The Underworld Podcast - The Uncatchable Outlaw: Greece’s Helicopter-Riding Robin Hood

Episode Date: May 5, 2026

Vassilis Paleokostas, and his big brother Nikos, grew up shoeless in a Greek mountain village. When the boys moved to a city, they discovered a talent for robbery — and honed it with a mysterious criminal known locally as The Artist. Before long, the trio were pulling off some of the most daring heists in European history. At a volatile time of financial crashes, leftwing guerrillas and political corruption, the brothers dove into a new gig: kidnapping billionaire business magnates. What confounded cops the most was how Vassilis Paleokostas distributed his loot among the poor, and how the Greek people loved him for it. If authorities did catch up with the country’s Robin Hood, there wasn’t a prison in the land that could hold him for long. Cue decades of capers that could keep a Hollywood writers’ room busy for months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It's a new work day. The 2026 Chevrolet Tracks is the stylish SUV for those on the move. And with the standard Chevy safety assist package, you have the backup to handle every turn with confidence. The 26 tracks, start your build at Chevrolet.ca. June 4th, 2006, 6.15 p.m. Athens, Greece. A pilot, surname Caracas, is firing up the rotors of his white twin-engine helicopter for a trip over the rooftops of the ancient city. Caracas used to fly for the Greek military, knows his stuff, but nothing has trained in for the chaos that will erupt, barely five minutes into this early evening journey. Caracas, his eyes on the skies, feels something cold and hard pressed against his neck, is the barrel of a pistol.

Holding it is a shortish man, wide shoulders, with a head of shaved, balding hair, and a cold metallic stare. Sight scenes over, the passenger tells Caracus. I'm Nikos Paliocostus, and you're going to spring my brother out of prison. Caracas doesn't flinch. He breaks course and moments later, the chopper is closing in on Cori-Dales prison. Greece is Alcatraz, a maximum security joint home to murderers, terrorists, war criminals, and, for almost six years, Vasilis PalioCostas. Nikos's brother, bainc, robber extraordinaire, criminal mastermind, a rugged boy from Thessaly

in Greece's mountainous north, who steals from the rich, they say on the streets, to give to the poor. Public enemy number one, a man who, if Caracas does his job right, is about to be set free. Nikos Palio Costas keeps his gun trained on the helicopter's pilot. He pondered hiring his own man for the job, but, he reckoned, a scared helmsman would be easier to manipulate. He's right. Caracas slows the helicopter as he approaches the prison and then touches down in its courtyard, kicking up great plumes, of dust into the air. At first, prison guards assume they were getting a VIP visit, a politician perhaps, or a local celebrity. But as the chopper's wheels hit the deck, Caracas cries out. They've

got grenades, they've got explosives. The guards draw their weapons, but it's too late. Vassalus Paliocostas and his cellmate, a spryor 31-year-old Albanian, sprint towards the helicopter and haul themselves on board. Katicus, the gun still at his throat, pulls up. The guards take aim. But Corrie Dallas sits on a residential street, surrounded by homes, orange trees and kids playing soccer. A single stray bullet could turn a prison break into a bloodbath. All the guards can do is watch the country's most notorious criminal take a hop and a skip into the co-bought sun-down sky. A few minutes later, the chopper touches down in a sleepy village north of Athens. We made it, says Vassalus, hugging his big brother.

Then Vassalus turns to catechus and hands him a string of worry beads. Take these, he tells the pilot. I don't need them anymore. Then he, Nikos and the Albanian hop on a pair of pre-pilford motorcycles and ride away, on the long road north to Fessaly, far, far from Athens, and the corrupt politicians these outlaws have vowed to embarrass. And embarrassed them, the paleocostas most certainly had. The most incredible thing?

This isn't even the first time Vassilus has been sprung from prison. And it won't be the last. In fact, it won't even be the final time he had faced justice. in the passenger seat of a helicopter, all in a day's work, for a man whose legend has by this point wrung out far beyond the Balkan mountains of his birth, beyond even Athens, and the cops and political leaders who vowed to bring him down, a man whose topsy-turvy, seesaw-life movie producers are already eyeing with greed, and who most of his Greek compatriots know by a nickname capers like today's have done little to dispel. Vasilis paleoacostas is the Greek Robin Hood,

and his life of marauding mayhem is far from over. Welcome to the Underworld podcast. Hello and welcome to the weekly crime podcast that strives for sources and objective storytelling, even while those around us speculate and fling conspiratorial mud at the war and get way more popular. I am Sean Williams by no means cynical reporter based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and I am joined today by Danny Gold, New York's least cynical man.

Someone pulling me close to the ground, Danny, you know what I mean? Although in my case, it's just industrial quantities of steak and ice cream. Yeah, I've been making Sean watch a 90s, New York, gangster flicks, crime flex, and it appears he finally watched Carlyle's Way. So, well done on that. Please keep quoting it, and now you've got to listen to Reasonable Doubt and watch King of New York, and we'll be on a level. There are upsides to a 10-hour overnight bus in Bolivia and watching Al Pacino do.

This thing is one of them. Anyway, some housekeeping. We post now. We're up on all the socials. Find us there. Give us a follow. Bonus shows, notes, at patreon.com, the underworld podcast, tips, story ideas, corrections to the underworldpodcast at gmail.com. And check out our merch, underworldpod.com.

Who knows, you might even look as cool as one of us to. Or my dog, who's joining us for today's report. called. If you follow us online, you will have seen me doing my best impression of an influencer around Bolivia, where I was just on a couple of assignments, one of which is going to be coming up here very soon. Great to get a message from Facebook, by the way, telling a middle-age magazine writer to post quote, more 33 to 45-second videos. Yeah, please read books, but also watch our shorts. Yeah, Sean was posting those on the Facebook. We don't have anything coordinated, so I didn't put it on the Instagram or the person does their YouTube didn't put it on that.

but yeah, we do it. And it's demeaning, but, you know, that's what it is, right? We need to do this. Speaking of demeaning, should we capitalize on some streamer nonsense, Sean? I feel like we maybe should. Sean's favorite guru, clavicular, is that clavicle clavicle? I've actually never heard someone say it all that. It's apparently hanging out with a member of the Abrageal family, which if you listen to our Israeli

mafia episode is a Moroccan Israeli organized crime group. that gets around. I actually spoke with a friend of the pod, Ben Hartman, who said he was our guest on that episode, who said that this particular guy had falling out with the Abrajeels and was threatened and extorted by them

that hasn't stopped him from threatening and extorting people in America, allegedly, I think. Maybe guilty? Maybe guilty. I don't know. I didn't look too much into it. But he's such a dynamo, I guess,

that Israel's version of Salinga Alive had a character based on him specifically. That was like just, you know, shiny shirt wearing, like really flamboyant, just like out there in the public eye sort of guy. But yeah, excited to see how that transpires and what happens to a clavicular. Yeah, I thought he was kind of circling the sinkhole that a lot of guys in that world kind of circle. But yeah, maybe he's not if he's with an Israeli, a nice criminal figure. Moroccan is really, he's a very progressive.

