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August 23, 2023 40 mins

As Vassilis plans one last score, things start to fall apart. Meanwhile, thanks to a surprising tip, George and Christina come face-to-face with Vassilis’s older brother, Nikos.

 

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
You know that old saying about Chekhov's gun. You know,
if you introduce a gun in the first act, it's
gonna go off well. In this case, our good thief
is carrying a suitcase full of guns and grenades. It's
two thousand and six. Vasili's Paliokostas is fresh alpha helicopter,

(00:33):
escaped from prison. He's itching to make as much money
as possible, as quickly as possible, and then he needs
to get the hell out. He wants to do what
he meant to do after the Giant bank robbery and Ioanni,
and the same thing he intended to do after the
kidnapp He wants to take a pile of money and
get out of the game. Except this time everything he

(00:56):
holds deer, his sense of self, his moral code, and yes,
even his unwillingness to pick up a loaded gun, pulled
it point blank at a man, and then pull the trigger.
All that's about to be testing. I'm Miles Greg from
Kaleidoscope and iHeart Podcasts. This is the Good Peace, Chapter one,

(01:27):
escaped from Athens. When Vasilis was in prison, he couldn't
stop worrying about his mother and father. He mentioned it
casually to inmates. He discussed it with the detectives, who
paid him a visit in his cell. Vasilis's family was
under constant surveillance because even though he was locked up,

(01:47):
his brother Nicos was on the lamb, and the police
kept trying to figure out if the family knew something.
But now that Nicos was behind bars and Vasilis had
escaped Codri Delos, it wasn't like the harassment stop. The
police were certain that the family was withholding information, so
they watched their every move. They tried to offer the

(02:08):
Palio Coostas family various deals. They offered them reward money,
They promised to keep their sons safe and alive in
exchange for information. But the Paliocostases are a tight knit
bunch and no amount of surveillance or pressure could get
them to talk. Here's George to explain.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah. So obviously this frustrated the police, but it especially
frustrated that once Vacilis got out, because Vasilis was believed
to have been quote influenced by terrorists and corridalos. At
least that's what Vasilis e Fimiu, the officer who had
been assigned to a twenty four hour task force to
hunt Vacilis told us it.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
Has a couple of yours books, and Vasilis, from what
is heard, has dabbled in terrorism.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
He was dangerous. Basically, the police weren't just worried about
what Vasilis had done in the past. They were worried
about what he would going to do under the sway
of his new terrorist friends. Vassilis already had a dim
view of how society was functioning under the Greek government,
so was it that much of a stretch to assume
he might try to make a statement with his next crime.

(03:17):
It wasn't long before Greece's anti terrorism units joined the
hunt for Vassilis. They staked out Nicos's old hiding spots.
They set up roadblocks and checkpoints, They interviewed locals and
scoured the mountain side for hideouts, and of course, they
continued to spy on the family abode. But detectives, it
turns out, were looking in the wrong place.

Speaker 4 (03:39):
After Vasilis escaped in two thousand and six, he tricked
the authorities by staying in Athens. It was the last
place they expected him to be. In truth, Vassi's hated Athens.
In contrast to his mountain home, where he talks about
the cool breeze carrying the scenti and regano and grass.

(04:02):
He saw Athens as a concrete wasteland, a soul less
extension of Corrivalos. But Vasilis had a specific reason for
sticking around, and it wasn't just a trick corps. It
was to make money, life changing, leave the country forever,
money because Athens was home to Greece's richest men, and

(04:26):
Vasilis had his mind set on another kidnapping.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
If you recall the last kidnapping with the Hall of
a King, it didn't go to plant. Nicos had led
the negotiations and without consulting his younger brother, he had
agreed to a lesser ransom. Vasilis had been livid about it.
In his opinion, Nicos had been much too soft, and
instead of getting the money the pair wanted, they ended

(04:53):
up with a fraction of it. For years now, Vasilis
had been stewing over this and he wasn't going to
allow it to happen again for his next kidnapping. He
was not going to be disrespected like some petty criminal,
and he was not going to be shortchanged plus he'd
already picked out a target Petti cles Panagopolis.

