John Ausonius

Case record: John Ausonius (Lasermannen)

John Ausonius (born Wolfgang Alexander Zaugg on July 12, 1953), also known in the media as Lasermannen ("the Laser Man"), was a Swedish convicted murderer, bank robber, and attempted serial killer.

He shot eleven people from August 1991 to February 1992, all of whom were immigrants, and killed one in the Stockholm and Uppsala area.

Background

Wolfgang Zaugg grew up in Vällingby, a working class suburb to Stockholm. As a child of German and Swiss immigrants, he was bullied in his youth because of his black hair and dark complexion. As an adult, he dyed his hair blonde and legally changed his name, first to John (Wolfgang Alexander) Stannerman, and later to John Ausonius to disguise his non-Swedish last name.

He went to the German school in Stockholm, a private school, but dropped out before graduating. He later completed his secondary school education in an adult education programme and managed to get accepted to the Royal Institute of Technology, but dropped out after a couple of years of unsuccessful study.

As an adult, he espoused right wing ideas, including hatred for Communists, Social Democrats, and immigrants, and dreamed about getting rich.

At the time he was working a low-paying job as a taxi-driver, but started trading in stocks and bonds. He developed a talent for playing the market and quickly gathered a somewhat large fortune. He adopted the yuppie life-style, and by the late 80's he had a luxurious apartment, a japanese sportscar (a Toyota Supra), and a mobile phone.

Some poorly chosen investments unraveled his fortune. When he fell into a gambling-addiction on a trip to Germany he found himself in dire economic circumstances. At this time he turned to robbing banks for money, in order to maintain his yuppie lifestyle. He performed more than 18 robberies, all performed in an almost identical fashion.

Ausonius, who had become a Swedish citizen in 1979, had a strong hatred for immigrants and foreigners. He started to look for immigrant criminals to kill, then got tired of this and decided to simply kill an immigrant, any immigrant, hoping it would scare them all out of the country. He also felt that killing immigrants would turn the attention of the Swedish police away from his career as a bankrobber.

The offence

From August 1991 to February 1992, Ausonius shot eleven people, all of whom were immigrants. He used a rifle equipped with a laser sight, which gave him his nickname, and later switched to a revolver.

Timeline

• July 12, 1953 — Wolfgang Alexander Zaugg (John Ausonius) was born.
• 1979 — Ausonius became a Swedish citizen.
• August 2, 1991 — Ausonius shot his first victim.
• October 21, 1991 — Outside the Stockholm University, Shahram Khosravi was shot in the back.
• October 27, 1991 — A homeless man of Greek origin was shot with two shots to the stomach.
• November 1, 1991 — Ausonius walked into the kitchen of a restaurant in Stockholm and shot an immigrant musician from Brazil.
• November 8, 1991 — Ausonius fatally injured Jimmy Ranjbar.
• January 22, 1992 — In Uppsala, Ausonius shot the man in the head.
• January 23, 1992 — In Stockholm, Ausonius shot a black bus driver in the chest and shot two black men in the evening at a Somalian club.
• January 28, 1992 — Ausonius shot Isa Aybar at a kiosk.
• June 12, 1992 — Ausonius was arrested during a bank robbery.
• 2000 — Ausonius confessed to all of the shootings.
• 2002 — The journalist Gellert Tamas wrote the book Lasermannen - en berättelse om Sverige.
• 2005 — The book was adapted into a play.
• 2005 — SVT produced a three-part TV miniseries that premiered on November 23.
• November 23 — The TV miniseries premiered.
• Late April 2006 — Aftonbladet revealed that John Ausonius had gotten engaged to an anonymous 23 year old woman.
• 1986 — Following the assassination of Olof Palme in 1986, Ausonius was one of the police’s initial suspects for the murder.

Events involving victims

August 2, 1991

On August 2, 1991, the Laser Man shot his first victim. He shot a young black man, 21 years old, an immigrant to Sweden from Eritrea, in the back side; his victim survived. The victims two friends said they saw a red light circle on his body before they heard the shot.

October 21, 1991

On the evening of October 21, 1991, outside the Stockholm University, Shahram Khosravi, a 25-year-old student of Iranian origin, was shot in the back but survived.

October 27, 1991

On the night of October 27, 1991, a homeless man of Greek origin was shot with two shots to the stomach. The victim saw a bright red light, heard the shots but managed to run away. Although wounded, he survived.

