"Uncatchable”: The Greek Robin Hood

but her her story is the best about it. Um that KFC makes a fule log like a fire log, a Derri flame style log, a Christmas ule log, and it's it's KFC. It's KFC. So um the somebody like I am in the they describe market. KFC is eleven herbs and spices, firelog by and viral loog and um. They describe it as the comforting, crispy aroma of a fried chicken scented firelog wafting from your fireplace fried chicken fire Did you hear those words, people, fired fried chicken firelog? Yeah?

And so I mean you want your whole house to smell like rancid greasy. I don't know so anyway, so Jennifer doesn't smells like a KFC in here. Basically, oh god, your neighbors are just like so. Um, Jennifer got one for her sister for Thanksgiving, and um, she promised us that she would give us an update, and um, it was a big success. Apparently already the update. Yeah, she said that it was a big success. Smells like KFC

and it's kitty approved. She sent a picture of the cat sniffing the box, so we got the cat tax photos. So cats believed it smelled like chicken. Cats believed it smells like chicken. This is just a really cute cat too, by the way. But then she sent us a picture of the box and a picture of it on fire in the firerood. So we have proof. We have absolute proof that it actually exists, because some of these things, like these weird crossovers, but they don't exist. These exist.

You can make your whole house stink like fried chicken. You know, I've got some family I can send it to. Let's let's go around to like vegans houses like we live in the Bay Area, both of us, we have the like you can imagine your neighbors smelling that you burning fried chicken, and like maybe gets so like you'd have on the next door. People will be talking about, like I got in a fight with my neighbor because

they tell me. And it's bad enough, like living in the East Bay, like in the hills and you have the fire danger. People get upset when when their neighbors use a fireplace. And then if you're burned, if you're like barbecues caused fight? What if you have fire pit in your backyard? And yeah, because I've heard, yeah, I've heard people who have vegetarian neighbors upset you had that right, you had a neighborhood didn't like you a grill and chicken super mad about the smell of fried chicken. I'm

trying barbecue chicken. Who hates the smell barbecue chicken. So I think that we should just go around to all the fire pits and swap out the logs for KFC logs. Let's get this party started so good. So that is my contribution this week to what is ridiculous Ho ho ho Happy holidays. Well that's make this a December to remember, Elizabeth. I just hope that this holiday sales event is one that we can all be proud of. Okay, I've got a story for you if you got a second I

do now, my Elizabeth, my partner in crime and storytelling. Today, I'd like to tell you the story of the Greek robin hood. Yeah, this is ridiculous crime, A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers. Heis and cons It's always murder free and ridiculous, now, Elizabeth, Yes, I told you, my man, the Greek robinode will be the focus of today right now. His name is Vasilis Palaeocoustus, right, Vasilus, Paleocoustus, Vassilis, Vasilus. I've heard it both ways, and you may hear me

say it both ways, but be forgiving Pasillis. And he arrived on Earth in nineteen sixty six, right like like a Beatles record. Now, my man, Vasilus. He grew up in the mountains region of central Greece. I'm not sure if you know Greece. Well I do not, know, only the stuff around Athens. And yeah, so this was up closer to Macedonia, in the central mountainous region. Very rural. Son of a goat hurder, you know. So he's a shepherd's boy, raised up in super rural country, living right

family of Shepherd's childhood home, no electricity, cheaper. His primary companions had an older brother, Nicos. Loved Nikos, his brother and he would walk to school every day from their rural home, and in the winter, because it's in the mountains, they would have snow, and when they would walk, Nicos about six seven years older, he would put his little brother, Casillas, up on his shoulders so that way he didn't have to trudge through the snow because it would get like waste.

It's like chesty. Right. When they would get to their school, their school was run by a priest. They get there, the priests would take the boys and put them by the fire and wouldn't start teaching class until they had all thought out like a rural Okay, so that's how this is and this Shepherd life, right, it was fine for Cecilisy wasn't one of the people who like boxed at it. But at the same time, the way it's described sounds a little um like I wouldn't want to

live in. Like there's one quote I found his said, and and I there he watched his father yelling at goats and grew up idolizing his older brother Nikos. You kind of just says it, all right, exactly. So school turns out to be a source of inspiration for young Pacillus, not in the way that you might expect. It has nothing to do with what he learns there. It's not the academia, but rather a teacher, specifically one teacher who gives him a book. And this book that the teacher

gives them is about this guy named and Antonis catch Atonis. Alright, so Antonis catch Atonis. He also was a shepherd, and he grew up to become a clept. Now a clept is a Greek term for thieves. Yeah, I knew you catch on that one. Now that these clips, these bandit thieves.

They were also Greek resistance against the Ottoman Turks who were the occupying force at the time, and they, you know, until basically World War one world War two, Greece was like an Ottoman territory essentially, right, and then during World or two they're under Nazi Germany. Then there there there's a fight with Yugoslavia. Tito wants to take over and he helps the communists try to run. There's this huge civil war. This is all the backdrop of society that

young Vasilius is born into. Right, and his hero is this guy Antonis Catchytonis who starting all of this fighting, was a highwayman bandit, a rogue ish anti hero, right, so he sees this as a kind of like an anarchist struggle. Yeah, ok Right, So, at age thirteen, Vasilius moves from the countryside into town with his family. The town is called Tricola, doesn't really matter, but it's a

little city, right, a little town. So the year at this point is nineteen seventy nine, Okay, and his older brother Nikos has already left home because he's six seven years older, and at this point Vasilius he also wants to leave home. Yeah, so he's like by the time he's about fourteen fifteen, he's like, I'm out of here. He leaves the family. He gets work at a cheese factory. Right. The job is fine, work steady, he doesn't have a problem with it. But this job is the awakening of