Speaker 4 (05:16):
Yeah, you need to know this is insane. So people
in America might not know the name, but in Greece
everyone knows panago He's one of the country's richest shipping tycoons.
He's basically a gajillionnaire, so he'd clearly be making a
statement with this kidnapping. Except a few months into doing

(05:40):
his homework, Vassi's changed his mind. He learns that the
seventy year old multimillionaire is sick, and again, this is
where the morals come in, right. Vasilis believes it's wrong
to put a sick man through the stress of a kidnapping.
It's it's the kind of act that Vasilis likes to say.
Shit the difference between a criminal and an outlaw. A

(06:05):
criminal only thinks of himself. An outlaw, however, weighs the
moral balance of his actions first.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
So Vasilis has to start over looking for a new target.
He expands his search radius beyond Athens, and he finds
one not far from home, Chapter two, Kidnapping two point zero.

(06:49):
In two thousand and eight, Vasili's returned to the mountains
up north Athens had worn him down. He yearned for
the countryside, and even though the anti terrorism squads were
hunting him all over the mountains, he still felt safer
up north. But that's also where he found a new
kidnapping target, George Milanas, who I asked my colleague George about.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
George Milanas runs one of the biggest aluminium companies in Europe,
but more importantly, at the time, he was president of
the board of the Federation of Industries of Greece. Basically,
he ran a syndicate of CEOs, and that meant he
also had high level connections to the Bank of Greece.
But Milanas was more than just rich and well connected.

(07:34):
This was two thousand and eight, and if you recall,
that's the year Greece and the rest of the world
were bracing for a financial calamity. And Milanas, while he's smart,
he's connected. He sees the writing on the wall. So
what does the millionaire tell his workers to do. He
tells him to tighten their belts because pay cuts are coming.
And when Vacillis hears this, the idea that Milanas is

(07:57):
protecting his own wealth while asking his poor and play
is systemic. The hard shit. Well that's it, decision, mate,
His victim has been chosen.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
Vasilis knows he can't do this alone, so he recruits
a few partners to help, and he's really careful about it.
He plucks three crooks with no records. Basically, aside from Vasilis,
no one on this crew is on the police's radar.
The only problem is that means they're inexperienced, like they're
actually so green that Vasilis has to take them up

(08:30):
to a remote mountaintop to give them lessons on how
to hold and shoot AK forty sevens green. But whatever
they lack and experience, they make up for an eagerness.
On the night of the kidnapping, they dress in camouflage
and hide in the woods outside Milonas's mansion, and they
wait for the businessman to pull up in his car.

(08:51):
Costas Kukumakas, a local newspaper journalist, was on the job.

Speaker 5 (08:55):
The night had happened years.

Speaker 6 (08:58):
I remember the nights nothing. I was a young editor
at the newspaper. June ninth, two thousand and eight, Milonas
is with his wife. He says to his boat to God, okay,
go away, I don't need you, I'll go home on
my own.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
From his hideout, Vasili spies the high teams of Milonas's
Mercedes winding up the mountain road. He tracks it as
it pulls into the driveway. Vasili SLINKs towards the car.

Speaker 6 (09:27):
His goons followed Samatado's initial restricution of lot. When Milonas
attends to his house, he's surrounded by three or four
people in the hoods.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
At his garage door.

Speaker 6 (09:38):
They take his wife out of the car.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
Vasilis opens the driver's side door, grabs the millionaire and
throws him into the back of the Mercedes.

Speaker 7 (09:46):
Milonas, come on, let's go for a ride.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
Vasilis is riding high on adrenaline. The kidnapping couldn't be
going smoother. Milonas doesn't have his security detail with him us.
His wife is so terrified, she's not gonna do a thing.
Vasilis is in total command. Then he jumps into the
driver's seat and turns the key and it won't start.

