The Dutch star journalist Peter de Vries (64) was gunned down in Amsterdam on Tuesday and has been fighting for his life ever since.
Two suspects were arrested, including the alleged shooter. So far they do not speak, but observers assume that drug lord Ridouan Taghi (43) has something to do with the murder. Taghi is currently on trial with 16 other suspected felons in the so-called Margeno trial, and de Vries reports on it. Even more: De Vries is a confidante of the key witness Nabil B., who could bring Taghi down.
What would be the story of their life for other journalists is one of many for the Dutchman de Vries. The most famous crime reporter in the Netherlands has played a decisive role in countless cases, here is a selection:
The kidnapping of Alfred “Freddy” Heineken: In 1983 the boss of the beer empire of the same name and his chauffeur were kidnapped. Three weeks later they were released for a ransom of 35 million guilders – the equivalent of more than 18 million francs. De Vries wrote several times about the case, also published books about it. One was filmed in 2015. In 1994 de Vries managed to find one of the kidnappers, Frans Meijer, in Paraguay. Previously, he had successfully evaded justice. Meijer was subsequently convicted several times, most recently in 2019 when he tried to commit a robbery.
Research on corrupt police officers: On September 13, 2006, de Vries was arrested, detained for several hours and charged when he questioned a police officer about his questionable behavior in dealing with inheritance from older women. The charges were dropped a few months later, “in view of the persistent search for the truth and the results of the disciplinary investigation against the police officer concerned,” the court said at the time.
Kennedy Documentation: In the first half of 2006 de Vries produced a film about the assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy (1917–1963). One of the interviewees, James Files, said he was the shooter who ended Kennedy’s life. De Vries’ results were different from what the official investigation revealed in the 1960s (according to which Lee Harvey Oswald was the Kennedy killer). He concluded that the CIA and the Mafia were involved in the assassination.
The disappearance of Natalee Holloway: On May 30, 2005, the American Natalee Ann Holloway († 18) disappeared on a school trip on the Caribbean island of Aruba, which belongs to the Netherlands. Until today it has not been found. In December 2007, the authorities had to close the case and no one could be charged with a crime. The case was resumed two months later. The Dutchman Joran van der Sloot (33) was charged, with whom Holloway was in the car on the day she disappeared, but who previously said during interrogation that he had dropped her off in front of her hotel. Now, however, video footage had surfaced in which van der Sloot smokes marijuana and says that Holloway died on the morning of May 30th and that a friend had disposed of her body. The recordings came from a person who worked undercover for de Vries and was able to develop a friendship with van der Sloot. Even before the trial was reopened, de Vries publicly confronted van der Sloot, gave his evidence to the police and announced that he would be broadcasting his investigation on February 3, 2008. Never in Dutch TV history have so many viewers watched a TV program – apart from sporting events. Van der Sloot denied telling the truth in the video and said he sold Holloway as a sex slave. He later withdrew his comments. In 2012 van der Sloot was convicted of the murder of Stephany Flores Ramirez († 21) in Peru. Natalee Holloway was pronounced dead on January 12, 2012. De Vries received an Emmy in 2008 for his research.
Van der Sloot is convicted again: Before his murder conviction and after the Holloway video, Joran van der Sloot was again targeted by de Vries. In November 2008 the journalist published videos showing how van der Sloot wants to sell Thai women in Bangkok into the Dutch sex trade. De Vries claimed that van der Sloot received $ 13,000 for every woman. After the videos, the Thai government was investigating van der Sloot.
The whole of the Netherlands is currently hoping that De Vries will still be able to convict criminals in the future.