The "Fox Hunter" who became a murderer

    It happened in 1956. I was the "Fox Hunt Manager" of the Swedish Radio Amateur League, SSA. At this time, Sweden and Yugoslavia were the two countries in Europe where technical, tactical and administrative problems of the sport were taken seriously, and we used to discuss these problems by letter and by amateur radio. I was invited to Belgrade, where Savez Radioamatera Jugoslavije was to arrange a large meeting with - among other things - discussions on the subject and also an ARDF competition.
   The cheapest way to get there was to fill my little Volkswagen with fox hunters, tent, sleeping-bags and camping-stove. Two young radio amateurs were eager to join the expedition - one of them became Swedish Champion the following year (otherwise I would have been the 1957 Champion!) and the other one succeeded me as Fox Hunt Manager in 1958, so they were well qualified.
   One more was needed, however, preferrably one with a driver's licence. Finally we found Lasse, member of SSA though not a certified ham radio operator. He was a fox hunter but not belonging to the elite.
   We somehow arrived in Belgrade in good shape.
   Our hosts arranged a discussion between me and a Soviet deputy minister for sports and technics (DOSAAF, if anyone remembers that) who was eager to learn everything about ARDF. We discussed it for many hours. Earlier, the Soviet magazine "Radio" had not published anything about the sport, but 11 months later the first articles appeared, and after a few years the Soviet competitors were the best in Europe - like in many other sports. Could it be partly my fault? Or merit?

   After the meeting we went over Sarajevo and Dubrovnik, had a nice time at the Adriatic Sea and arrived home after three weeks. There had been very little space in the car during the days and in the tent during the nights, but we were in a good temper. We didn't know much about Lasse before we started the journey, he didn't say so much but he always took his share of driving, cooking, pitching the tent etc. He sporadically took part in the ARDF competitions during the following year but finally disappeared.

   After 35 years, in the early 90's, I saw him again, this time on TV, as a prisoner serving life sentence, and suffering from an advanced cancer. He had blasted the house of a prosecutor and an official building, causing the death of two men. The newspapers called him "the bomber". .
   After his death, a lawyer claims that he has Lasse's partly verbal, partly written last will, which is said to contain information about the still unsolved murder of Prime minister Olof Palme. The police regarded him as having been very dangerous....

   And my judgment, based on three weeks, when we not in the car nor in the tent could get farther apart than four feet, is "silent, reliable, absolutely OK".
   Sometimes life is a bit peculiar, isn't it?