(10:15):
He turns the key again and nothing happens. The car
won't shift out of park.

Speaker 7 (10:20):
Got the.

Speaker 6 (10:23):
Balsa sits in the car in the divers seat, but
he can't start the car.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
Because it's a new model. Vasilis is embarrassed. His junior
recruits are shouting tips, Milona's wife is screaming. It's chaos.
The whole scene sets Vasilis off. The last time he
was arrested, it was because he couldn't start a car.
There's no way he's gonna let it happen again. He

(10:48):
also has a less selfish reason for hurrying on his
way in. He noticed that Milona's two young daughters walking
up the road. He doesn't want them to get home
in time to witness their dad's of duck. Vasilis jumps
out of the car, points his gun at the millionaire's
head and tells him take the wheel and don't try
anything funny. Bilonas he does as he's told.

Speaker 6 (11:14):
So it was Milanas himself drove a few kilometers down
the road.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
As Milonas turns onto the main road, vasili sees the girls.
He figures they'll recognize their dad's car, probably wonder where
he's going, but it's too late to do anything about
that now. Vasilis instructs his victim turned chauffeur to drive
until they reach a deserted dirt road. They follow that
for a few miles, and when it dead ends, Vasilis

(11:40):
tells Milonas to stop. A getaway car is waiting.

Speaker 6 (11:43):
For them to piano quinto. They take his cell phone
and he's watch in case has ZPs. They put glasses
on him with lenses painted over, and then they switch cars.
They all get into the same car and they take
him to the hideout.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
Everything from here moves like clockwork per Vasilis's plans. The
kidnappers don't travel far, just twenty or so minutes south
of the millionaire's house to a quaint and quiet village
called Suo ti Vaala Miikustin.

Speaker 6 (12:14):
They take him inside the little house with a parking
lot and with the shed in the buck Yet.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
They drag me Lonas out of the car and lead
him toward the garden shed out back inside, they remove
his goggles. Turns out Vasilis has transformed the tool shed
into a tiny house. There's a bed, a portable toilet,
there's a radio fixed to the public radio station. The

(12:40):
kidnappers even give Milonas a fresh pair of clothes and
a pair of slippers. When Nikos was running things, they
were just driving around the countryside with their abductee, but
Vasilis has some improvements. Now they just have to wait.
The police, of course, don't know any of these details yet.

(13:02):
Ghost As Kukumakas the newspaper reporter. He's in the newsroom
monitoring the police scanner.

Speaker 6 (13:11):
And the radio operator was screaming something really huge had
happened with them, and when understood from the context, it
was a kidnapper.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
Within hours, police find Milonas's car and begin rummaging through
it for any clues left by the kidnappers. When they
open the glove box, they find a message printed on
a sheet of computer paper.

Speaker 7 (13:35):
We are kidnappers.

Speaker 8 (13:37):
We are demanding thirty million euros as ransom.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
Chapter three the ransom. At the newspaper office, ghost As
Kukumakas start working overtime thirty million euros. It's the biggest
kidnapping ransom in Greek history, and at that moment nobody
has any idea who was behind the abductionsction.

Speaker 6 (14:15):
I was assigned by the editor in chief to see
how the investigation was going. I called every police I knew.
They were telling me the kidnapper is not a foreigner.
They were setting for a man with an accent amountain accent.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
Whenever Vasilis called the family to negotiate, police were on
the line eavesdropping and they noticed that the top kidnapper
talked like somebody who grew up in Greece's north. Kukumakas
had a suspicion of who it might be.

Speaker 6 (14:48):
So and I said that pale Coostas was one of
the luckiest suspects.

Speaker 1 (14:54):
This did not go as he had planned.

Speaker 6 (14:58):
The next day, a competing newspaper came out and said,
this is bullishit he's the only suspect the police are
not looking at. My newspaper director immediately called my editor
in chief and said, your reporter is writing what is
he out of his mind?

