Cats Falck
Encyclopedia
Maureen Cathryn Harriet "Cats" Falck (11 July 1953 – date of death uncertain between November 1984 and May 1985) was a Swedish
television
journalist
who, together with her friend Lena Gräns, disappeared in Stockholm
in 1984 while she was investigating a scandal comprising the smuggling of weapons from Sweden to communist state
s in Eastern Europe
. The dead bodies of Falck and Gräns were later found at the bottom of the Hammarby Canal
in Stockholm. The deaths remain unsolved but later reports claim that they were assassinated in a state-sponsored operation by agents from East Germany.
Cats Falck was born in Enskede
in Stockholm
, Sweden
. Falck and her friend Lena Gräns were last observed by witnesses as they left the restaurant Öhrns Hörn ("Öhrn's Corner") at the crossing of Folkungagatan
–Borgmästargatan at Södermalm
in Stockholm, at approximately 21.30 CET
on 18 November 1984. On 29 May 1985, their bodies were found in a car (a white Renault
owned by Lena Gräns) on the bottom of the Hammarby Canal at Norra Hammarbyhamnen
in southern Stockholm. The Swedish police
, who had been working from several hypothetical theories, closed the case as an "accident". At the time of her disappearance, Falck, who was employed as a reporter for the Swedish public service television
news programme Rapport
, was investigating a major scandal comprising the Swedish company ASEA
and smuggling of weapons to communist state
s in Eastern Europe
. Prior to her disappearance, Falck had told her work-mates and her fiancé (the author Lasse Strömstedt
) that she was about to reveal "something big".
In April 1997, the Swedish Security Service
received an anonymous letter sent from Germany
in which it was claimed that the former East German secret police Stasi
had carried out the killings. In the letter, which was written in English, two retired Stasi officials and four other East German government officials were named, while the purported death squad was said to have consisted of three persons. The alleged motive behind the assassination was that Falck had received sensitive information about a secret weapons affair between the Swedish weapons manufacturer Bofors
and East Germany. In the letter, Stasi was further blamed for the death of the Swedish weapons inspector Carl-Fredrik Algernon, the chief investigator of the Bofors scandal
, in the Stockholm Metro
in 1987. In June 1997 the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter
wrote a series of articles based on the new information from the letter, which prompted the Swedish police to take a new look at the case. The case also received much attention in German media and prompted the German Federal Police
to open an investigation.
In September 2003, a 53-year-old German citizen, named as "Jürgen G" in a press release from the German Prosecutor-General, was arrested in Berlin
suspected of having been a member of a group that carried out a number of assassinations on orders from the East German government from 1976 to 1987. According to an article in the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung
, the suspicions against the man also involved the murder of Cats Falck and Lena Gräns. According to the article, the alleged death squad had operated directly under the East German government and not under Stasi as it was claimed in the earlier letter. The group had entered Sweden on false passports via West Germany
and Denmark
and then sought contact with Falck in Stockholm. There they had met up at the restaurant where Falck and Gräns were allegedly poisoned, placed in their car and then dumped into the Hammarby Canal. On 15 December 2003 the man was released from custody due to lack of evidence. The German investigation was closed in 2006.
The Documentary department of the Swedish broadcast, Sveriges radio, and its reporter Christoph Andersson investigated the case deeply in 2004-2005. He got access to Cats Falcks research documents and found out what she actually had been investigating in the eighties - Export of isostatic presses to Eastern Germany and the Stasi controlled enterprise AHB Elektronik Import Export. The pressed were made by ASEA in Västerås and can be used in the production of nuclear bombs. The Export was legal, allowed by the Social democratic government, headed by Olof Palme. Directly responsible where the ministers Thage G Pettersson and Birgitta Dahl.
