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Willem Holleeder

In this story about Willem Holleeder, I interview a Netherlands based crime writer David Amaruso about the John Gotti of the Netherlands. He was a young guy from the middle class with all the advantages of a nice family until his father’s alcoholism caused the Heineken Brewery to fire him.

Holleeder gets back at the Heineken company

Willem Holleeder burst into the European public’s imagination for his audacious kidnapping of Heineken beer baron, Freddy Heineken. Anthony Hopkins starred in a biopic film titled Kidnapping Freddy Heineken adding to the myth of Willem Holleeder as a master criminal. He recruited some other small-time criminals and they walked away with about 20 million in U.S. dollars. Authorities solved this crime and in 1987, they caught him hiding in Paris. A Dutch court sentenced Hollender to 11 years in prison. Authorities released him in 5 years.

Prison time

In Part 1, David Amoruso tells the story of the kidnapping of Freddie Heineken, who was involved, how they were caught, and how this crime caught the public’s attention.  The public and the press saw Willem Holleeder, aka “The Nose,” as a mythical benevolent criminal following in the footsteps of Robin Hood, Jesse James, John Dillinger, and John Gotti. The men who joined in this kidnapping were Cor van Hout, Jan Boelaard, Frans Meijer, and Martin Erkamps and all served prison sentences. the authorities were never able to recover several millions of the Ranson. While in prison, Holleeder met other gangsters and emerged from prison a full-fledged gang boss intent on living the life of a master criminal.

David Amoruso

I recommend you go to David’s website, Gangstersinc by clicking here. David has written about American gangsters and famous American crimes as well as the International Camorra and ‘Ndrangheta in Italy and Sicily and other European criminal organizations.

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