Speaker 1 (15:15):
As Koku Makas is getting chewed out by his editors
for his theory on the Milona's kidnapping, Milonas himself is
living in that shed, basically ordering room service. Every day,
Vasilis delivers food and newspapers to Milonas, where the millionaire
gets to read about his own kidnapping. Eventually, he gets
so comfortable with Vasilis that he tells him, yeah, that

(15:37):
thirty million, you're asking for good luck with that.

Speaker 7 (15:41):
Media.

Speaker 6 (15:43):
Milanas tells him. If my people raise three million, you'll
be like you'd see. It's not easy.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
Milonas explains, I'm rich, but that doesn't mean my wealth
is liquid. Not even a multimillionaire can just go to
the bank and walk out with thirty million in cash.
Of course, this isn't what Vasilis wants to hear. Remember,
he's trying to emerge from his brother's shadow here, and
he wants his full share of money this time around.

(16:11):
In typical Vasili's style, he sees the man's snub as
an insult to his intelligence.

Speaker 7 (16:17):
Thirty million euros are a holy grail when in Milonasi's hands,
yet they automatically become Satan's trident when Palo Costas gets
a hold of them.

Speaker 1 (16:28):
Vasilis is resolved. He is not going to make the
mistakes his brother Nicos did. There won't be any concessions
this time around. He's getting his money, all of it.
The day's drag. A week passes, and well stop me
if you've heard this before, But Vasili starts becoming friends

(16:52):
with his hostage.

Speaker 6 (16:56):
They begin having some sudial conversations, kind of shocked by
milon NASA's heavy accent. The same Tasalion accent kikas.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
These boys in the North realize they share a brotherhood.
They discuss politics and capitalism, philosophizing like two buds sitting
at the bar. At one point they spent an hour
debating how heavy a sack full of money must weigh.
And milonas he's getting more and more comfortable, He's wearing
the slippers, kicking back in his chair, reading news about himself.

(17:29):
He feels so safe that he builds up the courage
to complain about the radio programming. His kidnappers have chosen snarhim.

Speaker 6 (17:40):
And they have classical music playing the entire time, non stop,
and he complains. He says, guys, please change the tunnel
or I'll go crazy.

Speaker 1 (17:50):
When Vasilis isn't becoming best buds with his hostage, he
and his trio are trying to figure out how exactly
to transfer the money, cashing out the details of a
money drop with Milnas's wife.

Speaker 6 (18:04):
There were seven occasions what are the kidnappers and the
family spoke to negotiate the terms of the romstrom.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
And then fifteen days into the kidnapping, they agree on
a location for the drop.

Speaker 7 (18:16):
I thought it hit.

Speaker 6 (18:19):
And that are delivered, they threw it behind some booshes
in a parking look. There were five or six bugs
filled with ten point eight million euros. It was the
largest amount until that point that had been paid as
a as a kidnapping.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
Suddenly, Vasilis is the proud holder of two records, Greece's
biggest bank robbery and Greece's biggest kidnapping ransom. But he's
not in this for the records. Back at the safe house,
they start counting the cash. After running it through a
money counter, Vasilis realizes it's nineteen million euros short of

(18:56):
the demand. There are only ten point eight million euros
in here, a third of what he asked for. Vasilis
got built again, and he is fuming. Vasilis can't believe
the disrespect. What kind of family does this guy have?
I'm a so called dangerous criminal, Greece's number one. Vasilis

(19:17):
just can't understand it.

Speaker 7 (19:19):
It's crazy to me that he was willing to become
a martyr in the arms of a kidnapper as long
as his bank account remains intact.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
Vasilis's mind is spinning. What's he supposed to do now?
How is he going to get the other nineteen million.
Vasilis is angry, livid. He asks himself what would the
mafia do? And then Vasilis is suddenly struck by a thought,
a terrible thought, a thought that would have never occurred

(19:56):
to his brother Nicos. Kidnappings work because fan families are
afraid their loved one might get killed. They pay up
to keep them safe if the family refuses to meet
his demands. Isn't it Vasilis's responsibility to go through with
his thread to show he's serious.

