Palme Assassination Probers Criticized

The outgoing Stockholm police chief on Friday ridiculed the new team looking for the murderer of Prime Minister Olof Palme, saying its main idea so far was to hypnotize Palme’s widow.

Hans Holmer, replaced as head of the Palme investigation Feb. 4, publicly criticized his successors after resigning from the police Thursday to protest what he called their “slovenly and passive” handling of the inquiry.

A spokesman for the new murder probe team, Ingvar Eriksson, confirmed that the police have discussed the possibility of questioning Palme’s widow, Lisbet, under hypnosis in an attempt to throw new light on the assassination a year ago.