Martin Kok went to prison multiple times, twice for killing acquaintances, but then after his release at the age of 47, Kok decided to seek redemption through the keyboard. Holland, where Kok grew up, is home to an active community of bloggers and online sleuths who follow the gritty trade of drug syndicates and killers for hire. So Kok started a crime blog of his own in February 2015, according to Wired.
He named it Vlinderscrime, which means butterflies in Dutch, and it had a strong readership in the Dutch underworld but also was indispensible for civilians. He reported on a variety of things, including Irish mob kingpins, Moroccan drug lords, assassination plots, biker gangs, and his frequent partying habits. He often published full names, and rejected journalistic convention. This, and his “relentless mocking of his subjects,” made him a target of the people he covered, writes Wired.
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