August 16, 2023 • 40 mins
Nobody thought it was possible to escape from Greece’s toughest maximum security prison, until Vassilis did it. With a helicopter.
Like what you hear? Follow us @kscope_nyc on Twitter and Instagram.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
For over a year now, we've been chasing Vasilis Palio Costas.
We've sent reporters to communist enclaves and anarchists controlled islands.
We've talked to police and prime ministers, and we've spent
hours with Vasilis's mentor, Costa Samadas, just trying to decipher
our good thieves past. But as much as we've learned
(00:34):
about Vasilis, the man remains just out of reach at
this point in our story. He's still more of a myth.
And the thing is we might be falling for the
romance of his tail a little too hard, playing into
the very image that Vasilis has spent the last few
decades carefully constructing. Here's a section from his autobiography where
(00:58):
Vasilis writes about himself and the difference between him and
common criminals.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Between the crocodile and an eagle lies the abyss. Both
are predators, Yet no song has ever been written about
a crocodile. It's a matter of esthetics and grace. How
can a poet be inspired by a carnivore that lies
in murky waters waiting for its prey.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Vasilis is an eagle flying high above it all manifesting
his own destiny, a majestic predator of style and grace,
and one he thinks that should be immortalized in poetic verse.
But what if our good Thief is a little more
crocodile than he'd like the world to believe. What if
(01:50):
there's a gaping hole in this narrative he's stitched together
for himself, and our glorious eagle is soaring on Stolen
Valor from Kaleidoscope and iHeart Podcasts, I'm Miles Gray and
this is the good Thief on on chapter one, You're
(02:27):
in luck, lads. In some ways, this story has always
been a family drama. From the beginning, Vasilis looked up
to his big brother. His love and admiration for Nicos
is what drew him to a life of crime, and
in many ways it makes sense. Vasilis and Nicos come
(02:49):
from a close knit family. There are five Palocosta siblings,
and with the exception of Vasilis, they all seem to
be living in or near that house we visit it
outside Tricola, a house that George learned is under frequent surveillance.
Here's George, according to Vasilis.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
E FROMIU the police officer we met earlier in the series.
The family was apparently full of scoundrels. He told us
they never worked. He called them freeloaders, that they used
to drink all day, and they lived on the money
that Nicos and Vasilis stole. In a weird way, it
(03:28):
seems that Nikos and Vasilis are the family's success story,
while the other siblings never really amounted to much. The
pair were out robin banks partially to help mom and
dad make ends meet.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Which tracks right. I mean. Part of the reason we're
obsessed with Vasilis, Nicos and Costa Samaras is because they're
so concerned with being moral criminals. And in his book,
Vasilis is very clear about where he draws those lines.
He writes how his conscience won't allow him to sell
drugs or guns, enter another person's house to steal, he
(04:04):
won't snitch or sell his friends out. He goes on
and on. The list of don'ts is actually much longer
than that. But then he pivots to what he's allowed
to do.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
What do my morals allow me to do? Only bank robberies,
abducting rich people, and being part of a revolution toward
the more just world. World, World World.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
It's that last one that will get him in trouble.
Cut to nineteen ninety nine. Vasilis is driving a stolen
car down the old National Highway in central Greece. He's
been living off the money he made on the Hydaglu kidnapping,
but he has to be careful. Right now there's a
(04:51):
million euro bounty out for his capture and the cops
are on high alert. It's occurred to Vasilis that maybe
he'd be safer if he left the cut or ran
away to some anonymous island, but that isn't him. Vasilis
can't stop thinking about the corrupt society he lives in.
He dreams about living in a more just world. So
(05:13):
instead of fleeing, Vasilis puts his energy into making a statement.
There's a new high security prison being built nearby, and
he's irritated because people have just allowed it to happen.
It's yet another jail in their backyard, yet another correctional
institution that will be overcrowded with petty criminals instead of
the wealthy tax jets and dirty politicians who really belong there.
(05:36):
Vasilis thinks maybe an explosion could make the area's residents react.
It's dramatic, but he's a revolutionary. He wants to shake
society out of its lull. So he's driving around trying
to secure the dynamite and shore up his plans. When
he gets stuck behind a truck with both its brake
(05:57):
lights out. The weather's dismal gets gray, rainy. Traffic is
stopping go, then everything starts moving again. Vasilis presses the
gas for a brief second, he takes his eye off
the road. When he looks up, he's about to crash
into the truck. Vasilis cuts the wheel, but his tire
(06:19):
slip below him. He pumps the brakes, but the car
won't stop. It slides off the road. Everything's a blur.
The car tumbles down the embankment and lands in a ditch,
hitting bottom car minutes pass Vasilis takes a deep breath
(06:40):
and checks himself. He's not injured, but he is banged up.
He reaches into the back seat and grabs his briefcase.
It's full of grenades, guns and money. Then he crawls out.
He climbs up the embankment and stumbles onto the road.
When he reaches the top. The cops are already there,
(07:00):
ready to help, so there's a small crowd of onlookers
right now. The police are friendly, but Vasilis knows it's
a matter of time before they run his plates and
discover the car is stolen. His mind races. Then he
scans the people who got out to help. They've all
left their vehicles unattended, and at least one car is
(07:22):
off with its keys still in the ignition. Vasili sprints
to the vehicle. He opens the door, sits down, and
turns the key. The engine doesn't start. Within seconds, Vasili's
is on the ground, his face pinned to wet pavement,
his hands and cuffs. That's when he tells the police
(07:44):
the good.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
News are in luck.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
You've got Carsback.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Chapter two, Warehouse of Bodies. It isn't long before Vasilis
has been thrown in a solitary holding cell. It's cold
and damp. Vasilis is shivering.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
I was alone listening to the sounds of prison for
quite some time. They were creepy, full of terror, incompatible
with human life. What collective hopes, what dreams legitimize the construction,
the existence, the operation of such places.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
If Vasilis didn't think much of prisons before. This doesn't help.
This place is Corrida Lo's prison complex, a maximum security
hell hole Greece's Alcatraz. A prison guard we interviewed called
it a warehouse for bodies. For the next three hours,
Vasilis tries to stay warm by pacing back and forth.
(09:06):
Then the cell door swings open. A man appears in
the entrance way. He has a salt and pepper beard,
thick black eyebrows, dark circles below, sunken eyes. Vasilis recognizes
the face. It's the prisons infamous warden, andonis out of Andinos,
and he wants a closer look at this so called
(09:29):
robin hood of Greece. He steps into the cell, followed
by a number of guards, all gripping nightsticks. It's all theater,
Vasilis tells himself. They talk out of Andinos tries to
intimidate him. Vasilis plays it cool, maybe too cool. The
warden gets angry. Suddenly Vasili stumbles backwards. The warden pushed
(09:54):
him or maybe punched him. Vasili seethes he can't help himself.
He charges the ward and grips the collar of his
jacket and just as He's about to pin his neck
against the wall. The guards swarm. Vasilis's arms are overpowered.
