Assassinations Compilation 2: Palme / Aquino / RFK / Pope / Malcolm X (1965-86)

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On 28 February 1986, at 23:21 CET (22:21 UTC), Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden, was fatally wounded by a single gunshot while walking home from a cinema with his wife Lisbeth Palme on the central Stockholm street Sveavägen. Lisbeth Palme was slightly wounded by a second shot. The couple did not have bodyguards with them.

Christer Pettersson, who had previously been convicted of manslaughter, was convicted of the murder in 1988 after having been identified as the killer by Mrs. Palme. However, on appeal to Svea Court of Appeal, he was acquitted. A petition for a new trial, filed by the prosecutor, was denied by the Supreme Court of Sweden. Pettersson died on 29 September 2004, legally declared not guilty of the Palme assassination.

On 10 June 2020, chief prosecutor Krister Petersson, in charge of the investigation, announced his conclusion that Stig Engström, also known as the "Skandia Man", was the most likely suspect. No direct evidence was presented but the prosecutor mentioned Engström's past knowledge of weapons, friendship with anti-Palme circles and similar clothes as described by certain witnesses. However, as Engström died on 26 June 2000, and no further investigative or judicial measures were possible, the investigation was officially closed.[1][2] The decision to name Engström as a suspect was widely criticised.

Various other theories about the murder have also been proposed.
Night of the assassination
Olof Palme in the early 1970s

Despite being Prime Minister, Palme sought to live as ordinary a life as possible. He would often go out without any bodyguard protection, and the night of his murder was one such occasion. Walking home from the Grand Cinema with his wife Lisbeth Palme on the central Stockholm street of Sveavägen, close to midnight on 28 February 1986, the couple was attacked by a lone gunman. Palme was fatally shot in the back at close range at 23:21 CET. A second shot wounded Mrs Palme.

Police said that a taxi driver used his mobile radio to raise an alarm, and two girls in a nearby car tried to assist. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the Sabbatsberg Hospital at 00:06 CET on 1 March 1986. The attacker escaped eastwards on Tunnelgatan.

Deputy Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson immediately assumed the duties of Prime Minister as the new leader of the Social Democratic Party.
Sequence of events
Cinema decision

Palme's decision to visit the Grand Cinema was made at very short notice. Lisbeth Palme had discussed seeing a film when she was at work during the afternoon, and called her son, Mårten Palme, at 17:00 to talk about the film at the Grand Cinema. Olof Palme did not hear about the plans until at home, at 18:30, when he met with his wife, by which time Palme had already declined any further personal bodyguard protection from the security service. He talked to his son about the plans on the phone, and they eventually decided to join Mårten and his girlfriend, who had already purchased tickets for themselves to see the Swedish comedy Bröderna Mozart (The Mozart Brothers) by Suzanne Osten. This decision was made about 20:00. The police later searched Palme's apartment, as well as Lisbeth's and Mårten's workplaces, for wire-bugging devices or traces of such equipment, but did not find any.[3]: 161 
Grand Cinema
Grand cinema.
Crossing of Sveavägen–Tunnelgatan where Palme was shot.
An artist's impression of the assassination.
Tunnelgatan. The assassin's immediate escape route.

At 20:30 the Palmes left their apartment, unescorted, heading for the Gamla stan metro station. Several people witnessed their short walk to the station and, according to the later police investigation, commented on the lack of bodyguards. The couple took the subway train to the Rådmansgatan station, from where they walked to the Grand Cinema. They met their son and his girlfriend just outside the cinema around 21:00. Olof Palme had not yet purchased tickets which were by then almost sold out. Recognizing the prime minister, the ticket clerk wanted him to have the best seats, and therefore sold Palme the theatre director's seats.[3]: 162 
Murder

After the screening, the two couples stayed outside the theatre for a while but separated about 23:15. Olof and Lisbeth Palme headed south on the west side of Sveavägen, towards the northern entrance of the Hötorget metro station. When they reached the Adolf Fredrik Church, they crossed Sveavägen and continued on the street's east side. They stopped a moment to look at something in a shop window, then continued past the Dekorima (later Kreatima, now Urban Deli) shop which was then located on the corner of Sveavägen and Tunnelgatan.

At 23:21, a man appeared from behind, shot Mr. Palme at point-blank range and fired a second shot at Mrs. Palme. The perpetrator then jogged down Tunnelgatan street, up the steps to Malmskillnadsgatan, and continued down David Bagares gata [street], where he was last seen.[3]: 159 
Timeline

Thanks to time stamps on the radio chatter in the central dispatch centre, the events immediately after the murder have been determined with very high precision.[3]: 173 

23:21:30 – Palme and his wife are shot.
23:22:20 – A witness calls Sweden's emergency number, 90 000, to report the shooting, but the call is misdirected and the caller is not put through to the police.
23:23:40 – A Järfälla Taxi switchboard operator calls the police dispatch centre to pass on a message from one of its drivers to the effect that someone has been shot at the corner Sveavägen and Tunnelgatan.
23:24:00 (approx.) – A police patrol, stationed a few hundred meters away, arrives on scene after being alerted by a second taxi driver who heard of the shooting on his taxi radio.
23:24:40 – The police are contacted by the emergency dispatch centre concerning the shooting on Sveavägen. The dispatch centre operator denies knowledge about any such events.
23:24:00–23:25:30 (approx.) – A patrol wagon – stationed at Malmskillnadsgatan, not far from the attacker's escape route – arrives and is ordered by the commanding officer to hunt for the attacker.
23:25:00 (approx.) – An ambulance, which just happens to be passing the crime scene, is flagged down and assists the victims.
23:26:00 – The police dispatch centre calls the SOS emergency centre to assure them they are informed about the events on the Sveavägen/Tunnelgatan intersection.
A third police patrol arrives.
A second ambulance arrives.
23:28:00 – The first ambulance leaves for the Sabbatsberg Hospital, around a kilometre away from the scene, with both victims. Mrs Palme, suffering only a minor graze to her back, refuses to leave her husband.
23:30:00 – The police superintendent in charge at the scene informs the police dispatch centre that the prime minister was the victim.
23:31:40 – The emergency dispatch centre is informed that the ambulance has arrived at the hospital.
23:37:00–23:40:00 – The emergency dispatch centre is informed by the ambulance that the prime minister was the victim, that he's fatally wounded and likely not going to survive.
00:06:00 – Palme is pronounced dead.
00:45:00 – Deputy Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson arrives at Rosenbad, the office of the Swedish government.
01:10:00 – First radio broadcast about the murder.
04:00:00 – First television broadcast.
05:15:00 – The government holds a press conference.

