Julie

Julie is a former Manglerud resident whose history with Ulla Swart makes him a revealing source on Mikael Bellman’s past. His account links Bellman’s pursuit of Ulla to a violent warning Julie received after leaving prison, and his later appeal to journalist Roger Gjendem gives that history a pointed purpose: he wants Bellman exposed.

Background and conflict with Bellman

Julie had been serving a prison term connected to drugs; a previously suspended sentence was put into effect after someone reported that he had stolen gasoline in Mortensrud. While Julie was imprisoned, Bellman approached Ulla, Julie’s girlfriend at the time and, in Julie’s later account, his wife. When Julie left prison determined to settle matters with Bellman, two masked men waited in the garage as he went to retrieve his Kawasaki. They beat him with iron bars and warned him to keep away from Bellman and Ulla. The story circulating among Gjendem’s informants held that neither attacker was Bellman, though one might have been Truls Berntsen, Bellman’s personal lackey.

Testimony and motive

Roger Gjendem eventually tracked Julie to a motorcycle-club venue in Alnabru, where he ate, slept, and lived as a free man. Julie rarely went farther than the local Prix shop for snus and bread. Gjendem had observed that some people emerging from prison became attached to familiar surroundings and routines and developed a strong need for security; Julie, however, was comparatively quick to discuss the past once Gjendem brought up Mikael Bellman. In Julie’s telling, Ulla had been pursued by many men in Manglerud, but Bellman’s interest had been especially obsessive.

Julie’s cooperation was not disinterested. After giving Gjendem information, he said he was the one who should be grateful, provided the journalist made sure Bellman was brought down. He also explained that a dealer who had informed on him later told him so out of fear: the dealer knew too much, Julie said, and had spread his story widely to prevent Bellman from carrying out a threat. The exchange makes Julie both a witness to Bellman’s earlier conduct and a participant with a personal stake in what the story might do.

A Lead in Gjendem’s Investigation

Julie’s history also became a tactical lead in Roger Gjendem’s effort to investigate Mikael Bellman. Three informants from Manglerud independently remembered Bellman, and their recollections converged on his pursuit of Ulla and the beating Julie suffered after leaving prison. The claim that Truls Berntsen had been one of the masked attackers remained rumor, not a fact Julie established. Even so, Gjendem treated the connection as leverage: it was the one card he held when he called Berntsen, and he acted as though he had many more. Julie’s testimony therefore carries two distinct kinds of weight—an account of the old violence, and a possible opening for probing Bellman’s associates—without resolving who actually wielded the iron bars.

Evidence and Its Limits

Julie’s account gives Gjendem a lead, not a complete reconstruction. The identification of one masked attacker as Truls Berntsen is presented as a rumor, and Julie’s explanation that the dealer spread his story because he feared Bellman remains his reported understanding rather than independently confirmed fact. His clear wish to see Bellman brought down matters to how the testimony is read: it gives the account urgency while making its personal stake impossible to ignore.