Thomas Quick (born Sture Ragnar Bergwall, 26 April 1950 in Korsnäs, Falun, Sweden) is a convicted Swedish serial killer who has confessed to more than 30 murders, although he has only eight convictions, one of which has been overturned.

With no technical evidence, the only evidence police have held on Quick is his own confessions, and elements in these confessions that have been judged to match classified facts from the police dossiers on the crimes in question (e.g. clothing and birthmarks of victims). The credibility of Quick's confessions has been widely debated in the Swedish media. Critics of these confessions and the trials claim that Quick never murdered anyone, but that he is a compulsive liar.

In December 2009 Quick recanted his confessions, and denied taking part in any of the murders for which he was convicted. Quick has since changed his name to his baptismal name Sture Bergwall

Convictions

In 1990-1991 Quick was sentenced to lengthy prison terms for armed robbery, and consigned to closed psychiatric care. During therapy he confessed to some 20 murders committed in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland between 1964 and 1993. One of his confessions led to the solving of an 18 year old murder considered to be unsolvable, and an other to the informal solving of a murder in Växjö in 1964. The 1964 crime had passed the then Swedish 25-year limit of punition, but with the information given by Quick the murderer was considered to be found; his story matched information that had never been published about the crime.

Over time, Quick was convicted of eight murders at six different trials:

• Charles Zelmanovits, Piteå 1976, Sentence in 1994 - no forensic evidence but a confession.

• Johan Asplund, Sundsvall, 1980, Sentence in 2001 - No body, no forensics but confession.

• The Stegehuis couple, Appojaure, 1984, Sentence in 1996 - No forensics, but Quick gave information regarding facts which had never been disclosed to the public. This has been put into question later, as Quick had been party to all information before the trial.

• Yenon Levi, tourist from Israel, Rörshyttan, 1988, Sentence in 1997 - No forensic evidence, but statements included in Quick's testimony were matched against undisclosed police facts. Later on, this has been questioned for reasons similar to the Stegehuis case.

• Therese Johannesen, Drammen, Norway, 1988, Sentence in 1998 - No forensic evidence.

• Trine Jensen, Oslo, 1981, Sentence in 2000 - No forensic evidence.

• Gry Storvik, Oslo, 1985 - No forensic evidence, confession; the semen found in victim did not belong to Quick.

(In Sweden a defendant always gets access to the full police investigation before the trial.)

Quick's confessions and subsequent withdrawal of confessions

In the years following 1990, when Quick was sentenced to closed psychiatric confinement, he confessed to several 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. 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 he never left Falun at the time of this 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—in some cases the victims have turned up, alive and well. 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 the behalf of two relatives of a murder victim who wish to have the trials declared invalid.

Several principals in the fields of law and psychiatry, among them Swedish police professor Leif G. W. Persson, journalist and writer Jan Guillou and secret sources in the Swedish police all claim that Quick is mentally unstable, but not guilty in many, if any, of the crimes to which he has confessed. They describe the handling of the Quick cases 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 taping of a TV documentary. Quick's attorney now contends that the Prosecution withheld important investigative material from the defense (which the Prosecution adamantly denies). Quick's attorney also maintains that his client is mentally ill and had been under the influence of narcotics prescribed by a doctor when he confessed to the killings.

Thomas Quick, now Sture Bergwall, recanted his confessions, and requested that the Svea Court of Appeals order new trial for the murder case of Yenon Levi at Rörshyttan. In December 2009, the court of appeals granted a retrial of the Yenon Levi case. As the prosecutor found that the evidence was not sufficient, Quick moved for a judgment of acquittal, and was acquitted in September 2010.

Quick's defense counsel also declared his intention to ask for a retrial of the Therese Johannesen case, claiming that Quick has an alibi for the day when Therese Johannesen was abducted and murdered. SKL (Statens kriminaltekniska laboratorium, State Forensic-Technical Laboratory) found in March 2010, that two forensic objects which the prosecution had claimed were bone fragments, were in fact small pieces of charred wood.

Wikipedia.org

Thomas Quick

May 28, 1997

Swedish serial killer Thomas Quick was convicted for the 1988 murder of the Israeli tourist Yinon Levy. This is his fourth conviction for the serial killer who has confessed to 15 killings. Sentence will be passed in two weeks and will probably result in continued confinement at Säters Sjukhus, Sweden's high security asylum for the criminally insane.

Thomas Quick

November 14, 1997

Following instructions from Swedish serial killer Thomas Quick, Norwegian police found bone fragments from a calf that are believed to be of nine-year-old Therese Johannessen. The case -- one of Norway's most notorious murders -- was under investigation for almost ten years. The girl disappeared from a residential area in Drammen on July 3, 1988. Nothing was ever heard of her again until March 30, 1996, when Quick confessed to abducting and killing her. He described her wristwatch with great detail, and pointed out a gravelpit near the pond where he supposedly buried her.

