk-Bøhn, who had just turned 14 years old.
Breivik confessed and stated that the purpose of the attack was to save Norway and Western Europe from a Muslim takeover, and that the Labour Party had to "pay the price" for "letting down Norway and the Norwegian people".
When armed police arrived on the island and confronted him, he surrendered without resistance. After arrest and outside court, Breivik was met with an angry crowd, some of whom shouted "burn in hell" or "traitor of country", while some used stronger words.
Arrest and preparations for trial
On 25 July 2011, Breivik was charged with violating paragraph 147a of the Norwegian criminal code, "destabilising or destroying basic functions of society" and "creating serious fear in the population", both of which are acts of terrorism under Norwegian law. He was ordered held for eight weeks, the first four in solitary confinement, pending further court proceedings. The custody was extended in subsequent hearings.
The indictment was ready in early March. The Director of Public Prosecutions had initially decided to censor the document to the public, leaving out the names of the victims as well as details about their slayings. Due to many reactions, this decision was reversed shortly prior to its release. On 30 March, the Borgarting Court of Appeal announced that it had scheduled the expected appeal case for 15 January 2013. It would have been conducted in the same specially constructed court room where the initial criminal case was tried.
Anders Behring Breivik has been remanded at Ila Prison since his arrest. There, he has at his disposal three prison cells: one where he can rest, sleep, and watch DVD movies or television, a second that is set up for him to use a PC without Internet connection, and a third cell with gym equipment that he can use. Only selected prison staff with special qualifications are allowed to work around him, and the prison management aims to not let his presence as a high-security prisoner affect any of the other inmates.
Subsequent to the January 2012 lifting of letters and visitors censorship for Breivik, he has received several inquiries from private individuals, and he has devoted time to writing back to like-minded people. According to one of his attorneys, Breivik is curious to learn whether his manifesto has begun to take root in society. Breivik's attorneys in consultation with Breivik are considering to have some of his interlocutors called to witness during the trial. Several media, both Norwegian and international, have requested interviews with Breivik. The first such was cancelled by the prison administration following a background check of the journalist in question. A second interview has been agreed to by Breivik, and the prison has requested a background check to be done by the police in the country where the journalist is from. No information has been given about the media organisations in question.
Psychiatric evaluation
Breivik underwent his first examination by court-appointed forensic psychiatrists in the autumn of 2011. The psychiatrists diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia, concluding that he had developed the disorder over time and was psychotic both when he carried out the attacks and during the observation. He was also diagnosed with abuse of non-dependence-producing substances antecedent of 22 July. The psychiatrists consequently found Breivik to be criminally insane.
According to the report, Breivik displayed inappropriate and blunted affect and a severe lack of empathy. He spoke incoherently in neologisms and had acted compulsively based on a universe of bizarre, grandiose and delusional thoughts. Breivik alluded to himself as the future regent of Norway, master of life and death, while calling himself "inordinately loving" and "Europe's most perfect knight since WWII". He was convinced that he was a warrior in a "low intensity civil war" and had been chosen to save his people. Breivik described plans to carry out further "executions of categories A, B and C traitors" by the thousands, the psychiatrists included, and to organise Norwegians in reservations for the purpose of selective breeding. Breivik believed himself to be the "knight Justiciar grand master" of a Templar organisation. He was deemed to be suicidal and homicidal by the psychiatrists.
According to his defence attorney, Breivik initially expressed surprise and felt insulted by the conclusions in the report. He later stated that "this provides new opportunities".
The outcome of Breivik's first competency evaluation was fiercely debated in Norway by mental health experts, over the court-appointed psychiatrists' opinion and the country's definition of criminal insanity. An extended panel of experts from the Norwegian Board of Forensic Medicine reviewed the submitted report and approved it "with no significant remarks". News in the meantime emerged that the psychiatric medical staff in charge of treating prisoners at Ila Detention and Security Prison did not make any observations that suggested he suffered from either psychosis, depression or was suicidal. According to senior psychiatrist Randi Rosenqvist, who was commissioned by the prison to examine Breivik, he rather appeared to have personality disorders.
