11 replies to this topic

[cabianca]

Jan de Vroom was a Dutch citizen who was one of the founders of the North
American Racing Team (winners Le Mans 1965 among many others) and probably one of Luigi Chinetti's long line of wealthy "silent partners." Said to be in the "import/export business". He
was on the scene for a short time in 1956-58 or so. Cars associated with him were a 500 TRC, a 290 MM and a 410 Superamerica. I have been told he brought one or more people home from a bar to his home in New York City and was murdered. The case was never solved. Can anyone add more to the story.

[Doug Nye]

Luigi 'Coco' Chinetti told me once how he heard that de Vroom had been found dead - evidently killed not by his own hand - in a room which had been locked from the inside... It was regarded as a very mysterious hit but de Vroom was thought of at the time as consorting with peculiar people and perhaps indulging in peculiar practises... How true or false I have no way of telling....

DCN

[Racer.Demon]

Perhaps you will have more luck here:

http://groups.yahoo....seracehistorie/

[arttidesco]

Curiosity about a Ferrari California Spyder once owned by Jan de Vroom led me to this thread, unfortunately the yahoo group mentioned above has vanished from the infosphere, but there is more about de Vroom in this 1987 Vanity Fair article by Dominick Dunne that suggests that the riddle behind his murder was solved and perpetrators convicted.

 

What I have been wandering is why everybody except RacingSportsCars.com has de Vroom as being of Dutch descent ?  

 

Can anyone definitively confirm de Vrooms nationality and the flag under which he raced were one and the same ?

Edited by arttidesco, 14 July 2014 - 19:59.

[Jerry Entin]

Since Jan de Vroom was born in what is now Indonesia, at the time of his birth the Dutch East Indies, it is most likely that he carried a Dutch passport. No sighting of him in the Belgian Congo, although he may have done his "import/export" business out of Belgium later in life.

 

all research: Willem Oosthoek

[Vitesse2]

There are some 1950s travel records on Ancestry which show de Vroom crossing the Atlantic by air four times between 1951 and 1954. Three Paris-New York flights and one Brussels-New York. No nationality quoted unfortunately, since air travel manifests are far less informative than liners and show only the visa or passport number for non-US citizens. All I can say with certainty is that - on the first flight at least - he wasn't a US citizen or yet a permanent resident, since that is stamped 'head tax due'. However, his passport number, which starts with the letter I, does seem to be similar to other Dutch passports of the time.

 

[Perhaps RSC are confusing him with the Belgian driver Willy Vroomen?]

[Arjan de Roos]

One distinction between Dutch and Belgian surnames can be (not always) that in Belgium he would have been Devroom.

Now I knew he did have a sponsor himself. More details see this article:

 

http://www.vanityfai.../02/dunne198702

Look for De Vroom at pages 4 and 5/7.

[Rob Semmeling]

[Perhaps RSC are confusing him with the Belgian driver Willy Vroomen?]

Willy Vroomen was Dutch, or at the very least Dutch-born (I posted about him at A6 some time ago, incidentally).

[Vitesse2]

Willy Vroomen was Dutch, or at the very least Dutch-born (I posted about him at A6 some time ago, incidentally).

I'd missed that I suspect he may have raced on a Belgian licence though: according to the Formula Junior Historic Racing Association he lived in Antwerp. I wonder if he's the same Willy Vroomen mentioned here?

[Arjan de Roos]

OK, this is not Crime Forum, but this link gives more info on what De Vroom's fate was on his last day: 13 Nov 1975. 

http://www.leagle.co...LE v. GEOGHEGAN

Edited by Arjan de Roos, 15 July 2014 - 14:38.

[Rob Semmeling]

I wonder if he's the same Willy Vroomen mentioned here?

Yes, that's him. His American trip and adventures were extensively covered in the local newspaper. Made good reading for the folks back home I'm sure !

[arttidesco]

Many thanks for your observations Jerry/Willem, Richard, Arjan an Rob, looks like Jan was without question Dutch then and murdered in '75 according to court documentation and not '73 as  suggested by Vanity Fair.