Leads from the crime scene

The only forensic leads left by the assassin were the two bullets fired, identified as Winchester-Western .357 Magnum 158 grain metal piercing. Both bullets matched the lead fragments found in the clothing of Olof and Lisbeth Palme. Because the weapon was a revolver (which does not automatically eject cartridge cases) there were no cases to recover for ballistic examination – only the two bullets recovered from the street. From the bullets' lack of certain characteristic deformations, investigators concluded they had been fired from a barrel no shorter than 10 cm (4 inches); thus the murder weapon would have been a conspicuously large handgun. The singularly most used weapon for this type of ammunition is the Smith & Wesson .357, which is why great efforts were made to locate a weapon of this make.[3]: 151–152 

Throughout the investigation, Swedish police test-fired approximately 500 Magnum revolvers. The investigation placed particular emphasis on tracking down ten Magnum revolvers reported stolen at the time of the murder. Out of these all were located except the Sucksdorff revolver, a weapon stolen from the Stockholm home of Swedish filmmaker Arne Sucksdorff in 1977. The person who stole the weapon was a friend of drug dealer Sigvard "Sigge" Cedergren, who claimed on his deathbed that he had lent a gun of the same type to Christer Pettersson two months prior to the assassination.[4]

Another weapon that has figured prominently in the investigation is the so-called Mockfjärd gun. This weapon, a revolver of the type Smith & Wesson Model 28 ("Highway Patrolman") with .357 Magnum caliber, was first purchased legally by a civilian in the northern Swedish city of Luleå. The gun, along with 91 metal-piercing bullets, was stolen in a burglary in Haparanda in 1983 and is believed to have been used in the robbery of a post office in Mockfjärd, Dalarna that same year. A lead isotope analysis of a bullet fired during the robbery confirmed it to have the same isotopic composition as the bullets retrieved from the assassination crime scene, verifying that the bullets were manufactured at the same time.[5] In the autumn of 2006, Swedish police, acting on a tip communicated to the Expressen newspaper, retrieved a Smith & Wesson .357 revolver from a lake in Dalarna. The gun was determined to be the same one used in the post office robbery in Mockfjärd, confirmed by the gun's serial number. The gun was transferred to the National Laboratory of Forensic Science in Linköping for further analysis. However, the laboratory concluded in May 2007 that tests on the gun could not confirm whether it was used in the Palme assassination, as it was too rusty.[6][7]

There were numerous witnesses to the murder, of whom more than 25 came forward to the police. The killer was described by witnesses as a man between 30 and 50 years of age, about 180 (5'11") to 185 (6'1") centimetres tall, and wearing a dark jacket or coat. Many described him as having walked with a limp or otherwise clumsily, but those testimonies were not given immediately after the murder, only after the arrest of Christer Pettersson. Initially, many witnesses described the killer's movements as smooth, efficient and powerful. No witness was in a position to observe the killer's appearance in any detail. A police sketch of the supposed killer was widely circulated in the media a week after the murder, leading to a massive influx of tips from the public, but it was later determined that the witness on whose statement it was based probably had not seen the actual assailant. No good description of the killer's appearance therefore exists. Witnesses agreed on the killer's escape route.
Chronology of leading investigators and prosecutors

Chiefs of Investigation

Gösta Welander (sv) (the night of the murder) [8]
Hans Holmér (1986–1987) [9]
Ulf Karlsson (sv) (1987–1988) [9]
Hans Ölvebro (sv) (1988–1997) [9]
Stig Edqvist (1997–2012) [9]
Hans Melander (2012–2013 and 2016–2020) [10][11]
Dag Andersson (2013–2016) [10][12]

Chief Prosecutors

K.G. Svensson (sv) (spring of 1986) [13]
Claes Zeime (sv) (1986–1987. Assisting prosecutors: Solveig Riberdahl, Anders Helin and Bo Josephson) [13]
Axel Morath (sv) (1987–1994. Assisting prosecutors: Solveig Riberdahl, Anders Helin and Jörgen Almblad) [13]
Solveig Riberdahl (sv) (1994–1996. Assisting prosecutors: Anders Helin and Jan Danielsson) [13]
Jan Danielsson (sv) (1996–2000. Assisting prosecutor: Kerstin Skarp) [13]
Agneta Blidberg (sv) (2000–2009. Assisting prosecutor: Kerstin Skarp)[13]
Kerstin Skarp (2009–2017) [14]
Krister Petersson (sv) (2017–2020) [14]

Murder theories

Along with the length of the ensuing investigation, a number of alternative theories surrounding the murder surfaced. At the time, a murder under Swedish law was subject to prescription in 25 years. The law was later changed to prevent the Palme case from expiring, and thus the police investigation remained active for 34 years.

In February 2020, Krister Petersson, the prosecutor in charge of the investigation, stated that he expected to present a conclusive case and either bring charges or close the investigation within a matter of months.[15]
Christer Pettersson
Mugshot of Christer Pettersson

In December 1988, almost three years after Palme's death, Christer Pettersson, a criminal, drug user and alcoholic, who had previously been imprisoned for manslaughter, was arrested for the murder of Palme. Picked out by Mrs Palme at a lineup as the killer, Pettersson was tried and convicted of the murder, but was later acquitted on appeal to the court of appeal. Pettersson's appeal succeeded for three main reasons:

Failure of the prosecution to produce the murder weapon;
Lack of a clear motive for the killing;
Doubts about the reliability of Mrs Palme's testimony and "extremely gross errors" by the police in arranging the lineup (giving her hints about Pettersson's alcohol abuse, and allowing him to look like an alcoholic)

Additional evidence against Pettersson surfaced in the late 1990s, mostly coming from various petty criminals who altered their stories but also from a confession made by Pettersson. The chief prosecutor, Agneta Blidberg, considered re-opening the case, but acknowledged that a confession alone would not be sufficient, saying:

He must say something about the weapon because the appeals court set that condition in its ruling. That is the only technical evidence that could be cited as a reason to re-open the case.

While the legal case against Pettersson therefore remains closed, the police file on the investigation cannot be closed until both murder weapon and murderer are found. Christer Pettersson died on 29 September 2004, after a fall during an epileptic seizure caused a cerebral haemorrhage.

According to a documentary programme broadcast on Swedish state television channel SVT in February 2006,[citation needed] associates of Pettersson claimed that he had confessed to them his role in the murder, but with the explanation that it was a case of mistaken identity. Allegedly, Pettersson had intended to kill Sigvard Cedergren, a drug dealer who customarily walked along the same street at night and resembled Palme both in appearance and dress. The programme also suggested there was greater police awareness than previously acknowledged because of surveillance of drug activity in the area. The police had several officers in apartments and cars along those few blocks of Sveavägen but, 45 minutes before the murder, the police monitoring ceased. In the light of these revelations, Swedish police undertook to review Palme's case and Pettersson's role. In the newspaper Dagens Nyheter of 28 February 2006, other SVT reporters scathingly criticized the documentary, alleging that the film-maker had fabricated a number of statements while omitting other contradictory evidence, in particular his chief source's earlier testimony that could not be reconciled with his claim to have seen the shooting.[16]

In the final part of the investigation, and in the end report, Pettersson was not included much due to formal legal reasons. The police are, according to law, not allowed to reopen an investigation of a person found not guilty in trial, unless major new evidence materializes. Too little new evidence has come up, so after the trial, the investigation was not focused on him, and the final report instead pointed out the "Skandia man" with even less evidence.
South Africa

