Willem Holleeder

Holleeder (right) and his accomplice Cor van Hout (Amsterdam Court, 1987)

Willem Frederik Holleeder (born May 29, 1958 in Amsterdam ) is a Dutch criminal. He became famous in 1983 through the kidnapping of the Dutch brewery owner Freddy Heineken .

Life

Holleeder's father was a professional racing driver in the 1950s and later an employee of the Heineken brewery , partly as Freddy Heineken's private driver.

As adolescents, Willem Holleeder and group members Jan Boellaard, Frans Meijer and Cor van Hout formed a gang who, as a "thug group", drove out squatters in Amsterdam on behalf of house owners . Cor van Hout later became his brother-in-law.

The youngsters founded the company "Epan BV", with which they did business in the catering trade. After this company went bankrupt , they placed illegal workers in the construction sector. They later turned their attention to real estate trading .

Kidnapping of Freddy Heineken

On November 9, 1983, Holleeder and four other members of the gang kidnapped the Heineken heir Alfred Henry (Freddy) Heineken and his chauffeur in a daring action. They received a ransom of 35 million guilders ( € 16 million ) from the family, even though the police were against the payment.

The kidnappers shared 15 million guilders of the ransom among themselves, three million per perpetrator, the remaining 20 million were buried in Maarsbergen (municipality of Utrechtse Heuvelrug). These could be recovered by the police; only a small part of Holleeder's share was seized.

After Freddy Heineken's release, the kidnappers, Cor van Hout, Willem Holleeder, Jan Boellaard, Frans Meijer and Martin Erkamps, were caught and sentenced to prison terms. Holleeder received an eleven year prison sentence and was released in 1992. While in custody, Holleeder met other organized crime inmates , including John Mieremet, who was later charged with commissioning the murder of Cor van Hout.

From 2007 to January 2012, Holleeder served a nine-year sentence in Niew Vosseveld prison for extorting various real estate agents, including Willem Endstra, who was murdered in 2004.

In 2013, Holleeder was arrested in a major operation involving 450 members of the police and army. He was suspected of blackmail. In 2019, a long trial against him ended with a new life sentence.

Because his sister Astrid has collected incriminating material and testified against him, Willem is said to seek after her life. During a visit to the prison, she secretly recorded her brother's confession.

Web links

• Het leven van Holleeder (Dutch)

literature

• John van den Heuvel: Willem Holleeder . 25 years poldermaffia. Ed .: Dutch Filmworks Bv. ISBN 978-90-8510-396-7 (Dutch).
• Marian Husken: Handboek Holleeder . as is as in het proces van de eeuw. Uitgeverij Balans, 2008, ISBN 978-90-5018-890-6 (Dutch).
• Astrid Holleeder: Judas. Een familiekroniek . Amsterdam, Lebowski, 2016. ISBN 9789048825028 (German: Judas: How I betrayed my brother to end the killing. A true story , Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2018. ISBN 978-3462050899 )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Helmut Hetzel: Mega trial against the nose and the godfather . Die Welt , April 2, 2007.
2. ↑ Key witness found dead  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   Süddeutsche Zeitung , October 9, 2007.
3. ↑ Dutch Heineken kidnapper Willem 'The Nose' Holleeder arrested for extortion . News.com.au. May 28, 2013. Retrieved November 19, 2018.
4. ↑ Holland's most notorious criminal Heineken kidnapper must be imprisoned for life In: Der Tagesspiegel July 4, 2019.
5. ↑ https://www.tagesspiegel.de/weltspiegel/sonntag/die-schwester-des-heineken-entfuehrers-mit-meiner-zeugenaussage-unterschreibe-ich-mein-todesahrung/21150192.html
6. ↑ https://www.stern.de/panorama/weltgeschehen/niederlande--sie-sAGEN-als-ladenungszeugin-gegen-eigenen-bruder-aus-7936924.html