Murder Most Foul – July 2018

“Look,” he said, “there are bits in the
manuscript that we can use. These two
chapters on the stolen Rembrandts –
that’s good – could you expand that to
a novel?”
“As you wish,” said Klinkhamer. He
took the manuscript back. The plot
formed the basis of his next novel –
Losgeld (Ransom), published in 1993.
Life had always been surreal for
Klinkhamer. His mother, a maid, sent
him to her sister in Austria in 1940 after
she had divorced his father. He was three
years old. Five years later, he claimed he
witnessed his aunt being raped by allied
soldiers during the liberation.

At the age of 19, on July 15th, 1957,

he discovered the body of his mother,

Maria, 46, in the hallway. She had been

murdered by his father – thrown down

the stairs, her skull crushed with a

hammer.

Things like that leave their mark on a

young man.

Klinkhamer left home and joined the

French Foreign Legion. His experiences

in that physically demanding and

disciplined force under the baking-hot

sun of North Africa became the basis

of his first and most successful novel,

Gehoorzaam als een hond (Obedient As A

Dog), published in 1983. In the book, the

author prophetically states the first two

things the Legion teaches you – “how to

kill” and “how to dispose of a body.”

He deserted the Legion in 1961,

married and produced two sons and a

daughter before getting divorced within

a decade.

In the mid-70s, Klinkhamer met

Hannelore “Hannie” Gofrinon in

Amsterdam. Like Klinkhamer, she was

of Dutch-Austro-German ancestry.

“Hannie was obsessed by Klinkhamer,”

said Harry Wieters, a mutual friend.

Klinkhamer and Hannie moved

to Ganzedijk in 1978 and married

in 1980 but Hannie soon discovered

her husband was a Jekyll-and-Hyde

character. The energetic, charming,

funny man who had presented himself

to her in Amsterdam would now sit at

home drinking and brooding. And it

grew worse after he lost all his money in

the financial crash of 1987.

He would beat Hannie when he was

at his lowest. “I have seen her with blue

marks on her body,” said Harry, shaking

his head.

CRIME CAMERA

A crowd gathers on October 30th, 2009, to watch as

Cuyahoga County coroners and Cleveland Police search for

bodies at the east Cleveland home of serial killer Anthony

Sowell. Sowell (inset, right), murdered 11 women between

2007 and 2009. Two bodies were found on the living-room

floor and rotting corpses were discovered in shallow

graves around the house and garden. Read the full story

of Sowell’s heinous crimes in our sister magazine True

Detective (September), out on August 2nd. Don’t miss it!

Above, Klinkhamer in 1991; right,

the house in Ganzedijk where his

wife was found buried

Willem Donker told Klinkhamer his

murder manuscripts wouldn’t do