On 21 February 1986 — a week before he was murdered — Palme made the keynote address to the Swedish People's Parliament Against Apartheid held in Stockholm, attended by hundreds of anti-apartheid sympathizers as well as leaders and officials from the ANC and the Anti-Apartheid Movement such as Oliver Tambo. In the address, Palme said, "Apartheid cannot be reformed, it has to be abolished."[17]

Ten years later, towards the end of September 1996, Colonel Eugene de Kock, a former South African police officer, gave evidence to the Supreme Court in Pretoria, alleging that Palme had been shot and killed because he "strongly opposed the apartheid regime and Sweden made substantial contributions to the ANC".[18][19] De Kock went on to claim he knew the person responsible for Palme's murder. He alleged it was Craig Williamson, a former police colleague and a South African spy.[20] A few days later, former police Captain Dirk Coetzee, who used to work with Williamson, identified Anthony White, a former Rhodesian Selous Scout with links to the South African security services, as Palme's actual murderer.[21] Then a third person, Swedish mercenary Bertil Wedin, living in Northern Cyprus since 1985, was named as the killer by former police Lt. Peter Caselton, who had worked undercover for Williamson.[21] The following month, in October 1996, Swedish police investigators visited South Africa, but were unable to uncover evidence to substantiate de Kock's claims.

A book that was published in 2007 suggested that a high-ranking Civil Cooperation Bureau operative, Athol Visser (or 'Ivan the Terrible'), was responsible for planning and carrying out Olof Palme's assassination.[22]

The 8 September 2010 edition of Efterlyst, Sweden's equivalent of BBC TV's Crimewatch programme, was co-hosted by Tommy Lindström, who was the head of Swedish CID at the time of Olof Palme's assassination. After being asked by Efterlyst's host Hasse Aro who he believed was behind the assassination of the Prime Minister, Lindström without hesitating pointed to apartheid South Africa as the number one suspect. And the motive for this, he said, was to stop the payments that the Swedish government secretly paid, through Switzerland, to the African National Congress.[23]
Bofors and Indian connection

In his 2005 book Blood on the Snow: The Killing of Olof Palme, historian Jan Bondeson advanced a theory that Palme's murder was linked with arms trades to India. Bondeson's book meticulously recreated the assassination and its aftermath, and suggested that Palme had used his friendship with Rajiv Gandhi to secure a SEK 8.4 billion deal for the Swedish armaments company Bofors to supply the Indian Army with howitzers. However, Palme did not know that behind his back Bofors had used a shady company called AE Services — nominally based in Guildford, Surrey, England — to bribe Indian government officials to conclude the deal – the Bofors scandal.

Bondeson alleged that on the morning he was assassinated, Palme had met with the Iraqi ambassador to Sweden, Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf. The two discussed Bofors, which al-Sahhaf knew well because of its arms sales during the Iran–Iraq War. Bondeson suggested that the ambassador had told Palme about Bofors' activities, infuriating Palme. Bondeson theorized that Palme's murder might have been inadvertently triggered by his conversation with the ambassador, if either the Bofors arms dealers or the middlemen working through AE Services had a prearranged plan to silence the Prime Minister should he discover the truth and the deal with India become threatened. According to Bondeson, Swedish police suppressed vital MI6 intelligence about a Bofors/AE Services deal with India.
Roberto Thieme

The Swedish journalist Anders Leopold, in his 2008 book Det svenska trädet skall fällas ("The Swedish Tree Shall Be Brought Down"), makes the case that the Chilean fascist Roberto Thieme killed Olof Palme. Thieme was head of the most militant wing of Patria y Libertad, a far-right political organization, financed by the CIA. According to Leopold, Palme was killed because he had gratuitously given asylum to a great number of leftist Chileans following the coup that overthrew Salvador Allende in 1973.[24]
CIA and P2 connection

Another plot sees the involvement of the CIA and the Italian clandestine, pseudo-masonic lodge Propaganda Due led by Licio Gelli who wrote, in a telegram to Philip Guarino, that "the Swedish tree will be brought down".[25][26][27] Claims of CIA involvement in the assassination were made by Richard Brenneke, an Oregon businessman who said he was an ex-CIA operative, in a RAI Television report in July 1990.[28][29] The CIA denied Brenneke's allegations, calling them "absolute nonsense" of an "outrageous nature," and stating that "The agency flatly denies that Mr. Brenneke was ever an agent of the CIA or had any association with the CIA.[29]
"The 33-year-old"

A Swedish extremist, Victor Gunnarsson (labeled in the media 33-åringen, "the 33-year-old"), was soon arrested for the murder but quickly released, after a dispute between the police and prosecuting attorneys. Gunnarsson had connections to various extremist groups, among these the European Workers Party, the Swedish branch of the LaRouche movement.[30] Pamphlets hostile to Palme from the party were found in his home outside Stockholm. Gunnarson's body was found in 1993 in the Blue Ridge Mountains, stripped naked and with 2 .22 caliber pistol wounds to the back of the head. Some conspiracy theories suggest that Gunnarson might have been used by a foreign government, who then later had Gunnarson killed 8 years later in order to leave no trace of the crime. A former police officer, Lamont C. Underwood, was convicted of Gunnarson's murder as part of a love triangle.
GH

A suspect identified only as GH by the Granskningskommissionen of 1999 was of prime interest during the early investigation. This was based on a standard profile used by the police to identify an assassin. The conclusion was that the killer had a knowledge of handling light firearms, used a Smith & Wesson of .357 Magnum, which GH at the time possessed. The suspect was reported to have failed to appear on several police interrogations to testify during the 1990s. Later testimonies given by the suspect were deemed untrustworthy; this included the suspect's whereabouts during the night of the assassination and the disposal of firearms.[31] He refused to submit his gun, the only registered .357 caliber weapon in the Stockholm region not to be tested, and subsequently claimed to have sold it to an unknown buyer in Kungsträdgården. GH had on one occasion had his gun license suspended after shooting his television, arguably after seeing Olof Palme's face on the screen. GH has also been convicted for assault, one time for kicking a dog in 1985, and a later incident in 2005 when he assaulted a young man on the metro liner after being harassed. In August 2008, GH committed suicide by gunshot after the police rang his doorbell and requested to be let in after being alerted through a phone call by his brother. He reportedly had paranoia and depression.[citation needed]
Police conspiracy

In an article in the German weekly Die Zeit from March 1995, Klaus-Dieter Knapp presented his view of the assassination as a result of a conspiracy among Swedish right-wing extremist police officers.[32][clarification needed]According to this report, the murderer was identified by two witnesses who happened to be at the scene and who knew the murderer from previous encounters.

PKK

In 1971, Olof Palme said that he blamed the fear of the masses on "anarchists and people with long hair and people with beards."[33] Following up on this suggestion, Hans Holmér, the Stockholm police commissioner, worked with an intelligence lead passed to him (supposedly by Bertil Wedin) and arrested a number of Kurds living in Sweden. The PKK was allegedly responsible for the murder. The lead proved inconclusive however and ultimately led to Holmér's removal from the Palme murder investigation.