November 1, 1991

In the middle of the day of November 1, 1991, Ausonius walked into the kitchen of a restaurant in Stockholm where he had seen an immigrant and shot him once in the head and several times in the stomach. The victim was a musician from Brazil. The victim survived, seriously wounded, and was able to give a description of the Laser Man to the police. The victim saw a red light before he was shot and got a good look at his assailant.

November 8, 1991

Ausonius continued the shootings and, on November 8, he fatally injured Jimmy Ranjbar, another Iranian student, who died the next day.

After the fatal injury of Jimmy Ranjbar, Ausonius went to Las Vegas to gamble and visited the Grand Canyon. The Laser Man disappeared for a couple of months, but he would return.

January 22, 1992

On January 22, 1992, Ausonius went to Uppsala, where he walked up to a couple and shot the man in the head. The victim was Erik Bongcam-Rudloff, born in Chile, and then a Ph.D. student in medical sciences. He survived. He is now a scientist representing Sweden in several international scientific networks.

January 23, 1992 (Stockholm)

January 23, 1992, back in Stockholm, in the middle of the day, Ausonius shot a black bus driver, originally from Zimbabwe. The victim was shot in the chest but survived.

The same day, in the evening, Ausonius walked into a Somalian club in central Stockholm and shot two black men, who also survived.

January 28, 1992

On the night of January 28, 1992, Ausonius walked up to a kiosk where a man named Isa Aybar, an immigrant of Turkish origin, was working. Ausonius shot him four times in the head and arm, and walked away. Aybar was seriously wounded but managed to call the police and survived.

January 30, 1992

On January 30, 1992, the case record ends mid-fragment.

Investigation and arrest

A massive manhunt began after Ausonius shot eleven people, and the manhunt was described as second in size only to the hunt for Olof Palme's killer. Ausonius was arrested during a bank robbery on June 12, 1992.

Trial

Ausonius later assaulted his own lawyer in court and spent the rest of his trial in handcuffs.

He was convicted of murder and robbery, but could not be linked to all of the shootings. He confessed to all of them in 2000.

Sentencing and prison

He was sentenced to life in prison and was serving it in Kumla prison.

Ausonius had been diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder.

Aftermath

Media The journalist Gellert Tamas wrote a book about the case, Lasermannen - en berättelse om Sverige (2002), which became a bestseller. The book was published without consulting the victims first.

The book dealt with Ausonius and his life story and also with Sweden in general, making the case that his actions were in part explained by a surge of racism in the country in the early 1990s, including the success of the Ny Demokrati right-wing party in the election.

In 2005, the book was adapted into a play. In 2005, SVT produced a three-part TV miniseries, which premiered on November 23. Ausonius was played by David Dencik.

Engagement In late April 2006, the daily Aftonbladet revealed that John Ausonius had gotten engaged with an anonymous 23 year old woman, who had fallen in love with him after having seen the recent TV miniseries. According to the paper, a friend of the woman said the couple were planning to move abroad after Ausonius' future release from prison.

Trivia Following the assassination of Olof Palme in 1986, Ausonius, then named John Stannerman, was one of the police’s initial suspects for the murder. However, Stannerman could not be linked to the murder because he was in prison the night Palme was shot.

Ausonius was also the main suspect for murdering a Jewish woman on February 23, 1992, in Frankfurt, Germany.

Ausonius' favorite movie was Death Wish, about a New Yorker (played by Charles Bronson) who gets tired of all the crime in the city and goes out in the streets to shoot criminals, mostly blacks and latinos.

His reign of terror indirectly led to an embarrassing moment in Swedish politics. During a televised debate on racism held in Rinkeby, a suburb in Stockholm with a high concentration of immigrants, Birgit Friggebo (then minister of culture) stood up and tried to get the audience to sing "We Shall Overcome" in an attempt to avoid the upset and angry crowd. The audience booed her and prime minister Carl Bildt so they had to leave.

Other details

Following his arrest and during his time as a shooter, the last modifications to his weapons were described in detail: his rifle was sawed off both the barrel and the stock to make it shorter, and he modified the Smith & Wesson revolver with a silencer.

His last victim was shot in the head, paralyzing but not killing him.

Ausonius had served in the army, and he knew how to use a weapon.

His guns were described as being of poor quality, very likely because Ausonius had tried to modify them by himself. The record stated that silencing a revolver was impossible.