The name of the radio program was ”Scoopet som försvann, the Scoop that vanished” Sveriges radio P1, Saturday nov. 6th 2005 2.,03 pm. See also the Magazine ”Scoop” nr 2/2005, published by the Swedish branch of IRE, Investigative Reporters and Editors (fgj.se)
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
who, together with her friend Lena Gräns, disappeared in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
in 1984 while she was investigating a scandal comprising the smuggling of weapons from Sweden to communist state
Communist state
A communist state is a state with a form of government characterized by single-party rule or dominant-party rule of a communist party and a professed allegiance to a Leninist or Marxist-Leninist communist ideology as the guiding principle of the state...
s in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
. The dead bodies of Falck and Gräns were later found at the bottom of the Hammarby Canal
Hammarby Sjö
Hammarby Sjö is a watercourse in central Stockholm, Sweden. Separating Stockholm City Centre from South Stockholm, or, more locally, Norra Hammarbyhamnen on eastern Södermalm from Södra Hammarbyhamnen, it connects Saltsjön to Årstasjön.Covering a surface of 34 hectare and having an average depth...
in Stockholm. The deaths remain unsolved but later reports claim that they were assassinated in a state-sponsored operation by agents from East Germany.
Cats Falck was born in Enskede
Enskede
Enskede may refer to*The districts of Gamla Enskede in Enskede-Årsta-Vantör borough, Stockholm*Enskededalen, a district of Stockholm's Skarpnäck borough*Enskede gård in Söderort, Stockholm...
in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. Falck and her friend Lena Gräns were last observed by witnesses as they left the restaurant Öhrns Hörn ("Öhrn's Corner") at the crossing of Folkungagatan
Folkungagatan
Folkungagatan is the name of two major streets in Sweden:* Folkungagatan, Stockholm* Folkungagatan, Göteborg...
–Borgmästargatan at Södermalm
Södermalm
Södermalm, often shortened to "Söder", is a district in central Stockholm. It covers the large island formerly called "Åsön". With a population of 99,685, it is one of the most densely populated districts of Scandinavia...
in Stockholm, at approximately 21.30 CET
Central European Time
Central European Time , used in most parts of the European Union, is a standard time that is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time . The time offset from UTC can be written as +01:00...
on 18 November 1984. On 29 May 1985, their bodies were found in a car (a white Renault
Renault
Renault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, and in the past, autorail vehicles, trucks, tractors, vans and also buses/coaches. Its alliance with Nissan makes it the world's third largest automaker...
owned by Lena Gräns) on the bottom of the Hammarby Canal at Norra Hammarbyhamnen
Hammarby Sjöstad
Hammarby Sjöstad is a part of Stockholm municipality, currently undergoing major urban redevelopment. It is located on both side of lake Hammarby sjö, bordering Nacka Municipality to the east...
in southern Stockholm. The Swedish police
Swedish Police Service
The Swedish Police Service is a collection of Government agencies concerned with police matters in Sweden. The Swedish Police Service consists of 28,500 employees of which 39 per cent are women. The staff consists of 20,000 police officers of which 25 per cent are women and 8,500 civilian staff of...
, who had been working from several hypothetical theories, closed the case as an "accident". At the time of her disappearance, Falck, who was employed as a reporter for the Swedish public service television
Sveriges Television
Sveriges Television AB , Sweden's Television, is a national television broadcaster based in Sweden, funded by a compulsory fee to be paid by all television owners...
news programme Rapport
Rapport (news programme)
Rapport is one of the two main news programmes from the Swedish television broadcaster Sveriges Television .Rapport's main bulletin is broadcast everyday at 7.30 p. m. on SVT1 and is thirty minutes long...
, was investigating a major scandal comprising the Swedish company ASEA
ASEA
Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget was a Swedish industry company. It merged with the Swiss Brown, Boveri & Cie in 1988 to form Asea Brown Boveri...
and smuggling of weapons to communist state
Communist state
A communist state is a state with a form of government characterized by single-party rule or dominant-party rule of a communist party and a professed allegiance to a Leninist or Marxist-Leninist communist ideology as the guiding principle of the state...
s in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
. Prior to her disappearance, Falck had told her work-mates and her fiancé (the author Lasse Strömstedt
Lasse Strömstedt
Folke Lars-Olov Strömstedt, , better known as Lasse Strömstedt, was a Swedish writer who wrote of and about his own life in prison and drug abuse. Strömstedt was born in Gävle in 1935. He was a casual laborer whose working life was frequently disrupted by imprisonment. After 1971 he changed his...