The guards jerk his hands high above his head and
(10:15):
with his body exposed, night sticks rain down on his ribs,
his legs, his face. The prison floor drips red. When
the beating finally stops, blood streams out his nose. His
cheeks are swollen, His rib cage throbs with each breath. Soon,
Vasilis is dragged to his new home in cell ninety three.
(10:46):
These allegations of brutal prison beatings play an important part
in Vasilis's story, This idea that the state abuses its power.
It's one of Vasilis's main motivations for robbing banks and
blowing up prison cons instruction sites.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
When judges announce their verdicts, they don't mention that the
prison sentences they so lavishly hand out will be accompanied
by constant torture. I'm not exaggerating. Blood on the floor,
the walls, the dirty blankets, blood everywhere, faces swollen, bruised
(11:27):
and deformed from having suffered severe injuries. Tortured bodies curled
up inside sheets for weeks, unable to even use the
bathroom on their own stacked up souls, abandoned in chambers,
with no future, with no hope.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
The description is horrific, but Vasili's clearly has an agenda here,
and we wanted to do a little fact checking, so
we put Christina on the case.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
We started by reaching out to the warden out of
ad We wanted to give him a chance to react,
but when we tracked him down, he was a kurt.
He called these allegations categorically false, and then he told
us that he didn't want to take part in any
kind of production about Polo Costas, which makes sense. I mean,
(12:17):
Vasilis has embarrassed him over the years.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
So we found somebody else who knew Vasilis while he
was in Corilla Loos. A social worker named Nicolas Couluris.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
Has worked at Coridalos for years. He also acknowledged that
this kind of prison violence happened. He said prisoners have
complained about a quote violent reception ritual upon entering the prison.
It sent a message you will sit tight and behave
or you won't have a good time here. He adds
(12:56):
that this was not standard procedure. It was more something
to onto VIP criminals.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
If you will Cordio.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
When a big name prisoner arrives, the entire prison goes
on high alert. Kuluis Is saying that they have all
these discussions about where he'll be placed and how he'll
be guarded, and this often leads to negotiations with the
celebrity prisoner, like if you cooperate, we'll put you in
a nicer cell with some fresh air and the sunlight,
(13:30):
or we're gonna assign you an easy prison job. Apparently
this is what happened with Vasilis.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Vasilis writes about that in his book, that the prison
warden kept trying to strike a deal with him, but
Vasilis always said no, because basically what Aravandinos was asking
him to do was to snitch. Chapter three, Big Brother's Shadow.
(14:11):
In the late nineties, the Paliocostos brothers had made a
name for themselves their robberies, their getaways. But it turns
out it was Nicos, not Vassilis, who got most of
the spotlight. Now, maybe it's because Nicos was the big brother,
or maybe it's because he was usually the one behind
the wheel during those daring car chases. Regardless, it was
(14:33):
Nicos who first became famous for evading police, and it
was Nicos who locals first lauded as the do getting banded.
Vasilis had a reputation too, but he was always riding
his brother's coattails, and when Vasilis got arrested, his brother's
shadow only grew. Suddenly. Any mystique Vasilis had as a
(14:54):
slippery bandit, a thief who could evade the police, had
disappeared when the longer he sat in jail, the more
famous Nicos became. In two thousand and six, the newspaper
Kati Mehdi Ni wrote that Nikos Paliokostas embodies the popular
myth of the good hearted bandit a zorro. The same year,
(15:17):
another newspaper dubbed him the robin Hood of the forests
of the Pindus. Year by year, his legend grew. Bloggers
began comparing Nkos to famous revolutionaries and resistance fighters. Stories
about his generosity spread across internet forums. By two thousand
and six, an ABC News article had called Nicos the
(15:38):
country's most wanted man. Vasilis, on the other hand, was
basically an afterthought. One newspaper from the time dubbed him
the little One. All of this had us wondering have
we been chasing after the wrong guy. A few months ago,
our team was interviewing a police officer in the one
(16:00):
who insisted on remaining anonymous, and in the middle of
the conversation, he says.
Speaker 5 (16:06):
Do you want to meet the original Greek Robin Hood?
Speaker 1 (16:10):
So of course Christina and George were like, uh yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:15):
And twenty four hours later, we're standing in front of
Nikos Polo Coostas's house, at least we think it's his house.
And to make sure that you remember where we've left.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
The car, the cops scribbled down these vague directions on
how to get here, something about a two story house
on the outskirts of Tricola, across from a school. He
said Nichos has been living on the house arrest. He
didn't promise he'd talked to us, but he said we'd
find him here.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
The house we're looking at is off white, bare wooden shutters,
thick blankets on the clotheslines. I'm trying to make note
of all the details, but my heart is pounding like
it's about to explode from my chest. And just as
I go to ring the doorbell, a woman appears, like
(17:07):
out of nowhere from the second floor balcony. She's middle
aged with short, straight brown hair and pale skin, and
she's staring down at us.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
That's when we realized this is definitely whether Balo Coosta's
family lives. The woman is Nios and Vasilis's sister, Cosanvina.
We try chatting with her, but she's very, very cagy.
We ask if Nichos is inside. She tells us he is.
He's napping, you know, taking a siesta. She's not happy
(17:39):
with us for being there. She says Nikos has no
interest in talking.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
We were expecting to hear something like that, so before
we arrived, we wrote a letter, a letter explaining who
we are, why we're here, and what we're doing. We
labored over this thing, making sure that every word was
just right. We explained that we're not with the mainstream
TV stations, which have a reputation for being sensationalist in Greece.
(18:08):
We told them that we're here to get Nikosa's side
of the story. So we pull out the letter and
I'm worried that Cosladna won't take it, but she does.
She comes down from the balcony and takes it, promising
that She's going to give it the Nikos and then well,
she shuts the door in our face.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
This whole episode got us thinking how much of Vasilis's
legend was actually built on Nikos's story.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Meno, that's Dimitris, a film professor who works on a
documentary about the brothers. Like us, Dimitris went up into
the mountains in search of the brother's hider. He told
us that the Silis was more on the anti authoritarian
side of things, more of the anarchist, but it was
Nicos who was the original social bandit. He said that
(19:11):
Nikos modeled himself after the bandits who called trick Lahoe
in the days of York, these old school outlaws who
were non violent, justice oriented, and that it was Nikos
at first who took inspiration from these role models, and
this really made locals love him. He said that in
the villages south of the Pindus Mountains where Nichos was hiding,
(19:33):
incredible stories were circulating about how Nicos was helping shepherds,
the bedridden, the elderly. The whole region supported him.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
The more we looked into it, the more we realized
that if Vasili's had charitable qualities, it's because he was
doing what so many younger siblings do. He was copying
his big brother. One source who didn't want to be recorded,
told team that, frankly, Vasilis was just tagging along. He
was the family hot head. Nkos, on the other hand,
(20:07):
was the thoughtful one, the altruistic one, the one who
preached nonviolence. And the thing is, Vasilis doesn't deny this
last part. Here's how he puts it in his book.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
It was Nikos who, while being chased by police officer
in Katerini, said let's not kill him. It would be
a shame. It was him who told me not to
empty mi kalashnikov on the three plain clothes officers who
cornered us during a car chase outside Edisa. There are
countless stories that testify to the good nature of a
(20:42):
man who never used the power endowed to him by
his gun as a means to control, let alone kill.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Vasili says, if he was ever truly cornered, if it
meant his life, he'd shoot without question, but not Nikos.