his political leanings. Right. He has been a form prior by the Antonist, Cachetonist, the highway bandit, and then now when he's faced with the economic forces of city life, he becomes not militant but a true, true anarchist, not only in theory but in practice. So one of his friends from his time at the Chief factory put it, and I quote, Facilius suffered his bosses capitalist exploitation working as a wage slave in a factory, so he turned

against those bosses. So you get the idea. He's inspired to become a criminal by capitalism, so he goes hard into it. And uh, he also is bothered by the hypocritical nature of the crimes of capitalism mass he sees them. Because Greece up to this point, you know, there's this

hard debate. Do we go left and with communism take care of the community, do we go with individualism and see what you can do in the society on your own, which they decide to go with because the UK and the Americans helped the the non communist win this fight. So the society has gone in the way of individualism.

But there's still this collectivist impulse in Greece, right. So Vacillus aware of an old Greek proverb, and I quote the Greek proverb is, if you steal something small, you are a petty thief, but if you steal millions, you are a gentleman of society. He hates that. He's like that ain't right. So he's like, I'm going to become a gentleman not of society. And he finds his big brother, Nicos, and he's like, you know what, we need to get

to criming and Nicos is like bet. So the two of them they decide, okay, we need to have a couple of ground rules that we're going to do the criming. They decided they don't want to hurt anyone and they want to live for free on someone else's dime. So they become bank robbers, right, pretty much straightforward. Now for the next seven years from ninety six, there are successful robbers who are primarily focused on get this video equipment. Yeah,

they don't start with banks, they don't. There's going after like VCRs saying make cam quarters. It's like yeah, but it's not like professional equipment. No, No, they're holding a lot of value. These are just newly invented, highly desirous pieces of technology. So a VCR increased to go for a lot of exactly. So they're they're Robin Rago's radio

shack and going we can make this work. But you know, for criminal education, just like my man Red Fall come in in many comparisons with this story my dude Vacillas. He turns to the cinema for a further criminal education. Right yeah, and we've talked about this. It's a great way because the filmmakers they thought about it, and they thought and they show you what could go wrong, which

is exactly so still is. He's keen on eighties action movies and he keeps his video rental card Hot Things Popping. He's in there. He's renting Clint Eastwood movies, on Schwarzenegger's movies, Slice to the all the classics of the eighties. At this time, it's big Brother gets popped for a robbery. So he's like, I'm gonna have to do something about this. I can't have Nicos locked up inside. And he turns to his cinematic files of research and he's like, I got it. I know what to do. You gotta sneak

something in there. I don't know if he starts like with the nineteen thirties movies and he's like, okay, I learned from White Heat. I gotta try to sneak in a file. But no, this is what he does. First. He tries to smuggle in knives, then he gets to metal files, then he gets to other tools. They're always being confiscated, stolen by other inmates. Right, it's not working. He tries to smuggle in a grenade, like maybe just

hold this in your hand and walk out. That doesn't want Nicos if he's like giving him all these tools and they get stolen. Everyone else has a file and a knife and Nicos I don't know. He just sorr. He was bigger than so at the eighties day end right to sell us. He's like, this is not working. I gotta get my brother out. So he goes all right, I'm going full eighties action movie. He gets himself a tank and he drinks the tank. This guy is gone

from like I just checked the VCR. I go I stole thank So he steals the tank from like on an army where tanks rus Like, yeah, he could pops down the tanks r us. He's like, how much for the one in the back. I just need to see how it handles on the freeway. Peels out. He gets down to the prison in Tricola and he tries to crash through the prison walls. He just tries to call right, people, this is very heavy handed you you'll be surprised to learn, Elizabeth,

this tank move spectacular failure. Yes, for sure. He gets caught and arrested, tank confiscated, loses take. He's like my by by by refund. So he's imprisoned, but only in jail because apparently that's not like a major crime, trying to break into that jail. They're like, oh, this is cosmetic damage. So he gets out of jail. His brother Nikos is still in prison because you've done some Siah. He'd been robbing back. So there. For years, the Silus

and Nikos have worked out an escape plan. The Silus has been going on and visiting his brother once and he's like, you know what, I went high tech last time. That didn't work. I need to go low tech. I should keep it simple, stupid, right, So he's like, chosen day arrives, he has tells Nicos the plan of what

to do. Nikos knows and when the Chosen day rise, if Asilus goes to their agreed upon spot just outside the prison walls and there he is standing in a snowy spot because it's the wintertime break out when it's more difficult he waits a rope right without like basically ties. I don't know if it's like metal into the rope, rope around the metal. Either way, it's a weighted knot. And he throws that up like the prison walls. There you go, the ball of SULOCKI inside the rope. He

like shot, puts it over the wall. His brother is there, grabs the rope, bells like I got it. Vassilis ties the other into the lamp post, and Nikos just climbs up and over scamps over. It's up boom free. So now and this is a time for them to get back into criming rope rope. This is also when they have a new role model come into the boy's life and they're like, you know, we had Antonus catch Tonis as our first. Now they have a new one. His

nickname is the Artist. His government name is Coustus Somatis, Costas Coustas Somatis. Now these three young ambitious robbers they start a crew and they're like, what's we don't need a name, let's just be the street name is the Artist, the Artist. Yeah, they all have nicknames ahead, so they we'll get to their nicknames for now. His nickname is the Artist. Right. So in June I d two they pull off their first big bank job, and being who