Okay, okay. Yeah, he actually took a lot of his notes from my chin, which you can't see right now, but I've been chewing a lot of gum in anxiety. Anyway, now to Greece, which is a phrase I said a lot in my 20s, most nailed on great holiday destination in the world, rode a garbage truck at 5 a.m. when Greece won the 2004 euros goes about saying that was a pretty good night. And if you like Greece, boy, is this episode Greek? We've got Tahini Magnate kidnappings, anarchist gorillas. I'm sure at some point there's like a guy sitting on a chair smoking a roll-up telling folks the dog's going to take a few days. What I'm saying is I'm a little bit tired of Nazis and mass murder in the world going to the dogs.

So we need a caper and I promise you you're about to get one. Yeah, I really like the tiny fried fish they have over there, my favorite, you know? Tiny fried fish. If only the tiny fried fish guys and the tiny fried pepper guys could get together, I guess that basically is Italy though. But anyway, today's episode, it does not bring in in the Greece of the tiny fried fishes that you might know from your holidays on the islands of Ionia or among the ancient ruins of Attica. Our story kicks off in Thessaly, northern Greece, in the Balkans, where forested mountains meet the borders Albania, Macedonia, sorry, North Macedonia, that will come up again, and Bulgaria. And it is here in the tiny farming village of Moschafito in 1966 that a boy is born who will become the Greek Robin Hood.

Yes, that's right, boys and girls. Robin Hood is finally getting the Great EA 24 treatment. You've got to do the goofy Men in Tights Hollywood version before you get the 4K tormented anti-hero Hugh Jackman remake. So the clock's ticking on Mighty Supreme starring Tom Hardy. Did you just put in like something about make cultural references? into like slop AI and get the sentence out. I mean, how else do you think I make any cultural references past like 2008? Yeah.

Quick pop quiz. Before we move on, how many episodes of this show do you think we've said the phrase Robin Hood, Danny? 47. Okay, okay. Well, that's unfortunate that you went over the top. It's 28, which is, yeah, it's way fewer than I thought too, but it's still one of the most overused, hackney cliches and organized crime, which is why you're listening to this show right now.

Escobar building schools, the Yakuza building schools, the triads building, yeah, schools. 99% of the time is a cheap PR trick to get the proles on side while you build a violent empire of crime, and it works sometimes. But today's protagonist, Vassilis Palio Costas, might just be the closest thing we've covered to an actual Robin Hood figure. Or is he? Let's find out. I feel like that's the arrested development thing. It hasn't worked ever at all, but it could work for us. First, big shout out to two sources. The first is a BBC featured by a friend of mine Jeff Mation in 2010. The other is a 2023 podcast series called The Good Thief.

Plus, of course, plenty of local Greek stories and parts of 2021 autobiography by Vassalus Paliochostas himself called a normal life, which, as you'd have guessed from the cold open alone, it's a joke. It's a funny Greek joke. So, like I said, Moschafito, this little place, is hardly the most happening of Greek mountain villages. The Paleocostus brood, and there are five of them, they grow up poor and literally shoeless. From a young age, Vasilis idolizes his big brother Nicos. When it snows hard, Nicos picks his little brother up and hauls in for miles and is back to school, where the priest thaws Vassilus out in front of a stove before classes begin.

The young boy, quote, may have been a thief but never a criminal, the priest later. says. And this distinction is important. Northern Greece has a long, proud history of banditry going back hundreds of years. In the 15th century, the region was famous for its so-called clefts, highwaymen and anti-Ottoman insurgents at a time when Thessaly was ruled from Constantinople, which is modern-day in Istanbul, as you'll know from the song. These guys are where we get the words kleptomaniac and kleptocracy from, and they're credited with winning Greek independence in 1832. most famous cleft of them all is Antonis Katsandonis, an 18th century rebel from a town not far from

Mostraffito, captured and executed in public with a sledgehammer. Jesus, they really liked to send a message back then, didn't they? They did, just like the Wagner group. Yeah, pretty nuts, hey. Katzandonis is a Greek martyr, a national hero. So it's little wonder modern-day mountain folks see the Paleo Costa's brothers as incarnations of him, freedom fighters, even if the full picture isn't quite so. clear. In 1979, Nikos and Vasili's father bags a job selling lottery tickets and moves the family

50 miles away to Trichala, one of Thessaly's biggest cities. It's hardly Athens this place, but neither are the boys lugging wood barefoot to a mounting cabin. Nikos, 19 at this point, heads off to the coast to find works on the docks. Meanwhile, Vasilius, 13, quieter and introverted, gets a job at a local cheese factory. It's at this factory, standing on the production line day after day, that the boy develops a deep resentment for capitalism, and Greece is rich and powerful. Their stock rising while regular citizens' wages stagnate.

One afternoon, Vassalus walks out of the factory and never returns. Says a friend, quote, Vassalus suffered his boss's capitalist exploitation, working as a wage slave in a factory. So he turned against those bosses. You know, I just, I don't, a Greek guy working hard, this whole thing sounds embellished. And that is just the first of many set references in this episode. Life Intracolor offers his vassalists access not just to shoes, but to movies.

And he grows obsessed with American titles, Rocky, Conan, Escape from Alcatraz, where the little guy comes good against a powerful oppressor. What is best in life, Sean? Uh-oh. Oh, no. That's a film reference, isn't it? And I haven't got it. Conan, dude. You never see. Oh, you probably know. It's fun. I've never seen Conan. Okay, Conan's on the list. Conan is an insane move. Like, you can tell how much cocaine people did in the 80s by watching a movie like Conan or even, you know, throw in the others weird science, whatever you want to talk about. But Conan is definitely like, I think it's the 80s. It might have been the 70s. But either way, the people who made Conan were on so much cocaine and it is a great watch. Okay, is it acceptable for a child because I am parenting so long this weekend.

