Ex-wife Stanley Hillis on her bizarre life with Amsterdam underworld: 'We were taken to a little swing room'
Bernice Breure

Modified: Apr 15, 2025Apr 14, 2025in Culture

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She wouldn't steal a chocolate bar now, says Apolonia van der Vliet (66) firmly on a sunny terrace. The ex-wife of murdered top criminal Stanley Hillis describes her life with Amsterdam underworld in From Dark to Light. "It was a tough learning experience."

Apolonia van der Vliet has written a book about her time with murdered top criminal Stanley Hillis.

Gangster's sweetheart? No, that's never how Apolonia van der Vliet saw herself. "Those other women sat on the couch with their diamonds. I felt like one of the boys, but I had to work a lot harder to be seen as an equal. Not that I minded that."

The warm-hearted woman at a terrace table in the eastern Netherlands turns out to be full of stories about the Amsterdam underworld. In the book From Dark to Light she shares her life story, with her hand on the brake because of possible reprisals. In the spring sun, names like her ex Stanley Hillis, Kees Houtman and Willem Holleeder are mentioned and she sprinkles Amsterdam terms like blaffers, voosjes and voor schut gaan.

Honderd jaar lik
She learned the hard lesson that you don't get much for free in life early. "My father had already left with the neighbor when I was four." At the age of 18 she moved from Amstelveen to Amsterdam. Through a friend she ended up in bars like Jan Steen ('there was a hundred years of lick in there') and the Limbra ('at least those rascals there didn't wear a mask'). "In photos from that time I see a child. But I thought I already knew everything."

She works in a flower stall, which pays moderately. Soon she is selling 'stuff from the trunk' and gets a criminal boyfriend, the first in what will be a long series. In the early eighties a car pulls up next to her on the street. 'Hey Apolonia, how are you?' "I think: fuck, that's Stanley, he escaped from the Bijlmer prison."

She is on her way to her mother in the hospital and he insists on taking her. They have a surprisingly nice conversation. Hillis is arrested again after a few weeks, Van der Vliet visits him for years. "Stanley was always busy escaping. I once smuggled diamond saws in a packet of rolling tobacco." The two get engaged. "I was never in love with him. It was more of a joke. But I was his dream woman. On the next visit we were taken to one of those swinging rooms. I said: 'Go for a nice bike ride'. We hadn't even kissed yet."


Apolonia van der Vliet on a boat with Stanley Hillis in Ibiza in 1999.

When Hillis finally breaks out after two years, Van der Vliet is shocked. When he comes to her house, she tells him she is in love with someone else. That evening, she sees him in the much-discussed TV broadcast on Sonja Barend. He disappears from her life for a while.

Brand watch
Van der Vliet herself becomes increasingly criminally active. With a great love, who is structurally cheating on her, she smuggles hash and is part of the Houtman gang. "Playing with your life was normal. I was surrounded by people who did that too. And we didn't know what to spend our money on because of the craziness. Lunching at the Okura three times a week, then going to the jeweler for a brand watch."

Then she brings Hillis, who has taken over Klaas Bruinsma's business, back into her life and they get married. But the higher up the ladder, the grimmer it gets. "Always check that you are not being followed, never start a conversation spontaneously." Even during a morning dive from their mega yacht in Greece, bodyguards swim after her.

Van der Vliet wants to leave. "I've broken up with Stanley thirty times. But no one leaves the king." She even ends up on the hit list. "I woke up screaming and thought 'who's screaming like that'?" Eventually he lets her go. But if Hillis wants to see her, she has to show up immediately. Her divorce lawyer is told not to be 'too smart'. 'Then I'll have her shot.'

When the gang is busted, the police ask the women to testify. "Fred Teeven offered me a million. I was allowed to take seven people abroad to start a new life. But Stanley had warned me: 'if you ever talk, I'll kill you. And your family. And then your friends.' And I don't talk."


Apolonia van der Vliet with her first car

Calm from cleaning
When Stanley Hillis is liquidated in 2011, Van der Vliet works in home care. She calms down from cleaning. "And I had nice conversations with those old people. Although I often thought: if only you knew." A new start only really begins when she leaves Amsterdam and moves into a tiny house between the trees. "The first three years I only cried. Everything came out. I didn't want to live anymore. But the forest healed me. Now I think life is fantastic again, although I am done with guys."

God-forsaken
Following the publication of her book, she receives messages from people from her past. "'You're not writing about me, are you?', they ask. I have formulated some things differently. But this is about my life. I especially want to inspire readers who have lost themselves. Shoes costing 700 euros, jackets costing twice as much. Many people have lost their God-forsaken life."

At the end of her book, she also thanks Hillis. "We were both damaged people. The difference is that he eventually went too far and lost himself. It was a tough learning experience, but I am grateful that I have come home to myself. With much less money in my pocket, but much richer."