they are, it's cinematic as possible. The robbery takes place in this town called Columbaca, right or Calabaca has you can pronounce it either way. Apparently in central Greece, small town up in the mountains, surrounded by monastery has long been like a hideout for high women and bandits part of the resistance against the Ottomans. So they go out there. They go to this town and they decide, we need

to do our research. We're gonna be serious about this, and Nicos scours the scene using a pair of innoculars. The artist takes out his pen and it goes to pad sketches the town square on scraps of paper, and once they have their town blueprint, it's time to cry. So after this short break, Elizabeth, we'll be back and I will tell you how the Columbaca cinematic robbery goes down. I can't wait. Okay, Elizabeth, where were we We're talking

about columbardist sketching the town. I don't know if I'm scouping something out to I put down the sketch pad Man. I don't need the artistic impression of it. We don't want to have like the cloude monet rendering of the church that we're gonna like an abstract artist. I don't know what these what is this? This is how the city feels. Okay, Elizabeth, I set it up. We're in Calibaka,

central Grecian town, surrounded bay monastery. But they have beautiful, beautiful bank perfect So I would like you close your eyes and picture. Okay. You happen to be in the small town of Calabaca, Greece, and you're there for one very Elizabeth reason. Trains Specifically, Calibaka is the terminal point of the old Thessaly railways, and you want to see some of the old rail cars that they have in the Thessaly railways because it was some of the most

beautiful rail cars in Europe. And you're like, I gotta come see these trains. So you've arrived in Calibaka and you want to go to the old rail yards and you've arranged to talk trains with some of the locals, some of who worked on the trains building them, others

who appointed them. You just can't wait and there You are seated on a park bench waiting to meet somebody later that afternoon, when all of a sudden boom, serious entertainment arrives in your lap in the form of two men driving up in front of the local police station, which you can see from your park bench, and they place a huge industrial oven in front of the door to the cops shop. You're like, that's odd. Things that

in Greece are different than I know. Then you're like, maybe this is like a little yes, it's a peda party. Maybe they orders like they're gonna be cooking stuff later. Anyway, moments later, you hear gunfire. You're like, well, that's interesting, but you don't know it. But little brother Vassilis has hiked up a hill with a rifle and he has

been firing his gun at the police station. The cops inside are convinced that they're under attack, so they attempt to full leave the cop shop, but they can't because of the huge industrial oven in front of the cops shop, and you're watching. You're watching is the cops fight against the door, and You're like, this seems really odd. Why are they trying to run out into the gunfire? What is how danger, am I Now as you sit there on your park bench, sipping your Turkish coffee, asking yourself

these questions. Do you hear the bullets hanging off the cops off and you see them trying to fight through the door, and you're waiting for your fellow train of fish unados and you notice more here and I'm not ducking for cover. There's your momentarily very brave, so you're you're busybodiness takes over for I don't know what happens, and they're not firing at you, so you don't feel like immediately dangerous. So you're sitting there and you spot

this young man Facillus with the rifle. He goes and he meets up with his older brother, who don't notice his older brother. But this guy Nikos, the artist cost is some artists. The three walk into a bank, but you notice from afar that they look clean. They're wearing business suits. They got on sunglasses, like they mean business. That is not how it was in my head before you said they were carrying automatic weaponry like they mean business. So the front door is opened to the bank. They're

kicked open. The vacilla's barks, which I will translate for you it means this is a stick up in Greek. They apparently do only need one word to say this. As you sit there on your park bench waiting for all this to go down, the three men rob a hundred and twenty five million drachmas and they stuffed and stolen loot into duffel bags and they cut You're like, whoa, how much would that be worth today? Good question? Dollars Three push out of the bank, they hop into their

whip and they escape in the stolen outie. You're like, oh, that thing looks super clean, just like their suits. And then you hear sirens approaching. You're wondering, how did the cops get out of the shop. Turns out they went around the back. They got their cars, and now they're gonna go chasing after them. So like, only forgot we have a back door. We should have thought those earlier. So they rushed to their cop cars and they attempt

to chase the robbers. But the robbers, what's again, cinematic ready for them? What have they done? But left spike strips across the road. So when the cops roar past you, they don't get far because they hit those spike strips and tires go flat, and uh, they rolled to an

embarrassing stop. So you're like wave at them. Now the cops, after they've limped to their embarrassing stop, they make their way, you know, out of the cop cars and they watches the Audie stolen Atie disappears out of town, headed for the mountains, and they're like, rank kind of catch them. And before they go, you watch a flurry of Drachmas rain over the town's people like a weather system of

good fortune. It is amazing. Vasilus is tossing bills from the stolen out until the car disappears in the distance, and just like that, Vasillius, Nicos and the Artist they all head into the mountains of central Greece, not to be seen for much time and witness their first big job. And they just sprinkled it on their way out. Yeah, they sprinkled a ton of it. You've got one hell of a story to tell your train. And yeah, they're

not showing up to time. Not after that. So after the spectacular start as a crew, for whatever reason, Facilius and Nikos suicide. You know what, we're gonna quit robbing banks. And they stopped pulling stick up moose. They lay low for years. Some people they speculate the Pasillus he went back to his former career in the cheese industry. Yeah yeah. Their story was he escaped to Bulgaria and started running a cheese factory there. This sounds like I made it

all up. The others claimed that he was working a cheese shop in the Netherlands. But whatever story you hear, the Silus is pushing cheese. I'll tell you one thing I know about the Silla. He's a real cheesemonger. So, just as mysteriously as they disappeared, the Sillus Paleocoustus returns to Criming and I cannot tell you why. He just decides he now's the time. So after he left behind his Bulgarian cheese factory or his Dutch cheese shop or whatever,

who's to say, it doesn't matter which it was. What we do know is that in December, the Silus and his big brother Nikos they get back to work as high women bandits. They're like, we need to get back to the catchytonis lifestyle. Right. So at this point they've also, as I told you, earned nicknames, right. So we had the artist, but We also now have a nickname for Vascilla's He's called Uncatchable and his brother is called the Phantom.