So maybe. No. Did I tell you, I wanted my nephew when we were away over spring break, I wanted to, I was like trying to get him to do, you know, he's like turning 11. I was like, I'm going to have you watch your first rated, your first rated our movie. And I chose the town. And not a good idea. R for a reason, definitely not a good movie for the 10 year old going on 11. and also sex scenes in the beginning.

That was uncomfortable. Yeah, okay, that was a bad choice. I remember like the age of ten I watched. Great movie though. Halloween at some like the hot girl in our classes house. Yeah, you did. I got really scared, hitting the toilet. And I think I might have peed my pants as well and I was 10 years old.

So yeah, anyway, there's a bit of myth making. More lore. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear to me. Yeah. I didn't get to kiss her. on lips or the cheek or anything after that. Anyway, before long, oh yeah, this Greek episode,

right, before long, the two Paleocostas brothers, they don't pee their pants actually, but they do embark on a spree of small-time thefts, mostly of then-priced video recorders across Tricula and the surrounding area. Between 1979 and 1986, the Paloacostas brothers are allegedly responsible for 27 such crimes, but they're just small-time crooks, small fish in a pretty small pond. That is until one night at the Trichala Paul Club, I mean, Paul Billiards, not the kinds of spots. Danny thinks I spent my weekends out in Berlin. Nikos strikes up a conversation with a guy named Costa Samaris, aka the artist. Speaking of jokes about what you do, the steps on one. I've never, we've never gotten as many responses about people just so thrilled about, I mean,

I learned a lot about our audience. Filthy, filthy our listeners. But yeah, no. never got in, I think more responses about that particular comment than responses about other stuff combined for that episode. It was a good episode. I'm truly, truly confused about this whole thing. Let's move on. Let's move on. Let's move on. Let's be laughed with or laughed at. Yeah. Okay. All right. Anyway, as a young boy, Samaras's family had always been on the move. And this is one of the reasons he ends up a different breed of criminal, right? Samaras would disappear into his own world with art. He's started.

designer college dabbled in cubist painting and played drums in a band, so nickname is well earned. But that's not the only reason for the name. Samaras enjoys, I mean, he really, really loves stealing stuff. At first he deals in stolen books and LPs, inventing a compartment to conceal vinyl in his jacket. Samaras paints by day, jams with his bandmates by night, and slinks off to carry out some wee hours break-ins. When cops inevitably catch up with him, Samaras employs his skills behind bars. At one point, says a prison warden, quote, I remember once he made some wooden pistols in woodwork class to try to escape.

They were so real you could load them. Batteries. The artist took the plastic covers off two batteries and loaded them in the chambers. When poked in a guard's face, they would look just like two bullets. Samaras even breaks out of prison one time by cutting a hole and hiding in a sewer, Andy Dufrein-style. On another occasion, he chisels a hold in a prison truck. and then tucks and rolls while it's moving.

I'm just going to say, if you do do woodworking class in prison, you could probably notice the guy who's whittling a pistol, right? Like when I went to church club, when I was a kid, and basically all we did was we were supposed to make crucifixes, but we just made them into swords and smashed the shit out of each other. Was that something that people did? I don't know. It was just my cool upbringing.

Oh, God, we really are getting into some sad shit in this episode. Anyway, Samaras is several cuts. across the Paleocosta's brothers and their petty escapades. Nonetheless, when he spots Nikos at the pool bar, Samarass senses an outlaw spirit in the young man. Nicos introduces Samaras to Vassilis, and Samaras teaches the brothers how to pick locks and hot wire cars. Sometime in the late 1980s, the trio pull off their first major heist in Tricolor.

Vassilis climbs to the top of the hill and fires a rifle. That starts cops at a nearby station out of their desks. but the brothers have placed a huge industrial oven over the station door. By the time the cops have busted it out of the way, the brothers are making off with a ton of jewelry from a neighbouring store. Says Demetrius Gravannis, Tricola's top, plainclothes cop, quote, when we finally got to our cars,

they had left spikes in the road that punctured our tires. From that moment, it became my ambition to see those boys in jail. This is like so much of this episode is basically Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny, right? Gravannis grows obsessed with the trio of Samaras and the paleoacosta's brothers. I would work long nights on the case, and when I got home at 7.30 a.m., my wife was just going to work. But the thing that makes Vassalus in particular impossible to catch is that he spreads his loot among the poor. As Gravarnis, quote, he would say to a farmer, kill a pig for me to eat, and instead of paying 10 drachmas, he would leave 1,000. I mean, you tell me what 1,000 drachma is in the 1980s.

The point is, this guy walks the walk when it comes to the Robin Hood stuff. There are countless stories of indishing out cash to the poor or doing strangely chivalrous things like stealing cars, then returning them with sorry notes, which I guess it's best not to steal the car in the first place, but between this and the daring heists and escapes that rattle all the way through the 1980s, the Paleocostus brothers craft this image of gentleman burglars rather than common criminals, believing in something they call the, quote, ethical robbery. Writes for Sillis in his biography, quote, Between the crocodile and the eagle lies the abyss. Yeah, like strapping. Predators,

yet no song has ever been written about crocodile. It is a matter of ascetics and grace. How can a poet be inspired by a carnivore that lies in murky waters waiting for its prey? And, as he adds, there is a difference between a criminal and an outlaw. See, they're taking on the legend of Antoninus Katzandonis, basically. And they've got impeccable timing. See, Greece joins the European Union in 1981 and goes for a long period of inflation and job losses. All the while, it's richest oligarchs that continues to get wildly rich, especially those in the food and logistics businesses. It's got to be shipping, right?

I feel like there's thousands of Greek shipping billionaires out there. There are. Yeah. And one of them is going to come rebounding back into this show a bit further down. But yeah, as you can imagine with a country full of islands, the shipping stuff is massive. Piraeus, the Athens port, I think it's one of the biggest in the world, or maybe I'm getting that wrong, but it's a huge place. Really cool to go on a night out as well. Anyway, the country even has its own version of the Baer, the Meinhauf gang, the 17th, the November organization.

