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The Murder of Annie in Amsterdam
In March, I visited Red Light Secrets, a museum exploring the history of sex work in Amsterdam. While the entirety of the museum was fascinating, I took special note of a sign near the end of the exhibit discussing the death of a sex worker in the very building I was standing in. Her name was Annie, and she’d been murdered in the 1950s. Her murderer has never been found.
When I got home, I was dismayed to find that so little information about Annie is available. I haven’t been able to find any information about who she was as a person. I’m not sure if it’s the language barrier or simply because of the time period in which the crime was committed. I did my best to gather what information I could find about Annie.
Who Was Annie?
Annie Maria Zentveld was born in 1924. While I was not able to find much information about her life, she was a sex worker in Amsterdam in the 1950s at the time of her death. She was also known as “Chinese Annie.”
In 1956, Annie was strangled with a pair of nylon stockings on December 31. She was found shortly after her death. Seemingly, she was killed by somebody who had hired her.
The Investigation into Annie’s Murder
Annie was killed on a Sunday night, meaning the Red Light District would have been…