So Uncatchable the Phantom of the Artist are once again reunited as a crew, and they need a pair of wheels. Did the Phantom name himself? No, people call me the Phantom. Who calls you the Phantom? Nobody? But guys, I want you from now on call me the Phantom. I was trying to get myself a nickname like that. I'm like, yeah, I got people call me this, and oh, you want to know, it's embarrassing. But I was like, you know, like I had like a boy's camera and I'm like, yeah,

the people call me dizzy. Go last week, what do you know? Okay, you gonna be okay over there? Joking. I wanted to be an old jazz man alright, So I was like it could have been matter otis I either went soul man or jazz man? Is there really nothing else? Does? He sounds like such a rejected seven Dwarfs were a little kid like, call me dizzy. Are you feeling you fall off the slide? So this is my sister Daffy, and I love it. They called me dizzy and people are like nobody. It didn't work all right.

So anyway, nicos when a window. Sorry, when the Phantom and Uncatchable needed a car, they popped down the mountain and they stole this dude's Niecean And this is like a story from their return to Criming and uh. When they steal the Nissan, they used it to escape because like you know, they go and they robbed somebody and then they have to escape. They then return the Nissan to the man they stole it from, and they actually left a hundred and fifty drachmas underneath like the the

foot well, which is like farnderbox. He's like he goes out and it's gone, my niece on and then like the next thing, he goes out. But not only that they had polished the car for him, they detailed his knees. I thought you'd like that. The villagers of this little town that which was closest to the hide up which where they had been hiding out. Essentially, there was an old lady there that told the local press that she

used to see him all the time. He never said very much, and I quote, but he always had a mischievous smile which seemed to like like that Roague. Now, after hiding up for a few years with Stillisame's brother nicos Ak the Phantom, they come back to the city and it's time for a big payday. You know they've depleted their money. Uncatchable in the Phantom, like, we need to score call the artist right, so back together December.

These are all self declared nicknames. You can't self declare nicknames, and no one on this earth is gonna be like you know what, asked the Phantom, Like that's just the best name for that guy. Phantom get here at five o'clock or six o'clock. I don't know. He's that with the artists. Well, he's uncatchable with him. Yeah, and that one so uncatchable, the Phantom of the Artists. On December fift they decided to make their big move. Now, this

dude named Alexander hid to glow. He was him alex He's on his way to work at the Halva factory that he owned, and he'd already dropped off his kids at the school. No euphemism, the literally dropped off his skill to the school assist a typical work taper. Old Alexander had to glow Now along the way to his Hallva factory, a Toyota rav For raced up next to Alexander's car forces him off the road. He's like, oh, skids to a stop and before he can properly react

to brothers hop out of the Toyota rev For. They grab Alexander, yanked him from his car, nice Mercedes sedan, and they forced the Halva factory owner into the back of their compact suv and the speed off. Right now, what this has been was a kidnapping of one of the leading industrial lists of Greece. Now, as a kidnapping victim, Alexander later recalled and I quote, it was a well thought out kidnapping. My kidnappers behavior was not bad at all.

It was not scared for myself. Actually, I enjoyed some wide ranging discussions with the kidnappers. He was honest, he Wanders. He's a traveler, all right. He's a very busy man. He is an owner, citizen of the earth and industrialist. He has he knows all the corners of this clube. The three men, they discussed business corruption in a sense, they basically talked crime. They're like, what do you know?

I know? Crime? Crime? So weird. So Vasilus would later explain what I remember most vividly from that free lesson is the blunt blackmail attempted by the owners of large supermarket chains. For instance, a prepacketed product with a new label Alexander wished to circulate through a large supermarket chain, he'd have to give its boss large sums of black money just for the product to reach the shelves. The specific amount required dependent on the place display inside the shops.

So he's basically describing the corruption habits and most of the major business interests of Greece. Right now, This shakedown by the supermarket chains at the time considered legal. Now you know, he's like, hey, you want a prime position to my shop? What are you gonna pay? You know this that's mafia talk as far as Vasilius is thinking of it. Say, He's like, you know, we're in the same business. Yeah, you just get people Halibu and I I take it. So the three men they stay at

a mountain hide up for three days. They talk shop, they talk crime, and they get along. They famously have a great time. Right after four days, an exchange of money has arranged. Facilius and Nicos they take the Halva factory owner back to his family. He's been unharmed. They get a one point five million dollars in today's money, told us success and in fact, Alexander he basically gives

his kidnappers a glowing Yelp review. He says, and I quote guys, if only it didn't cost that much, I would very much like to have another adventure with you. He's like, they called me the world pool now and the best part. And by the best part, I mean not the best part at all. Alexander tried to get his ransom money back because for his family to spend the one point five millions, How don't think he tried

to do that, Elizabeth. He sued the government. He's like, let me sue agreed, the government tried to get the taxpayers to pay for his kidnapping. Now, how could you sue the government for being kidnapped? Question? His legal argument was that the Greek government failed him by not rescuing him from his kidnappers, and aig should have to pay and he shouldn't have been kidnapped in the first place because of the economic situation it is. It's the government.

Everything can be traced back. He lost his lawsuit. Yes, And meanwhile Vassilus and Nikos, after the successful job, the brothers decide to split up for a while. They're like, hey, we should lay low, we should people might recognize us. So around the same time, Vasilius goes off and he starts doing his you know Greek robin Hood thing. You know, he's always doing it. But there's a very particular story.