Fifteen years later, in April 2001, a team of Swedish police officers went to interview PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in Turkish prison.[34] Öcalan alleged during his trial that maybe a dissident Kurdish group, led by Öcalan's ex-wife, had murdered Palme.[35] The police team's visit proved to be unsuccessful.

In 2007, renewed allegations of PKK complicity in Palme's assassination surfaced in Turkish media during the Ergenekon investigation, which was ongoing as of October 2008.[36]

The Turkish newspapers have several times claimed that the PKK has admitted the murder but the PKK have always denied all claims.[37] In 1998, the PKK said that there is a strong indication that the Turkish side is trying to discredit the PKK using Olof Palme's murder.[37] Also many Kurdish organizations believe that the initial claims were propaganda of the Turkish government.[38]
Yugoslavian connection

In January 2011 the German magazine Focus cited official German interrogation records in connection with another investigation from 2008 as showing that the assassination had been carried out by an operative of the Yugoslavian security service.[39][40]
The Laser Man

John Ausonius, "the Laser Man", also known as John Stannerman, was initially one of the suspects but it turned out that Ausonius had a solid alibi, as he was imprisoned on the night Palme was shot.
The Skandia Man

In 2018, journalist and investigator Thomas Pettersson published first a series of articles in the Swedish magazine Filter and later a book, Den osannolika mördaren ("The unlikely assassin"), based on a long-running investigation into Palme's murder.[41] Pettersson's findings were also covered elsewhere in the Swedish media, for example by Expressen[42] and Aftonbladet newspapers.[43]

Pettersson's theory is that Palme was shot by one Stig Engström, known as "the Skandia man" (Skandiamannen) after his employer, the Skandia insurance company, whose head office is located next to the murder scene. In earlier accounts Engström had been treated mostly as a witness, specifically (by his own assertion) the first eyewitness to arrive at the scene of the murder. He had also been briefly investigated by the police as a possible suspect, but this had subsequently been dropped. Pettersson posits a scenario where Engström, who had a strong dislike of Palme and his policies, had chanced upon Palme in the street and shot him, possibly without premeditation.

Engström died in his home in June 2000.[44]

Pettersson suggests that evidence from the crime scene strongly points towards Engström as the assassin. Most significantly, several other witnesses gave descriptions of the fleeing killer that matched Engström, some of them very closely so, while no other witness placed Engström at the scene after the shots, even though Engström himself claimed to have been present from the beginning, spoken to Mrs. Palme and the police, and taken part in attempts to resuscitate the victim. Conversely, the only persons whom Engström was able to identify as having been present at the scene were those likely to have been encountered by the killer, while he was unable to identify those who had arrived after the shooting. Also, Engström's known movements during the evening, about which he provided false information when questioned, indicate he had the opportunity to find Palme at the cinema earlier that evening and later to follow him from there to the crime scene.

Soon after the murder, Engström began a series of media appearances in which he developed an increasingly detailed story of his involvement in the events and criticized the police. He claimed those witnesses who had described the killer had in fact been describing him, running to catch up with police officers in pursuit of the assassin. The police, meanwhile, became frustrated with Engström as an unreliable and inconsistent witness and soon classified him as a person of no interest. Pettersson proposes Engström's media appearances were an opportunistic and ultimately successful tactic devised to mislead investigators and later to gain attention as an important witness neglected by the police.

While Pettersson's theory is built on circumstantial evidence, he suggests it might be possible to prove Engström's guilt conclusively by tracing and examining the murder weapon. According to Pettersson's theory, the revolver was likely to have been one legally owned by an acquaintance of Engström's, an avid gun collector.

The "Skandia man" theory had already previously been suggested by Lars Larsson in his 2016 book Nationens fiende[45] (literally, "The enemy of the nation"), but this received only limited attention at the time.

On 10 June 2020, the Swedish Prosecution Authority proposed The Skandia Man as the perpetrator and closed off the investigation since Engström is dead and can thus not be prosecuted, while noting the lack of direct evidence.[46]

Although Engström had a negative view of the prime minister, as well as long-standing financial and growing alcohol problems, investigators still did not have a "clear picture" of Engstrom's motive for killing Palme, Chief Prosecutor Krister Petersson said.[47]
Figures
Memorial plaque at the place of the assassination, reading: "Here, Sweden's Prime Minister Olof Palme was murdered, on 28 February 1986."

The cost of the investigation stands at SEK 350 million, €38 million or US$41 million as of 25 February 2016.[48]
The total number of pages accumulated during the investigation is around 700,000.[49] According to criminologist Leif G. W. Persson, the investigation is "the largest in global police history".[50]
The reward for solving the murder is SEK 50 million (approximately €5 million or US$7 million.)[49]

Film portrayals

In the 1998 Swedish fictional thriller film The Last Contract (Sista kontraktet), Palme's assassination was portrayed as having been planned by a hired assassin.

In the 2021 Netflix series The Unlikely Murderer, Palme's assassin was depicted as Stig Engström, the so-called "Skandia man," based on the book by Thomas Pettersson. Because Engström has never been found guilty in a court of law (having died in 2000 before the investigation was closed in 2020), the episodes' open with the words, "Based on an unsolved crime," and ends with the disclaimer, "It has not been proven that Stig Engström murdered Olof Palme, but the Swedish police and Prosecution Authority suspect him."
See also

Ebbe Carlsson affair
List of unsolved murders

Sources

Bondeson, Jan (2005). Blood on the snow: The killing of Olof Palme. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-4211-7.
Poutiainen, Kari; Poutiainen, Pertti (1994). Inuti labyrinten [Within the labyrinth] (in Swedish). Grimur. ISBN 978-91-630-8128-6.
Holmér, Hans (1988). Olof Palme är skjuten! [Olof Palme has been shot!]. Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand. ISBN 91-46-16153-8.
Springer, Elzo; van Soest, Dolf (2006). Ah, was it him? The predicted murder of Olof Palme and the Dutch connection. Netherlands. ISBN 90-810277-1-9.
Persson, Leif G.W. (2003). Mellan sommarens längtan och vinterns köld: en roman om ett brott [Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End] (in Swedish). [Stockholm]: Piratförlaget. ISBN 91-642-0072-8.; Leif GW Persson is a Swedish criminologist and, 9 years prior to the assassination, a member of the Swedish National Police Board. The book is the thinly disguised story of events leading to the assassination of Olof Palme. The book has Palme as having been a CIA agent in his days of student politics. Palme is mistakenly assumed by the American journalist who is killed at the start of the book to have later turned to work for the Soviets. In a later book Persson makes the assassination be carried out by a hit man hired by a renegade member of the Swedish Security Service.
Douglas-Gray, John (June 2011). The Novak Legacy. ISBN 978-0-7552-1321-4.