Counsels representing families and victims filed requests that the court order a second opinion, while the prosecuting authority and Breivik's lawyer initially did not want new experts to be appointed. On 13 January 2012, after much public pressure, the Oslo District Court ordered a second expert panel to evaluate Breivik's mental state.[98] He initially refused to cooperate with new psychiatrists. He later changed his mind and in late February a new period of psychiatric observation, this time using different methods than the first period, was begun.
If the original diagnosis were upheld by the court, it would mean that Anders Behring Breivik could not be sentenced to prison. The prosecution may instead have requested that he be detained in a psychiatric hospital. Medical advice would then determine whether or not the courts decided to release him at some later point. If considered a perpetual danger to society, Breivik could have been kept in confinement for life.
Shortly after the second period of psychiatric observation prior to the trial was begun, the prosecution stated that they expected that Breivik would be declared legally insane. However, on 10 April 2012, the second psychiatric evaluation was published with the conclusion that Breivik was not psychotic during the attacks and he was not psychotic during their evaluation. Instead, they diagnosed antisocial personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder. Breivik expressed hope at being declared sane in a letter sent to several Norwegian newspapers shortly before his trial, writing about the prospect of being sent to a psychiatric ward he stated: "I must admit this is the worst thing that could have happened to me as it is the ultimate humiliation. To send a political activist to a mental hospital is more sadistic and evil than to kill him! It is a fate worse than death."
On 8 June 2012, Professor of Psychiatry Ulrik Fredrik Malt testified in court as an expert witness, stating that he finds it unlikely that Breivik is schizophrenic. According to Malt, Breivik suffers from Asperger syndrome, Tourette syndrome, narcissistic personality disorder and possibly paranoid psychosis.
Criminal trial
The criminal trial of Breivik began on 16 April 2012 in Oslo Courthouse under the jurisdiction of Oslo District Court. The appointed prosecutors are Inga Bejer Engh and Svein Holden with Geir Lippestad serving as Breivik's lead counsel for the defence. Closing arguments were held on 22 June.
Court verdict
On 24 August 2012 Breivik was adjudged sane and sentenced to containment—a special form of a prison sentence that can be extended indefinitely—with a time frame of 21 years and a minimum time of 10 years, the maximum penalty in Norway. Breivik's lead counsel Geir Lippestad confirmed that his client would not appeal the sentence.
The court stated that "many people share Breivik's conspiracy theory, including the Eurabia theory. The court finds that very few people, however, share Breivik's idea that the alleged 'Islamisation' should be fought with terror."
Post trial
As of 26 July 2012, Anders Behring Breivik had received almost 600 letters in his prison cell. While in pre-trial detention, Breivik had been allowed access to a computer without Internet connection. Following his trial, the computer was taken away, and was replaced with an electric typewriter. All correspondence from Breivik therefore must be sent on paper, and the prison authorities monitor the content. The newspaper Verdens Gang reported on 26 July 2012 that Breivik planned to set up an organisation he called the Conservative Revolutionary Movement which he envisioned consisting of around 50 right-wing activists in Europe, as well as an organization for imprisoned right-wing activists. The newspaper writes that Breivik has written to, among others, Peter Mangs and Beate Zschäpe. Since the trial he has spent 8–10 hours per day writing. He has said that he wants to write three books: the first being his own account of the events on the day of the attacks, the second discussing the ideology underlying his actions, and a third on his visions for the future. He has also stated that he wants to study political science during his prison sojourn.
Politicians from several Norwegian parties have protested Breivik's activities in prison, which they see as him continuing to espouse his ideology and possibly encouraging further criminal acts. The prison authorities have queried the Ministry of Justice on whether these activities, which Breivik terms as network building, can be perceived in the context of the terrorist acts he has committed and have received an affirmative reply from the ministry. This would mean that letters from Breivik may be confiscated. The clause which authorises such measures contains the wording, "...if the package contains information on planning or execution of punishable offense, evasion of the execution or acts which will disturb peace, order, and security".
