Black Ice

Two attacks on young girls in the east side of Reykjavik shook the nation.

By 2017 he was in his 60s. He had serious convictions of fraud behind him. All sorts of victims including widows. A man was about to be killed because of his activity.

Reykjavik early 1980s. The wind of the bay is sharp. The houses are quiet. Inside one of them lives a man who helped shape Iceland‘s financial conversation at the national level. A young man will one day be convicted of defrauding his widow of millions.

Björgvin Thor, who was called the most dangerous criminal of Iceland, said he could not believe he would break into a house, threaten a woman to kill her two sons and then rape her violently. Yet a Couple months later he showed he could commit a violent crime and was about to do it again. 

Two bank robberies in 1995 were talked about as the perfect crimes, but were they?

The first time anyone one was shot dead in a police operation in Iceland was in December 2013. A 59-year-old man had been firing a shotgun from inside his Reykjavík apartment. When special forces broke into the man’s apartment, he fired at them and the police responded equally. This was one of the most read and shared stories on BBC that December because it was an unprecedented incident in Iceland.

A lorry driver comes across a young woman covered in blood trying to get away from a man and a car in south Iceland. She comes running and screaming in a panic towards the driver. "He tries to kill me" the young woman shouts repeatedly. A minute later the lorry driver ignores the woman and drives off.

In the summer of 1982, two friends, sisters, set out to explore the raw beauty of Iceland. A land, then untouched by mass tourism. What began as a carefree adventure through glaciers and black sands spiralled into terror when they crossed path with a man posing as a policeman.

Gunnar, the taxi driver accused of murdering another taxi driver in Reykjavik 1968, denies being involved, even though the murder weapon, Wesson 32 calibre pistol was found in his car. The police are certain they got the killer but can't make him confess he did it. 

Early in the morning of January 1968 a 43-year-old taxi driver was found shot in the back of the head in his car in Reykjavik. A shockwave went through the society and taxi drivers in this small capital were terrified. Who could have done such a thing in this small peaceful city?

1996 was a lifechanging year for me. Not only had I realised the seriousness of the case of the two disappearences in 1974, how badly the police and justice system in Iceland had failed. But, that year, I also lost my mental health, became paranoid, as I lost my faith in justice.

A Black Ice Special: Interview with Dr Gisli Gudjonsson.

Six young people were sentenced for the involvement of the disappearances of Gudmundur and Geirfinnur 1974 in Iceland. Without any tangible evidence, but the court verdicts were based on their own testimonies, which were withdrawn before court, except one, who withdrew his testimony in my TV documentary in 1997.

Two disappearances hurl six people into murder cases where they are used as a ploy in a grander scheme by the authorities. Five defendants were acquitted 38 years later, but the sixth, a woman, is still considered guilty of making false statements instead of the state facing its own grave mistakes.

Welcome to Black Ice. The first of a new series of podcasts on Icelandic crimes. We introduce our hosts, Sigursteinn Masson, an investigative journalist with extensive experience investigating crime in Iceland. And, Byron Russell, a true crime enthusiast, asking the relevant questions you want the answers to.