What to think of Thomas Quick

[Kerr]

Hi all.

I live in Sweden. In my country we have this serial killer, Thomas Quick, who confessed and was convicted for 8 murders. The convinctions was done years ago. Thing is, the entire affair is getting more and more critizised and its possible he will now get freed of all charges. His confessions are the only thing that convicted him, there was literally no evidence for him being the killer, and to top that... he is known to lie and be wrong. He is the kind of person who will confess to a murder just to get attention (he confessed to a LOT more then 8 murders and some of the so called victims turned out to be alive). He is extremely unreliable. I remember hearing one of the parents of his victims wanting him freed because he was so convinced Thomas was innocent of the crime.
Thomas Quick - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If he turns out to be innocent it might be one of the biggest failures of our justice system in modern times. At least of the cases I know of. Does anyone have a clue on how things like this can happen? And what do you do to the people responsible for putting a mentally ill man behind bars, only using his own extremely unreliable confessions as proof? What do you do to a man who is willing to lie and get thrown in jail and who may be innocent of everything (but at the same time he might not be)?

Personally I am at a loss when it comes to this case. Its such a mess I dont know what to say. Its possible he is innocent. Its likely he is innocent of a lot of the things he claims he has done. There is also a slight possibility that he might be guilty of something... but since its such a mess its impossible to tell the truth from the lies. So I am at a loss. I dont know what to believe.

Take care,
Kerr.

 

[painted wolf]

I hope this man gets the medical help he needs... as well as constant supervision.

Either way he is very sick. Sadly, confessing to murders (especially high profile ones) is not uncommon. And with people claiming serial killer status inflating body counts is very common.

wa:do

 

[BSM1]

Would we really miss him either way?

 

[Kerr]

I hope this man gets the medical help he needs... as well as constant supervision.

Either way he is very sick. Sadly, confessing to murders (especially high profile ones) is not uncommon. And with people claiming serial killer status inflating body counts is very common.

wa:do

Yeah, he needs help. Just hopefully he gets help from people who can sort out the lies from the truth. If anyone can. What gets to me is that the people who convicted him seems to, if the critics are correct, have done such a bad job its... criminal.

A major part of their case was that he knew things only the killer would know. For example, one of his "victims" had a birthmark. During the interviews Quick talked about a "cut" or something like that on the body. So they asked if he was sure it wasnt a birthmark. Then he claimed it was a birthmark. And then they claimed he knew things only the killer would have known, even if its possible they simply led him in the "right" direction.

Would we really miss him either way?

Not sure what you mean with "miss him"? He is alive. He has also taken mack his confessions, even though I am not sure its because he is better (fully possible he does it just to get more attention).

 

[painted wolf]

Yeah, he needs help. Just hopefully he gets help from people who can sort out the lies from the truth. If anyone can. What gets to me is that the people who convicted him seems to, if the critics are correct, have done such a bad job its... criminal.

A major part of their case was that he knew things only the killer would know. For example, one of his "victims" had a birthmark. During the interviews Quick talked about a "cut" or something like that on the body. So they asked if he was sure it wasnt a birthmark. Then he claimed it was a birthmark. And then they claimed he knew things only the killer would have known, even if its possible they simply led him in the "right" direction.

Absolutely... it's not only important that he get help for his sake either, but for the victims families. If he isn't the killer, then that means that someone out there is getting away with the crime!
If he is the killer, they need to find a way to fix this mess.

One theme with these kinds of events is that the police don't intend to lead the "confessors" but they get caught up in what is going on as much as the false confessor does.

Add onto that the fact that it's easier to believe that your community has a single really evil person who kills a lot than to have 30 individual killers that have gone uncaptured... and the prestige of catching a serial killer... and you have a tricky situation for the cops to resist.
Sometimes these "serial killers" become a subconscious way to close a lot of unsolved murder cases. But the problem is it may leave actual killers free from justice.

wa:do