On 23 July 2012, Breivik was transferred to Skien Prison. The transfer was unannounced to the public and unknown to Breivik himself due to reconstruction work at Ila Prison where Breivik was to serve out his prison sentence under psychiatric care due to inadequate security at Norwegian psychiatric hospitals. He was incarcerated at Skien for approximately ten weeks.
In November 2012, Breivik wrote a 27-page letter of complaint to the prison authorities about the security restrictions he was being held under, claiming that the prison director personally wanted to punish him. Among his complaints were that his cell is not adequately heated and he has to wear three layers of clothing to stay warm, guards interfere with his strictly-planned daily schedule, his cell is poorly decorated and has no view, his reading lamp is inadequate, guards supervise him while he is brushing his teeth and shaving and put indirect mental pressure on him to finish quickly by tapping their feet while waiting, he is not given candy and is served cold coffee, and he is strip-searched daily, sometimes by female guards. He has described his prison conditions as a "mini Abu Ghraib." Authorities only lifted one minor restriction against Breivik; his rubber safety pen, which he described as an "almost indescribable manifestation of sadism," was replaced with a regular pen. Breivik sent a list 12 demands to prison authorities in November, including easier communication with the outside world and a PlayStation 3 to replace the PlayStation 2 in his cell, because the PlayStation 3 offers more suitable games.
In February 2014, Breivik sent a letter to the Associated Press, in which he listed the 12 demands he had sent to prison authorities in November, and announced that he was going on hunger strike and would starve himself to death if the demands were not met. In the letter, he described the present conditions of his confinement as “torture.”
On 23 March 2013, Breivik's mother Wenche Behring Breivik died from complications from cancer. On the same day media said that mother and son "took farewell during a meeting at Ila last week. Breivik was permitted to move himself out of the cage in the visit room—to give his mother a goodbye hug (avskjedsklem)". Breivik had asked for permission by the prison officials to attend his mother's funeral service; the request was rejected.
Writings and video
Forums
Janne Kristiansen, Chief of the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST), has stated that Breivik "deliberately desisted from violent exhortations on the net [and] has more or less been a moderate, and has neither been part of any extremist network." He is reported to have written many posts on the Islam-critical website document.no. He also attended meetings of "Documents venner" (Friends of Document), affiliated with the website. Due to the media attention on his Internet activity following the 2011 attacks, document.no compiled a complete list of comments made by Breivik on its website between September 2009 and June 2010.
In his writings Breivik displays admiration for the English Defence League (EDL), expressing an interest in starting a similar organisation in Norway, and writing that he had advised them to pursue a strategy of provoking overreaction from "Jihad Youth/Extreme-Marxists" which in turn might draw more people to join the organisation. On 25 July 2011 British Prime Minister David Cameron announced a review of Britain's own security following the attacks. EDL issued a statement on 24 July 2011 condemning the attacks, saying that "No form of terrorism can ever be justified and the taking of innocent lives can never be justified". Some editorialists criticised the EDL and other anti-Muslim groups in this context. Dagens Næringsliv writes that Breivik sought to start a Norwegian version of the Tea Party movement in cooperation with the owners of document.no, but that they, after expressing initial interest, ultimately turned down his proposal because he did not have the contacts he promised. He also expressed his admiration of the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (Putinism), finding him "a fair and resolute leader worthy of respect", though he was "unsure at this point whether he has the potential to be our best friend or our worst enemy." Putin's spokesperson Dmitri Peskov has denounced Breivik's actions as the "delirium of a madman".
