Anders Breivik Biography

Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 of his fellow Norwegians in 2011 in the most horrific killing spree in the country’s history. On July 22nd of that year, Anders Breivik set off a bomb in Oslo which killed eight people. But the bomb was only decoy: Breivik then traveled to the island of Utøya, where he used guns and a bag of ammunition to shoot children at a summer youth camp run by Norway’s Labour Party. He killed 69 before being captured by Norwegian special forces. Breivik freely admitted his chilling crime to the police, saying that he believed multiculturalism was destroying Norway and Europe. Breivik had written a manifesto, called A European Declaration of Independence, in which he called for the deportation of all Muslims from Europe, along with many other ultra-right-wing demands.  He later said that he committed the massacre to call attention to his views. His trial for the crimes began on April 16 of 2011. At trial, Breivik calmly described the killings and his movies, and fought the notion that he was criminally insane, saying: “I’m not a psychiatric case and I am sane… it’s very important to see the difference between political extremism and lunacy in a clinical sense.” He was found guilty and sentenced in 2012 to 21 years in prison.