These are Marxist guerrillas running around Greece, bombing and murdering cops, corporate fat cats, and American military staff. Amid all of this mayhem, regular Greeks see their. lives get materially worse. And despite the attempts of 17th of November, the rich get away with all kinds of corruption and political shenanigans. People are desperate for stories like the paleocostas to show that there are at least tiny slithers of what you might call justice in the world. Says one former associate quote, criminal snatched purses from old ladies. Facilus was on a different level. He is a socially accepted bandit and a hero. For a while, the brothers go on a untouched. But in 1989, cops arrest Nicos. Vassilus visits his older brother behind bars

who tells him to reach out to Samaras. The trio hatch an escape plan. And not just any old escape plan, Vassalus will steal a tank, yes, a tank, and drive it right through the walls of his brother's cell in Larissa, which is the biggest city in Thessaly. However, cops discover the plot. In April 1990, they arrest Vassalus too. just drive a tank though i mean you can maybe learn off youtube these days but it's it's not easy it's like a challenging thing to do i would assume yeah this time uh in world history i think you just got to leave that to albanians being run by pyramid schemes but uh yeah albanians too are going to play a role in this show guys working outside in the springtime it means you're dealing with chilly mornings hot afternoons

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E. R.ke. As a cherry on top of his case, the cops slap a ton of robbery charges on Vassalus that he knows he never did. And actually, he's confident he can beat the case in court. But this is not a guy happy to win or lose his freedom on book smarts. writes Vassalist in a normal life quote, I had a sacred duty to follow my personal instinct concerning my own freedom, which was the cornerstone of my moral and conscientious existence.

I wish to remain free. Vassilus spends his pre-trial detention in a port city called Chalkidas, not far from Athens. Nine months in, in January 1991, he carries out the most cliché jailbreak possible, stringing a bunch of bed sheets end-to-end and uses them to scale the walls. Nicos manages his own escape, and the brothers continue on their merry way. I mean, this whole episode is not a very good advertisement for the Greek legal system. Just as before, the tools police would normally use to capture serial robbers, to catch them spending lavishly, for example, or renting out seafront apartments,

they do not apply. The paleocostas is lived frugally, hopping from bed sit to bed sit, paying off poor locals and using fancy cars only when getting away from the scene of one of their crimes. By the summer of 1992, the brothers and Samaras are camped out in Meteora, a collection of Orthodox monasteries perched on top of a serial. series of rock pillars. And they've settled on their most daring raid yet, on a bank in the town of Kalambaka, which sits at the foot of Meteorus promontories. Nicos is peering through his binoculars relaying the layout of the town below to the artist, who's making sketches on

scrap of paper. They're keen not only to rob the bank of a ton of money, but to make the Greek police, their enemies, look as dumb as possible. By June that year, the trio are ready. They descend meteorura into Kalambaka, dressing suits and sunglasses and armed with automatic weapons. Samara splits off to blockade the cop's path to the bank with a stolen truck. Then, as the Palio Costas brothers stroll into the bank, Vasides cries out. Lister, Greek four, stick up. A cashier presses the sign at the alarm and then opens the safe at gunpoint. Inside is more money than even the brothers had imagined, and they offer praises to God as they

stuffed thousands of notes into their duffel bags. The sirens begin howling as the brothers pack up and leave. The Samaras's truck slows the cops down and, before any of them can reach the robbers, the trio speed off in a stolen Audi towards the mountains in which the Paleocosta's family had grown up. Before long, the cops are back on their tail, but Vasilis has a trick up his sleep, or rather in his duffel bag. He grabs fistfuls of Dragma and tosses them out of the Audi's window, filling the street, and attracting dozens of town people to grab them like they're in a game show. It's enough to slow the cops down decisively and the three men disappear. Despite the notes, Vassalus has chucked away, they've still made off with 125 million

drachma, or around half a million US dollars. It remains the most lucrative bank robbery in Greek history to this day. The three men ditch the Audi and hop into a stolen Nissan to make their way through the mountains. Incredibly, Vasilis will later return. the vehicle to its owner, polished and with over $600 under the carpet. I mean, I think I'd be pretty pissed with the car being in Nick, but still, it says a lot about how the brothers operate. He never said much, says one villager of Vassalus, but he always had a mischievous smile.

You'd think the Paleocostasis and Samaras would be smiling quite a lot, having pulled off this Kalambaka heist, and for a few years, the trio fall off the map. Cards are replacing cash, and banks across Greece beef up security in the wake of the Robben. It doesn't make sense to try and rip off another one when everybody's a lot more prepared, so the brothers get into another line of business. Haightaloo Brothers is one of Greece's wealthiest food brands. It had begun operation in 1924 as a mom-and-pop store selling Halva, a sweet dessert originating in ancient Persia, but popular throughout the Middle Eastern Balkans.

But it soon expanded into tahini, jam, Turkish delight and sesame oil, moving to a headquarters near Thessaloniki, Greece's second city, and a three-hour drive north from Trichala. By 1995, the company's CEO, Alexander Hightaloo, is a billionaire, in exactly the kind of corporate-raiding fat cat that Paleocostas brothers have come to detest. Hightaloo is a mover and shaker in conservative politics, drifting seamlessly between the boardroom and parliament. Wright's Vassel is in his autobiography, quote, my future target was financially aiding the conservative political spring party and its leader, subsequently Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. They were friends.

Every time Samaras traveled to Thessaloniki for some political rally, he would stay over at Haightaloo's house. Hightaloo himself told us. FYI, Political Spring is a party founded by Antonus Samaras when he splits with Greece's centre-right over a single issue whether Macedonia should be able to call itself Macedonia. I mean, this is just classic stuff right here, right? Does the tension date to like a battle in 1367 that no one's ever heard of between two villages and no one has also ever heard of?

Yeah, I mean, let's just say that. It's like so deep Eurocore vibes. But I mean, yeah, going back, Macedonia is a region of Greece. And I mean, a really long time, right? Alexander the Great's dad was Philip II of Macedon. So I think this argument is still going on today. they kind of settled on North Macedonia, right? I don't know, the EU stepped in.