YouTube video
Six hours before the attacks, Breivik posted a YouTube video urging conservatives to "embrace martyrdom" and showing himself wearing a thermal sports top and pointing a Ruger Mini-14. He also posted a picture of himself as a Knight Templar officer in a uniform festooned with gold braid and multiple medals. In the video he put an animation depicting Islam as a trojan horse in Europe. Analysts describe it as promoting physical violence towards Muslims and Marxists who reside in Europe.
The music in the video comes from the Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures soundtrack and is sung by Norwegian singer Helene Bøksle. Breivik writes of Bøksle's voice that it is the perfect sound to listen to when one commits acts of martyrdom. During his trial he also testified that he uses this music, particularly the song "Ere the World Crumbles" when he meditates, as he did in preparation for his terrorist acts on 22 July 2011. The lyrics of the music are in the Old Norwegian language and come from the Völuspá, the first and best known poem of the Poetic Edda. In the week following the attack, Bøksle said in a press release that she distanced herself from Breivik's use of the music. The music's composer, Knut Avenstroup Haugen, has done the same.
Manifesto
Content
Breivik has been linked to a document titled 2083: A European Declaration of Independence,[138] which is 1,518 pages and bearing the name "Andrew Berwick". Breivik admitted in court that it was mostly other people's writings he had cut-and-pasted from the web. The file was e-mailed to 1,003 addresses about 90 minutes before the bomb blast in Oslo.
The document describes two years of preparation of unspecified attacks, supposedly planned for autumn 2011, involving a rented Volkswagen Crafter van (small enough to not require a truck driving license) loaded with 1,160 kilograms (2,600 lb) of ammonium nitrate/fuel oil explosive (ANFO), a Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle, a Glock 34 pistol, personal armor including a shield, caltrops, and police insignias. It also reports that Breivik spent thousands of hours on gathering email addresses from Facebook for distribution of the document, and that he rented a farm as a cover for a fake farming company buying fertilizer (3 tons for producing explosives and 3 tons of a harmless kind to avoid suspicion) and as a lab. It describes burying a crate with the armor etc. in July 2010 in the woods, and collecting it on 4 July 2011, and abandoning his plan to replace it with survival gear because he did not have a second pistol. It also expresses support for far-right groups such as the English Defence League and paramilitaries such as the Scorpions.
The introductory chapter of the manifesto defining "Cultural Marxism" in the Frankfurt School conspiracy theory sense is a copy of Political Correctness: A Short History of an Ideology by the Free Congress Foundation. Major parts of the compendium are attributed to the pseudonymous Norwegian blogger Fjordman. The text also copies sections of the Unabomber manifesto, without giving credit, while replacing the words "leftists" with "cultural Marxists" and "black people" with "muslims".
The New York Times described American influences in the writings, noting that the compendium mentions the anti-Islamist American Robert Spencer 64 times and cites Spencer's works at great length. The work of Bat Ye'or cited dozens of times.
Neoconservative blogger Pamela Geller, Neo-pagan writer Koenraad Elst and Daniel Pipes are also mentioned as sources of inspiration. The manifesto further contains quotes from Thomas Jefferson and George Orwell, as well as from Jeremy Clarkson's Sunday Times column and Melanie Phillips' Daily Mail column. The publication speaks in admiration of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Geert Wilders, Bruce Bawer, Srđa Trifković, and Henryk M. Broder. Breivik blames feminism for allowing the erosion of the fabric of European society. The compendium advocates a restoration of patriarchy which it claims would save European culture.
In his writings Breivik states that he wants to see European policies on multiculturalism and immigration more similar to those of Japan and South Korea, which he said are "not far from cultural conservatism and nationalism at its best". He expressed his admiration for the "monoculturalism" of Japan and for the two nations' refusal to accept refugees. The Jerusalem Post describes his support for Israel as a "far-right Zionism". He calls all "nationalists" to join in the struggle against "cultural Marxists/multiculturalists".
He summarizes his goals, stating "I believe Europe should strive for: A cultural conservative approach where monoculturalism, moral, the nuclear family, a free market, support for Israel and our Christian cousins of the east, law and order and Christendom itself must be central aspects (unlike now)."
