Peter Mangs (born 1972), sometimes nicknamed Laser Man II (), is a Swedish serial killer and lone wolf terrorist. He was responsible for at least three racially motivated murders between 2003 and 2010, and twelve murder attempts, in a series of serial shootings in the city of

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

. In 2012 Mangs was found guilty on two counts of murder and four counts of attempted murder, and given a life sentence.

Early life

Peter Mangs was born in 1972, and was raised in the Lindängen area of

. He was raised by a single mother. Mangs had an immigrant background himself via a father born in

Närpes Närpes (Finland Swedish: ; ) is a town in Finland, located on the west coast of the country. Närpes is situated in Ostrobothnia, along the Gulf of Bothnia. The population of Närpes is approximately , while the sub-region has a population of ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. Mangs professed to feel alienated and frustrated with society. His lawyers argued that he had

Asperger syndrome Asperger syndrome (AS), also known as Asperger's syndrome or Asperger's, is a diagnostic label that has historically been used to describe a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and no ...

. Mangs suspected that he had the disorder since at least 2005, when he joined an association for people with Asperger syndrome, and was formally diagnosed in May 2009. He had a very high score of 19 on the Autistic Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS). Mangs was familiar with white supremacist literature and had read about lone wolf tactical materials. He had read both of

William Luther Pierce William Luther Pierce III (September 11, 1933 – July 23, 2002) was an American Neo-Nazism, neo-Nazi Activism, political activist. For more than 30 years, he was one of the highest-profile individuals of the white nationalist movement. A physic ...

's far right-novels ''

The Turner Diaries ''The Turner Diaries'' is a 1978 novel by William Luther Pierce, the founder and chairman of National Alliance, an American white nationalist group, published under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald. It was initially syndicated in the National All ...

'' and ''

Hunter Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, ...

''. He was fixated on racist serial killer

Joseph Paul Franklin Joseph Paul Franklin (born James Clayton Vaughn Jr.; April 13, 1950 – November 20, 2013) was an American serial killer, white supremacist, and domestic terrorist who engaged in a murder spree spanning the late 1970s and early 1980s. Frankli ...

, who ''Hunter'' is devoted to. He was introduced to Franklin by the book.

Murders and attempted murders

Mangs committed the killings aiming to ignite a race war by targeting people in select categories who represented types of people who he believed should not live in Malmö: "race traitors", Muslims, Roma, and Swedes of African descent. In June and July 2003, at the age of 31, he killed two men, 65-year-old Kooros Effatian and 23-year-old Firas al-Shariah; he selected them as victims due to their names indicating non-white heritage. Afterwards he continued his murder attempts for several years. In fall 2009, he began shooting people in clustered attacks. These were carried out with a

9mm This is a list of firearm cartridges that have bullets in the to caliber In guns, particularly firearms, but not #As a measurement of length, artillery, where a different definition may apply, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviate ...

Glock 19 Glock (; stylized as GLOCK) is a brand of polymer-Receiver (firearms), framed, Recoil operation#Short recoil operation, short-recoil-operated, striker-fired, locked-breech semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer G ...

handgun A handgun is a firearm designed to be usable with only one hand. It is distinguished from a long gun, long barreled gun (i.e., carbine, rifle, shotgun, submachine gun, or machine gun) which typically is intended to be held by both hands and br ...

. On 9 October 2009, he shot and killed Trez West Persson, an ethnically Swedish woman sitting in a car with a man of Albanian ethnicity. While the media speculated that she had been killed by accident and her partner was the intended target, the targeting was on purpose, with Mangs aiming to mimick Franklin and kill a woman he viewed as a race traitor. This murder was linked to the other shootings through

forensic evidence Forensic identification is the application of forensic science, or "forensics", and technology to identify specific objects from the trace evidence they leave, often at a crime scene or the scene of an accident. Forensic means "for the courts". Hu ...

, showing that the weapon used was the same gun as the one used in several of the other attacks. The attacks soon spread fear among the substantial immigrant population of Malmö. "Many people are frightened at the moment", said Tahmoures Yassami, the leader of the

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

ian-Swedish Association in Malmö, "especially families who have children." The local police warned against panic, pointing out that the risk for any individual of being shot was very low. At the same time, they cautioned people of ethnic minorities to avoid secluded areas after dark, which was when the attacks had been taking place.

Investigation

The shooter was compared to the likes of

John Ausonius John Wolfgang Alexander Ausonius (born Wolfgang Alexander Zaugg, 12 July 1953), known in the media as Lasermannen ("the Laser Man"), is a Swedish far-right extremist convicted of murder and 10 bank robberies. Between August 1991 to January 19 ...

, dubbed the "Laser Man" (), who committed similar crimes in 1991–92, targeting eleven men of immigrant origin in the

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

and

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

area, killing one. On 6 November 2010, Swedish police announced that they had arrested a man they suspected was the shooter. According to Malmö police he was under suspicion of one murder and seven murder attempts. The man arrested was a 38-year-old Swedish man, Peter Mangs. He expressed strong anti-immigrant sentiments and admiration for John Ausonius. In May of 2015, Mangs claimed through a biography that he wrote that he had planned to kill

Zlatan Ibrahimović Zlatan Ibrahimović (born 3 October 1981) is a Swedish former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Striker (association football), striker. Ibrahimović is known for his acrobatic strikes and Volley (association footba ...

. When he returned to kill him, he was gone.

Legal proceedings

In 2012, Mangs was found guilty on two counts of murder and four counts of attempted murder, and given a life sentence. The Scania and Blekinge

Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

denied an attempt by Mangs to overturn his sentence, convicting him of an additional three attempted murders, on 25 April 2013. A further request for appeal was denied by the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

in June of the same year.

References

Works cited

* * * * *

External links

Skjutningarna i Malmö
archived copy of site by the

Swedish Police Authority The Swedish Police Authority () is the national police, police force (''Polisen'') of Sweden. The first modern police force in Sweden was established in the mid-19th century, and the police remained in effect under Municipalities of Sweden, local ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mangs, Peter Living people 1972 births 2003 murders in Sweden 2009 murders in Sweden Anti-Muslim violence in Europe Crime in Malmö Criminal snipers Swedish snipers Male murderers People convicted of murder by Sweden People convicted of attempted murder People from Malmö Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Sweden Racism in Sweden Racially motivated violence in Europe Swedish neo-Nazis Swedish people convicted of murder Swedish people of Finnish descent Swedish prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Swedish serial killers Swedish murderers 2000s in Malmö 2010s in Malmö