) that she was about to reveal "something big".
In April 1997, the Swedish Security Service
Swedish Security Service
The Swedish Security Service , former name Rikspolisstyrelsens säkerhetsavdelning , is the security service of Sweden, belonging to the Swedish National Police Board....
received an anonymous letter sent from Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in which it was claimed that the former East German secret police Stasi
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...
had carried out the killings. In the letter, which was written in English, two retired Stasi officials and four other East German government officials were named, while the purported death squad was said to have consisted of three persons. The alleged motive behind the assassination was that Falck had received sensitive information about a secret weapons affair between the Swedish weapons manufacturer Bofors
Bofors
The name Bofors has been associated with the iron industry for more than 350 years.Located in Karlskoga, Sweden, the company originates from the hammer mill "Boofors" founded 1646. The modern corporate structure was created in 1873 with the foundation of Aktiebolaget Bofors-Gullspång...
and East Germany. In the letter, Stasi was further blamed for the death of the Swedish weapons inspector Carl-Fredrik Algernon, the chief investigator of the Bofors scandal
Bofors scandal
The Bofors scandal was a major corruption scandal in India in the 1980s; the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and several others were accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB for winning a bid to supply India's 155 mm field howitzer...
, in the Stockholm Metro
Stockholm Metro
The Stockholm Metro is a metro system in Stockholm, Sweden. The first line opened in 1950, and today the system has 100 stations in use, of which 47 are underground and 53 above ground. There are seven lines numbered from 10 to 19, in three groups identified by a color: the Green, Red and Blue lines...
in 1987. In June 1997 the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter
Dagens Nyheter
is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It has the largest circulation of Swedish morning newspapers, followed by Göteborgs-Posten and Svenska Dagbladet, and is the only morning newspaper that is distributed to subscribers across the whole country. In 2009 DN had a circulation of 316,000, reaching 881...
wrote a series of articles based on the new information from the letter, which prompted the Swedish police to take a new look at the case. The case also received much attention in German media and prompted the German Federal Police
German Federal Police
The Bundespolizei is a uniformed federal police force in Germany. It is subordinate to the Federal Ministry of the Interior...
to open an investigation.
In September 2003, a 53-year-old German citizen, named as "Jürgen G" in a press release from the German Prosecutor-General, was arrested in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
suspected of having been a member of a group that carried out a number of assassinations on orders from the East German government from 1976 to 1987. According to an article in the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung
Berliner Zeitung
The Berliner Zeitung, founded in 1945, is a German center-left daily newspaper based in Berlin, published by Berliner Verlag. It is the only East German paper to achieve national prominence since unification. In 2003, the Berliner was Berlin's largest subscription newspaper—the weekend...
, the suspicions against the man also involved the murder of Cats Falck and Lena Gräns. According to the article, the alleged death squad had operated directly under the East German government and not under Stasi as it was claimed in the earlier letter. The group had entered Sweden on false passports via West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
and Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and then sought contact with Falck in Stockholm. There they had met up at the restaurant where Falck and Gräns were allegedly poisoned, placed in their car and then dumped into the Hammarby Canal. On 15 December 2003 the man was released from custody due to lack of evidence. The German investigation was closed in 2006.
The Documentary department of the Swedish broadcast, Sveriges radio, and its reporter Christoph Andersson investigated the case deeply in 2004-2005. He got access to Cats Falcks research documents and found out what she actually had been investigating in the eighties - Export of isostatic presses to Eastern Germany and the Stasi controlled enterprise AHB Elektronik Import Export. The pressed were made by ASEA in Västerås and can be used in the production of nuclear bombs. The Export was legal, allowed by the Social democratic government, headed by Olof Palme. Directly responsible where the ministers Thage G Pettersson and Birgitta Dahl.
The name of the radio program was ”Scoopet som försvann, the Scoop that vanished” Sveriges radio P1, Saturday nov. 6th 2005 2.,03 pm. See also the Magazine ”Scoop” nr 2/2005, published by the Swedish branch of IRE, Investigative Reporters and Editors (fgj.se)