Comments
Norwegian computer security analysts are in the process of researching what appear to be hidden codes in Breivik's manifesto, including references to the GPS coordinates of several major sites throughout Europe.
Benjamin R. Teitelbaum, PhD student at Brown University, said that parts of the manifesto suggest that Breivik was concerned about race, not only about Western culture or Christianity.
Thomas Hegghammer of the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment has described the ideologies of Breivik as "not fitting the established categories of right-wing ideology, like white supremacism, ultranationalism or Christian fundamentalism", but more akin to macro-nationalism and a "new doctrine of civilisational war". Norwegian social scientist Lars Gule characterised Breivik as a "national conservative, not a Nazi". Pepe Egger of the think-tank Exclusive Analysis says "the bizarre thing is that his ideas, as Islamophobic as they are, are almost mainstream in many European countries."
In one section of the manifesto entitled "Battlefield Wikipedia" Breivik explains the importance of using Wikipedia as a venue for disseminating views and information to the general public, although the Norwegian professor Arnulf Hagen claims that this was a document that he had copied from another author and that Breivik was unlikely to be a contributor to Wikipedia. According to the leader of the Norwegian chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation an account has been identified which they believe Breivik used. In the second day of his trial Breivik cited Wikipedia as the main source for his worldview. The blogger Fjordman claims that a large part of his manifesto quoted Wikipedia and that it "probably shaped his strange and imprecise political vocabulary".
Defence hearing
In the pre-trial hearing, February 2012, Breivik read a prepared statement demanding to be released and treated as a hero for his "pre-emptive attack against traitors" accused of planning cultural genocide. He said, "They are committing, or planning to commit, cultural destruction, of which deconstruction of the Norwegian ethnic group and deconstruction of Norwegian culture. This is the same as ethnic cleansing."
Religious views
Islamophobia and Zionism
Following his apprehension, Breivik was characterised by analysts as being a right-wing extremist with anti-Muslim views and a hatred of Islam, who considered himself a knight dedicated to stemming the tide of Muslim immigration into Europe.
He was at first described by many in the media as a Christian fundamentalist, Christian terrorist, nationalist and right-wing extremist. He claims that the European Union is a project to create "Eurabia" and describes the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia as being authorised by "criminal western European and American leaders".
The Jerusalem Post describes him as pro-Israel and strongly opposed to Islam, and asserts that his manifesto includes "extreme screed of Islamophobia" and "far-right Zionism". In his writings Breivik states that "the Battle of Vienna in 1683 should be celebrated as the Independence Day for all Western Europeans as it was the beginning of the end for the second Islamic wave of Jihads."
The manifesto urges the Hindu nationalists to drive Muslims out of India. He demands the forced deportation of all Muslims from Europe, based on the model of the Beneš decrees.
Christianity
In 2009, he wrote "Today's Protestant church is a joke. Priests in jeans who march for Palestine and churches that look like minimalist shopping centres. I am a supporter of an indirect collective conversion of the Protestant church back to the Catholic." On his Facebook profile, Breivik described himself as a Christian though he is critical of the Catholic and Protestant churches, objecting to their "current suicidal path". Before the attacks, he stated an intention to attend Frogner Church in a final "Martyr's mass".
The manifesto states its author is "100 percent Christian", but he is not "excessively religious" and considers himself a "cultural Christian" and a "modern-day crusader". His manifesto states "I'm not going to pretend I'm a very religious person, as that would be a lie", calls religion a crutch and a source for drawing mental strength, and says "I've always been very pragmatic and influenced by my secular surroundings and environment"; regarding the term "cultural Christian" which he says means preserving European culture, he notes "It is enough that you are a Christian-agnostic or a Christian-atheist (an atheist who wants to preserve at least the basics of the European Christian cultural legacy...)" Furthermore, Breivik stated that "myself and many more like me do not necessarily have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God." Nevertheless, he stated that he planned to pray to God seeking for his help during his attacks.