It's a bunch of, it's basically a bunch of Southern Europeans, screaming at each other over a name. Anyway, this party is ultra-nationalist, populist, pot-stirring, kind of Farage or Vuchic adjacent, perhaps. Although we'll probably get plenty of comments for that from the Brussels knowers. Anyway, Hightaloo is dipping into his deep pockets to fund Samaras's right-wing run for office, and the Pieroosostas brothers, they are not fans. On Friday, December 15th that year, Hightaloo is making the short drive from his huge Thessaloniki villa to the company's factory when a Toyota RAV-4 forces his car off the road.

Vassalus and Nikos Peliocostas leap out of the Toyota, grab Hightaloo, hood him and throw him into the Toyota with them. And then they speed off through the mountains. Vassalus threatening Highterlou with a rifle if he tries any funny business. But when Hightaloo complains he can't breathe beneath his hood, Vassalus removes it. quote, I never showed disdain for the value of human life, yet I found the act of taking a life perfectly legitimate and acceptable

under certain circumstances and with good reason as when wider freedom was concerned. Because death is the inescapable consequence of life. On the contrary, causing pain by torturing is something horrible, something heinous. I mean, it's a bit confused, but there's a bit more of that Robin Hood mythology. And to be fair, even Heitelieu himself admits that, quote, It was a well-thought-out kidnapping. My kidnappers' behavior was not bad at all. I was not scared for myself.

Actually, I enjoyed some wide-ranging discussions with the kidnappers. Vassalus calls in a ransom to Haightaloo's family, demanding over a million dollars to hand the magnate over. After three days and several rounds of negotiations, the family cough up a bit less, but it's still a huge amount of money. And beyond that, Vassalus claims his conversations with Haight-Taloo teach him a lot about the way corruption works in the murky world,

of food merchandising. Quote, what I remember most vividly from that free lesson is the blunt blackmail attempted by the owners of large supermarket chains. For a pre-packed 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. That is the kind of source you get on the run as a Greek fugitive. Buyers confirmed Vassalus and Nicos drop high to low off at a site in Central Greece.

As they do, the CEO jokes to them, quote, Guys, if only it didn't cost that much, I'd very much like to have another adventure with you. Greece's media are similarly tickled by the affair. One of them leads with the headline, They ate a 260 million dragma halva. Ha ha. Guess something got lost in translation.

Anyway, the Greek state, however, doesn't take the news quite so sanguinely. They slap a bounty on the Paleocostas brothers' heads that's almost as big as the ransom they'd gotten for Haightaloo. calling them, quote, ruthless professionals practicing organized crime on a scale unprecedented in our country. This is Greece, right? It's Greece with the ports and the drugs. That's Greece. Anyway, once again, the brothers are able to fade into obscurity, aided by the people around them. In the wake of the Haightaloo kidnapping, wads of cash begin appearing amongst the regions poor, homeless and farmers. It even says that Vassalus gives thousands of dollars to orphan girls who need dowries in order to get married. Here's Samaras, the artist.

He and his brother would stop the car and hand robbery money to immigrants in the street. As we were driving the getaway car from Kalambaka, we heard on the radio that we left 90 million behind. Vassalus joked, should we go back? Off goes Robin Hood then, bouncing between mountain villages, giving to the poor, thrilling the Greek public and media, and giving authorities to slip. But you know what they don't get into in all those movies? It can be dull going on the lamb, even if your freedom depends on it.

No more heists, no more manifestos or headline-grabbing crimes. After more than three years as a fugitive, Vassalus gets bored. Sometimes he heads out in disguise, steals a car and goes for a joyride. Sometimes he smokes a joint before he does it. On December 2019-19-99, Vassalus is ten. tearing about on the hills when he smashes his car to pieces. As people gather around the stricken vehicle, Vassalus emerges, stoned and seemingly disoriented. Don't tell them who I am, he begs one of them, who says they'll call an ambulance.

I'm Vassalus Peliocostas. See, I probably wouldn't lead with that if I didn't want people to know who I was. Yeah, I tend to agree. I mean, getting into a stolen vehicle, step one, getting stoned, step two, smashing the car, getting out of the car and then telling people what your exact name and surname are. Yeah, that's not great. When the ambulance appears, one of its workers calls the cops. This is quite funny.

We've got a man here who must have a head injury, they say. He thinks he's the most wanted man in Greece. Keep him there, the cops say. They arrive. They confirm it is actually the guy who is exactly the man whose name. They've just heard him say. and they slap him in cuffs. Within months, he's in a prison on the island of Corfu,

having been sentenced to 25 years for bank robbery and kidnap. Paleocostas will languish in this prison for some time. But he's not just biding his time. Just as he's been as a kid, the inmates at Corfu have to go barefoot, such of the terrible conditions inside. So Paleocostas organizes for a job, lot of shoes to be brought in and delivered to the facility.

But that's not all. In May 2003, guards discover a detailed plan of the prison in Vassalus cell and decide to transfer him to Cori Dallos, the maximum security prison outside Athens that's known, not so fondly, as Greece's Alcatraz. When he first arrives, Vassalus has a dust-up with a prison warden that ends with guards jumping in and beating into ribbons. This confirms his belief that prisons merely serve to torture on behalf of the state, and by extension to protect the rich from the poor. Vassilus strikes up a friendship with Albanian hitman named Alcat Rizai, and the pair then become close. The duo then begin a years-long game of Cat and Mouse with Cori Dallas's warden. At one point, the warden discovers that Vassalus can use the gold crucifix on his necklace to pick the locks of his handcuffs. On another day, he uncovers a file hidden inside packs of Vassalus's spaghetti.

Vassalus was hell-bent on getting out, the warden says. I mean, this is a movie for sure. Yeah, but like, is it a serious, like, frowny movie or is it just a Will Ferrell movie? It's a fun caper. I mean, not Will Ferrell, but it's like a fun caper movie, you know? And that's why Jeff Meish wrote the article, right, turned this into a movie. He's got the, you know, he knows what he's doing. He does know what he's doing.

He must have got an option for this. Down to a science. No one has it down to his science better than him. Yeah, he really does. We should do a bonus show and everyone should pay to listen to him to speak about this. Anyway, the warden is no shrinking violent. When he discovers the file, rather than taking it, he lets Vassalus work on his cell bars for months, checking in every now and then to see how he's getting on.