Speaker 7 (20:14):
I was wondering what's more moral for someone to die
for money they don't need and one miss or for
someone to kill for money they immediately need and they're
being deprived off.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
If Nicos were in charge, they wouldn't entertain the thought
of killing Milonas. But those days are over. A new
Palocostas is in charge, so as Vasilis fumes, he keeps
thinking about it. Then he goes to the shed. He
wraps a blindfold around the rich man's eyes. He drags

(20:50):
him outside and throws him in the trunk of the
getaway car. Soon they're making a journey to a dead
end in the mountains. The car rattles and shakes as
it plunges deep into the middle of nowhere. The car
lurches to a stop. The kidnappers open the trunk, They
remove the blindfold. They tell me Lonas to get out.

(21:12):
They walk him into the woods, and then Vasilis makes
a choice. He says, this is goodbye. He reaches into
his pocket and pulls out car keys. He had thought
about pressing a gun to Milonas's head, a revolver or

(21:33):
a scorpion, or any one of the many weapons he
was carrying, but he can't do it. Instead, he tosses
Milanas his keys to the vehicle. You're free to go,
he says, find your way home. In his book, vasili
says that he let Melanas go because he had a

(21:54):
gut feeling, a gut feeling that the family wasn't trying
to screw him, that they nearly a seven million euros
was in fact all they could get. In each sack
of money. There was a letter handwritten from Ilonas's wife.
Each letter apologized that the sum wasn't what the kidnappers
have asked for. Each one pleaded for understanding. Maybe harder

(22:18):
criminals would have played tough, but Vasilis isn't that different
from his brother. After all, he too wants to be
a good thief. Chapter four, Mattinee. A few months later,

(22:43):
Vasilis is living it up at another safe house, just
a couple miles from the kidnapping site. He's cooling his heels,
sitting on his money, and letting the commotion die down.
He's staying with friends. Maybe it's a last hurrah. He
also has an insane stockpile of weapons with him, Ammo explosives, ak's,

(23:06):
bulletproof vests. He even has a rocket propelled grenade launcher
in there. One morning, vasili steps out onto the veranda.
He SIPs his coffee and takes in the view. But
today he notices something strange. People keep driving past his house.

Speaker 6 (23:27):
He's very suspicious. He wakes up very early in the morning,
five six o'clock. He goes out and keeps an eye
on people passing by. During one of the investigations, some
officers are driven by the house disguise Asplamber's in Avan.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
Vasilis gets this sense he's being watched, and he's right,
but he ignores his instincts. He stays home. He puts
on an action movie instead, a guilty pleasure months earlier,
vasili sent his accomplices had split them in on us money.
A lot of the money was buried in the backyard somewhere,

(24:05):
but one of his guys didn't listen to Vasilis's careful instructions.
He wanted to enjoy his spoils, so he high tailed
it to the Greek Islands and went on a spending spree.

Speaker 7 (24:16):
And a.

Speaker 6 (24:18):
Key mistake was that an accomplice, one of the perpetrators,
went to Crete with he said, and suddenly began to
live a life of luxury. He buys a very expensive
god jeep, he buys people drinks.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
What Vasilis and his crew didn't know is that all
of that money had been marked, and it's not long
before the police trace the cash to Creep and have
this dope in cuffs down at the station. He breaks
almost immediately, So while Vasilis is relaxing in his safe
house watching his daily dose of Kung Fu, he fails

(24:56):
to see that a swat team is closing in around
his hea house, at least not until a break in
the film. When Vasilis gets up to stretch, wearing just
his shorts and slippers, he steps onto the balcony. Suddenly,
dozens of small red dots light up his chest laser sights, but.

Speaker 6 (25:17):
The kickers on the camp He's completely surrounded by swat teams.
He realizes that he no longer has a way to escape,
so he says something along the lines of okay, I
admit it.