Nikos was so if cornered, he'd rather give up or
be killed instead. But despite his nonviolent nature, Nicos was
a wanted man. In the early two thousands, Nicos Paliocostas
(21:13):
was declared Greece's public Enemy number one. Before long, he'd
cracked Interpol's top ten most Wanted criminals list. As the
pressure to find him increased, Greece activated its counter terrorism
unit and charged its toughest officers with hunting Nicos down.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
So I'm going to step in here to explain. It
might sound a bit excessive for Greece to send a
rabid anti terrorism unit after a kind hearted robber with
a knack for giving away his loot, but it makes
a little more sense if you know a few things
about the country's history.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Kiryo.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
Immediately after the follow the junta, Greece was severely tested
by terrorists.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
That's there is Economo Astnomia.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
I was an officer at the Atlantic Police. I dealt
with state security for decades.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
Economo helped lead Greece's anti terrorism efforts. It was an
around the clock job. After the fall of the right
wing junta in nineteen seventy four, Greece became a hub
for left wing activism, and in some cases these anti
state attitudes became extreme.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Forment adaptation Menda, the Riast.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
Took advantage of the climate against the ary, the police,
and those they believed sided with the junta. They thought
this was the moment for a greater revolution, the moment
to overthrow capitalism and the bourgeoisie and to impose their
own system.
Speaker 5 (22:51):
The most infamous of these terrorist groups was the seventeenth
of November, named after the date when police massacred forty
students during a protest. In response, the group plotted assassinations,
planted bombs, targeted government officials. It even assassinated a CIA
agent and members of the US embassy. Ambassador Tom Miller
(23:14):
told us how one time he went to the American
Embassy and was shocked to find a six foot rocket
smoldering in it. Curtsey of the seventeenth of November. Long
story short, This terrorist group had Greek authorities on edge,
and the main way they funded their activities was through
(23:34):
bank robbery.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Which is how Nicos and Vasili's Paliocosis got tied up
with the anti terrorism police. Basically, the brothers fit the
profile anti government sympathies. Check always carrying around machine guns
and explosives. Check targeting the rich and powerful, Check robbing banks,
Check cops looked at these facts and concluded, Hey, these
(24:00):
guys might be terrorists too. But the more they eluded
these high level police, the more their legend grew. It
was like the papers were looking for Robinhood characters to
root for, and they found them in these two. But
once Vasilis landed in jail, all of that attention turned
to Nicos. By two thousand and six, he had spent
(24:21):
sixteen years dodging the police. He was the one with
the money, the ideology, the respect, and perhaps most importantly
to Vasili's, Nicos was the one with all the fame.
(24:41):
Chapter four odd jobs for Vasilis Paliocostas, the hardest part
of being locked up was the isolation. For those keeping track,
this is his second time in prison, and by this
point he has escaped once before. By two thousand and six,
(25:02):
he was back at Kridallos and for the most part alone.
Aside from one furry friend.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
My only companion was Tarzan, I pampered ginger cats that
enjoyed my food and protection inside the wing. She was
the only one I'd really miss if I happened to
clear off.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Vasilis also had a human cell mate, and not just
one The prison was suffering from overcrowding. At times there
were five or six guys to one hundred square foot cell.
The thing about Vasilis, though, is that he had been
trained years ago to find the silver lining in these
sorts of things, and he quickly found one. Like Sure,
(25:44):
the prison was stuffed uncomfortable, but those same conditions made
the prisoners harder to control. The wardens maintained power by
handing out favors to informants, but as the prison population exploded,
it became harder for officials to keep their old promises.
Snitches became less loyal, and with this wave of new inmates,
(26:05):
it became harder for even the most reliable informants to
keep tabs on everyone. Vasilis got a couple new cell
mates and gain new connections to the world outside. Slowly
he got comfortable bouncing around escape ideas. But if they
took a fretsaw to the bars on their window, what
if some friends on the outside knocked down the outer wall.
(26:26):
These weren't just fantasies. Vasilis actually got extremely close to
plotting a breakout where guys on the other side would
destroy the prison wall with explosives and yes, rocket launchers,
but he ended up calling it off at the last minute.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
I would spend two pointless years in Corina Loss, making
escape plans that never materialized, having officers constantly searched my cell.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Vasilis was too well monitored to escape on his own.
He needed more freedom to move around the prison. And
then he remembered the welcome he got to Krida Los,
and he remembered being offered a deal. So after years
of enduring the torture and pushing offers away, he finally accepted.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
Simfornifik.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Couluris actually remembers this deal. Officials made an agreement that
he would be assigned a specific job as a jail
and this job would require him to freely move around
different prison areas. His first job, it turns out, was
to be the chief cleaner of his prison wing.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
According to both Kouluris and Vasilis, the job got him
extra time out of his cell, and as chief cleaner,
it met managing other inmates. Over time, Vasilis was making
more and more connections. There was your Ghosts, the homicidal
mafioso Costas, the cop killer Spiros, the bank robbing terrorist,
(27:53):
and Vasilis's network expanded even more when he became one
of the prison's first aid assistants.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
This his new job paced him in a new wing
of the prison, a much cushier part of Goidalos, and
since medical emergencies can happen anywhere, Vasilis was given pretty
liberal access to different parts of the prison, including the
central courtyard. When we talked with Gloris, he didn't say
outright that this was a mistake, but it was kind
(28:22):
of clear that in retrospect it was. Ye, he said,
with this new freedom to move around, the prison accidentally
handed Vasilis a ticket to escape.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Chapter five phone a friend.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Escaping by helicopter wasn't something that just dawned on me.
I'd been working on it since I was first imprisoned,
but never came this close to putting it into practice.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Vasilis shared his plans with a handful of prisoners, but
he had trouble finding people who could truly think outside
the box. Usually when he mentioned the plan, he was
greeted with dumb stairs. Where are you going to find
a hardened criminal with a pilot's license? They'd always say,
where were the idealists? The dreamers hungry for freedom? The
(29:25):
inmates with imagination.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
The people around here are willing to sell and be sold,
to buy and be bought. An armed man without morals
is just a criminal. There's a difference between a criminal
and an outlaw.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Vasilis was looking for a fellow outlaw. One day, while
he was getting comfy in a new cell, a kid
came up to him, a twenty eight year old from
Albania named Alquette Risaii. Vasilis looked him up and down.
The guy was young, could barely grow a full mustache,
(30:00):
but Vasilis knew his reputation. The kid was rumored to
be a hit man. Vasilis told him point blank.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Plans need people with balls to see them through, and
they need to care for you personally in a selfless way.