When Vassalus finally breaks through, the warden tells his men to put away their weapons. Vassalus tiptoes around the corner of the prison yard at night, like literally Tom and Jerry music, queued up here. The warden is waiting for him. I want to finish this like men, the warden says, before launching into a fight with Vassalus, floodlit in front of the guards. The pair trade blows until the warden gets on top of Vassalus and then throws him back inside his cell.

Says the warden later, quote, he used poverty as an excuse to become a criminal. He started to believe this Robin Hood myth. I mean, dude, that's every prisoner's dream, right? Getting to fist fight the warden and he loses. That kind of destroys the... I mean, yeah, it's still like incredible, but it, you know, takes a... The legend takes a little bit of a little bit of a hit right there. Yeah, but you know, he's like, he's not odd.

That's kind of, that's also sort of cool about this guy. He's just like a normal looking bloat. Anyway, I'm not really sure that this Walden, he'd actually read or watched anything about Robin Hood, because who's going to get the last laugh, right? It ain't the Sheriff of Nottingham. On June 4, 2006, Nicos swoops in to break Vassalus and Rizzi out of Cori Dallas and his helicopter, the three men escape. I mean, you know this story, right? They ditched

the chopper and they dive back into the hills of Thessaly. Here is Jeff Mesh writing about Demetrius Gravannis, the trickle a cop who'd become obsessed with the brothers over the years. Quote, on a Sunday evening, trickle a police station was always empty, but that night, Demetrius Gravarnis was toiling away on a big case. When the station's telex machine word to life, Gravannis tore off the report. He looked out of his window and laughed. The statement from the Ministry of Public Order read, we believe we were very close to Nicos Pellio cost us, but it seems that actually he was closer to us.

Damn. But also, did he learn to fly? Was he the one flying the helicopter? No, because if so, I take back what I said. He's not like Neo from the matrix. No. Okay. I mean, you know, maybe.

These guys are, these guys are resourceful. No, this is our dude, Caracas from the cold open. He's like, yeah, he actually, I mean, you know, he actually gets kidnapped at gunpoint. He has a pretty crap time. but like Nikos says, it's probably better to have a scared pilot that you kidnap rather than a guy who doesn't care who's your own. I don't know if it's that binary when you're a criminal, but anyway, it works for these guys. And I don't think that you can call this place Greece's Alcatraz if you can just fly in a helicopter and just like, you know, land and leave again.

Anyway, the respite doesn't last long for Nikos or Rizai, and they're captured soon after the daring escape. But Vassalus, he's in the wind. And there he remain, an enigma, until 2008. And that's what he decides to go for another high-profile kidnapping. At first, he wants to nab Pericles Panagopolis, Greece's richest man, owner of a fantastic name, also a shipping and ferry service magnate, like we mentioned earlier. But Vassalus changes his mind. Panagopolis is old and sick, and doing anything that could make him sicker or worse,

would go against the Paleocostas code. Side note, Panagopoulos will actually be kidnapped by three AK-47 wielding men the following year, and ransom for $40 million US dollars, which is the highest in Greek history. But Vassalus, dropping his own plan, has to start from scratch. He settles instead on George Milonas, an aluminium dealer and also president of the Federation of Industries of Greece. It's kind of biggest chamber of high commerce. Basically, Milonis is one of the best connected men in the country with contacts all over business and politics. He is also widely hated. Now, it may have slipped you by,

but we're deep into 2008 now. The global financial crash is underway, and few economies are getting hit as hard as Greece's. In fact, the Greek economy will suffer the longest of any advanced one on earth in the wake of the crisis. Its government has underreported debt levels for years, default skyrocket, and the country's GDP plummets. Greece's government responds by slashing welfare and pensions, while joblessness, homelessness, drug use, sore. Across Europe, you've got the Germans slate and the Greeks every day in Brussels for not working hard enough. Pretty unfair. Things are fraying, falling apart. And George Milonis, billionaire aluminium magnate, he issues a public statement to his factory workers.

Tighten your belts, he tells them. I'm about to slash your pay. And this is a red rag to a Robin Hood. And Vasilis quickly turns his attentions to Milonus. Stripped of his three favorite collaborators, Vassalus instead gathers a team of three other inexperienced crooks he'd knows from his time in prison, and he hatches yet another plan. On June 9, 2008, he strikes. Here is a Forbes magazine piece about the crime, quote.

Malonis was winding up a busy day. He'd had an early morning meeting at Greek Central Bank, given the keynote speech at an event on corporate social responsibility, and then had dinner with his wife, Nelly. As he arrived home and got out of his car, Malonis was seized by four hooded men who forced him back behind the steering wall and ordered him at gunpoint to drive away. For 13 days, Malonis was held in a windowless tent

in the yard of a villa only 20 minutes drive from his home. It was unbearably hot inside, and Malonis, who could not see outside, assumed he was somewhere deep in the mountains. While he wasn't physically mistreated, Malona said his every move was watched by a camera. His captors threatened to kill him if he tried to escape. He despaired when he learned the size of the ransom they were demanding. $40 million.

Nelly negotiated the sum down a bit and forced the Athens stock exchange to freeze trading of aluminium stocks so the kidnappers couldn't force her to liquidate the family's 70% holding. She personally dropped off a huge ransom, believed to be roughly $19 million. Now, there is a funny joke in the fact that you can just get the Athens Stock Exchange to shut down for a bit. Anyway, podcast series The Good Thief, has a slightly different take on this whole affair. According to them, Vassalus deliberately snatches Malonus in a way that ensures his two daughters won't see it. And the, quote, windowless tent from the Forbes piece, that becomes a tool shed with a portable toilet, radio, fresh clothes and slippers. Milonis says he's captors a quote, polite and treated me well.

Vassalus brings him a newspaper each day and asks Milonis, what's going on, Georgie? I know. Welcome to the I can't sleep podcast with Benjamin Boster. If you're tired of sleepless nights, you'll love the I Can't Sleep podcast. I help quiet your mind by reading random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. Each episode provides enough interest. interesting content to hold your attention, and then your mind lets you drift off. Find it wherever you get your podcasts.

That's I Can't Sleep with Benjamin Boster. When Malonis's wife makes the $19 million drop, Malonis says he's blindfolded and driven around by Vassalus for two hours in a BMW. According to some sources, he expects then to be killed. Instead, Vasselis takes off Milona's blindfold, hands him the keys to the BMW, and tells him simply, you're free. You know, the thing with like $19 million in cash, it probably weighs a lot. Moving it seems like a logistical nightmare, as does spending it. I think half of that is true.

