Read Online 100 Most Infamous Criminals by Jo Durden Smith - Free Book Online
Authors: Jo Durden Smith
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she was soon remarried, to a Norwegian Army officer, Breivik would later criticize what he perceived as an absence of the masculine in his childhood home. In his writings, he disparages his mother for his ‘matriarchal upbringing’, adding ‘it completely lacked discipline and has contributed to feminizing me to a certain degree.’
Anecdotal evidence shows Breivik to have been an intelligent, caring boy, one who was quick to defend others against bullying. However, his behaviour changed markedly in adolescence. Over a two-year period, so Breivik claims, he engaged in a one-man ‘war’ against Oslo’s public transit company, causing £700,000 ($956,000) in property damage. His evenings were spent running around the city with friends, committing acts of vandalism.
At 16, Breivik was caught spray-painting graffiti on the exterior wall of a building, an act that brought an end to his relationship with his father. The two have had no contact since.
Though the stepson of an army officer, Breivik was declared ‘unfit for service’ in Norway’s mandatory conscription assessment. The reason for this surprising judgement has yet to be disclosed; Breivik told friends a story that he’d received an exemption to care for his sickly mother. However, a possible explanation is his use of anabolic steroids, a drug that he’d been taking since his teenage years in an effort to bulk up. Breivik was a man obsessed with his appearance.
In 2000, at the age of 21, he flew to the USA to have cosmetic surgery on his forehead, nose and chin. Unmarried at 32, Breivik considered himself a most desirable bachelor, and boasted frequently of his conquests, yet not one of his acquaintances can remember him ever having a girlfriend.
‘When it comes to girls,’ Breivik wrote in his journal, ‘I’m tempted – especially these days, after training and I’m feeling fantastic. But I try to avoid entanglements, because they may complicate my plans and put the whole operation in jeopardy.’
The operation he referred to was part of a nine-year plan that culminated on that horrible day in July 2011. According to Breivik, work began in 2002 with the establishment of a computer programming business that was intended to raise funds. Instead, the company went bankrupt, forcing him to move back to his mother’s house. This humiliating setback seems to have brought on a period of relative inactivity. By 2009, however, Breivik was back in business. He set up a company, Breivik Geofarm, which was nothing more than a cover so that he might buy large quantities of fertilizer and other chemicals used in bomb-making without raising suspicions. The next year, after a failed attempt at buying illegal weapons in Prague, he purchased a semi-automatic Glock pistol and a Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic carbine through legal channels.
Breivik murdered with these guns, but his first victims on 22 July 2011 were killed with a car bomb planted in his Volkswagen Crafter. That afternoon, he drove the automobile into the government quarter of Oslo, taking care to park it in front of the building housing the Office of the Prime Minister, the Minister of Justice and Police and several other high-ranking government ministers. At 3:22 pm, the car bomb exploded, shattering windows, and setting the ground floor of the building on fire. Though Labour Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, thought to have been a chief target of the attack, survived without a scratch, the explosion killed eight people and left 11 more with critical injuries.
Things could have been much worse. It’s curious that through all Breivik’s years of planning, he’d never taken into account the fact that July is the month Norwegians go on holiday. What’s more, he’d chosen to carry out his attack late on a Friday afternoon, a time when most government employees had already left for the weekend.
During the mayhem in downtown Oslo, Breivik changed into a fake police uniform, made his way some 40 km (25
Anecdotal evidence shows Breivik to have been an intelligent, caring boy, one who was quick to defend others against bullying. However, his behaviour changed markedly in adolescence. Over a two-year period, so Breivik claims, he engaged in a one-man ‘war’ against Oslo’s public transit company, causing £700,000 ($956,000) in property damage. His evenings were spent running around the city with friends, committing acts of vandalism.
At 16, Breivik was caught spray-painting graffiti on the exterior wall of a building, an act that brought an end to his relationship with his father. The two have had no contact since.
Though the stepson of an army officer, Breivik was declared ‘unfit for service’ in Norway’s mandatory conscription assessment. The reason for this surprising judgement has yet to be disclosed; Breivik told friends a story that he’d received an exemption to care for his sickly mother. However, a possible explanation is his use of anabolic steroids, a drug that he’d been taking since his teenage years in an effort to bulk up. Breivik was a man obsessed with his appearance.
In 2000, at the age of 21, he flew to the USA to have cosmetic surgery on his forehead, nose and chin. Unmarried at 32, Breivik considered himself a most desirable bachelor, and boasted frequently of his conquests, yet not one of his acquaintances can remember him ever having a girlfriend.
‘When it comes to girls,’ Breivik wrote in his journal, ‘I’m tempted – especially these days, after training and I’m feeling fantastic. But I try to avoid entanglements, because they may complicate my plans and put the whole operation in jeopardy.’
The operation he referred to was part of a nine-year plan that culminated on that horrible day in July 2011. According to Breivik, work began in 2002 with the establishment of a computer programming business that was intended to raise funds. Instead, the company went bankrupt, forcing him to move back to his mother’s house. This humiliating setback seems to have brought on a period of relative inactivity. By 2009, however, Breivik was back in business. He set up a company, Breivik Geofarm, which was nothing more than a cover so that he might buy large quantities of fertilizer and other chemicals used in bomb-making without raising suspicions. The next year, after a failed attempt at buying illegal weapons in Prague, he purchased a semi-automatic Glock pistol and a Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic carbine through legal channels.
Breivik murdered with these guns, but his first victims on 22 July 2011 were killed with a car bomb planted in his Volkswagen Crafter. That afternoon, he drove the automobile into the government quarter of Oslo, taking care to park it in front of the building housing the Office of the Prime Minister, the Minister of Justice and Police and several other high-ranking government ministers. At 3:22 pm, the car bomb exploded, shattering windows, and setting the ground floor of the building on fire. Though Labour Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, thought to have been a chief target of the attack, survived without a scratch, the explosion killed eight people and left 11 more with critical injuries.
Things could have been much worse. It’s curious that through all Breivik’s years of planning, he’d never taken into account the fact that July is the month Norwegians go on holiday. What’s more, he’d chosen to carry out his attack late on a Friday afternoon, a time when most government employees had already left for the weekend.
During the mayhem in downtown Oslo, Breivik changed into a fake police uniform, made his way some 40 km (25
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