There's an orphan girl he meets, and uh, the story goes, this orphan wished to marry, but she had no family because she's an orphan, and she lived in a very rural place, which means she still needed to have a dowry if she wanted to get married, but she had no one to help over a dowery until Greek robin Hood shows up and being an agent of love and rebellion and chaos, Vassilus he gives the orphan a hundred thousand dropbod, which is enough for her to go and

the two were able to wed. So he's like, here you go. This is just one of many stories of

him doing kinds of things. Right, Like, for instance, there's another one between nine Vasilius is living on the lamb in the mountains, right and uh, he'd be spotted driving like a stolen car through the mountains, and the locals just love seeing them because every time they saw him, he'd be bumping really loud, like Greek guitar tracks out of the open windows and passed like this a fun guy, just like a finger picking Greek flamenco music pouring out

of the windows. And if not, there'll be money coming out of the windows. So in December, in his luck ends and Vassillus is driving near a maximum security prison and he had planned to blow up the prison. He's wearing a disguise at the time. Does he know anyone in this prison? He's trying to get out the art He's like, I got the artists in there, as far as I understand, I'm just like he sees a prison, He's like, let's just blow it. Need to blow that.

Let's let him all out, free everybody. So he's wearing a disguise driving and also he's high, so he's yeah, the reports are he was smoking something. I took that to mean jazz cigarettes. Yeah, I don't think it's pipe or anything. So anyway, he's driving high in disguise, crashes his car right gets into a car accident, various witnesses and onlookers. They phone the authorities because you know, they have nine one one at this point in the nineties.

So Vacillus is injured, he can't escape the car wreck, and he tells the onlookers, don't tell them who I am. I am Vassilus Paleogoustus. It's like, that's not the way to do that. So whoever phones it in they did the exact opposite from what he requests. And so there's this great like quote from the emergency call center operator informing the police that they're headed to the scene of this accident. We got a man here who told uh he must have a head injury. He thinks he's the

most wanted man in Greece. That's like in all the paper reports. Anyway, it turns out he was both the most wanted man in Greece and at end injury. So the cops are rest Vassilus. He stands trial, he's convicted. He gets sentenced to twenty five years bank robberies and the kidnapping of the fat Cat industrialist. The Solous is sent to a prison on the island of Corfu, where he immediately begins to work on an escape plan, but the guards discover his hand made blueprint that he is

once again doing artist style. He's like drawing a blueprint, he figures they guess what he's up to. They tell the warden. Warden's like, don't worry about it, right, So they're like like, well, no, you have to. He's like, okay, fine, transfer him. So they transfer him to an Athens prison. So there he's added Athens prison. He makes a new plan to escape, draws up a new blueprint, just like the artist would want him to this. Somehow he's able to get a metal file snuck into him. He uses

his metal file to start loosening the bar. She's saw him through the bars every day, working a little bit, and uh, he's like being a model prisoner. Everything's to be fine. Now. Turns out he got this metal file snuck into him in a package of spaghetti. I didn't know you could get packages water Amazon order. How does this work? Did they not check packages of spaghetti? How do they away? The guards? They were aware that there was a middle file, and for their own little amusement,

they told the warden about it. Warden's like, oh yeah, let him, let him work on it, so they let him get kidding. They let him try to file his way out, and then the warden for a little bitten mouse game. He goes in every stones off and checks to see how he's doing. He looks to see how far he is, and they trying to estimate when he's gonna get it in the world. The day that he's convinced of silica is gonna get out. He's like, hey, guys, go let's go down in yard and wait for him.

So they go down and wait for miss gets He finally saw us through the last bar, lifts out. He's got a hole, pushes through the hole of his window, drops down and there are a bunch of waiting for him, and the guards start pointing guns out of the Wards like no, no, put the guns downe Hey, you want out of here, You're gonna have to fight me for it. So the two girds. The warden tells him, if you can beat me, I'll let you out of the prison, and the Wards is like, they call me the traffic jam.

Like who's thing call the traffic jam? So the traffic jam he takes on uncatch your bowl uncatchable. He catches a couple to the face and h he gets beat bad by the warden. Right, so the silisa sent back inside and after this short break, I will tell you how he gets back to criming, because he definitely does. All right, Elizabeth, where were we? You were telling me about a bare knuckle fight between a warden and an inmate.

That's right, Greek prison. So my man pasilis Paleocostus. He's been sent from one prison another and he went from car food and I was back in Athens. The warden has been taunting him. He's been beaten up after he tried to escape. He's after he sent back inside, he's given a new cell mate. Turns out the new sellmate will play a big hand in the future of everything he does. His new cellmate's name is al kitt Rose. He is an Albanian hit man. For whatever it's worth,

al kitt Rose. He swears he was no hit man and that he was wrongfully arrested. So the papers all say he was a hit man. He swears he was not a hit man, and that guy just happened to be dead and they call him the Thunderclu. His name was Thunderbunny him. The two men get to know each other in the sale. Just like Jero dreamed of sushi, they dream of escape right and the Stills dreams about calling down quote a missile strike on the prison walls.