If you've got people like that, trust me, we'll get
out of this prison.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
It was just the type of conversation Vasilis had been
waiting years to have. Finally some hope. So the men
begin plotting, and Alquette starts pinging friends, who starts scouring
Athens for helicopter charter companies. If they can find just
one without a security check, maybe they can sneak weapons
onto the chopper. And hijacket. A few days later, Alquette
(30:47):
gets a text The plan is a go. Chapter six,
The View from Above. Here's where, dear listeners, we get
back to the story that was in our first episode.
(31:10):
It's Sunday in June two thousand and six, just a
few hours before the breakout, and Vasili's fidgets with a
chain of worry beads what Greeks call a comboloi. It's
a stress reliever and a good luck charm. Vasilis passes
the time running the beads through his fingers. Everything is ready.
(31:31):
Auquette's man has booked a flight with the helicopter company.
He's coming with reinforcements too, a second hijacker to help.
They even have an alibi. They're taking a birthday celebration flight.
The two men board the helicopter in the beachside town
of Glifada. As they're strapping their seat belts, they make
friendly chit chat with the pilot, who is unaware that
(31:54):
the two men are armed with pistols. They're backpacks stuffed
with grenades. The chop slowly rises into the clouds and
the trip begins. They trace the turquoise coastline and The
pilot points out the sites, the mansions of the rich
and famous, ancient ruins a distant monastery, before pointing the
(32:15):
craft northwest toward downtown Athens. Within minutes, Coridalos comes into sight. Suddenly,
the pilot feels the tip of an old Soviet pistol
pressed against his temple. He hears the words if you
do anything stupid, you're dead. Vasilis and Alquette have picked
(32:36):
the right day. Turns out there's a massive rally downtown,
so there are a lot of helicopters hovering nearby. In
the prison, Vasilis leaves his cell and walks toward the
prison yard. Nobody suspects a thing. He has this kind
of freedom to move, and as he steps into the
jail yard, he can hear the soft rumble of a
(32:57):
chopper somewhere over the horizon. Vassilis carries a bag with
a red cheg Avara flag inside. He meets Alcett and
the two walk to the center of the yard, take
the flag out, and planet it smack in the middle.
Up in the air, the hijackers tell the pilot to
look for the red flag. A minute or two passes.
(33:19):
Suddenly the helicopter clears the prison wall and hovers over
the yard. Clouds of dust kick up into the air,
wind whips and circles, throwing sand into everyone's eyes. The
helicopter descends and descends, and the noise grows louder and louder.
The sound of the rotors bounces off the concrete walls
and amplifies. Vassily feels the noise of the chopper consume him.
(33:45):
The prison guards look on. The guards assume that some
high level politician is putting on a spectacular surprise entrance.
The helicopter drops until it's just hovering a foot or
two off the ground. The door is open. Alqtt and
Vassilat race on. By the time the guards realize what happened,
Alqutt and Vasilis are already looking down at the rooftops
(34:08):
of Athens, an eagle's soaring to freedom. The chopper makes
a bee line out of town, landing next to an
empty cemetery on the edge of Athens, where the hijackers
have hidden a pair of stolen motorcycles. Once the helicopter lands,
Alqutt jumps out and races for a bike, but Vasilis
(34:29):
takes his time. Rather than run for it, he calmly
turns to the pilot and reaches into his pocket. Take this,
he tells the man. He pulls out his COMBOLOI the
worry beats and hands it to the pilot.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
In a selectical combati.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
It's a collectible.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
I don't need it anymore.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Then he strolls to his motorcycle and disappears. A few
months later, with Vasilis on the run, brother Nikos's luck
finally runs dry. It's September two thousand and six and
Nikos is speeding around the foothills of Mount Olympus. He
(35:15):
accelerates through a roadblock and the cops give chase, but
as he tries to take a curve, the wheel slip,
slides off the road and the car rolls over onto
its roof behind him. The police screets to a halt.
The cops pull out their guns, ready for a fight.
Ack Slowly Nicos crawls out the window. He's armed, but
(35:38):
he knows he isn't going to kill these men, so
he just gives himself up. His streak as the most
uncatchable man in Greece comes to an end. Nkos is
sent to a prison in Patras in western Greece. A
judge finds him guilty of more than a dozen bank robberies,
combined with the charges for escaping prison and fleeing the police,
(36:01):
to name a few. He is sentenced to more than
one hundred and ninety seven years behind bars. And that's
when everything changes. Suddenly Nicos is the one in jail
and Vasilis he's the one all the newspapers are talking about.
The change in reputation is immediate. All the things they
(36:21):
once said about Nicos, that he's non violent, that he's charitable,
that he's uncatchable, that gets shifted to his little brother.
In two thousand and six, the BBC had called Nicos
a robin hood. By two thousand and nine, the Associated
Press has given that title to Vasilis. And that's the
curious thing about the Vasilis Palocosta story. He's a bank robber,
(36:45):
a kidnapper, a thief, but probably the most important thing
he ever stole was the title of good thief from
his older brother. As for Nicos, the glory days are over.
(37:14):
He's suffering from a cute kidney disease. In twenty twenty one,
he's released from prison to house arrest on humanitarian grounds.
Aside from twice a week dialysis appointments, he's not allowed
to leave the family home outside three Cola. That's why
the local cops told us, if you want to talk
to him, just stop by. He's not going anywhere. They
(37:35):
made it sound easy, but nothing in this story is
ever that simple. So after Nkos's sister slammed the door
on George and Christina, they had to call Daphne back
in Athens and break the bad news.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
She looked like a little bit. She definitely looks guarded,
but she yeah, yeah, definitely guarded.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
What time did you go to think he was genuinely
having miss yesta?
Speaker 5 (37:59):
I think so, yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Yeah. Maybe it's worth going tomorrow morning before you leave
as well.
Speaker 5 (38:06):
Maybe we can try. I feel like we're gonna get
another door shut in our face, but.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Maybe that we'll have read the letter by then, so
maybe we'll have a slightly different reactions.
Speaker 6 (38:15):
Perhaps perhaps, Okay, I hope so by thanks guys, next.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
Time on the good thief persistence pays off.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
I feel fear.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Okay, so we're approaching from the other side, shall we
drive a little bit?
Speaker 2 (38:42):
Oh? Fuck me?
Speaker 3 (38:43):
Okay, that is actually as well.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
The Good Thief is a Kaleidoscope production in partnership with
iHeart Podcasts. Gets hosted by me Miles Gray. Our executive
producers Our mangesh Hetikutur Costas, Linos, oz Waalishan and Kate
Osborne from iHeart. Executive producers are Katrina Norvel and Nikki Etor.
Our partners at The Greek Podcast Project. Our executive producer
(39:16):
Daphne carnisis field producers Christina Bilioni and George Miatis and
sound designer Nikos Scavenitis. Mary Philip Sandy is our supervising producer.
Shane McKeon is our producer. The show is written in
research by Lucas Riley, fact checking by Donya Suleman, sound
design and mix by Soundboard. This episode featured the voices
(39:39):
of Yorgo, Scaramihos and Rich Green. Our theme song is
by Imam Baldi, with additional music by Botany. Finally thanks
to Will Pearson Connell Byrne, Bob Pittman and John Marynapolis
Speaker 2 (40:01):
SA
For over a year now, we've been chasing Vasilis Palio Costas.