Speaker 7 (25:30):
I lost.

Speaker 3 (25:32):
Suddenly the human world moves forward, knees bent, fast steps,
their guns aiming right at me. Soon they raped the door.

Speaker 7 (25:43):
Someone pushes me, another one drinks me, and I find
myself handcuffed on the lawn.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
As Vasilis is led into the police car, he screams.

Speaker 5 (25:53):
Outsa I have two pomps.

Speaker 7 (25:57):
They are famous. They belong to Palosness.

Speaker 8 (26:00):
Somebody who loves animals take care of them.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
It's an endearing story. Vasilis, the so called hardened criminal,
gets arrested in his PJS while watching an action movie
he rented from Greek Blockbuster, and the last thing he
thinks about before getting taken away are his pet dogs.
I love that detail, And if I wanted to convince
you that Vasilis really is a Robin Hood, a good

(26:29):
guy with a gun, That's how I'd ended. The problem
is we can't because remember George Malonas, the rich guy
he kidnapped. Not far away from the safe house, Milonas
has an office, and on September fourth, two thousand and eight,
one month after Vasilis is arrested, just outside that office,

(26:51):
a bomb explodes Chapter five shells. The small bomb that
exploded outside Milonas's office in Thessaloniki did not hurt anyone
unless you're counting the small damage to the office door.

(27:13):
But then about a week later, there's another attack of
fifteen people on motorcycles zoomed to the same part of
town and begin throwing molotov cocktails at a police station.
Two patrol cars erupted in flames. A terrorist group called

(27:36):
Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei takes responsibility for both attacks, and
in two communicays they dedicate the attacks to Vasili's Palio Costas.

Speaker 5 (27:48):
We chose last night to set fire to the police
station in a signal of solidarity to Vasilis Palo Costas.
You'll soon hear more from us sodoors should like to
remind milon Maas that he owes US twenty million euros more.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
Now this got our team wondering was Vasili's part of
this group? Were these his old cronies from jail or
were they just using his name to get attention, because
if so, it worked.

Speaker 4 (28:21):
So the conspiracy of Fire Nuclai hit the streets earlier
that year in two thousand and eight, with a series
of arsons and bombings across the country. They targeted ATMs
and political offices. They also set fire to the French
Press Agency, the Public Power company, and various banks. In

(28:42):
one of their communitys, they described themselves as individual extremists
united by a cause. In fact, their motto is lone
wolves are not alone. Since then, they've been responsible for
at least sixty forty French attacks, most of their industries,

(29:03):
and one of the cells has praised Vasilis, looking to
him as an inspiration.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
When the anti terrorist police squads arrested Vasilis, they saw
all this information and basically said, see, I told you so.
But we scoured the group's communicays and it's pretty evident
that Vasilis is not part of the group. They just
look up to him and they throw his name around
for clout, which is actually one of the more interesting

(29:29):
things about Vasilis Palyocostas. As he grew more and more famous,
more people started using his name to push their agendas.
Anarco terrorists used his reputation in their communic case to
look tougher and to be taken seriously. The police used
his name for additional funding, and they used his capture
to boost their image and make themselves look tough on terror.

(29:52):
Villagers across the country embraced Vasilis as a way to
express their dissatisfaction with this state and back home. Vasilis's
deadbeat brother, Apastolis, used his brother's reputation to prop up
his cred around town. Apparently he used to go around
threatening people at bars, saying, yeah, I'm a Paliocosta's try
to mess with me. The point is, by the time

(30:15):
this bomb went off, Vasilis's name was big, so big
that people everywhere were co opting his name to bolster
their reputations. And if we had to guess, Vasilis didn't
like that, not one bit. Chapter six Identity theft.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
Our team reached out to the Milanas family, hoping they'd
share their experience of the kidnapping, but they declined. And
not only did they decline, they gave us a warning
in an email. This is what Milon NASA's brother told us,
it's very taboo as a subject, very taboo. We don't
seem to understand the depth of the trauma. Always remember

(31:03):
that as journalists you are responsible for who you memorialize
and who you deify, and because it's the bad guys
that sell the most, we usually end up deifying the
wrong people.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
The Malona's family is right. There are a million podcasts
about criminals, how many are really about good guys. But
that's also why we made this show. We're not on
the hunt for any old thief. We're on the hunt
for a good thief, and vasilis he's supposed to be that.