He's like, he's still an eighties action movie. And it's like someone will still a helicopter for little do you. It takes the twenty days together before they decide on a plan, and they put it into action on the twenties day together June four, two thousand six, they have contact your brother Nikos, he's their point man on the outside. They have arranged a plan and everything's go. Nicos chartered

a helicopter from a sightseeing company. Tom I just think eighties action movie and they think helico exactly as did they. So Nikos were like, according to the Elizabeth plan, I'm sorry the phantom. Sorry, you're right not to state. As soon as Nicos the phantom is in the air with the sight seeing helicopter pilot, they go up on the charted helicopter. The pilots like, oh, what do you want to see here in Athens? And Nikos pulls out a

gun and goes take me to the prison. He's like, that's not people want to see, Soos Nikos has a grenade just in case the guy tries to get clever. He's like, I got a gun and a grenade to be good for you. So he yanks out the radio so now that the guy can't call the cops, he orders the pilot to fly to the prison. The pilots like, okay, you got the guns. So that's a persuader. I'm doing it. Are the Phantom? Yeah, I got to the phantom. So Mr the Phantom tell me where should I be landing?

And so the phantom tells in the prison exercise yard, and he's like, Okay, it's gonna be difficult, but I can do that. Vasilus and cell mate there in the yard waiting, and they have snapped a lockdown on the gate so that the guards can't chase them. It's like an improvised lock that they've created. They pull out a red Chego Vara flag that he had been on his prison wall. This is why the two of them got along so well. When al Kit sees his new cell mate has a cheg Wavara flag and he's like, oh,

we're gonna get along great. So the two of them, as soon as they got they got spaghetti, they got they got movie nights, so they're like waving the Cheguavara flag on the prison exercise yard. The helicopter lowers enough that the two men can reach the landing skids, but then the prison guards are fully aware this is actually a prison break. This is not like a prison officials coming for an inspection, which is what they think Originally,

They're like, yeah, exactly right. So the guards they point their guns at the men, but then like wait, wait, wait, because they realized the prison is located in the residential neighborhood and all the prison guards know that on the other side of the prison walls are a bunch of neighborhood kids who always kicks soccer balls, and they don't want to shoot the kids, so they're like, let him go. The kids bring upside. The prisons agreed, Yeah, I'll tell

you like that. So they watched the helicopter lift up into the sky, Bye bye, and they're gone after a short flights, and the kids all cheer yeah, pretty much. The chopper lands in the cemetery on the north side of Athens. The pilis hops out, hugs his brother, says wear it right, and they did, and then he attends to the helicopter pilot and he's like, here man, he gives him worry beats and he says, you will be okay.

You guys like, yeah, I'm a little more worried about how much this oh doo's gonna get arrested by the police in on it. He's got, he's got a tough few days in front of him. Anyway, after they give the worry beats to the helicopter and tell me he's okay, here's a chokers, stay hop on stolen dirt bikes and zoom off from room right. Yeah, exactly, scoot alkitt rise, he later recalled, and I quote I will full of drugs and adrenaline. I could barely show on the emotion.

I just sat there stunned. But when we eventually switched in the cars, I drove as fast as I could, knowing that I didn't have to think about prison anymore. It felt like a paradise. He's Russian. Everybody's rushing to it. You know, what, what do you want from me? Everyone's

Russian here in Greece, in the world, everyone's rushing. Increase accent, like I don't know how to do a Greek accent without being just straight up offensive, like I don't want to do anything like I'm just going like a rough slot like it. So he said of their escape, it was a picture perfect or in his words, and forgive the accent. The ultimate aim and a jailbreak is to leave nice and pretty and to say cheers and bravo as you leave, cheers, which is exactly apparently what they did.

They were waiting to get check with horror flags cheers and as they flew away. So Greek Robin Hood is once again free and on the lamb and reunited with his brother Nikos. And so what goes down next for Greek Robin Hood. Well, three months after their daring escape, al kitt Rose gets caught and return into prisons because they're not good at freedom, Elizabeth. And months later, in that same year, two thousand and six, big brother Nicos He is also caught and apprehended by police. He gets

nabbed in after a high speed car chase. Meanwhile, these guys are always in high speed car chase. There's so many high speed car chases, I'm not even gonna tell you about all them. They caught the Phantom but Uncatchable, true to his nickname, stayed free. He and so at this point he's like got a new focus. He's like, I gotta I gotta get my my big my big brother out of prison. And he's also a little bothered because his baby brother, the Phantom, is now known as

the most wanted outlaw in the land. He's like, his nickname is better than mine. I need to do something about this. So big baby brother of the list, he decides, you know, I'm gonna needs some money to break my my brother out. So he goes and he kidnaps another Greek industrialists. You know, go back to what you know there. You can't walk anywhere in Greece without just tripping over shipping magnets. Yeah, is just lousy with magnets and industrialists.

So June nine and eight, he and two men they kidnapped George Milonas and he's an aluminum magnet, so mixing it up, So he grabbed a gun point by the silus and two men wearing hoods arm with shot guns, which is always a good look. Two weeks later, the fat cat Industrious gets released once again unharmed, after his family paid how much nineteen million dollars American in ransom today's dollars, by the way, because what was at one

point one point five first good memory. Now, the police tracked the ransom money because it had been marked and they were able to locate the hideout of the Scillus. So two months after the kidnapping in August, as he's laying about his mountain hide out with an anarchist friend watching a DVD of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and the Anti Terror yea truly, the anti terrorism squad busted into the door and arrested Huge exactly. Fails Is

re arrested and returned to prison. For some reason, the Greene authorities, they decided to put the Sillus and his old cell mate, I'll kit Ris back together in the same cell. Like that's like yeah, like they're saving space. We're like, well, we already have the number system work, yeah, exactly. So as they prepare for their new trial, he and

al Kitt they prepare a new escape plan. Let's go back to what we know, get out the sketch pad outside of the court for his new trial and Athens, the local villagers come in from all those surrounding towns that he's been like basically hiding out in and they come into the city and they gathered to protest his arrest. There's a group of rural farmers and along with them