We've sent reporters to communist enclaves and anarchists controlled islands.
We've talked to police and prime ministers, and we've spent
hours with Vasilis's mentor, Costa Samadas, just trying to decipher
our good thieves past. But as much as we've learned
(00:34):
about Vasilis, the man remains just out of reach at
this point in our story. He's still more of a myth.
And the thing is we might be falling for the
romance of his tail a little too hard, playing into
the very image that Vasilis has spent the last few
decades carefully constructing. Here's a section from his autobiography where
(00:58):
Vasilis writes about himself and the difference between him and
common criminals.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Between the crocodile and an eagle lies the abyss. Both
are predators, Yet no song has ever been written about
a crocodile. It's a matter of esthetics and grace. How
can a poet be inspired by a carnivore that lies
in murky waters waiting for its prey.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Vasilis is an eagle flying high above it all manifesting
his own destiny, a majestic predator of style and grace,
and one he thinks that should be immortalized in poetic verse.
But what if our good Thief is a little more
crocodile than he'd like the world to believe. What if
(01:50):
there's a gaping hole in this narrative he's stitched together
for himself, and our glorious eagle is soaring on Stolen
Valor from Kaleidoscope and iHeart Podcasts, I'm Miles Gray and
this is the good Thief on on chapter one, You're
(02:27):
in luck, lads. In some ways, this story has always
been a family drama. From the beginning, Vasilis looked up
to his big brother. His love and admiration for Nicos
is what drew him to a life of crime, and
in many ways it makes sense. Vasilis and Nicos come
(02:49):
from a close knit family. There are five Palocosta siblings,
and with the exception of Vasilis, they all seem to
be living in or near that house we visit it
outside Tricola, a house that George learned is under frequent surveillance.
Here's George, according to Vasilis.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
E FROMIU the police officer we met earlier in the series.
The family was apparently full of scoundrels. He told us
they never worked. He called them freeloaders, that they used
to drink all day, and they lived on the money
that Nicos and Vasilis stole. In a weird way, it
(03:28):
seems that Nikos and Vasilis are the family's success story,
while the other siblings never really amounted to much. The
pair were out robin banks partially to help mom and
dad make ends meet.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Which tracks right. I mean. Part of the reason we're
obsessed with Vasilis, Nicos and Costa Samaras is because they're
so concerned with being moral criminals. And in his book,
Vasilis is very clear about where he draws those lines.
He writes how his conscience won't allow him to sell
drugs or guns, enter another person's house to steal, he
(04:04):
won't snitch or sell his friends out. He goes on
and on. The list of don'ts is actually much longer
than that. But then he pivots to what he's allowed
to do.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
What do my morals allow me to do? Only bank robberies,
abducting rich people, and being part of a revolution toward
the more just world. World, World World.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
It's that last one that will get him in trouble.
Cut to nineteen ninety nine. Vasilis is driving a stolen
car down the old National Highway in central Greece. He's
been living off the money he made on the Hydaglu kidnapping,
but he has to be careful. Right now there's a
(04:51):
million euro bounty out for his capture and the cops
are on high alert. It's occurred to Vasilis that maybe
he'd be safer if he left the cut or ran
away to some anonymous island, but that isn't him. Vasilis
can't stop thinking about the corrupt society he lives in.
He dreams about living in a more just world. So
(05:13):
instead of fleeing, Vasilis puts his energy into making a statement.
There's a new high security prison being built nearby, and
he's irritated because people have just allowed it to happen.
It's yet another jail in their backyard, yet another correctional
institution that will be overcrowded with petty criminals instead of
the wealthy tax jets and dirty politicians who really belong there.
(05:36):
Vasilis thinks maybe an explosion could make the area's residents react.
It's dramatic, but he's a revolutionary. He wants to shake
society out of its lull. So he's driving around trying
to secure the dynamite and shore up his plans. When
he gets stuck behind a truck with both its brake
(05:57):
lights out. The weather's dismal gets gray, rainy. Traffic is
stopping go, then everything starts moving again. Vasilis presses the
gas for a brief second, he takes his eye off
the road. When he looks up, he's about to crash
into the truck. Vasilis cuts the wheel, but his tire
(06:19):
slip below him. He pumps the brakes, but the car
won't stop. It slides off the road. Everything's a blur.
The car tumbles down the embankment and lands in a ditch,
hitting bottom car minutes pass Vasilis takes a deep breath
(06:40):
and checks himself. He's not injured, but he is banged up.
He reaches into the back seat and grabs his briefcase.
It's full of grenades, guns and money. Then he crawls out.
He climbs up the embankment and stumbles onto the road.
When he reaches the top. The cops are already there,
(07:00):
ready to help, so there's a small crowd of onlookers
right now. The police are friendly, but Vasilis knows it's
a matter of time before they run his plates and
discover the car is stolen. His mind races. Then he
scans the people who got out to help. They've all
left their vehicles unattended, and at least one car is
(07:22):
off with its keys still in the ignition. Vasili sprints
to the vehicle. He opens the door, sits down, and
turns the key. The engine doesn't start. Within seconds, Vasili's
is on the ground, his face pinned to wet pavement,
his hands and cuffs. That's when he tells the police
(07:44):
the good.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
News are in luck.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
You've got Carsback.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Chapter two, Warehouse of Bodies. It isn't long before Vasilis
has been thrown in a solitary holding cell. It's cold
and damp. Vasilis is shivering.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
I was alone listening to the sounds of prison for
quite some time. They were creepy, full of terror, incompatible
with human life. What collective hopes, what dreams legitimize the construction,
the existence, the operation of such places.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
If Vasilis didn't think much of prisons before. This doesn't help.
This place is Corrida Lo's prison complex, a maximum security
hell hole Greece's Alcatraz. A prison guard we interviewed called
it a warehouse for bodies. For the next three hours,
Vasilis tries to stay warm by pacing back and forth.
(09:06):
Then the cell door swings open. A man appears in
the entrance way. He has a salt and pepper beard,
thick black eyebrows, dark circles below, sunken eyes. Vasilis recognizes
the face. It's the prisons infamous warden, andonis out of Andinos,
and he wants a closer look at this so called
(09:29):
robin hood of Greece. He steps into the cell, followed
by a number of guards, all gripping nightsticks. It's all theater,
Vasilis tells himself. They talk out of Andinos tries to
intimidate him. Vasilis plays it cool, maybe too cool. The
warden gets angry. Suddenly Vasili stumbles backwards. The warden pushed
(09:54):
him or maybe punched him. Vasili seethes he can't help himself.
He charges the ward and grips the collar of his
jacket and just as He's about to pin his neck
against the wall. The guards swarm. Vasilis's arms are overpowered.
The guards jerk his hands high above his head and
(10:15):
with his body exposed, night sticks rain down on his ribs,
his legs, his face. The prison floor drips red. When
the beating finally stops, blood streams out his nose. His
cheeks are swollen, His rib cage throbs with each breath. Soon,
Vasilis is dragged to his new home in cell ninety three.
