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By Root 524 0

the political spectrum, covering the origins of their movements, their use of violence, and their current affiliated organizations in Europe, Scandinavia, and the United States. It was the first comprehensive work ever published on the subject. One of the groups mentioned in the book, VAM (Vitt Ariskt Motstand, for White Aryan Resistance), published a magazine called Storm that was steeped in racial violence dressed up in a romantic aura. Seven of its members had amassed a total of twenty convictions among them for crimes such as armed robbery, stealing weapons from military depots, and homicide, so when we learned the following year that Storm knew both our address and that of Anna-Lena, we were worried: having your name on neo-Nazi hit lists can be very dangerous.

While we were trying to figure out how to react and protect ourselves, my sister’s companion at the time told us, “You’re part of the family. I’ll go see my uncle, an Italian; he’s connected, he’ll come up with a definitive solution for you.” At first we were delighted with the offer, especially with its suggestion of an “extended family.” Then we had second thoughts. We knew perfectly well there’d be no question of money changing hands, and that one day we’d be expected to repay a debt of honor. But what form would it take? Besides, finding criminals was the job of the police. So we declined the invitation, explaining that we preferred to let the law take its course. I admit, though, that I thought about that idea for some time. In 1993, Storm published photos of Stieg and Anna-Lena along with their social security and phone numbers, plus their personal and business addresses. Referring to Stieg, the accompanying text concluded: “Never forget his words, his face, and his address. Should he be allowed to continue his work—or should he be dealt with?”

In those days, anyone could obtain pictures of any Swedish citizen by going to the passport service of the Swedish police. In The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Lisbeth Salander explains how simple it is to do so: “If the person is in a database, which is absolutely the case for everyone, the target swiftly winds up in the spider’s web.” In the next book, The Girl Who Played with Fire, Lisbeth even hesitates to move to another apartment because that would mean a new address and would make her “someone concretely present in all sorts of computer files.” Stieg knew everything there was to know about tracking people, all the methods used by journalists, by the police, by men hunting for the wives who’d left them after conjugal violence, and as it happens—by extremists and criminal gangs. Because of the threats from Storm, the magazine was prosecuted and convicted. But that took time….

In the 1990s, more than a dozen people were murdered in Sweden for political reasons by individuals involved with neo-Nazi groups. Sapo—the Security Service, an arm of the Swedish National Police—estimates that during 1998 alone, there were more than two thousand unprovoked racist attacks, more than half of which can be directly linked to neo-Nazi militants in White Power groups. And some of these extremists had managed to obtain our phone number, because although only my name appeared on our apartment door, and the telephone was listed under my name alone, we were receiving anonymous calls. Our apartment was already secured by an alarm system and a digicode keypad, but I had a new metal security door installed as well. After Mikael Blomkvist enters Lisbeth Salander’s swank new apartment at 9 Fiskargatan in the Mosebacke area of Sodermalm, he stares in frustration at the alarm keypad by the front door. He knows that if he doesn’t tap in the correct four-digit code within thirty seconds, the alarm will go off and a bunch of beefy guys from a security company will arrive in no time. Stieg and I went through that experience many times when we’d come home exhausted only to find ourselves standing at our front door, powerless to stop the “screamer”—our pet name for the alarm.

Now and then Stieg would receive bullets in the mail, and once