are urban anarchists. And then it also swelling into this crowd or peasants and shepherds who were all shouting death through the pigs, freedom, the paleocaustus, death, the pigs fed exactly goats in the streets. People are there, but they're buying in protests. So at one point during all this media circus trial, alcott Ri's girlfriend swans into the courtroom. She makes a big scene. Everyone's like, oh, look at her. She's so dramatic and beautiful, and she's allowed to hug

her incarcerated boyfriend. I don't know how this play is out in Greece, but she uses the opportunity to slip something in his pocket. It's a watch with a tiny radio. Oh my god. Scond two thousand nine, Alcott's girlfriend phones him on this little dick Tracy prison watched and she

lets him know, baby, it's on. And so Alkett and Vassilis were led out into the prison yard for their daily exercise, and around the size of the palm of his hand he's got and so thirty three forty five in the afternoon, a helicopter is spotted approaching the prison.

The helicopter is yet another hijacked chopper, and this time it's Alcott's girlfriend who's holding the automatic rifle, and Nko says instead of Nikos, it's this time it's Alcott's girlfriend and she's kidnapped to pilot at gun point and forced him to fly to the prison yard. She pulls on the gun on the pilot and tells him we're going to pick up the kids. Cordilo's prison. When you die, always with the kids, dropping kids off, picking kids up. And by the way, they call me the specter. No

they don't, they don't. You do so he the pilot does as instructed. The chopper arrives at the desired landing zone. Helicopter hovered over the prison yard, the rope ladders tossed down the side, and his girlfriend brandishing a machine gun, provides cover for the two men as they climb the rope ladder. This time there's no kids playing soccer and other side of the prison wall, so the guards open fire.

The two get in like an open gunfight, and she's gunning from the open helicopter doors like it's a Vietnam War movie. Guys are climbing and just scrambling as fast as they can up this rope ladder and uh, they managed to basically tell him we're on the ladder, take off and she turns. The guy left off and he does, and they take off and managed to escape. And they're just dangling on the rope ladder. Yeah. We At one point the prison guard tries to grab al Catt. He

sees he's reaching for the ladder. Alcat turns and he's got a kebab skewer in his hand. Topic right now, that's not like an offensive. The pilot obligern And by the way, all this is on YouTube if you want to now the prison cards. After they had unloaded their clips in the under side of this helicopter, they pierced the gas tank, they severed the fuel line. This helicopter is not making but it does make it to the side of a highway in the suburbs of Athens where

they land. The pilot is fine, he's left bounding, gagged and hooded. Vasilus Alquette and his girl, they all they're gone like the wind. Yeah. So the Greek news interrupts all the daily soap propers with the brand news of the daring prison escape of Acoustus. This is the beginning of the largest man hunt in Greek history. Now a month later, two men and a woman storm into a bank in the hometown of Vacillus and rob it. The robbers are reported to be quote the fugitive Vassilus Paleocoustus

alquet Rose and their female accomplice, a blonde Laura Croft. No, that's how they described in the press. All three escape unharmed and with a small fortune. But not long after that Alquette and his girlfriend they get nabbed by the Greek police, like we've got the specter Like these two,

there's just too foxy, unstatchable. True to his nickname, he stays free on the lamb, and he gets spotted by rural villagers who they say they always notice him in the VW Torres Apparently he just likes stealing torregs, so he would like steal torreg get some cash in his hand and go for a drive, just throw money as he was driving around, listening to get like Greek guitar. And also there's another All these tales of his acts of charity. But there's one I thought you would like

as his poor family. Right, it's the middle of the night and they hear a knock at their door, and when they open it, all they find waiting for them is an envelope. Inside the envelope is ten thousand euros, the exact amount of money they need for medical treatment for the father whom the whole family depended on. So he just comes in basically drops off the money, and he isn't even there for them to say, how does he find these things out? Is just like windows at night, Yes,

just like that. He gathers at the window. He's got a big earhorns in now. He basically as an underground guy. He keeps his his ear to the wind, and when he hears some of these things, he's like, m I

can go do something about this. So stories like this proliferate through the mountains of grease, and everybody's always hoping that the Greek robin Hood will be so kind as to roll into their town with his his Greek music coming out of the windows, and people start planting like stories like you know, I really just need twenty thousand euros and then I'll have my dream of getting a new fake leg. You don't have a well, like if

I had to have, let's just say I need one. Yes, a Greek queen for a day has become like the thing, right, everyone's like all these sob stories, but the still us, you know, and he's not spotting his toy egg listening to his Greek guitar pick music. The authorities are convinced that they can't find him because he must have had cosmetic surgery, which turns out he had. He had had multiple cosmetic surgeries, and it works. It allows him to stay free and he remains so to this day. Do

you think he looks like one of the Real Housewives? Now, probably got that immovable math. He's got that special new face that all of those people have. Yeah, the cheek bones and the west side of that. He just looks like Santa Monica. Everyone keep your eyes open. Now. There have been numerous run ins with him, most notably, he still loves movies, so his love of video rental stores almost cost him his freedom. In two thousand nine, he

left his hide out to go rent some movies. He went down to the pop down to the video rental store, and there's a team of fifteen undercover police who had set up a sting operation because they are aware of his video rental habit. And they were just waiting there and like he's got to return, just waiting to hear the music coming down the hill exactly. They hear the Greek guitar music. So before he gets out of his stolen tareg, he spots the cops and the Highwayman bandit.

