Judas
How a Sister's Testimony Brought Down a Criminal Mastermind
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- € 3,99
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- € 3,99
Publisher Description
Willem Holleeder is one of the most notorious criminals in contemporary history. Best known for his involvement in the 1983 kidnapping of Alfred Heineken, CEO and Chairman of Heineken, and his infamous 2006 trial in which he was convicted of extortion, money laundering and membership of a criminal organization, Willem Holleeder captured the attention of the world. What few knew was how Willem had terrorized, extorted and threatened his family for thirty years, just as his alcoholic father - an employee at Heineken - had dominated and mistreated the family for years. Children, sisters, women, in-laws and mother: no one escaped the despotic behaviour of father and son.
But Willem's latest conviction is quickly becoming the trial of the century. Charged for his involvement in multiple assassinations, including that of his former partner and brother-in-law, Willem is finally being put on trial for murder, all due to the shocking and incriminating testimony of his own family. Having spent years as his unwilling consigliere, Willem's own sister Astrid is finally breaking her silence and going on the record.
In this stunning memoir, Astrid finally reveals decades of familial manipulation and fear and her own thrilling experience working as a double cross, preserving enough trust to attain the information that would convict her brother for life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In an exhaustive account, Holleeder the sister of Dutch crime boss Willem "The Nose" Holleeder reveals her role in the investigation that put her brother behind bars. The youngest of four, Holleeder outlines how childhood abuse led to Willem's cruelty, writing that she and her siblings were "all prisoners of my father's madness." In 1983, when Holleeder was in her late teens, Willem and his friend Cor van Hout kidnapped Freddy Heineken, CEO of Heineken Brewing, and ransomed him. Both Willem and Cor were sent to prison for the crime, and the high-profile ordeal embroiled the entire Holleeder family especially Holleeder's older sister, Sonja, who had a baby with Cor and later married him. Holleeder writes, "In the court of public opinion, we'd all become criminals." After their release from prison in 1992, Willem and Cor went on to oversee an empire of corruption, with Holleeder serving as a confidante to both men. Years later, when Willem ordered the murder of Cor and threatened to kill Sonja, Holleeder turned on her brother. Holleeder's detailed transcripts of secretly taped conversations with Willem add an element of intrigue, as does the afterword in which Holleeder addresses her brother directly, writing, "Wim, I still love you," even as he attempts to coordinate her murder from his prison cell to prevent her from testifying against him. Written while awaiting her brother's trial, Holleeder's engrossing story reads like the last will and testament of a dead woman walking.