Breivik condemns Pope Benedict XVI for his dialogue with Islam: "Pope Benedict has abandoned Christianity and all Christian Europeans and is to be considered a cowardly, incompetent, corrupt and illegitimate Pope." It will thus be necessary, writes Breivik, to overthrow the Protestant and Catholic hierarchies, after which a "Great Christian Congress" would set up a new European Church. He has also condemned Christian missionary activity in India as it would lead to the "total destruction of the Hindu faith and culture", and he expresses support for the Hindutva movement against Indian Communist movements.
American Christian press has also highlighted that Breivik appears to have addressed followers of the Neopagan religion of Odinism—the ethnocentric branch of Greater European Heathenry—in his writ. In regards to them, he says, "even Odinists can fight with us or by our side as brothers" in the Knights Templar organization that Breivik claims to be a founding member of. He later says to reject Odinism, saying that the Thor's Hammer cannot unify the people of Europe, but that the Christian cross will.
Deputy police chief Roger Andresen initially told reporters that information on Breivik's websites was "so to speak, Christian fundamentalist". Subsequently, others have disputed Andresen's characterisation of Breivik as a Christian fundamentalist. Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, head of the World Council of Churches and himself Norwegian, accused Breivik of blasphemy for citing Christianity as a justification in his murderous attack.
Judaism and Jews
In the manifesto's section titled "The great Satan, his cult and the Jews", Breivik, while embracing an affinity for Zionism as a joint nationalist front against the perceived encroachment of Muslims and Islam in Western countries, blasted "so called liberal Jews" living in Germany and Europe who oppose "nationalism/Zionism" and support "multiculturalism". He called Jewish liberals and supporters of multiculturalism "as much of a threat to Israel and Zionism (Israeli nationalism) as they are to us", and called for Jewish nationalists to make common cause "against all anti-Zionists, against all cultural Marxists/multiculturalists".
Furthermore, he perceived conservative and nationalist Jews as loyal to Europe and worthy of exemption from the Holocaust, and proposed that Adolf Hitler should have "easily worked out an agreement with the UK and France to liberate the ancient Jewish Christian lands with the purpose of giving the Jews back their ancestral lands", opining that the deportation of the Jews from Germany wouldn't be popular but eventually, the Jewish people would regard Hitler as a hero because he returned the Holy land to them".
He estimated the percentage of the European and American Jewish populations which he could identify as "multiculturalist (nation-wrecking) Jews" to be at least 75%, further estimating the portion of the Israeli population of such-classified Jews at 50%.
Links to organisations
Oslo Shooting Club
Breivik was an active member of an Oslo shooting club between 2005 and 2007, and since 2010. According to the club, which has banned him for life after the attacks, Breivik had taken part in 13 organized training sessions and one competition since June 2010. The club states that it does not evaluate the members' suitability regarding possession of weapons.
Freemasons
At the time of the attacks, Breivik was a member of the Lodge of St. Olaf at the Three Columns in Oslo and had displayed photographs of himself in partial Masonic regalia on his Facebook profile. In interviews after the attacks, his lodge stated they had only minimal contact with him, and that when made aware of Breivik's membership, Grand Master of the Norwegian Order of Freemasons, Ivar A. Skaar, issued an edict immediately excluding him from the fraternity based upon the acts he carried out and the values that appear to have motivated them. According to the Lodge records, Breivik took part in a total of four meetings between his initiation in February 2007 and his exclusion from the order – one each to receive the first, second and third degree, and one other meeting. and held no offices or functions within the Lodge. Skaar stated that although Breivik was a member of the Order, his actions show that he is in no way a Mason. His manifesto said that he took three degrees of Freemasonry and commended them as "keepers of cultural heritage" while also criticising it for being "not in any way political".
Progress Party
Breivik became a member of the immigration restrictionist Progress Party (FrP) in 1999. He paid his membership dues for the last time in 2004, and was removed from the membership lists in 2006.
