Five Dutch serial killers

The Netherlands is a very small country. Most people don’t even know that there have been serial killers in The Netherlands as well. To be precise, since 1950 we have had 23 serial killers in The Netherlands. The most recent one is Patrick S. who was arrested in 2013.

Willem van Eijk (August 13, 1941 – Aged 74)

Van Eijk, as most serial killers, didn’t have an easy childhood. He got the nickname ‘Gekke (crazy) Willempie’ because he was known for being cruel to animals. Despite his intelligence, he did not perform very well at school.

Willem got eighteen years imprisonment for two murders. His new wife was supposed to keep him on the right path, so he got out of prison. However, that’s where everything went wrong again.

After Willem got out he and his wife moved to Groningen (north of The Netherlands). That’s where he murdered three to six other woman. He got arrested and convicted to life imprisonment.

Koos Hertogs (December 16, 1949 – Juli 2015 (aged 65))

During his childhood, Hertogs already had lots of encounters with the police. He was a drug dealer and a robber.

Hertogs killed three young girls, aged eleven, twelve and eighteen. In 1997 Hertogs confessed the three murders and he got convicted to life imprisonment.

Gerard Spruit (January 12, 1922 – December 12, 1989 (aged 66))

Spruit had a very bad childhood. His father was abusive and his mother didn’t care about anyone but herself. Spruit was the oldest child so he would get blamed for everything.

Spruit’s motive was sexual. He would lure little kids with him and trade magazines for sex.

He got arrested in 1974 and it took the police a few days to get him to confess the murders. After he did confess, he got convicted to life imprisonment. Spruit committed suicide by an overdoses of sleeping pills, just one month before his 86 birthday.

Frans Hooijmaijers (… - 2006)

Hooijmaijers worked at a hospital. Hooijmaijers had a very strange motive: he didn’t want people to suffer, so he killed them by an overdoses of medicine.

In 1976 he got an eighteen year sentence and he was not allowed to be a nurse for 23 years. He was released in 1987 and died in 2006.

Maria Swanenburg (1839 – unknown)

Swanenburg dealt with a lot of death in her younger years. She had twelve brothers and sisters, six of them died at a very young age. When she was 24-years-old she had her first baby. Her baby died three years later. After this, she got six more children, four of them died at a young age.

Swanenburg’s motive for murder was money. She would poison her victims and then get the insurance money.

On December 15, 1883 she got arrested. Her case is still one of the most sensational cases in Dutch history. In 1985 she got convicted to a life sentence.

Source:

Schippers, R. & Jans, H. (2013), Seriemoordenaars in Nederland. Amsterdam: Crimesite.