Clark Olofsson: who is career criminal in Netflix series Clark, what is Stockholm Syndrome, and release date

The six-part series charts the life of Oloffson from petty thief to bank robber, prison escapee, and drug smuggler.

The series will also cover the infamous 1970s bank robbery which led to the creation of the phrase Stockholm Syndrome to explain how the hostages interacted with their captors.

Who is Clark Olofsson?

Olofsson is a Swedish career criminal and bank robber who became known as Sweden’s first celebrity gangster.

He was involved in a notorious bank robbery which gave birth to the phrase Stockholm Syndrome.

As a result of his crimes he has spent more than half of his life in correctional facilities across Sweden.

Olofsson was born in Sweden in 1947, his father left when he was 11 and his mother was later admitted to a psychological hospital. Olofsson and his two sisters were placed in foster care.

In the 1960s, Olofsson became involved in petty crime and was placed in a young offenders institution, and was later sent to prison for assaulting two police officers.

Over the 1960s and ‘70s Olofsson was sentenced to prison several times, and escaped on several occasions.

In 1973, while Olofsson was in Norrköping prison, bank robber Jan-Erik Olsson took several hostages suring a robbery at Kreditbanken in Norrmalmstorg, Stockholm.

Olsson demanded that Olofsson be brought to the bank, and he subsequently spent six days with the hostages.

The ordeal of the hostages during this event gave rise to the term Stockholm Syndrome.

Olofsson was eventually acquitted for involvement in the robbery as he explained that he had worked to keep the hostages alive. He was returned to serve the remainder of his original prison sentence.

Olofsson later escaped from Norrköping prison, robbed a bank in Copenhagen and went on the run across Europe.

He was finally arrested after a year on the run and sentenced to eight years in prison.

From the 1990s and into the 2010s, Olofsson was in and out of prisons in Sweden and Belgium for a series of drug smuggling offences.

He was married to Marijke Demuynck from 1976-1999. He has six children, two daughters from before his marriage, three sons from his marriage with Demuynck, and a son with his current fiancée.

What is Stockholm Syndrome?

Stockholm syndrome is recognised as a coping mechanism by those who are being held captive or are being abused.

Victims develop positive feelings toward their captors and may not accept that they have acted maliciously towards them.

The phrase was coined after the Norrmalmstorg in which Olofsson had been involved.

During the robbery, many of the hostages became sympathetic towards their captors and after the event, some of them refused to testify against the bank robbers.

Where is Clark Olofsson now?

Olofsson’s Swedish citizenship was rescinded in 1996 when he became a Belgian citizen, but when he turned 70 in 2017 it was returned.

In 2018, he was granted a conditional release from prison and returned to Sweden as a free man.

At the time of his release, Olofsson said that he had visited relatives and planned to go on holiday for a month to come to terms with his new freedom.

When is Clark on Netflix?

Clark will be released on Netflix on 5 May.