Jackie Banny Arklöv was born on June 6, 1973, in Liberia to a Liberian mother and German father. As a young child, he was adopted first by a Norwegian couple and later raised in Ankarsund, Sweden, from the age of seven. Arklöv was the only Black child in the remote northern Swedish village and grew up facing racial isolation and identity struggles. His childhood, by his own account, was marred by corporal punishment from his adoptive parents—illegal in Sweden since 1979—and feelings of rejection and otherness. Arklöv later admitted that as a child, he scrubbed his skin raw and covered himself in flour, hoping to appear white.

He developed an obsession with Nazism and World War II during adolescence. Despite his race, he identified strongly with neo-Nazi ideology, claiming he felt a kinship with the "losers" of the war, since he viewed himself as one. This deep internal conflict shaped his violent worldview. In his late teens, Arklöv became radicalized and sought out military experience. After initially trying to join the French Foreign Legion, he turned to the Croatian paramilitary forces in the Yugoslav Wars, joining a fascist-aligned unit known as “Ludvig Pavlović.”

Between 1992 and 1995, Arklöv fought as a volunteer for the Croatian Army, participating in brutal ethnic conflicts during the Croat-Bosniak War. He kept a war diary and claimed to have lived out his "fascist dream" in the battlefield. He admitted later to having experienced hallucinations, PTSD, and psychosis-like symptoms even during breaks in Sweden. Friends and witnesses described night terrors and psychotic episodes.

Arklöv’s conduct during the war escalated into war crimes: he personally tortured prisoners in detention camps, including pregnant women and teenage boys. Witnesses from Gabela, Dretelj, and Grabovina camps later testified that Arklöv beat prisoners with a Waffen-SS belt, forced humiliating religious chants under threat of death, and inflicted sadistic violence. Victims nicknamed him “the Black Devil” for his brutality and fascist uniform. He once mailed a soldier's cap home as a Christmas gift, deeply disturbing his adoptive mother.

In 1995, he was arrested crossing into Bosniak territory and convicted in Bosnia for torture and war crimes, initially sentenced to 13 years (later reduced to 8 due to his age). After serving one year, he was released in a Red Cross prisoner exchange and returned to Sweden, where local charges were dismissed for lack of evidence—an oversight that would later be revisited.

Back in Sweden, Arklöv descended into depression and alienation. He experienced hallucinations, watched war films obsessively, and associated increasingly with violent right-wing extremists. He attracted the attention of Tony Olsson, a fellow neo-Nazi who was forming a new militant group, the Nationalistiska Republikanska Armén (NRA). Though other neo-Nazis were skeptical of Arklöv due to his race, Olsson admired his war record and included him in planning a violent series of armed robberies in 1999.

On May 28, 1999, Jackie Arklöv, alongside Tony Olsson and Andreas Axelsson, carried out a bank robbery in Kisa, Östergötland, Sweden. Armed with automatic weapons and grenades, they stormed Östgöta Enskilda Bank, violently threatened staff, and looted more than 2 million SEK. The robbery was orchestrated by Olsson’s neo-Nazi cell, with Arklöv’s combat experience critical to the operation.

As they fled, a lone police officer, Kennet Eklund, began pursuing the gang. In response, the robbers threw two hand grenades at his vehicle, both of which exploded, but Eklund escaped unharmed. Shortly thereafter, two more police officers, Olle Borén and Robert Karlström, attempted to intercept the group.

In a brutal exchange, Arklöv and his accomplices opened fire. Both Borén and Karlström were gunned down and executed at close range using their own service weapons. The murders shocked Sweden and became known as the Malexander Murders—a defining moment in Swedish criminal history.

Following the killings, Arklöv fled to Stockholm, where he was later spotted behaving erratically. On May 31, 1999, he was shot and apprehended by police outside the apartment of one of his accomplices. Evidence found included his fingerprints on weapons, his DNA on discarded masks, and a witness trail leading back to the robbery.

At trial, Arklöv initially denied involvement in the murders, claiming to have been in Stockholm the entire time. He later admitted to participating in the robbery but denied firing any fatal shots. However, forensic evidence and eyewitness testimony placed him at the scene. All three men—Arklöv, Olsson, and Axelsson—were convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in June 1999.

In 2001, Arklöv publicly confessed to killing the two police officers in Malexander. He later also admitted to his war crimes, leading to the reopening of his case in Sweden.

Since his imprisonment, Arklöv has reportedly renounced his neo-Nazi beliefs and joined the Exit program for de-radicalization. He is currently serving his life sentence at Kumla High-Security Prison. Known as a skilled artist, he has exhibited paintings of war scenes and surrealism in prison art shows.

Despite behavioral improvements, Arklöv has had disciplinary issues, including being transferred in 2016 after an inappropriate relationship with a female prison guard and suffering an assault by fellow inmates in Storboda Prison. His repeated requests for reduced security or parole have been denied.

In June 2023, his life sentence was commuted to 41 years, sparking public backlash and a prosecutor’s appeal—which was ultimately denied. As of April 2025, he remains incarcerated at Kumla Prison, with all requests for lower-security transfer rejected.