Mistress Monique Von Cleef

By Mistress Michelle Peters

Four days before Christmas, 1965, New Jersey police raided an elegant home in an exclusive residential area of Newark. Inside they found sixteen rooms outfitted with whips, handcuffs, chains, a torture chamber - the trappings of a sado-masochistic salon. The next day the tabloids were filled with stories of, " The House of Pain," and its platinum blonde proprietress, " The Queen of Humiliation ." Monique Von Cleef.

"The blonde is Monique von Cleef, who was arrested when an Essex County deputy sheriff, posing as a businessman, arranged for an 'hour of discipline' at Miss von Cleef's plush home in an exclusive Newark neighborhood and then brought along a carload of detectives."

"Inside the sixteen-room house, raiders found a torture chamber, complete with whips, handcuffs, chains, and leather cat-o'-nine-tails alledgely used by Miss von Cleef and her associate James Beard to satisfy the erotic whims of customers."

"According to Noonan, the confiscated card file lists the names of 15,000 persons from across the nation and at least four foreign counties who paid $50 or more for an hour's entertainment."

Overnight, Mistress Monique Von Cleef, the internationally famous dominatrix of certain circles, became a household word. At her subsequent trial, she was convicted and sent to jail, but the Supreme Court eventually overturned the ruling and she, in time, returned to her native Holland, where she is living today.

Her health however is not good. For a while after returning to Holland she had a booming business having to send people away. She had as many as fifteen slaves per day and had many stay overnight. She would chain them up in her dungeon, while in corsets and sleep on the floor. The she would wake at eight in the morning and have a morning session with many.

She reflected twelve years later after the raid, that she said it was because she was a typical Aquarius, and they are always fifty years ahead of their time. Looking back on it now, I think she was right.

So what happened when she was jail? The jail matron was Jewish and so was Miss Von Cleefs` mother, so she kept a close watch on her, as there was a good possibility she would have been killed in jail. There were many who hated her, only because she was white and the matron kept her alive.

In Amsterdam, one of the most sexually permissive cities in the world, you can see almost anything. Sexually explicit material, street walkers of both sexes. And B&D houses are not condoned by local authorities. But less than one hour drive from Amsterdam is the seat of the government, the Hague. It is like Washington. D.C., a city of politicians, diplomats and others of power. It has proven the ideal place for Miss Von Cleef to relocate. So is it different in Europe than in the U.S? According to Miss Von Cleef, the answer is NO!   She said American slaves tend to be more sincere, because they have the desire to meet many Mistresses, and wanting to go from one to other, until they meet the one who shines above the rest. She said she has met slaves of all type and all sorts, but wouldn't discuss who they were, especially the Americans. But she did say the Hague was full of politicians and because they were so nearby and the embassies and so... Then stopped, I guess that answered the question.

Over the years she has seen many slaves, she has noticed that most engineers were transvestites and thought it was more of a coincidence - 80% of the transvestites, maybe 90% of them were engineers. That's interesting. And Actors, writers? She said she didn't see that many and has seen a few Doctors, Lawyers and many business people. Overall , her slaves came from all walks of life, and also confided that her truck driver slaves made the most beautiful transvestites she has seen.

Miss Von Cleef is located on a quiet, tree lined street in a pleasant, affluent residential section of the Hague. The house itself is like most others on the street, a whitewashed, four story stone building. The first floor includes her living quarters and a reception area where she interviews new slaves. The second story is devoted almost completely to a dungeon and it is filled with the tools of her trade. The third floor is off limits, but I can tell you, it`s her boudoir. The forth floor and final floor was used for storage, now converted into another dungeon, complete with a Jacuzzi. And at any given time you will see slaves busy cleaning house, serving guests, providing excellent domestic help. When asked if this was humiliation. She replied, " I think we are born this way, maybe a little more is added in childhood and as we get older, but we are absolutely born with this - uh - variation. When asked if she subscribed to the theory that in order to become a good Master or Mistress, you must first experience how to be a good slave. And sharply she said, " Absolutely NOT!"

Miss Von Cleef stated she thinks the enema scene is on the rise in Europe and more of her slaves are into enemas. Miss Von Cleef, speaks in a husky accented English voice, reminiscent of Marlene Dietrich and is a big boned woman whose blonde platinum hair is wrapped in a French twist. She prefers severely tailored clothing, she spends a great deal of time dressed in a leather jumpsuit and high-heeled black leather boots. Her nails are brightly polished and she is fond of little cigars.

Born near the German border in the years gathering before WW2, she was the second of three children in a lower middle class Dutch family. As a girl she studied and eventually became a qualified nurse. During the war she lost her virginity to a American soldier named Tony, who she never saw again. Her autobiography, " The House of Pain ", recounts these early years as well as the details of her bizarre mail-order romance and subsequent marriage to a wealthy older man in 1959.

Her husband whose schizophrenic behavior, kinky sex practices and intermittent homosexual escapades ( she caught him with a priest ) made the marriage a disaster, kept her virtually a prisoner on their estate, guarded and watched by his servants, until he was killed in a auto accident.

Arriving in the United States in 1963, she first lived in Manhattan, where she took the first overt steps toward the career that later made her infamous; she began posing in leather for a S&M photo shoot. One thing led to another and eventually she moved to the legendary " House of Pain", in Newark, New Jersey. She first became interested in B&D during the war. She was forbidden to go to the movies and she went with a girl friend to see a Rudolph Valentino movie. At the time, she had never heard of Rudolph Valentino, and there was also a German progaganda movie showing. If her father had known, he would had been very upset. In the German movie, she saw a man getting whipped over and over again. This turned her on, and its not that she had a dislike for men, she loves them, but it was something that intrigued her.

The most bizarre thing she admitted to, was pretending to castrate a little Arab boy on a Mediterranean ship, dressed as a nurse. And yes, she does have limits. She said you can control most people anyway you want. And when it comes to getting sexually excited in a scene, the answer was YES. And will she ever come back to the US? She is fairly old and not in the best health. Will she return????? I don`t know, but if she does, many will greet her with open arms.