(10:46):
These allegations of brutal prison beatings play an important part
in Vasilis's story, This idea that the state abuses its power.
It's one of Vasilis's main motivations for robbing banks and
blowing up prison cons instruction sites.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
When judges announce their verdicts, they don't mention that the
prison sentences they so lavishly hand out will be accompanied
by constant torture. I'm not exaggerating. Blood on the floor,
the walls, the dirty blankets, blood everywhere, faces swollen, bruised
(11:27):
and deformed from having suffered severe injuries. Tortured bodies curled
up inside sheets for weeks, unable to even use the
bathroom on their own stacked up souls, abandoned in chambers,
with no future, with no hope.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
The description is horrific, but Vasili's clearly has an agenda here,
and we wanted to do a little fact checking, so
we put Christina on the case.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
We started by reaching out to the warden out of
ad We wanted to give him a chance to react,
but when we tracked him down, he was a kurt.
He called these allegations categorically false, and then he told
us that he didn't want to take part in any
kind of production about Polo Costas, which makes sense. I mean,
(12:17):
Vasilis has embarrassed him over the years.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
So we found somebody else who knew Vasilis while he
was in Corilla Loos. A social worker named Nicolas Couluris.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
Has worked at Coridalos for years. He also acknowledged that
this kind of prison violence happened. He said prisoners have
complained about a quote violent reception ritual upon entering the prison.
It sent a message you will sit tight and behave
or you won't have a good time here. He adds
(12:56):
that this was not standard procedure. It was more something
to onto VIP criminals.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
If you will Cordio.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
When a big name prisoner arrives, the entire prison goes
on high alert. Kuluis Is saying that they have all
these discussions about where he'll be placed and how he'll
be guarded, and this often leads to negotiations with the
celebrity prisoner, like if you cooperate, we'll put you in
a nicer cell with some fresh air and the sunlight,
(13:30):
or we're gonna assign you an easy prison job. Apparently
this is what happened with Vasilis.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Vasilis writes about that in his book, that the prison
warden kept trying to strike a deal with him, but
Vasilis always said no, because basically what Aravandinos was asking
him to do was to snitch. Chapter three, Big Brother's Shadow.
(14:11):
In the late nineties, the Paliocostos brothers had made a
name for themselves their robberies, their getaways. But it turns
out it was Nicos, not Vassilis, who got most of
the spotlight. Now, maybe it's because Nicos was the big brother,
or maybe it's because he was usually the one behind
the wheel during those daring car chases. Regardless, it was
(14:33):
Nicos who first became famous for evading police, and it
was Nicos who locals first lauded as the do getting banded.
Vasilis had a reputation too, but he was always riding
his brother's coattails, and when Vasilis got arrested, his brother's
shadow only grew. Suddenly. Any mystique Vasilis had as a
(14:54):
slippery bandit, a thief who could evade the police, had
disappeared when the longer he sat in jail, the more
famous Nicos became. In two thousand and six, the newspaper
Kati Mehdi Ni wrote that Nikos Paliokostas embodies the popular
myth of the good hearted bandit a zorro. The same year,
(15:17):
another newspaper dubbed him the robin Hood of the forests
of the Pindus. Year by year, his legend grew. Bloggers
began comparing Nkos to famous revolutionaries and resistance fighters. Stories
about his generosity spread across internet forums. By two thousand
and six, an ABC News article had called Nicos the
(15:38):
country's most wanted man. Vasilis, on the other hand, was
basically an afterthought. One newspaper from the time dubbed him
the little One. All of this had us wondering have
we been chasing after the wrong guy. A few months ago,
our team was interviewing a police officer in the one
(16:00):
who insisted on remaining anonymous, and in the middle of
the conversation, he says.
Speaker 5 (16:06):
Do you want to meet the original Greek Robin Hood?
Speaker 1 (16:10):
So of course Christina and George were like, uh yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:15):
And twenty four hours later, we're standing in front of
Nikos Polo Coostas's house, at least we think it's his house.
And to make sure that you remember where we've left.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
The car, the cops scribbled down these vague directions on
how to get here, something about a two story house
on the outskirts of Tricola, across from a school. He
said Nichos has been living on the house arrest. He
didn't promise he'd talked to us, but he said we'd
find him here.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
The house we're looking at is off white, bare wooden shutters,
thick blankets on the clotheslines. I'm trying to make note
of all the details, but my heart is pounding like
it's about to explode from my chest. And just as
I go to ring the doorbell, a woman appears, like
(17:07):
out of nowhere from the second floor balcony. She's middle
aged with short, straight brown hair and pale skin, and
she's staring down at us.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
That's when we realized this is definitely whether Balo Coosta's
family lives. The woman is Nios and Vasilis's sister, Cosanvina.
We try chatting with her, but she's very, very cagy.
We ask if Nichos is inside. She tells us he is.
He's napping, you know, taking a siesta. She's not happy
(17:39):
with us for being there. She says Nikos has no
interest in talking.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
We were expecting to hear something like that, so before
we arrived, we wrote a letter, a letter explaining who
we are, why we're here, and what we're doing. We
labored over this thing, making sure that every word was
just right. We explained that we're not with the mainstream
TV stations, which have a reputation for being sensationalist in Greece.
(18:08):
We told them that we're here to get Nikosa's side
of the story. So we pull out the letter and
I'm worried that Cosladna won't take it, but she does.
She comes down from the balcony and takes it, promising
that She's going to give it the Nikos and then well,
she shuts the door in our face.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
This whole episode got us thinking how much of Vasilis's
legend was actually built on Nikos's story.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Meno, that's Dimitris, a film professor who works on a
documentary about the brothers. Like us, Dimitris went up into
the mountains in search of the brother's hider. He told
us that the Silis was more on the anti authoritarian
side of things, more of the anarchist, but it was
Nicos who was the original social bandit. He said that
(19:11):
Nikos modeled himself after the bandits who called trick Lahoe
in the days of York, these old school outlaws who
were non violent, justice oriented, and that it was Nikos
at first who took inspiration from these role models, and
this really made locals love him. He said that in
the villages south of the Pindus Mountains where Nichos was hiding,
(19:33):
incredible stories were circulating about how Nicos was helping shepherds,
the bedridden, the elderly. The whole region supported him.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
The more we looked into it, the more we realized
that if Vasili's had charitable qualities, it's because he was
doing what so many younger siblings do. He was copying
his big brother. One source who didn't want to be recorded,
told team that, frankly, Vasilis was just tagging along. He
was the family hot head. Nkos, on the other hand,
(20:07):
was the thoughtful one, the altruistic one, the one who
preached nonviolence. And the thing is, Vasilis doesn't deny this
last part. Here's how he puts it in his book.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
It was Nikos who, while being chased by police officer
in Katerini, said let's not kill him. It would be
a shame. It was him who told me not to
empty mi kalashnikov on the three plain clothes officers who
cornered us during a car chase outside Edisa. There are
countless stories that testify to the good nature of a
(20:42):
man who never used the power endowed to him by
his gun as a means to control, let alone kill.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Vasili says, if he was ever truly cornered, if it
meant his life, he'd shoot without question, but not Nikos.
