A sheet of music leads a journalist and documentarian down the rabbit hole of a convicted murderer in Under the Radar: Secrets of a Swedish Serial Killer. The three-part docuseries follows John Mork as he enlists the help of musicians, investigators, graphologists, and other experts to help decode the lyrics of a cryptic song called “Under the Radar” from murderer Peter Mangs.
Mangs, a white supremacist, was already serving life for two murders and eight charges of attempted murder in Sweden. He also confessed to a double murder during his time in Florida, but the victims were unknown. The unreleased song was thought to provide clues. He passed along the sheet of music to his late prison psychologist. It then found its way into the hands of Mork with a promise to use it to help figure out what happened.
Mork flew to Miami with the killer’s diary, photos, and correspondence from prison in a quest for justice. Helping him along the way is true crime investigator and former Secret Service agent Jim Rathmann, whom viewers may know from Joe Exotic: Tigers, Lies and Cover-up. Together they look into grisly murder cases that went cold and may be connected to Mangs. Ahead of the North American premiere on Amazon’s Viaplay, we caught up with the two on their unnerving findings.
Viaplay
John, there are a lot of moving parts in this investigation. You involve a lot of people from different angles. What was it like to have people believing in what you were doing?
John Mork: It started four or five years ago. It just grew from there. I saw there was some kind of logic in what we were looking into. Jim did too. We have this serial killer that nobody knew was a serial killer living in a society where murders were happening. That fits his MO. I think any policeman would want to look into what Peter Mangs was doing during the years he was in Florida. The violence he was capable of here in Sweden, nobody knew about it in Florida. He did his first murder in 2003. He wasn’t arrested in 2010. In his apartment in Sweden, they found so many things that nobody could understand why they were there. I’m not alone here in Sweden who are convinced that he has done more murders than he is convicted of in Sweden.
Jim, what was your reaction when John reached out about his pursuit?
Jim Rathmann: I thought it was very interesting. It’s not every day you get a call about somebody who is this professional musician who can not only put the music together but the lyrics. He was hinting toward crimes and very serious crimes. What caught me off guard was that it was happening in Florida, specifically him living in Boca Raton. I grew up in Boca Raton. One of the areas he’s talking about may have been a little more than a mile from where I went to high school. I knew the area and locations. I knew what was being talked about. I thought immediately, “Oh yeah, I’m in on this. Let’s go.”
John, what was it like corresponding with Peter through letters?
John: I don’t think he looked at it as him giving me clues. He thinks he is so much smarter than everyone else. It wasn’t a concern for him. It’s an ongoing process with him, but the song was something he gave to his psychiatrist Kicki who had a special connection to him. He told her that there were clues in it. My obsession somehow was where I believed in Kicki and that she was on to something. I wanted her to confront Peter, but she died of cancer. So, that wasn’t a possibility. I let it rest for a year and picked it up and started writing Peter.
I didn’t tell Peter what my real agenda was. I was trying to reach out to him. I knew his tactics. I knew who he wanted to be. He wanted to be this chameleon, this terrorist. He thinks he can start some kind of race war. I played into that. I played into his music. He started to talk to me. Having this penpal is really strange. You get to see other sides of a horrible man. I think he wanted to have recognition for what he had done, but he didn’t want the responsibility for it. This is a way for him to do that. He gives me something, but he doesn’t give me enough.
Peter Mangs
Is he still sending you letters?
Yeah. I’m on vacation now, but I just got word we got a puzzle to the office with 3,000 pieces. They are missing two pieces. It’s a map of Paris. It could be anything. That’s his mind game.
Jim, how was it getting to know John on this project?
Jim: It has been fantastic. John has now become a personal friend of mine, which is great. I hope this is the first of many projects we actually get to work on. It’s been great to grow with him in this process with the times we’ve communicated. Being able to show him Florida and go to all these places and how things work in the United States. I learned how things work in Sweden. It has been a lot of fun for me, but it’s been learning as well. Any time you can leave with a friendship that will last for years. It has been a great experience.
John, you sit down with Mangs’ parents. You have a series of conversations with his dad in particular. He seemed so open. He welcomed you into his house multiple times. What do you think his thought process was to agree to participate?
John: It was a process. I was at his place several times to gain his trust. He is an old man, which helped I think. He wanted to talk to someone. I still think he has things he probably should tell the police or whoever could help in this process. Before Peter moved to Florida, he was a different person. He was a vegetarian, more of a hippie musician. It changed so fast for him.
Jim: The thought was here is also a military guy. You have that structure. I think it changed who Peter was overall and what his ideologies were. It changed Peter, but also how he operated.
John Mork and Jim Rathman (Viaplay)
After investigating all these cases and connecting the dots you bring your evidence to law enforcement. You even have this K9 that is believed to have found human remains at a spot Peter’s cryptic messaging brought you. I was shocked the police weren’t following up. What changed within their buy-in knowing all the evidence you had?
Jim: That’s a great question. The K9 dogs we brought are certified, trained, canine dogs at detecting human remains. That’s all they do. It caught us off guard, so we did report it to the sheriff’s office. Originally, they wanted us to meet at a different location. It wasn’t too far from the search area. We met them at that location and immediately their demeanor changed. I don’t know if it’s because we weren’t part of the sheriff’s office or police department there and an outside group.
Here we are finding all this information they didn’t know about. I don’t know if that is part of the reason why. When they brought their k9 to search that area, they wouldn’t allow us to go. We still don’t even know if they searched with their K9 dogs because they told us to stay exactly where we were in the parking lot about a mile and mile-and-a-half from the site. They would not let us go up there with him. They wouldn’t let us bring the camera crew or anything else. I’ve never seen anything like that in all my time. Whether I worked in law enforcement or even doing this, I’d never had that happen before.
To me as a frustrated viewer, I want you to continue your search. It does say “To Be Continued.” What’s the status of your investigation? As this docuseries hits North America, is the hope more people are aware and advocate for your efforts?
John: I’m never going to let this go. The only thing that changed right now is that Peter knows what I’m doing. I don’t know if that’s a big change. He is in a very special prison where it’s very hard to get into. He is really misbehaving. He has been in isolation for a year because he likes it there. He doesn’t want to be with other prisoners. I think we can keep on investigating without his help. He can keep on giving us clues, but we don’t know if they are lies. It’s like this puzzle he gave me. Of course, I will check it out. I will never give up investigating. I talk to Jim all the time. We keep on looking into what we can find.
Jim: This is an ever-evolving case. Once this airs in North America, specifically down in Palm Beach County and Dade County, Miami area, I think there is going to be more tips and leads. We’ll have more information. Someone who may have been holding on to something for 15-20 years may remember something. It can be very helpful. I don’t know where Palm Beach County, and Boca Raton police departments sit with this, but this will definitely bring some attention and attraction to it. There could be that one piece that comes together after the show’s release… I think there will be more to this to come. This is far from over. That to be continued will be interesting to see over the next 12-18 months.
Under the Radar: Secrets of a Swedish Serial Killer, July 30, Amazon Viaplay
If you have a tip or any information about the investigation, contact authorities or visit https://jimrathmannthecompany.com, or https://www.arabbithole.se/hime.