Handen murders

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The Handen murders (Swedish: Handenmorden) occurred on 9 January 1967 in Handen, Sweden, when police officers Uno Helderud and Lars Birger Wikander and security guard Nils Bertil Nilsson were killed. Leif Peters was convicted of the murders. The officers had been monitoring a loading bay near a new shopping mall, suspecting criminal activity. They encountered three men who initially claimed to be security guards but then opened fire with a submachine gun and a pistol, killing all three victims. Peters later confessed and was linked to a wider criminal network. Peters, born in 1938 in Gothenburg, grew up in a troubled family and had a history of theft and firearms offenses. By the mid-1960s, he had committed multiple burglaries and stolen weapons, including submachine guns, often working with accomplices. The trial of the so-called Handen Gang began in May 1967, involving twelve individuals. Peters' accomplices, Gustav Torver and Leif Wahlkvist, were convicted of theft-related charges but acquitted of complicity in murder. A psychiatric evaluation concluded Peters was not mentally ill. In March 1968, Peters was sentenced to a minimum of twelve years’ detention for the murders and other crimes. Peters later spent time in a psychiatric ward. In 1972, he was suspected in a separate 1960 murder case that remained unsolved and was eventually closed due to the statute of limitations. He died in 2006 at the age of 68.