During his time in the Progress Party, he held two positions in the Progress Party's youth organisation FpU: he was the chair of the local Vest Oslo branch from January to October 2002, and a member of the board of the same branch from October 2002 till November 2004.
After the attack, the Progress Party immediately distanced itself from both Breivik's actions and his ideas. At a 2013 press conference Ketil Solvik-Olsen said that Breivik "left us [the party] because we were too liberal".
English Defence League (EDL)
Breivik claimed he had contact with the English Defence League (EDL), an anti-Islamist street protest movement in the United Kingdom. He allegedly had extensive links with senior EDL members and wrote that he attended an EDL demonstration in Bradford. On 26 July 2011, EDL leader Tommy Robinson denounced Breivik and his attacks and has denied any official links with him.
On 31 July 2011, Interpol asked Maltese police to investigate Paul Ray, a former EDL member who blogs under the name "Lionheart." Ray conceded that he may have been an inspiration for Breivik, but deplored his actions.
In an online discussion on the Norwegian website Document.no on 6 December 2009, Breivik proposes to establish a Norwegian version of the EDL. Breivik saw this as the only way to stop left-wing radical groups like Blitz and SOS Rasisme from "harassing" Norwegian cultural conservatives. Following the establishment of the European Defence League, the Norwegian Defence League (NDL) launched in 2010. Breivik indeed became a member of this organization under the pseudonym "Sigurd Jorsalfar". Former head of the NDL, Lena Andreassen, claims that Breivik was ejected from the organization when she took over as leader in March 2011 because he was too extreme. The NDL had held a rally in Oslo in April 2011, but it failed to gather more than a dozen supporters.
Knights Templar
In his manifesto and during interrogation, Breivik claimed membership in an "international Christian military order", which he calls the new Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Solomonici (PCCTS, Knights Templar). According to Breivik, the order was established as an "anti-Jihad crusader-organisation" that "fights" against "Islamic suppression" in London in April 2002 by nine men: two Englishmen, a Frenchman, a German, a Dutchman, a Greek, a Russian, a Norwegian (apparently Breivik), and a Serb (supposedly the initiator, not present, but represented by Breivik). The compendium gives a "2008 estimate" that there are between 15 and 80 "Justiciar Knights" in Western Europe, and an unknown number of civilian members, and Breivik expects the order to take political and military control of Western Europe.
Breivik gives his own code name in the organisation as Sigurd and that of his assigned "mentor" as Richard, after the twelfth-century crusaders and kings Sigurd Jorsalfar of Norway and Richard the Lionheart of England. He calls himself a one-man cell of this organisation, and claims that the group has several other cells in Western countries, including two more in Norway. On 2 August 2011 Breivik offered to provide information about these cells, but on unrealistic preconditions.
After an intense investigation assisted internationally by several security agencies, the Norwegian police have not found a single piece of evidence that a PCCTS network existed, or that the alleged 2002 London meeting ever took place. The police now view Breivik's claim as a figment of imagination in light of his schizophrenia diagnosis, and are increasingly confident that he had no accessories. The perpetrator still insists he belongs to an order and that his one-man cell was "activated" by another clandestine cell.
On 14 August 2012, several Norwegian politicians and media outlets received an email from someone claiming to be Breivik's "deputy", demanding that Breivik be released, and making more threats against Norwegian society.
Writing influences
Breivik has identified himself in a multitude of social media services as an admirer of, among others, the Freedom Party of Austria, Hindu nationalism (Hindutva), the right-wing Swiss People's Party, Winston Churchill, Max Manus, Robert Spencer, former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, Patrick Buchanan, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Dutch politician Geert Wilders (whose political party he described on the website of the periodical Minerva as one among the few that could "truly claim to be conservative parties in their whole culture"). On Twitter, he paraphrased philosopher John Stuart Mill: "One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests".