I think, like, yeah, spending it would be difficult. I think it is quite a lot. But then I remember we did a show about Seychi Lop, where they found like a bed. that he'd made out of like, I don't know, a hundred dollar notes. And actually, several million was only enough to make like a king-sized mattress. So maybe a lot for a BMW. Yeah, maybe. This is Greek money.

It's going to be, yeah, yeah. It's like a billion. It's like a billion to the. Actually, no, we're in, we're in Euro time now. So maybe it's a little bit less bad. Oh, good point. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, this is all pretty nice. But he doesn't really have the problem of spending it, right? Because he doesn't really spend the money that much. Yeah. Anyway, Milonus goes straight back to business, prophesying wildly off the Greek debt crisis. Quote, it was God's wish that this happened to me. In business, I think you have to now consider another risk factor. And he later adds, quote, for me, it was a bad experience. But whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, which is the least true phrase of all time. See how these things can be spun either way, the British kidnapper, the gentleman crook. I mean, you decide. In any case,

If it had just been Vassalus carrying out the Malonus kidnapping, he may well have gotten away with it again. But the boys he's assembled, this team. They're not so keen on throwing their cash out of car windows or giving it to mounting orphans. One of them heads on a bender to the island of Crete, lives large, buys a jeep. But the money is marked. Cops trace it and arrest a guy. He sings in jail. And on August 2, 2008, they trace Vassalus back to the home in which he'd held Malonus.

The fugitive is pouring himself a cup of moonshine when the SWAT team burst through the door and capture him at gunpoint. Inside the home, they find a DVD copy of the Mel Gibson movie, Ransom and Heat, sitting alone in an empty home surrounded by use notes, drinking moonshine and watching heat a thousand times, and they say crime doesn't pay. You know, Ransom is also kind of badass, and just Mel kills it, and I've forgiven Mel because apocalyptic is just so good. You know, not a wasted scene in that movie. I mean, I've heard people like forgiving Mel Gibson, but not because of Apocalypse. But actually, it's so good. Have you seen Lanzum? I remember, I saw it the cinema and it was awesome.

Yeah. Ransom or Apollito? Yeah. Good film. Which one? Also, Ransom, great movie too. Yeah, so, St. Nice. Like, when did he stop doing movies or is he dead now? He's around.

He just makes bad movies now. Oh, that's a shame. Anyway. I think. Quote, the relative rapid capture. I really didn't want a bad note on this episode, and now we've got one. If you do know what's happened to Gary Snees, please reach out. Oh, Garrisonis Seneyce.

I thought you said Mel Gibson. Oh, no. Mel Gibson definitely makes bad movies, yeah. Garrison Nees, though. He was like the ultimate movie villain for about five years, right? Had a good one. Yeah. Anyway, quote,

The relatively rapid capture of Vassalus Pellio Costas, one of Greece's most notorious criminals, is a much-needed boost to the morale and public image of the Greek police. reads a cable from the US consul in Thessaloniki as Vassilus prepares for his pretrial hearing in January 2009 on fresh kidnapping and robbery charges. This, plus the ongoing economic crisis, helps foment a feverish support for Vassalus among Greek citizens. Young women form a Vassilist fan club, while mobs of farmers, peasants and anarchists camp outside the court, chanting death to pigs, freedom to paleo costas. Vassalus's case even sparse into life a group of anarchists guerrillas who go on a rampage,

tossing Molotov cocktails through police station windows and other acts of sabotage. Don't they just call that Tuesday in Greece? Yeah, the only people who work are the anarchists, ironically. They call themselves, okay, this is a bit of a mouthful, guys. These guys are called the Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei. Perhaps something lost in translation there too, and they are still going. This further convinces the authorities that they're dealing not with a master criminal, but a terrorist, something Vassalus himself scoffs at.

Quote, the majority of the country's politicians, the ideal regime is repressive, vindictive, and totalitarian. So even if there are no terrorists, some must be invented to justify a repressive legislation. I mean, whatever you think, the guy's 100% got the tortured principal Euro rebel thing down. I think I've heard this. almost this entire speech in about a million Berlin clubs. Remember Al-Ket Rizai, the Palo Costas' brothers, Albanian hitman pal. He's set to be sentenced to 25 years himself for his role in Nikos and Vassalis' previous exploits.

Greek tabloids grow transfixed with Rizai's glamorous girlfriend, Sula Mitropia. I did a cursory search for her, for an image. Could not find a picture. Gave up on it pretty quickly. I spent a little longer and I did find one. I will send it to you after the show. When the judge sentences Rizzi, Metropia throws her arms around Rizai dramatically.

And when nobody's watching, she slips a mysterious watch into his pocket. Now, February 22nd, 2009, 3 p.m. Cori Dallas Prison. Yes, the same Cori Dallas. Greece is Alcatraz. The Inescapable. well, I won't go that far. The place Vassalus and Rizai had broken out of in 2006. It is the day before Vassalus's, what, a thousandth trial. He's pumping iron in the prison gym while Rizzi jogs around

the exercise yard. Suddenly, Rizzi's wristwatch starts beeping. It doesn't just tell time. It's a phone. Rizzi lifts the watch to his ear. It's his girlfriend. I mean, this is so Hollywood. It's Ridiculous. It's his girlfriend's Sula Matropia. It's time, she tells him. Rizai and Vassal is gathering a yard. Forty-five minutes later, guards hear the unmistakable sound of rotor blades cutting through the air. It's a helicopter. Again, the chopper zooms into view and touches down once more in the yard. Again, the deafening sound. Again, the great plumes of dust and dirt kicking up like a Saharan sandstorm. At the joystick is another commercial pilot. Behind him, Mitropia, a grenade in her hand, threatening to blow them both to bits unless he

springs Rizai and Vassalis from Cori Dallos. Guards rush to the scene and point their weapons of the chopper. Vizai and Vassalists make a run for it. One of the guards lunges for Rizai, but the Albanian pulls out a kebab skewer. Step back, he cries, or I'll stick you. I mean, that's the most Albanian thing I've ever heard in my life. Threatening stab a guy who has a gun with a when you have a kebab skewer, it doesn't get more Albanian than that. Now, I did promise you Balkan, and like, even though we've done a lot of shows about Yugoslavia, like it's Greece and Albania that are like the most balkan of all the balkans, I would argue. Yeah.