(31:36):
We were hoping his brother, Nicos noun retirement could provide
some answers. Maybe he could tell us how the pair
used to weigh the morality of their crimes, About the
things they refused to do in the name of being
good thieves, the times they felt like they'd triumphed and
the moments they were most scared, The ways they gave
away their money, and the little details, the philosophies they discussed,

(32:00):
the kung fu films they loved most, the best foods
for road trips. It's funny to think about the range
of questions we had for a man who used to
be inner polls most wanted. But as George and Christina
explained in our last episode, their first visit to his
house didn't go as planned.

Speaker 4 (32:18):
The Underneath Fairs No No you Mind.

Speaker 2 (32:23):
Back in September of twenty twenty two, Christina and I
found ourselves standing on the doorstep of Nikos by Lookostas's
house just outside of Tricola, but we didn't talk to him.
His sister stopped us at the gate and we asked
her to give Niicos a letter that we'd written, you know,
earlier on explaining who we were and what we wanted,

(32:43):
and at the bottom Christina had put her phone number,
and for the rest of the day we jumped every
time Christina got a notification. Of course, it was never him.
That evening we're trying to distract ourselves, were wandering around
trica La. It's very nice, but it's definitely changed since
the Batto Costas brothers were hanging out shooting pool in

(33:05):
the nineties. These days it's a model of urban technology.
There's free public Wi Fi. There's like this bike share
program and a citizen complaint app. Even these atm like
Kiosks where you can print off official documents. And the
city center's got pretty upscale too.

Speaker 4 (33:22):
Have some very hip little bars.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
Yeah, we wanted to visit Sweeter, you know the bar
that Gosta Sammaras used to operate. We found it on
this block of like fancy boutiques and tap ass restaurants.
We were in for a disappointment.

Speaker 7 (33:40):
I don't know if it's going to be open.

Speaker 4 (33:41):
I think it's going to be closed.

Speaker 7 (33:43):
George, Ah, it looks like it's closed.

Speaker 4 (33:48):
Yeah, it's closed.

Speaker 2 (33:50):
Yet another door we couldn't open. Honestly, the whole trip
was starting to feel like a failure. We were planning
to stop buying Nichols's house the next day, just in
case he read our letter, but we didn't really have
high hopes. And then we remembered something Costa Sammarasa told us.
He said, it's always the stubborn people who succeed.

Speaker 7 (34:11):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (34:13):
The next morning we headed back to the Polo Costa's
family home, and even though I knew it was unlikely
that we'd actually meet Nikos, as we got closer, I
started to think, but what if we do? Stressed and scared,

(34:36):
but there's a part of me. That's like, why are
you afraid? It's not logical.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
It's so logical, so long looking and hearing about these guys,
and then yesterday wasn't like I wasn't a warm welcome, So.

Speaker 7 (34:52):
I think it's it makes sense to be a little bit.

Speaker 4 (35:00):
When we talked to the police officers who gave us
this address, they laughed and said, you know, hey, maybe
you're going to see Nikos out in his terrace and
enjoying a coffee. We assumed they were joking, but when
we pulled up, this is exactly what happens.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
Should we drive a little bit?

Speaker 7 (35:16):
Oh fuck me?

Speaker 2 (35:18):
Okay, that is actually.

Speaker 4 (35:21):
It's like three bats.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
There's a woman and what looks like his dad.

