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Thomas Quick: The serial killer who wasn't

telegraph.co.uk

1–10 of 58 posts

Re: Thomas Quick: The serial killer who wasn't

#5
post #3

"Benzodiazepine" isn't a drug, it's a class of drugs. Really sloppy editing.

Indeed, and the range is rather large as well for what they cover. Most people have taken a Valium (diazepam) at some point in their life for example.

I would guess most people reading this wouldn't care. And I would also guess that you can guess why. It isn't even close to being a central piece of the story.

Re: Thomas Quick: The serial killer who wasn't

#6
One fascinating part of this story is Göran Lambertz, who was chancellor of justice during the trials and is now a supreme court judge.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6ran_Lambertz

He fervently maintains that Quick is indeed guilty, and that there was nothing at all wrong with the proceedings of the justice system. In fact he claims, to this day as far as I know, that the evidence against Quick is "extraordinarily convincing."

While a supreme court judge, this spring he released a 502-page book "Quickologi" which he presents as a thorough debunking of the notions of Quick's innocence and any suggestion of a scandal.

That's all a bunch of politics, but around here what should be more interesting is Lambertz's interpretation of probability.

In chapter 15 of his book, he performs a calculation of the evidence that Quick is guilty—and arrives at a probability of 183%. He concludes this from a chain of reasoning that involves adding contingent probabilities in a wildly spurious way.

After a professor of mathematics described exactly how ludicrous this is in a blog post...

http://haggstrom.blogspot.se/2015/05/quickologisk-sannolikhe...

...Lambertz replied on his own blog saying that he was eagerly awaiting such a rebuttal, since his aim was to "provoke a discussion."

In other words, the chancellor of justice responsible at the time of this case, this current supreme court judge, is a blog troll who uses fraudulent statistics to intentionally misrepresent the relevant evidence.

So, yeah. I hope I don't ever have to go to court. It's like a mashup of Franz Kafka, Lewis Carroll, and Stephen Colbert.

Re: Thomas Quick: The serial killer who wasn't

#7

Reminds me of the notorious case of Henry Lee Lucas in the United States who at one point confessed to hundreds of murders. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Lee_Lucas

Richard Kuklinski is another alleged contract killer, most of whose stories are suspected to be false.

Re: Thomas Quick: The serial killer who wasn't

#8
post #6

One fascinating part of this story is Göran Lambertz, who was chancellor of justice during the trials and is now a supreme court judge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6ran_Lambertz He fervently maintains that Quick is indeed guilty, and that there was nothing at all wrong with the proceedings of the justice system. In fact he claims, to this day as far as I know, that the evidence against Quick is "extraordinari…

I hope I don't ever have to go to court. It's like a mashup of Franz Kafka, Lewis Carroll, and Stephen Colbert.

Upvoted for that one line alone. Brilliant.

Re: Thomas Quick: The serial killer who wasn't

#9
post #6

One fascinating part of this story is Göran Lambertz, who was chancellor of justice during the trials and is now a supreme court judge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6ran_Lambertz He fervently maintains that Quick is indeed guilty, and that there was nothing at all wrong with the proceedings of the justice system. In fact he claims, to this day as far as I know, that the evidence against Quick is "extraordinari…

Isn't Sweden the country that was trying to extradite Julian Assange? If their Supreme Court judges can come up with probabilities greater than 100%, then I seriously fear for their justice system!

Re: Thomas Quick: The serial killer who wasn't

#10

"Benzodiazepine" isn't a drug, it's a class of drugs. Really sloppy editing.

You beat me to it, I just paused reading to come moan about that before continuing.

But not only that, having read a lot about benzos and have previously been prescribed a few different ones for insomnia, their effects are to quote Wikipedia "sedative, hypnotic (sleep-inducing), anxiolytic (anti-anxiety), anticonvulsant, and muscle relaxant"

Unless mixed with another drug - but I'm guessing he wasn't drinking in there - I don't see how their effects would be relevant.

Edit: 'When a new doctor took Bergwall off the heavy doses of benzodiazepine, his confessions abruptly stopped. "He sobered up and thought, 'What the hell have I done?' " Hill says.' But he didn't tell anyone until a journalist visited? Really feels like the author of the article heard "psychiatric" and "drugs" and jumped on the assumption that they were the cause. Interesting none the less.

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