It's nuts. Both convicts make it onto the bird and the pilot pulls away. Inmates are cheering and yelling. This time, though, won't be the same. As the helicopter rounds to make his escape, three guards grabbed their MP5 for, submachine guns and open fire, emptying hundreds of rounds into the vehicle. I mean, side note, clearly they didn't care about killing a bunch of kids playing soccer this time around.

One burst of fuel tank, another severs a fuel line. The pilot whispers a prayer as the chopper steers clear, gas pouring out of its flank. The needle on the cockpit plummets and the chopper loses altitude. Minutes later, the gang is forced to make an emergency landing. But nobody's hurt, and, incredibly, vassalists and resists. of fugitives once more. Once again, trickle a detective Gravana sees the news appear on his police telex system. I couldn't help but laugh, he says.

But this time, he's one of fuel for he is willing to raise a wry smile. The fallout from Vassalus and Rizai's second helicopter is cabade goes all the way to the top. Greece's Prime Minister calls an emergency cabinet meeting. Officials have their homes raided. Several prison guards are arrested for their role in helping Vassalus and Rizai's escape, but only one of them is actually convicted. In Athens, a CIA Greek anti-terrorism known as the Invincibles is pulled away from its usual task of snuffing out terror cells to go after Vassilus Paleocostas. He's Greece's most wanted criminal, and he makes Interpol's

top ten list as well. Half of Europe is on Vassalus's tail, and in March 2009, a trio of armed robbers on motorcycles holds up a bank in Tricola, empty in the safe of almost half a million US dollars. Police are sure it's Vassalus, Rizai and Metropia. Shortly after, cops arrest Rizai Metropia, while in April that year, 15 undercover cops chased Vassalus along of coastal road in southern Greece. Here's Jeff Mesh again, quote. Cornering the fugitive, they pointed their automatic weapons at him and prepared to shoot. So I let it rip, wrote Peliocostas, in an open letter to the media. I sped down an alley to escape and bullets were dancing inside. my car's cabin. Okay, mate. These guys opened fire and shot more than 150 bullets in 15 seconds.

By contrast, he said, in all these years, as a robbered and a fugitive, he had never fired a gun at a human. He signed off the letter with a clear fingerprint and blue ink. And this open letter goes on, quote, there were thousands of policemen wherever I turned my eye, not to mention the undercover ones. But still, the people seemed to be on Vassalus's side. At one point, a strange, A stranger rocks up to the trickle a home of a poor family, whose father can't afford to pay for treatment for his medical issues. The stranger throws an envelope containing almost $20,000 US dollars into the home, and then he leaves. Everybody, of course, assumes this is Vassilus. On June 24, 2010, the story takes a deadly turn, when a letter bomb explodes in the hands of a public order ministry official in Athens, killing him instantly.

The bomb is so powerful, it blows down walls. But authorities claim they've discovered Vasselis fingerprints on the envelope. Brand him a terrorist and slap a $2 million bounty on his head. On top of the other bounty, on top of the other bounty. I don't know how many bounties there are, guys. But there is a huge controversy over this, especially in the suburb of Athens and other cities where anarchists and leftist sentiment is high. And murals of Vassalists are plastered all over the walls to this day.

Says one Athens resident, quote, how do you find a fingerprint on a bomb that destroyed a man and blew down walls? I mean, it's got a point, right? And despite some infrequent sightings, that's it for Vassalus. He's still free, still on the move. Really? That's incredible. What, I mean, insane. But I also, you know, I do find the letter bomb thing suspicious, knowing what we know about this guy.

And I'm generally like not a romantic about these types at all. Yeah, I mean, there are enough of these kind of like guerrilla-guer. groups running around marauding through Athens, that I would probably say it's more likely to be them. But anyway, Vassalus, he still enjoys a joyride, especially in Volkswagen SUVs, allegedly. A normal life, his autobiography came out in 2021. Some say Vassalus has had plastic surgery, others that he's a master of disguise. That's not mutually exclusive.

Many Greeks call him the uncatchable, which yeah, they can't catch him. So that tracks. Others call him the king of the mountains, which, again, yep, can't really. argue with that. Is he, though, a Robin Hood? Or is he just a talented crook? I guess like all of these characters, it depends on your point of view. Your politics. I mean, guys like this are always a bit of a Rorschach test, right? But is it a good story? Well, I would say yes. And if you're listening this far, I think you'll agree. There is supposedly a team of cops in Athens dedicated solely to Vassalus's arrest. Since April 26th this year, however, they don't have to worry

about Nikos. He died that day at Tricular Hospital after a prolonged illness, age 65. And actually, I would love to hear from folks who dispute part of this story or have read about Vassalists lately. I had to pick through several conflicting narratives to pull today's show together, and there is plenty about Vassalist that seems either to be fairy tale, like the stuff about, I don't know, bullets ricocheting through his car. I don't know, that sounds a little bit over the top, or cobbled together for some pretty bad sources. In any case, that was a bit less heavy than the usual Nazis and masquerades, wasn't it? An actual Robin Hood story.

Yeah, I'm kind of interested in what you think, because from the way you read it, I didn't realize, you know, there were separate sort of stories about him and separate sources in terms of like some disputing, maybe some of the more Robin Hood stuff. But he seems pretty Robin Hood-hood-like from most people who we get described as that who aren't at all. Like, what's your take on the whole thing? Yeah, I mean, there are other stories that I didn't put in there, like, him firing guns into the air to throw cops off instead of firing them at them. Other times that he's like just dished out money to churches and people in villages.

And like despite all of the kind of bravado on either side and the bloviating, I mean, you know, some of his stuff in the autobiography is obviously nonsense. But I don't know. I mean, this is the most convincing one we've had yet. Yeah, I would say so for sure. I definitely enjoy putting it together. It's cool. Nice. Well, guys, thanks for tuning in.

As always, sign up for the things. Watch the other things at, um, on the socials. Do the things. Watch the things. Do the things that we need to do to, yeah, yeah, make it happen. All right. Until next week, gentlemen. Thank you.