Speaker 4 (35:27):
Oh my god, I'm should we just.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
I was not expecting to see him and his mustache.
Oh no, okay, cold cool, cold call a. We're trying
to stay composed. You know, it's not every day you
came face to face with one of the world's most
wanted criminals, especially one who might know where by looks
us is hiding. We park on the street and walk

(35:55):
up to the house and Nichos is, you know, relaxing
on his porch, sitting back, arms outstretch, just leaning against
the wall. He's with this middle aged woman wearing a mask,
and his father is sitting on the balcony nearby.

Speaker 4 (36:08):
Nichos is in his sixties. He's slim but athletic, with
a thick, dark mustache, and unlike his sister, he seems
completely at ease. When we introduce ourselves with something, let
me give a, Nichos has a gentle smile. He's very polite,

(36:31):
in a soft voice. He tells us that yes, he
did read our letter, and while he's still not interested
in talking.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
We tried to push back. We named Costa Sammaras and
we tell Nikosa after our most recent interview some arras
that asks us to give Nikos his phone number so
he could reunite with his old friend.

Speaker 4 (36:52):
So we offer Nikos the artist's phone number, and it's
kind of funny. He just shakes his head to very
and says, if I want to get in touch, I
know how. He smiles again, and although he never looks
angry or even irritated, it's clear that he's done talking.
So we say goodbye and we walk back to the car,

(37:15):
and suddenly we both feel like we kind of understand
the man's mystique.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
But obviously, you know, at the same time, we're pretty disappointed.
After a year of research and reporting, the brothers have
achieved an almost mythological status in our minds. Seeing Nichos
face to face.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
That little smile, I think he's done with.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
He's finished man, He's just enjoying his life. He looks
at the story of Nichols Paalokostas. It's larger than life.
It's one of car chases and prison breaks and you know,
police investigations. But here was the actual person, just like
a normal man doing a normal thing with his family,
having a coffee on the veranda. It's a scene that

(38:05):
goes on in towns and villages across Greece. You know,
every single day you could have been anywhere. He wasn't
an abstraction anymore. He wasn't a mythical folk figure either.

Speaker 1 (38:23):
Over the last year we'd talked to police chiefs and wardens,
villagers and prime ministers. We'd tracked Vasilis's story across the
country and met his mentor, and we'd pinned so much
hope on the fact we'd finally gotten a chance to
meet his brother that we could press our luck and
get him to speak, but it just didn't work out

(38:44):
that way. So in the final weeks of twenty twenty two,
our whole team was writing and editing scripts, trying to
close the chapter on this show. But then on December tenth,
Daphne sends a message to our team's WhatsApp. It's an
article in the Athens Voice. It says that in a
small mountain town west of Trika, La, police had come

(39:07):
across a BMW with no license plates. When they approached
the car, they were greeted with machine gun fire AK
forty seven's to be exact, and then the car sped off,
disappearing into the mountains. After years of no signs of life.
There's one name on everyone's lips. It's Vasili's Paliogostis, and

(39:31):
we realize there's one more reporting trip we need to make.
Niko the Good Thief is a Kaleidoscope production in partnership
with iHeart Podcasts. It's hosted by me Miles Gray. Our
executive producers our Mangesh Htikutor Costaslinos Ozwalishan, and Kate Osborne

(39:55):
from iHeart. Executive producers are Katrina Norvel and Nikki Etor
our partners at the Greek Podcast Project, Our executive producer
Daphne Carnesis, field producers Christina Pilioni and George Miadis, and
sound designer Nicos Scavinitis. Mary Phillips Sandy is our supervising producer.
Shane McKeon is our producer. The show is written in

(40:17):
research by Lucas Riley, fact checking by Donia Suleman, sound
design and mix by Pran Bandy. This episode featured the
voices of Yorgos Caramijos, George I, Valiotis, Nicos Kucas and
Constantinos Pano. Our theme song is by imam Baldi, with
additional music by Botany. Finally, thanks to Will Pearson Connell Byrne,

(40:41):
Bob Pittman and John Marynapolis
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