Nikos was so if cornered, he'd rather give up or
be killed instead. But despite his nonviolent nature, Nicos was
a wanted man. In the early two thousands, Nicos Paliocostas
(21:13):
was declared Greece's public Enemy number one. Before long, he'd
cracked Interpol's top ten most Wanted criminals list. As the
pressure to find him increased, Greece activated its counter terrorism
unit and charged its toughest officers with hunting Nicos down.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
So I'm going to step in here to explain. It
might sound a bit excessive for Greece to send a
rabid anti terrorism unit after a kind hearted robber with
a knack for giving away his loot, but it makes
a little more sense if you know a few things
about the country's history.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Kiryo.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
Immediately after the follow the junta, Greece was severely tested
by terrorists.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
That's there is Economo Astnomia.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
I was an officer at the Atlantic Police. I dealt
with state security for decades.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
Economo helped lead Greece's anti terrorism efforts. It was an
around the clock job. After the fall of the right
wing junta in nineteen seventy four, Greece became a hub
for left wing activism, and in some cases these anti
state attitudes became extreme.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Forment adaptation Menda, the Riast.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
Took advantage of the climate against the ary, the police,
and those they believed sided with the junta. They thought
this was the moment for a greater revolution, the moment
to overthrow capitalism and the bourgeoisie and to impose their
own system.
Speaker 5 (22:51):
The most infamous of these terrorist groups was the seventeenth
of November, named after the date when police massacred forty
students during a protest. In response, the group plotted assassinations,
planted bombs, targeted government officials. It even assassinated a CIA
agent and members of the US embassy. Ambassador Tom Miller
(23:14):
told us how one time he went to the American
Embassy and was shocked to find a six foot rocket
smoldering in it. Curtsey of the seventeenth of November. Long
story short, This terrorist group had Greek authorities on edge,
and the main way they funded their activities was through
(23:34):
bank robbery.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Which is how Nicos and Vasili's Paliocosis got tied up
with the anti terrorism police. Basically, the brothers fit the
profile anti government sympathies. Check always carrying around machine guns
and explosives. Check targeting the rich and powerful, Check robbing banks,
Check cops looked at these facts and concluded, Hey, these
(24:00):
guys might be terrorists too. But the more they eluded
these high level police, the more their legend grew. It
was like the papers were looking for Robinhood characters to
root for, and they found them in these two. But
once Vasilis landed in jail, all of that attention turned
to Nicos. By two thousand and six, he had spent
(24:21):
sixteen years dodging the police. He was the one with
the money, the ideology, the respect, and perhaps most importantly
to Vasili's, Nicos was the one with all the fame.
(24:41):
Chapter four odd jobs for Vasilis Paliocostas, the hardest part
of being locked up was the isolation. For those keeping track,
this is his second time in prison, and by this
point he has escaped once before. By two thousand and six,
(25:02):
he was back at Kridallos and for the most part alone.
Aside from one furry friend.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
My only companion was Tarzan, I pampered ginger cats that
enjoyed my food and protection inside the wing. She was
the only one I'd really miss if I happened to
clear off.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Vasilis also had a human cell mate, and not just
one The prison was suffering from overcrowding. At times there
were five or six guys to one hundred square foot cell.
The thing about Vasilis, though, is that he had been
trained years ago to find the silver lining in these
sorts of things, and he quickly found one. Like Sure,
(25:44):
the prison was stuffed uncomfortable, but those same conditions made
the prisoners harder to control. The wardens maintained power by
handing out favors to informants, but as the prison population exploded,
it became harder for officials to keep their old promises.
Snitches became less loyal, and with this wave of new inmates,
(26:05):
it became harder for even the most reliable informants to
keep tabs on everyone. Vasilis got a couple new cell
mates and gain new connections to the world outside. Slowly
he got comfortable bouncing around escape ideas. But if they
took a fretsaw to the bars on their window, what
if some friends on the outside knocked down the outer wall.
(26:26):
These weren't just fantasies. Vasilis actually got extremely close to
plotting a breakout where guys on the other side would
destroy the prison wall with explosives and yes, rocket launchers,
but he ended up calling it off at the last minute.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
I would spend two pointless years in Corina Loss, making
escape plans that never materialized, having officers constantly searched my cell.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Vasilis was too well monitored to escape on his own.
He needed more freedom to move around the prison. And
then he remembered the welcome he got to Krida Los,
and he remembered being offered a deal. So after years
of enduring the torture and pushing offers away, he finally accepted.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
Simfornifik.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Couluris actually remembers this deal. Officials made an agreement that
he would be assigned a specific job as a jail
and this job would require him to freely move around
different prison areas. His first job, it turns out, was
to be the chief cleaner of his prison wing.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
According to both Kouluris and Vasilis, the job got him
extra time out of his cell, and as chief cleaner,
it met managing other inmates. Over time, Vasilis was making
more and more connections. There was your Ghosts, the homicidal
mafioso Costas, the cop killer Spiros, the bank robbing terrorist,
(27:53):
and Vasilis's network expanded even more when he became one
of the prison's first aid assistants.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
This his new job paced him in a new wing
of the prison, a much cushier part of Goidalos, and
since medical emergencies can happen anywhere, Vasilis was given pretty
liberal access to different parts of the prison, including the
central courtyard. When we talked with Gloris, he didn't say
outright that this was a mistake, but it was kind
(28:22):
of clear that in retrospect it was. Ye, he said,
with this new freedom to move around, the prison accidentally
handed Vasilis a ticket to escape.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Chapter five phone a friend.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Escaping by helicopter wasn't something that just dawned on me.
I'd been working on it since I was first imprisoned,
but never came this close to putting it into practice.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Vasilis shared his plans with a handful of prisoners, but
he had trouble finding people who could truly think outside
the box. Usually when he mentioned the plan, he was
greeted with dumb stairs. Where are you going to find
a hardened criminal with a pilot's license? They'd always say,
where were the idealists? The dreamers hungry for freedom? The
(29:25):
inmates with imagination.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
The people around here are willing to sell and be sold,
to buy and be bought. An armed man without morals
is just a criminal. There's a difference between a criminal
and an outlaw.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Vasilis was looking for a fellow outlaw. One day, while
he was getting comfy in a new cell, a kid
came up to him, a twenty eight year old from
Albania named Alquette Risaii. Vasilis looked him up and down.
The guy was young, could barely grow a full mustache,
(30:00):
but Vasilis knew his reputation. The kid was rumored to
be a hit man. Vasilis told him point blank.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Plans need people with balls to see them through, and
they need to care for you personally in a selfless way.
