Kidnapping of Freddy Heineken

Heineken (left) and Doderer (2 December 1983)

The kidnapping of Freddy Heineken, chairman of the board of directors and CEO of the brewing company Heineken International and one of the richest people in the Netherlands,^[1] and his driver Ab Doderer, was a crime that took place between 9 and 30 November 1983 in Amsterdam. They were released on a ransom of 35 million Dutch guilders (about 16 million Euros). The kidnappers Cor van Hout, Willem Holleeder, Jan Boelaard, Frans Meijer, and Martin Erkamps, were eventually caught and served prison terms.

Before being extradited, Van Hout and Holleeder stayed for more than three years in France, first on the run, then in prison, and then, awaiting a change of the extradition treaty, under house arrest, and finally in prison again. Meijer escaped and lived in Paraguay for years, until he was discovered by Peter R. de Vries and imprisoned there.

In 2003, Meijer stopped resisting his extradition to the Netherlands, and was transferred to a Dutch prison to serve the last part of his term. The kidnapping and subsequent trials and extraditions drew national attention and received broad media coverage.^[2] Several books were published on the kidnapping and two movies were made. Several of the kidnappers would later become well-known figures in Dutch organized crime.

Kidnapping

Cor van Hout, Willem Holleeder, Frans Meijer and Jan Boellaard had been preparing the kidnapping for two years. Martin Erkamps was later involved. Several attempts to kidnap Freddy Heineken and his driver Ab Doderer at Heineken's home in Noordwijk failed when Heineken and Doderer did not show. Subsequently they were kidnapped on 9 November 1983 at 18:56 in front of Heineken's office at the Weteringplantsoen in Amsterdam. They were imprisoned for three weeks in a Quonset hut, belonging to Boellaards wood manufacturing company, at business park De Heining in Westpoort, in the western part of the Amsterdam harbor area. The hut was prepared in advance by the creation of a double wall on one end, with two soundproof cells with a hidden door. This made the 42 meter long hut shorter on the inside by 4 meters, which went unnoticed. The kidnappers took care of their prisoners outside working hours. The standoff with the police ended with the payment of the ransom, which was the highest ransom ever paid for a kidnap victim at the time.^[3]

Cor van Hout and Willem Holleeder in 1987

Books

Peter R. de Vries wrote De ontvoering van Alfred Heineken (1987) from the point of view of Cor van Hout, based on interviews with Van Hout and Holleeder in 1986, during their hotel arrest in France. Van Hout and Holleeder asked that the book would not be published till after their trial. In following issues, De Vries added several extra chapters about later events.^[4]

During the kidnapping and the aftermath, the Dutch magazine Panorama followed the events with several reports and pictures. In 2010, these reports were bundled and published in the book De Heineken ontvoering, by journalist Nick Kivits and kidnapping expert Sjerp Jaarsma.

Movies

On 27 October 2011, the movie De Heineken ontvoering by Maarten Treurniet had its premiere. It was written by Maarten Treurniet and Kees van Beijnum. The role of Freddy Heineken was played by Rutger Hauer, with Reinout Scholten van Aschat as Rem Hubrechts, Gijs Naber as Cor van Hout, Teun Kuilboer as Frans Meijer, and Korneel Evers as Jan Boellaard.^[5] Kidnapper Willem Holleeder filed a preliminary injunction requesting that the movie be forbidden. Jan Boellaard, Frans Meijer and Martin Erkamps also required from IDTV that the movie not be shown. The movie would not be accurate enough.^[6] The injunction and requests were unsuccessful.^[7]

The film Kidnapping Mr. Heineken by Daniel Alfredson premiered in the Netherlands on 8 January 2015. It is written by William Brookfield, based on the 1987 book by Peter R. de Vries. The role of Freddy Heineken is played by Anthony Hopkins, with Sam Worthington as Willem Holleeder, Jim Sturgess as Cor van Hout, Ryan Kwanten as Jan Boellaard, and Mark van Eeuwen as Frans Meijer.^[8][9]

References