According to Belarusian opposition figure Mikhail Reshetnikov, Anders Breivik underwent paramilitary training in a camp organized by retired KGB colonel Valery Lunev. According to Reshetnikov, Breivik visited Belarus three times and had lasting connections with the country. According to official data, however, Breivik visited Belarus only once, as a tourist in 2005.
Breivik has frequently praised the writings of blogger Fjordman. He used Fjordman's thinking to justify his actions, citing him 111 times in the manifesto. He also endorsed the writings of Australian historian Keith Windschuttle in the manifesto 2083, as well as former Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello. He expressed admiration for historical military leaders such as Charles Martel, Richard Lionheart, El Cid, Vlad III the Impaler, Jacques de Molay, Nicholas I of Russia, and John III Sobieski. In his manifest he copies 25 pages verbatim from an ideological text by Evans Kohlmann and published by an institute led by Magnus Ranstorp.
Notable books related to Anders Behring Breivik
On 17 August 2013, journalist Marit Christensen informed the Norwegian press that for the last year of Wenche Behring Breivik's life, she had been her confidant, and that a book based on Christensen's interviews with her would be published as a book in autumn 2013 under the title "The Mother". However, on 14 September 2013 Verdens Gang said that before Wenche Behring Breivik died, she hired a lawyer to prevent Marit Christensen from publishing the book. The book was nevertheless published in October 2013, and was widely criticized; on the basis of Wenche Behring Breivik's opposition to the book, for inclusion of material not relevant to understanding what motivated Anders Behring Breivik, and for character assassinations of still living persons.
In popular culture
● In January 2012 the Danish theatre Café Teatret announced that it was staging a play based on the manifesto. The play, named Manifesto 2083 was planned to be performed over three weeks in August 2012. Relatives of the victims of Breivik's actions as well as Danish politicians have criticized the plans of the theatre. In February 2012 the Norwegian Dramatikkens Hus announced it too will be staging the Danish play. However, three weeks into Breivik's criminal trial the producer of the play, Christian Lollike, announced that the play has been postponed indefinitely. Lollike cited the ongoing trial as the reason for the decision in that much of what was intended to be discussed in the play has been illuminated through the trial proceedings: "Of course, if we feel that we have nothing interesting to say in relation to this case we will drop the performance."
● Another play was premiered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on 22 March. The play Breivik meets Wilders (Dutch: Breivik ontmoet Wilders) depicts a fictional meeting between Anders Behring Breivik and Dutch far-right lawmaker Geert Wilders at London's Heathrow airport in March 2010. The play, running at Amsterdam's De Balie theatre is written by playwright Theodor Holman who one week ahead of the premiere had stated "I feel a kinship with Anders Breivik." Other plays are currently under development in Sweden and the UK.
● The German clothing chain Thor Steinar, which names all its shops after Norwegian towns, has had two stores named Brevik, for the Norwegian town Brevik in Telemark. The first closed in 2008, and a new one opened in Chemnitz in February 2012. The similarity of the name Brevik to Breivik's name led to vandalism and public outcry when the new Brevik store opened.
● Russian nu metal band Slot included a song titled "Breivik show" (Russian: Брейвик-шоу) on their album F5.
● Cecilie Løveid's poem "Punishment" (Straff) was printed in Aftenposten, as This Weeks Poem, on April 8, 2013. In an interview with the newspaper she said that the poem is about Breivik, and that she has no opinion about the verdict of the trial—because that is outside the scope of the poem.
● In the 2013 documentary film The Pervert's Guide to Ideology, Slovene philosopher and psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek, in discussing the meaning of ideology in modern life, compares the mind-set and actions of Brevik to examples from popular culture, in particular the thoughts and actions of Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) in the 1976 film Taxi Driver, whereby he first analyses in his own mind the problems of his environment (New York streets controlled by pimps and drug dealers) but then attempts to resolve them through an act of great violence.
● British newspaper The Telegraph reported that Anders Behring Breivik listened to Clint Mansell's composition Lux Aeterna during the shooting spree.