Storyville: Out of Thin Air: Murder in Iceland TV - BBC online -
109,956. Memory is such a fickle thing. (Murder & Disappearances & Miscarriages of Justice) Storyville: Out of Thin Air: Murder in Iceland, BBC 2017, opening scene
109,957. Police are looking for a 19 year old man who has been missing since Saturday night … Rescue teams are searching the lava fields … Now police are searching for a 34 year old man. His car was found abandoned in Keflavik … (Murder & Disappearances & Miscarriages of Justice) ibid. news
109,958. Every Icelander knows about this case. It’s the biggest criminal case of the last century. (Murder & Disappearances & Miscarriages of Justice) ibid. woman
109,959. I realised I am high on LSD … He tells me, someone must have put LSD in my drink. (Murder & Disappearances & Miscarriages of Justice) ibid. woman with bloke at party
109,960. Saevar, Kristjan,Tryggvi and Albert are helped in custody for Gugmundur’s murder. (Murder & Disappearances & Miscarriages of Justice) ibid. caption
109,961. Four more suspects known as the Club Men are arrested; now there are eight in custody. (Murder & Disappearances & Miscarriages of Justice) ibid.
109,963. There was so much pressure on authorities to convict all of us. (Murder & Disappearances & Miscarriages of Justice) ibid. woman
109,962. All six had now confessed to their involvement in the two murders. After an investigation which had lasted more than a year, there was however no physical evidence, and the suspects’ memories were hazy. Yet they had all told police and signed statements that, yes, they had either killed Geirfinnur and Gudmundur or helped dispose of their bodies.
... Several of the suspects now began trying to retract their confessions saying they had been pressured into signing statements they knew weren’t true. Investigators dismissed these claims, as did the court; sometimes because the attempted retractions had come too late or, as in Saevar’s case, because the head investigator told the court ‘I know better.’
… Then there was the mental torture – being deprived of everything, kept awake all night, not allowed to sleep.
Forty years on, this still haunts Hlynur who is ashamed of what went on inside the prison walls. ‘I think most people here believe we live in a civilised country, that we are a civilised nation. We want to trust justice but that failed.’ (Iceland & Disappearances & Miscarriages of Justice) BBC online article Simon Cox 15th May 2014, ‘The Reykjavik Confessions: The mystery of why six people admitted roles in two murders – when they couldn’t remember anything about the crimes’