Martin Kok was shot and killed near a brothel on the outskirts of Amsterdam on Dec. 8, 2016. On the night he died, Kok left a hotel bar and was walking down the sidewalk with two men when security camera footage captured a would-be assassin run up behind Kok and pull the trigger of a gun pointed at Kok’s head. However, the gun did not fire and the man ran away. Kok, 49, continued walking, seemingly unaware of what happened. Later that night, Kok was seen on camera at one of his favorite sex clubs. At 11:20 p.m., he left the club and got into a Volkswagen Polo in the parking lot. As he sat in the car, a man walked up to the driver’s side window and shot Kok.
Kok spent 15 years in prison for manslaughter and extortion. When he got out, he started his own true crime website, Vlinderscrime. Because of the site, Kok had drawn the ire of the Scottish mafia and a reputed Dutch-Moroccan hit man. Prior to being killed, he found a bomb underneath his car, and in 2015, his house was sprayed with bullets.
In 2020, Scottish national Christopher Hughes was charged in connection with Kok’s death. He is currently awaiting trial.