In 1983, a group of childhood friends pulled off the crime of the century: kidnapping one of the richest men in the world, the heir of the Heineken beer empire, Freddy Heineken.
The shocking capture – by gunpoint in broad daylight on the streets of Amsterdam – resulted in the largest ransom ever paid for a kidnapped individual.
The four kidnappers were ordinary guys desperate for money in a time of recession. Construction workers who had just been turned down for a bank loan, they decided to do one thing and make it big.
Based on a true story, the crime thriller KIDNAPPING MR HEINEKEN stars Anthony Hopkins as Freddy Heineken and Jim Sturgess, Sam Worthington and Ryan Kwanten as the ringleaders of the kidnappers.
The kidnapping was front-page news in Holland and captivated the nation. Heineken was released unharmed after three weeks for a ransom of 35 million Dutch guilders (the equivalent of about $50 million USD today). Emmy Award-winning crime journalist Peter R de Vries pursued the kidnappers and gained their trust, which resulted in an exhaustively researched, bestselling account of five friends and business associates who banded together to carry out one of the biggest kidnappings in history.
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