References

Thomsen, Dante (10 June 2020). "Åklagaren pekar ut Skandiamannen som Olof Palmes mördare". SVT Nyheter.
"Sweden closes 30-year murder mystery over killing of PM Olof Palme". CNN.
The investigation committee report (1999:88) Archived 2 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine (in Swedish)
Tagesson, Pelle (24 November 2006). "Här är de två heta vapnen" [Here are the two weapons]. Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 9 January 2011.
Wadendal, Ia; Kihlström, Staffan (20 October 2002). "Mordvapnet kan vara funnet" [The murder weapon could be found]. Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved 21 July 2011.
Nordstrom, Louise (21 November 2006). "Swedish Police Recover Revolver Linked to Palme Murder Investigation". The America's Intelligence Wire. Associated Press. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
"Swedish Police Unable to Confirm Link Between Recovered Gun and Palme Murder Investigation". International Herald Tribune. Associated Press. 27 May 2007.
"Brottsutredningen efter mordet på statsminister Olof Palme (SOU 1999:88)" (in Swedish). Retrieved 15 June 2020.
"Kronologi över Palmemordet". Helsingborgs Dagblad (in Swedish). 9 June 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
"Superpolisen tar över Palme-utredningen". Expressen (in Swedish). 31 December 2012. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
"Pensionerad Palmeutredare: "Mycket att utreda vidare"". Polistidningen (in Swedish). 6 September 2016. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
"Palmegåtan knäckte de mäktiga poliserna". Expressen (in Swedish). 12 April 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
"Kronologi: Palmemordet". Sundsvalls Tidning (in Swedish). 28 February 2006. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
"Krister Petersson tar över Palmegruppen". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). 15 November 2016. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
"Veckans brott. Palmeåklagaren: Åtal kan väckas under våren". SVT Play. SVT. 18 February 2020. Archived from the original on 20 February 2020. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
Borgnäs, Lars; Bresky, Tomas (28 February 2006). "Filmen om mordet på Palme ett moraliskt haveri av SVT" [The film about the murder of Palme, a moral breakdown of SVT]. Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved 10 October 2008.
Speech made by the Prime Minister. Mr Olof Palme, at the "Swedish People's Parliament against Apartheid" at Folkets Hus on 21 February 1986
www.kurdistan.org https://web.archive.org/web/20071209070901/http://www.kurdistan.org/Washington/southafrica.html. Archived from the original on 9 December 2007. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
Daley, Suzanne (29 September 1996). "Did Apartheid's Police Murder Sweden's Prime Minister?". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 October 2008.
Drogin, Bob (27 September 1996). "Apartheid Spy Tied to '86 Assassination of Sweden's Palme". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 28 April 2023. "De Kock said "Operation Long Reach"--the now-defunct South African military intelligence project headed by operative Craig Williamson--"played a role" in the murder of Palme, a staunch apartheid foe."
Sweden Vs Apartheid: Putting Morality Ahead of Profit, Abdul Karim Bangura, Ashgate, 2004, page 115
Devil Incarnate: A Depraved Mercenary's Lifelong Swathe of Destruction; by Wayne Thallon. Amazon. ASIN 1845962060.
"Efterlyst interview with Tommy Lindström" (in Swedish). TV3. 8 September 2010. Retrieved 9 September 2010.
"Ny bog: Chilensk fascistleder myrdede Olof Palme". Politiken (in Danish). 29 February 2008. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
"L'albero svedese sarà abbattuto", from a telegram by Licio Gelli to Philip Guarino, from the hearing of Ennio Remondino in the parliamentary inquiry commission about Italian terrorism and the causes behind the unsuccessful identification of the massacre's guilty party, 72nd session, 4 July 2000 (president Giovanni Pellegrino)
"Licio Gelli coinvolto nell'omicidio Palme". la Repubblica (in Italian). 1 May 1990. Retrieved 28 August 2015. "L'ipotesi di un coinvolgimento di Licio Gelli nell' omicidio di Olof Palme, il premier svedese assassinato a Stoccolma alcuni anni fa, è stata avanzata ieri dal quotidiano Dagens Nyheter. Nell' articolo, firmato da un giornalista molto noto in Svezia, Olle Alsen, si ricorda l' esistenza di un telegramma che parrebbe compromettere il capo della P2. [...] Un portavoce della commissione d' inchiesta ha commentato che la pista italiana è di estrema rilevanza."
Fedrighini, Enrico (27 February 2013). "Olof Palme, un caso ancora aperto" (in Italian). Il Fatto Quotidiano. Retrieved 28 August 2015. "Washington, 25 febbraio 1986, martedì. Philip Guarino, esponente del Partito Repubblicano molto vicino a George Bush senior, rilegge il messaggio che gli è stato appena recapitato; un telegramma inviato da una località remota del Sud America, una sorta di codice cifrato: "Tell our friend the Swedish palm will felled". La firma è di un italiano, Licio Gelli, vecchia conoscenza di Guarino; alcuni anni prima, avevano entrambi sottoscritto un affidavit a favore di un finanziere, Michele Sindona. "Informa i nostri amici che la palma svedese verrà abbattuta"."
La Repubblica, 4 July 1990, GELLI E L' AGENTE DELLA CIA LA PAROLA E' AI MAGISTRATI
"CIA Denies Role in Assassination". Los Angeles Times. 23 July 1990. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
SOU 2002:87 Rikets säkerhet och den personliga integriteten Archived 29 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Swedish Government Official Report, p. 239
"Granskningskommissionens betänkande i anledning av Brottsutredningen efter mordet på statsminister Olof Palme" (in Swedish). January 1999. pp. 955–960.
Knapp, Klaus-Dieter (24 February 1995). "Der Polizei auf der Spur". Die Zeit (in German) (9): 13–15.
Silk, Leonard (1971). "Is there a Lower-Middle-Class "Problem"?". In Levitan, Sar A. (ed.). Blue Collar Workers. p. 18.
"Ocalan questioned over Swedish murder". BBC News. 5 April 2011. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
"Ocalan denies role in key rebel actions, Palme assassination". Retrieved 28 February 2016.
Dolmaci, Emine (7 September 2008). "Apo, Ergenekon'un Truva Ati". Zaman Pazar (in Turkish). Archived from the original on 12 September 2008. Retrieved 10 October 2008.
"Did Kurd Rebels Kill Olof Palme?". CBS News. Associated Press. 28 April 1998. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
"Archived copy". so.firatajans.com. Archived from the original on 10 July 2020. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
Hufelschulte, Josef (16 January 2011). "Heiße Spur im Mordfall Palme". Focus (in German). Retrieved 21 July 2011.
Sundell, Camilla (17 January 2011). "Tyska medier: Nya uppgifter om Palme-mordet" [German media: New information on the Palme murder]. Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 21 July 2011.
"Palmemordet: Den osannolika mördaren". No. 62. Filter. May 2018. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
"Police investigate Engström for the murder of Palme". Expressen. 23 May 2018. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
"Skandiamannen pekas ut som möjlig Palmemördare - exfrun till nytt förhör". Aftonbladet. 23 May 2018. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
"Skandiamannen växte upp i armékläder". Expressen. 23 May 2018. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
Larsson, Lars. "Boken Nationens Fiende av Lars Larsson; om mordet på Olof Palme". Nationens Fiende. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
"Åklagarens slutsats: Skandiamannen mördade Olof Palme" [Prosecutor's conclusion: The Skandia Man murdered Olof Palme] (in Swedish). Sveriges Radio. 10 June 2020.
"Olof Palme murder: Sweden believes it knows who killed PM in 1986". BBC. 10 June 2020.
"Four odd things Sweden has done to solve ex-PM's murder". The Local. 26 February 2016. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
DN (25 February 2006). "Palmemordet i siffror" [Palme murder in numbers]. Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved 21 July 2011.
Persson, Leif G.W. (1 March 2009). "Borta men inte glömda". Expressen (in Swedish). Retrieved 19 July 2010.

Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr., a former Philippine senator, was assassinated on Sunday, August 21, 1983, on the tarmac of Manila International Airport (now named Ninoy Aquino International Airport in his honor). A longtime political opponent of President Ferdinand Marcos, Aquino had just landed in his home country after three years of self-imposed exile in the United States when he was shot in the head while being escorted from an aircraft to a vehicle that was waiting to transport him to prison. Also killed was Rolando Galman, who was falsely accused of Aquino's murder.

Aquino was elected to the Philippine Senate in 1967 and was critical of Marcos. He was imprisoned on trumped up charges shortly after Marcos's 1972 declaration of martial law. In 1980, he had a heart attack in prison and was allowed to leave the country two months later by Marcos' wife, Imelda. He spent the next three years in exile near Boston before deciding to return to the Philippines.

Aquino's assassination is credited with transforming the opposition to the Marcos regime from a small, isolated movement into a national crusade. It is also credited with thrusting Aquino's widow, Corazon Aquino, into the public spotlight and her running for president in the 1986 snap election. Although Marcos was officially declared the winner of the election, widespread allegations of fraud and illegal tampering on Marcos's behalf are credited with sparking the People Power Revolution, which resulted in Marcos fleeing the country and conceding the presidency to Mrs. Aquino.

Although many, including the Aquino family, maintain that Marcos ordered Aquino's assassination, this was never definitively proven. An official government investigation ordered by Marcos shortly after the assassination led to murder charges against 25 military personnel and one civilian, all of whom were acquitted by the Sandiganbayan (special court). After Marcos was ousted, another government investigation under President Corazon Aquino's administration led to a retrial of 16 military personnel, all of whom were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Sandiganbayan. The Supreme Court affirmed the decision and rejected later motions by the convicted soldiers for a retrial.[1] One of the convicts was subsequently pardoned, three have died in prison, and the remainder had their sentences commuted at various times; the last convicts were released from prison in 2009.
Background

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Benigno Aquino Jr. began his political career in 1955 first by becoming the mayor of Concepcion, and would go on to become vice governor of Tarlac in 1959, governor of Tarlac in 1961, and (then the youngest) senator in 1967. During his first years as a senator, Aquino began speaking out against President Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos in turn saw Aquino as the biggest threat to his power.

Aquino was supposed to run for president in the 1973 elections when Marcos declared martial law on September 21, 1972.[4] On that night, Aquino was imprisoned in Fort Bonifacio, and in 1973, Aquino was falsely charged of murder and subversion.[5] Aquino would first refuse to participate in the military trial citing "injustice", before going on a hunger strike, only for him to go into a coma after 40 days.[6] The trial continued until November 25, 1977, when Aquino was convicted on all charges and was sentenced to death by firing squad.[a][8] However, Aquino and others believed that Marcos would not allow him to be executed as Aquino had gained a great deal of support while imprisoned, and such a fate would surely make him a martyr for his supporters.

In early 1978, Aquino, still in prison, founded a political party named Lakas ng Bayan (or "LABAN")[b] to run for office in the interim Batasang Pambansa elections.[8] During the campaign, Juan Ponce Enrile (then Minister of National Defense) accused Ninoy Aquino of having connections with the New People's Army and the CIA, prompting Aquino to appear on a nationally-televised interview on March 10, 1978.[9] All LABAN candidates lost to candidates of Marcos' party,[10] amid allegations of election fraud.

On March 19, 1980, Aquino had a heart attack in prison, and in May 1980, he was transported to the Philippine Heart Center where he had a second heart attack. Aquino was diagnosed with angina pectoris and needed triple bypass surgery; however, no surgeon would perform the operation out of fear of controversy, and Aquino refused to undergo the procedure in the Philippines out of fear of sabotage by Marcos, indicating that he would either go to the United States to undergo the procedure or die in his prison cell.[11] First Lady Imelda Marcos arranged for Aquino to undergo surgery at the Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, and he would be released from prison on humanitarian grounds to leave with his family for San Francisco on a Philippine Airlines flight on May 8, 1980.[12] After the surgery, Aquino met with Muslim leaders in Damascus, Syria, before settling with his family in Newton, Massachusetts.

Aquino spent the next three years in self-exile in the U.S., wherein he worked on manuscripts for two books and delivered several lectures and speeches critical of the Marcos government across the nation. As Aquino was to return in 1983 as stipulated in his conditions for his release,[13] Jovito Salonga, then head of the Liberal Party, said about Aquino:

Ninoy was getting impatient in Boston, he felt isolated by the flow of events in the Philippines. In early 1983, Marcos was seriously ailing, the Philippine economy was just as rapidly declining, and insurgency was becoming a serious problem. Ninoy thought that by coming home he might be able to persuade Marcos to restore democracy and somehow revitalize the Liberal Party.[14]

Prelude

During an encounter with Imelda Marcos in 1982, Aquino handed her his expiring passport, unaware that she would keep it under her possession.[15] Aquino attempted to submit travel papers at the Philippine Consulate in New York in June 1983 (only to be rejected under the pretext of a targeted assassination plot)[16] and would end up with two passports–one a blank passport bearing Aquino's real name (via a consulate official) and the other a passport issued in the Middle East under the alias "Marcial Bonifacio" (via former Lanao del Sur congressman Rashid Lucman).[c][17] In July 1983, Pacifico Castro (then Deputy Foreign Minister) warned international air carriers (including JAL) not to allow Aquino to board its planes.[18] Aquino was to return on August 7, but was warned by Juan Ponce Enrile on August 2 to delay his return trip due to alleged "plots against his life".[19]

On August 13, 1983, Aquino, following a morning worship service, went to Boston International Airport, where he would take a flight to Los Angeles[20] to attend conferences with his fellow Filipino contacts. From there, he flew to Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, before heading to Malaysia,[20] where Aquino would meet with Mahathir Mohamad (then the Prime Minister of Malaysia) as well as Indonesian and Thai officals. Aquino would then move back to Singapore, before going to Hong Kong, where he boarded a China Airlines plane bound for Taipei. Once Aquino arrived in Taipei on August 19, he was met by his brother-in-law Ken Kashiwahara, a journalist for ABC News on vacation at that time.[20] On August 20, Aquino was joined by journalists, including Katsu Ueda (Kyodo News), Arthur Kan (Asiaweek), Toshi Matsumoto, Kiyoshi Wakamiya, and news crews from ABC News and Tokyo Broadcasting System,[21] and would later give an interview from his room at the Grand Hotel in which he indicated that he would be wearing a bulletproof vest. He advised the journalists that would be accompanying him on the flight:[22]

You have to be ready with your hand camera because this action can become very fast. In a matter of three or four minutes, it could be all over, and I may not be able to talk to you again after this.
— Benigno Aquino Jr.