If you've got people like that, trust me, we'll get
out of this prison.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
It was just the type of conversation Vasilis had been
waiting years to have. Finally some hope. So the men
begin plotting, and Alquette starts pinging friends, who starts scouring
Athens for helicopter charter companies. If they can find just
one without a security check, maybe they can sneak weapons
onto the chopper. And hijacket. A few days later, Alquette
(30:47):
gets a text The plan is a go. Chapter six,
The View from Above. Here's where, dear listeners, we get
back to the story that was in our first episode.
(31:10):
It's Sunday in June two thousand and six, just a
few hours before the breakout, and Vasili's fidgets with a
chain of worry beads what Greeks call a comboloi. It's
a stress reliever and a good luck charm. Vasilis passes
the time running the beads through his fingers. Everything is ready.
(31:31):
Auquette's man has booked a flight with the helicopter company.
He's coming with reinforcements too, a second hijacker to help.
They even have an alibi. They're taking a birthday celebration flight.
The two men board the helicopter in the beachside town
of Glifada. As they're strapping their seat belts, they make
friendly chit chat with the pilot, who is unaware that
(31:54):
the two men are armed with pistols. They're backpacks stuffed
with grenades. The chop slowly rises into the clouds and
the trip begins. They trace the turquoise coastline and The
pilot points out the sites, the mansions of the rich
and famous, ancient ruins a distant monastery, before pointing the
(32:15):
craft northwest toward downtown Athens. Within minutes, Coridalos comes into sight. Suddenly,
the pilot feels the tip of an old Soviet pistol
pressed against his temple. He hears the words if you
do anything stupid, you're dead. Vasilis and Alquette have picked
(32:36):
the right day. Turns out there's a massive rally downtown,
so there are a lot of helicopters hovering nearby. In
the prison, Vasilis leaves his cell and walks toward the
prison yard. Nobody suspects a thing. He has this kind
of freedom to move, and as he steps into the
jail yard, he can hear the soft rumble of a
(32:57):
chopper somewhere over the horizon. Vassilis carries a bag with
a red cheg Avara flag inside. He meets Alcett and
the two walk to the center of the yard, take
the flag out, and planet it smack in the middle.
Up in the air, the hijackers tell the pilot to
look for the red flag. A minute or two passes.
(33:19):
Suddenly the helicopter clears the prison wall and hovers over
the yard. Clouds of dust kick up into the air,
wind whips and circles, throwing sand into everyone's eyes. The
helicopter descends and descends, and the noise grows louder and louder.
The sound of the rotors bounces off the concrete walls
and amplifies. Vassily feels the noise of the chopper consume him.
(33:45):
The prison guards look on. The guards assume that some
high level politician is putting on a spectacular surprise entrance.
The helicopter drops until it's just hovering a foot or
two off the ground. The door is open. Alqtt and
Vassilat race on. By the time the guards realize what happened,
Alqutt and Vasilis are already looking down at the rooftops
(34:08):
of Athens, an eagle's soaring to freedom. The chopper makes
a bee line out of town, landing next to an
empty cemetery on the edge of Athens, where the hijackers
have hidden a pair of stolen motorcycles. Once the helicopter lands,
Alqutt jumps out and races for a bike, but Vasilis
(34:29):
takes his time. Rather than run for it, he calmly
turns to the pilot and reaches into his pocket. Take this,
he tells the man. He pulls out his COMBOLOI the
worry beats and hands it to the pilot.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
In a selectical combati.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
It's a collectible.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
I don't need it anymore.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Then he strolls to his motorcycle and disappears. A few
months later, with Vasilis on the run, brother Nikos's luck
finally runs dry. It's September two thousand and six and
Nikos is speeding around the foothills of Mount Olympus. He
(35:15):
accelerates through a roadblock and the cops give chase, but
as he tries to take a curve, the wheel slip,
slides off the road and the car rolls over onto
its roof behind him. The police screets to a halt.
The cops pull out their guns, ready for a fight.
Ack Slowly Nicos crawls out the window. He's armed, but
(35:38):
he knows he isn't going to kill these men, so
he just gives himself up. His streak as the most
uncatchable man in Greece comes to an end. Nkos is
sent to a prison in Patras in western Greece. A
judge finds him guilty of more than a dozen bank robberies,
combined with the charges for escaping prison and fleeing the police,
(36:01):
to name a few. He is sentenced to more than
one hundred and ninety seven years behind bars. And that's
when everything changes. Suddenly Nicos is the one in jail
and Vasilis he's the one all the newspapers are talking about.
The change in reputation is immediate. All the things they
(36:21):
once said about Nicos, that he's non violent, that he's charitable,
that he's uncatchable, that gets shifted to his little brother.
In two thousand and six, the BBC had called Nicos
a robin hood. By two thousand and nine, the Associated
Press has given that title to Vasilis. And that's the
curious thing about the Vasilis Palocosta story. He's a bank robber,
(36:45):
a kidnapper, a thief, but probably the most important thing
he ever stole was the title of good thief from
his older brother. As for Nicos, the glory days are over.
(37:14):
He's suffering from a cute kidney disease. In twenty twenty one,
he's released from prison to house arrest on humanitarian grounds.
Aside from twice a week dialysis appointments, he's not allowed
to leave the family home outside three Cola. That's why
the local cops told us, if you want to talk
to him, just stop by. He's not going anywhere. They
(37:35):
made it sound easy, but nothing in this story is
ever that simple. So after Nkos's sister slammed the door
on George and Christina, they had to call Daphne back
in Athens and break the bad news.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
She looked like a little bit. She definitely looks guarded,
but she yeah, yeah, definitely guarded.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
What time did you go to think he was genuinely
having miss yesta?
Speaker 5 (37:59):
I think so, yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Yeah. Maybe it's worth going tomorrow morning before you leave
as well.
Speaker 5 (38:06):
Maybe we can try. I feel like we're gonna get
another door shut in our face, but.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Maybe that we'll have read the letter by then, so
maybe we'll have a slightly different reactions.
Speaker 6 (38:15):
Perhaps perhaps, Okay, I hope so by thanks guys, next.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
Time on the good thief persistence pays off.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
I feel fear.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Okay, so we're approaching from the other side, shall we
drive a little bit?
Speaker 2 (38:42):
Oh? Fuck me?
Speaker 3 (38:43):
Okay, that is actually as well.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
The Good Thief is a Kaleidoscope production in partnership with
iHeart Podcasts. Gets hosted by me Miles Gray. Our executive
producers Our mangesh Hetikutur Costas, Linos, oz Waalishan and Kate
Osborne from iHeart. Executive producers are Katrina Norvel and Nikki Etor.
Our partners at The Greek Podcast Project. Our executive producer
(39:16):
Daphne carnisis field producers Christina Bilioni and George Miatis and
sound designer Nikos Scavenitis. Mary Philip Sandy is our supervising producer.
Shane McKeon is our producer. The show is written in
research by Lucas Riley, fact checking by Donya Suleman, sound
design and mix by Soundboard. This episode featured the voices
(39:39):
of Yorgo, Scaramihos and Rich Green. Our theme song is
by Imam Baldi, with additional music by Botany. Finally thanks
to Will Pearson Connell Byrne, Bob Pittman and John Marynapolis
Speaker 2 (40:01):
SA
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com