QUICK, Thomas

Sweden's most prolific serial killer to date was a sadistic necrophile who preferred children as victims, but that did not stop him from killing adults-or wiping out whole families-when the opportunity presentes itself. Like Gerard Schaefer, Quick originally wanted to become a priest, but he drifted into random homicide instead, reportedly claiming his first victim at age 14. Arrested in 1996, he describes a childhood fraught with physical and sexual abuse, then confessed to 15 homicides, including six in Norway.

Quick's confession solved the mystery of three Dutch tourists, murdered while vacationing in northern Sweden, and he was sentenced to life for those crimes.

On May 28, 1997, Quick was also convicted of killing an Israel¡ tourist, one Yinon Levy, in 1988. Four months later, following Quicks directions, police unearthed what "could be a human finger bone" from the cellar of an abandoned farmhouse near Falun, but the victim was not identified, and no further charges were filed.

In November 1997, Norwegian detectives found human bone fragments in a gravel pit near Drammen, where nine-year-old Therese johannessen vanished in july 1988. Quick has confessed to her slaying and describes the child's wristwatch in meticulous detail.

Investigation into Quick's crimes and confessions continuas at this writing, while Quick remains confined at Sáters Sjukhus, Sweden's maximum-security institution for the criminally insane. Authorities speculate that his body count may finally exceed the 15 confessed victims, but whatever the ultimate total, Quick will probably remain at the asylum for the rest of his life.

Michael Newton - An Encyclopedia of Modern Serial Killers - Hunting Humans

Thomas QUICK

Thomas Quick was born 1950 in the small-town of Korsnäs, Sweden but under the name of Sture Bergwall. He had a rough childhood, or so does he say himself. Many belive that everything that Quick has said about his murders, and his childhood is lies. Some criminal-professors says that he hasn't harmed a single human being. Still Quick has confessed over 30 killings in Sweden between 1964 and 1994, a 30 year killing-spree.

Quicks brother has written a book called "My brother Thomas Quick", the book describes Thomas as a liar and a sick human being. Quick has said that during his childhood he got raped by his father and abused by his mother. Quick's father supposedly got disgusted when Quick came into his puberty at the age of 11 and stopped sexually-abusing Quick. But this had left a mark, and Quick still belives today that because of his father abuse he got a sick and perverted view on sex.

When he was 12 he used to play a game in the showers with the other boys in the school called "The Strangulation Game". He strangled the boys and touched their private parts, Quick has said he did it for pleasure but none of the other boys suspected anything because at that time the boys found the human body to be interesting.

When he turned 14 he met with an older man in his 20's that had a car, they used to travel on the Swedish roads looking for young boys that they could pick up and molest. Quick would talk the boys into it and have anal sex with them while the older man was watching from the drivers seat.

One weekend the man drove Quick to a tivoli, Quick met a boy in his age named Thomas Blomgren - Quick's first victim. Quick took him out in the woods and strangled him to death, then he touched the boy's penis and took his shirt and disappeared into the woods. On his way home from the tivoli, Quick told the man about what he had done, but he had to make him promise that he wouldn't tell anyone anything.

One year later Quick pushes an 8-year old boy into a river, the boy drowns. No-one ever saw what happened so the case was closed because they thought it was an accident. After some years Quick began experimenting with drugs so he was sent to a rehab where he spent some time, he also killed a 13-year old boy during his rehab visit. He began working as a medic, he tried to strangle a boy that slept. He called a priest and confessed the whole thing. The police arrested him for attempt of murder and he had to stay in psychic ward for three years, Quick said he killed one person during these three years, he has said that the security was terrible, they even let him out when he wanted.

The story goes on and the kills goes on. In 1990 Quick and a 16-year old boy robbed a bank and took the bank manager's family as hostage. They got arrested and Quick went to prison. After some time in prison Quick realized he was getting out pretty soon, this was his only chance to confess his murders and escape from his dark thoughts of murder.

At this time Thomas Quick took the name Thomas Quick, before that he was Sture Bergwall, Thomas for his first victim (his first victim was Thomas Blomgren) and Quick (his mother's maiden-name). Up to date Thomas Quick has confessed over 30 murders, however he has only been charged for 8 of them.

In 2001 Quick decided to stop attending trials, he's tired of that no-one belives him. And no-one really knows when Thomas Quick is going to start confessing murders again, or when the police is going to bring back old cases. In many cases Quick has been able to give the police information that they didn't know about, and in many other cases he can't remember anything, he just knows he's involved.

What's so fascinating about Quick is that he never got caught with murder, the police never took him. He had to confess before they could get him.