On August 21, 1983, Aquino left the Grand Hotel at 9:30 AM for Chiang Kai-shek International Airport.[23] Upon arrival at the airport terminal at 10:10 AM, Aquino had to spend 20 minutes being driven in circles during baggage check-in to reduce suspicion.[24] After going through immigration via his Marcial Bonifacio passport, Aquino would be stopped by two Taiwanese airport officials, before he (together with Kashiwahara and other members of the press) boarded China Airlines Flight 811, a Boeing 767-200 (registered as B-1836) bound for Manila, and left Taiwan at 11:15 AM.[25] In Manila, at least 20,000 opposition supporters arrive at the Manila International Airport via buses and jeeps decorated with yellow ribbons.[26] Aurora Aquino (mother of Ninoy Aquino) and opposition candidates are also present,[26] while a contingent of over 1,000 armed soldiers and police were assigned by the government to provide security for Aquino's arrival. During the flight, Aquino went to the lavatory to put on his bulletproof vest (also the same suit he wore when he left the Philippines for the heart surgery) and handed over a gold watch to Kashiwahara, telling his brother-in law to fetch a bag containing clothes for Aquino's first few days back in prison.[27] His last few moments in the flight while being interviewed by the journalist Jim Laurie, and just prior to disembarking from the flight at Manila airport, were recorded on camera.[28]
Assassination
B-1836, the incident aircraft, taxiing at Kai Tak Airport on October 31, 1983, two months after the assassination.

When China Airlines Flight 811 arrived at Manila International Airport at gate number 8 (now gate 11, Terminal 1) at 1:04 PM,[29] three soldiers boarded the airplane to fetch Aquino.[30] At 1:14 PM, Aquino rose from seat 14C, and soldiers escorted him off the airplane; instead of going to the terminal, Aquino would, via the jet bridge's service staircase, be taken straight into the tarmac, where a blue AVSECOM van was waiting.[30][29] Just before shots were fired, he was saying "Ako na!"[vague] as he went into the service staircase, while one of the personnel was heard saying "Pusila! Pusila! Op! Pusila! Pusila! Pusila!" [d]. It was recorded on the news camera, but the actual shooting of Aquino was not caught on camera due to the exposure to bright sunlight.[31][32]

50 seconds after Aquino rose from his seat,[33] a shot was fired, followed three seconds later by four shots lasting half a second, and then a prolonged volley of at least twelve shots.[34] When the firing stopped, Aquino and a man later identified as Rolando Galman lay dead on the apron, both from gunshot wounds. Twenty-six M16 shells, one .45 shell, and five unused bullets (three of them "lead semi-wad cutters" and two "semi-jacket hollow" points) were dropped at the scene of the crime.[35] Aquino's body was carried into an Aviation Security Command (AVSECOM) van by two AVSECOM SWAT soldiers, while another soldier at the bumper of the van continued to fire shots at Galman. The AVSECOM van sped away, leaving behind the bullet-riddled body of Galman. According to news reports[36] (together with a subsequent Sandiganbayan ruling),[37] Aquino had died before arriving at Fort Bonifacio General Hospital; that claim remains controversial due to contradicting evidence presented in court interviews of General Custodio.

Autopsies of both Aquino and Galman were conducted by medical-legal officers Bienvenido O. Muñoz and Nieto M. Salvador at the Loyola Memorial Chapel Morgue and the Philippine Constabulary Crime Laboratory at 10 PM and 11:20 PM, respectively.[38] The Muñoz autopsy showed that Aquino was fatally hit by a bullet "directed forward, downward, and medially" into the head behind his left ear, leaving behind three metal fragments in his head. Bruises were found on Aquino's eyelids, left temple, upper lip, left arm, and left shoulder, while bleeding was found in the forehead and cheek.[39] The Salvador autopsy showed that Galman had died of "shock secondary to gunshot wounds" with eight wounds in his body; the first wound were found behind and above the left ear, second to fourth wounds in the chest, fifth and sixth wound in the back, the seventh wound with nine perforations from stomach to right thigh, and the eighth wound in the elbow region.[40] Seven bullets - four "deformed jacketed", two "slightly deformed jacketed", and one "deformed copper jacket" - were also inside Galman's body.[41]
Initial claims

During a press conference held at 5:15 PM (four hours after the assassination), Prospero Olivas (then the chief of the Philippine Constabulary Metropolitan Command) claimed that the assailant in "his twenties, dressed in blue pants and white shirt"[e] shot Aquino in the back of the head from behind with a .357 magnum revolver;[36] however, Olivas excluded from his accounts chemistry report C-83-1136, which showed that fragments extracted from Aquino were from a .38 caliber or .45 caliber pistol.[42]

A military reenactment aired on August 25, 1983, featuring many of the AVSECOM officials actually involved in the assassination,[43] showed that Rolando Galman approached Aquino and shot him moments before he could board the van.[31] An official report of the Marcos government and Pablo Martinez stated that Galman shot Aquino dead. However, there is no solid evidence to substantiate this claim.[31] Several foreign media personnel were with Aquino on the plane.[31]
Investigation

Everyone from the Central Intelligence Agency, to the United Nations, to the Communist Party of the Philippines, to First Lady Imelda Marcos was accused of conspiracy.[better source needed][44] President Marcos was reportedly gravely ill, recovering from a kidney transplant when the incident occurred. Theories arose as to who was in charge and who ordered the execution. Some hypothesized that Marcos had a long-standing order for Aquino's murder upon the latter's return.
Rolando Galman

Mere hours after the shooting, the government alleged that Rolando Galman was the man who killed Aquino, falsely accusing Galman of being a communist hitman acting on orders from Philippine Communist Party chair Rodolfo Salas.[45][46] A government reenactment that aired on television days after the shooting alleged that Galman hid under the service staircase while Aquino and his military escorts descended it, and as Aquino neared the van, Galman emerged from under the staircase and shot Aquino in the back of the head. Several members of the security detail in turn fired several shots at Galman, killing him.