He gives the cops to the eye. The cops give him the eye, and at one point they've now they've cornered the most wanted man in Greece. And Vacillus would later recount and I quote, so I lead to the rip, I sped down an alley to escape, and bullets were dancing inside my car's cabin. These guys opened fire and shot more than a hundred fifty bullets in fifteen seconds. He's like that nothing, This just a Tuesday for men. So he he's telling this story because he survived and

he didn't fire back. I'll tell you that in a second, okay, yeah, because I'm like, how are we okay? So he survives. At my point, they yeah, and he didn't fire back. So he gets always fifteen cops, fire and whatever due because all of these years as a bandit, he never once used a gun. He was very much against hurting, and that his original code he came up with. So he escapes that day and he remains on the lamb,

occasually robbing banks and then disappearing into the mountains. He calls home and this has just been what he's been doing. And now clearly you can tell I like the Greek robin Hood. He's my dude. And because mostly I think this is my favorite part about him, the Greek robin Hood. His existence implies the existence of like the Greenland robin Hood and the zimbabwe and robin Hood. Robin we need all the robin hoods we can get. I want to go to the convention. So it was a quick question.

Although he's not currently in prison, as I find it out, the stillis did spend plenty of time inside. So what does that mean for his career aspects? No, it's actually very good in one particular field, entrepreneur. He's now a qualified author, is wow the publishing world with his memoirs on the run, and he writes me and it's a best seller hit. Of course that one allow me a

review of the memoir, Autobiography and Quote. In its pages, you can find explanations about the correct choice of a hostage for ransom, no women or children, the most important thing in planning an escape from prison to have someone willing to sacrifice his life for you, and warnings about the many obstacles that stand in the way of those

who choose illegality as a way of life. Now, there's one other passage in the review that kind of highlights all of his many little side quests that he went on that I didn't have time to cover in this, but it kind of gives you an idea what he was doing when I said he was on the lamb and I quote. One of the most beautiful chapters in the book, however, takes place away from Greece and from

all of the Silus's illegal entanglements. In the early nineteen nineties, when the authorities dropped a series of robbery cases on him, Paliocostus was in the midst of a long bicycle trip with a fake Brazilian passport and a friend. The journey, which began in Germany and ended in China, provides the reader with a magical moment of the rest from the stressful life in the shadow of Illegalism. Wow, he rode on a bike trip from China with a fake Brazilian buddy.

As you're getting ready to read that, I'm thinking, like writers across the globe, heave a heavy sigh of another. But this guy sounds he's got a story. Okay, he's learned the book deal and okay, And in case you want to know, like, what is his writing voice sound like? There was a translated version of his book In case you wanted to read Elizabeth. It's available on Amazon also other fine booksellers who don't want support a corporate giant.

Basilis writes about his criminal ethos as the Greek robin head and a quote, my conscience prohibits me from selling guns, protection of small businesses, drugs. They also forbid me from entering a house to steal, to kill an old lady, to become a snitch, to cooperate with a cop of politician. What do they allow me? Only bank robberies, abducting a rich people, and being part of a revolution towards a more just world. That's his story. That's what I think

my conscience allows me to do. Being Yeah, I'll take someone and make them think they're not going to live. Well, No, he never, he never does that. He lets them know, look, I'm only here for the cash. You're worth this moment. Why wouldn't they just walk off? There has to be some threat to their life. There's a threat to they can't escape, like you know, like if I've staying you up, I don't need to tell you I'm going to kill you. I can just tell you good luck getting away from

the chains, right, But what if I do? Then? What are you gonna just let me walk off? Then I've lost my prey and I'm better go get another fat cat. There's implicit violence in that. There can be, but there's not a nest is sary violence you can do this with just like look, hey, sit down, relaxed, watch some TV. I'm gonna bring you some microwave dinners and we're gonna

talk about supermarkets. What well, as I said before, vasiliuskali Acostus is still out there robbing banks for a more just world there And if you hear this, hit us up, Pasilus, because we'd love to have you come on the show and be the first guest for our ridiculous crime book club. That would be amazing. Well, Elizabeth, it's a ridiculous takeaway for this one. Um, you know what, I don't ever make your own nicknames. You're making fun of me my

ridiculous takeaway. Once again, thank you for asking. It is simple. Look, if you don't hurt anyone, I'm probably gonna root for you over the fat cat industrialists every time, especially once you're engaging crimes of their own, like the dude with the corruption and the and the supermarket everybody, right, and definitely I'm going to root for the Greek robin hood over the kinds of villains who say, you know what, I got a and some I'm gonna make all the

taxpayers pay. I mean like that to me is just as whack as somebody going in and robbing a bank. In fact, it's worse. Well, ordinary people, we get screwed over all day every day, so you know, sometimes you got to get your on back. I guess yeah. And also, I mean, how can you not root for a Greek robin hood nicknamed Uncatchable who bumps guitar music from the windows of stolen cars as he tells his money out the window. They call him. That's all I got for you,

beaut Well. You can find us online a Ridiculous Trauma about Twitter and Instagram. Twitters for the updates, the dump stuff, the shout outs, interactions Instagram. That's where we put the photos for each episode, and also we give peaks at the shows to come. The stories offer you some laughs and uh yeah, you can speak pick some both, but either way, if you'd like to contact us, you can tweet at us or email us if you want a

Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zoan Burnett, produced and edited by the Providence Robin Hood Dave Houston. Researches by Rogue Bandit of the Archives Marissa Brown. Our theme song is by the artist Thomas Lee and the fingerpicking guitar man Travis Dutton. Executive producers are Ben It's all Greek to Me Boland and No I'm a Creek on a leash Crowd We Die say It one more time

We Dequeous Crew. Ridiculous Crime is a production of I Heeart Radio four more podcasts, my Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,