There were numerous irregularities in this version of events, including the amount of time between Aquino leaving the plane to the sound of gunfire (eight seconds), whereas this scenario would have taken at least 13 seconds, when reenacted, as well as how an alleged lone gunman could have penetrated a security detail of over 1,000 people at the airport without assistance. Politicians and diplomats found evident contradictions between the claim and the photos and videotape footage that documented the time before and after the shooting.[47] Years later, the official investigation into the assassination concluded that Galman was a scapegoat in a larger plot to kill Aquino.
Agrava Board

On August 24, 1983, Marcos created a fact-finding board called the Fernando Commission (after the head of the commission and then-Supreme Court Chief Justice Enrique Fernando) to investigate Aquino's assassination.[43] Four retired Supreme Court justices aged 68 to 80 were also appointed;[43] they resigned after its composition was challenged in court. Arturo M. Tolentino declined his appointment as board chair. However, the commission held only two sittings due to intense public criticism.[29]

On October 14, 1983, President Marcos issued Presidential Decree No. 1886,[48] creating an independent board of inquiry, called the "Agrava Commission" or "Agrava Board". The board was composed of former Court of Appeals Justice Corazon Agrava[29] as chair, with lawyer Luciano E. Salazar, entrepreneur Dante G. Santos, labor leader Ernesto F. Herrera, and educator Amado C. Dizon as members.

The Agrava Fact-Finding Board convened on November 3, 1983. Before the Agrava Board could start its work, President Marcos claimed that the decision to eliminate Aquino was made by the general-secretary of the Philippine Communist Party, Rodolfo Salas. He was referring to his earlier claim that Aquino had befriended and subsequently betrayed his communist comrades.

The Agrava Board conducted public hearings and requested testimonies from several persons who might shed light on the crimes, including Imelda Marcos, and General Fabian Ver, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

In the subsequent proceedings, no one actually identified who fired the gun that killed Aquino, but Rebecca Quijano, another passenger, testified that she saw a man behind Aquino (running from the stairs towards Aquino and his escorts) point a gun at the back of his head, after which there was a sound of a gunshot. A post-mortem analysis disclosed that Aquino was shot in the back of the head at close range with the bullet exiting at the chin at a downward angle, which supported Quijano's testimony. More suspicions were aroused when Quijano described the assassin as wearing a military uniform. Some airside employees of the airport on duty during the assassination gave testimonies that support that of Quijano, stating that Galman was having a conversation with one soldier when gunshots rang out.

After a year of thorough investigation—with 20,000 pages of testimony given by 193 witnesses, the Agrava Board submitted two reports to President Marcos—the Majority and Minority Reports. The Minority Report, submitted by Chairman Agrava alone, was submitted on October 23, 1984. It confirmed that the Aquino assassination was a military conspiracy, but it cleared General Ver. Many believed that President Marcos intimidated and pressured the members of the Board to persuade them not to indict Ver, Marcos's first cousin and most trusted general. Excluding Chairman Agrava, the majority of the board submitted a separate report—the Majority Report indicting several members of the Armed Forces including Ver, General Luther Custodio, head of the AVSECOM, and General Prospero Olivas, chief of the Metropolitan Command (METROCOM). The board members unanimously rejected the theory that it was Galman who killed Aquino.[49] The Agrava Board forwarded its findings to the Ombudsman for trial by the Sandiganbayan.[49]
Funeral

Even though Aquino was embalmed by renowned embalmer Frank Malabed, Aurora instructed the embalmer not to apply makeup on the body,[50] so that the public may see "what they did to my son."[51] His remains lay in state for eight days. However, Aquino's family decided to display Aquino with the blood-stained safari jacket he wore upon his assassination, and refused any makeup to disguise the visible wounds in his face. Thousands of supporters flocked to Aquino's wake, which took place at his house on Times Street in West Triangle, Quezon City. Aquino's wife, Corazon, and children Ballsy, Pinky, Viel, Noynoy, and Kris arrived from Boston the day after the assassination. In a later interview, Aquino's eldest daughter, Ballsy (now Aquino-Cruz), recounted that they learnt of the assassination through a phone call from Kyodo News.[52] She was initially shocked upon being asked to confirm if her father had indeed been killed. The report of the assassination was verified to Aquino's family when Shintaro Ishihara, an acquaintance of Ninoy and a member of the Japanese Parliament, called Cory and informed her that Kiyoshi Wakamiya, a journalist who had been with Ninoy in the flight from Taipei to Manila, confirmed the shooting to him.[53]

Aquino's remains were later transferred to Santo Domingo Church, where his funeral was held on August 31. Following a Mass at 9 a.m., with the Cardinal Archbishop of Manila, Jaime Sin officiating, the funeral procession brought his remains to Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque. The flatbed truck that served as his hearse wound through Metro Manila for 12 hours. It passed by Rizal Park, where the Philippine flag had been brought to half-staff. Aquino's casket finally reached the memorial park at around 9 p.m. More than two million people lined the streets for the procession. Some stations like the church-sponsored Radio Veritas and DZRH were the only stations to cover the entire ceremony.[54]
Trials and convictions

In 1985, 25 military personnel (including several generals and colonels) and one civilian were charged for the murders of Benigno Aquino Jr. and Rolando Galman. President Marcos relieved Ver as AFP Chief and appointed his second cousin, General Fidel V. Ramos, as acting AFP Chief. The accused were tried by the Sandiganbayan (special court). After a brief trial, the Sandiganbayan acquitted all of the accused on December 2, 1985.[55] Immediately after the decision, Marcos reinstated Ver. The 1985 Sandiganbayan ruling and the reinstatement of Ver were denounced as a mockery of justice.

After Marcos was ousted in 1986, another investigation was set up by the new government.[56] The Supreme Court ruled that the previous court proceedings were "a sham" ordered by the "authoritarian president" himself; the Supreme Court ordered a new Sandiganbayan trial.[57][58] Sixteen defendants were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Sandiganbayan in 1990[59] and ordered to pay damages to the families of Aquino and Galman.[60][61]

The sixteen were Brig. Gen. Luther Custodio, Capt. Romeo Bautista, 2nd Lt. Jesus Castro, Sergeants Claro L. Lat, Arnulfo de Mesa, Filomeno Miranda, Rolando de Guzman, Ernesto Mateo, Rodolfo Desolong, Ruben Aquino, and Arnulfo Artates, Constable Rogelio Moreno (the gunman),[62] M/Sgt. Pablo Martinez (also the alleged gunman), C1C Mario Lazaga, A1C Cordova Estelo, and A1C Felizardo Taran. The Supreme Court affirmed the decision in 1991.[59]

Pablo Martinez, one of the convicted conspirators in the assassination, alleged that his co-conspirators told him that Danding Cojuangco ordered the assassination. Martinez also alleged that only he and Galman knew of the assassination, and that Galman was the actual shooter, a point not corroborated by other evidence in the case.[63] The convicts filed an appeal to have their sentences reduced after 22 years, claiming that the assassination was ordered by Marcos's crony and business partner (and Corazon Aquino's estranged cousin) Danding Cojuangco. The Supreme Court ruled that it did not qualify as newly found evidence. Even though the supreme court didn't convict President Marcos, there are those that still believe that Marcos did, indeed, kill Ninoy Aquino.[64] Through the years, some have been pardoned, others have died in detention, while others have had their terms commuted and then served out. In N

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