WEBVTT - The Good Thief - Ep 1. How to Rob Banks and Influence People 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:17.840 Prologue, How to rob a bank. Here's the thing about 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:20.919 robbing a bank. As soon as you walk in the door, 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:25.200 every single second counts, so you better have a plan. 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:30.520 When Greece's top bank robber does a job, he and 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:32.760 his crew have it down to a science. 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:34.040 Can press. 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:38.519 The three of us enter the bank with our faces uncovered. 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:42.400 As the other two step team. I stood near the entrance. 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:46.760 Let's get a close up on this guy. He's in 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:51.559 his thirties, medium build, handsome with a square jaw. His 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:56.560 name is Costas Samaras. The press calls him the Artist 0:00:57.080 --> 0:01:01.640 because he designs these brazen yet perfectly heists, with every 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:06.319 detail accounted for. The clock is ticking, but the Artist 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:10.120 is relaxed. Focused. He hangs back by the door while 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:13.399 his partners walk up to the teller and flash friendly smiles. 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:17.000 They also wave the semi automatics their kring, you know, 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:18.920 to move things along a little bit. 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:23.559 Dam Good morning, how are you doing. 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:25.280 We've come for a loan. 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:30.760 Yeah, they're not here for a loan. They keep it light, 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:34.280 but move fast. They know they have about four minutes 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:37.600 before the cops show up. And here in the small 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:41.480 city of Columbaca, Greece. There really isn't anywhere to hide. 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:44.280 A parents with them. 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:47.200 My two friends go to the central cass here in 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:47.600 the buck. 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:52.480 His friends they're brothers, and they're kind of famous in 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:56.200 these parts. Mikos is the older one. They call him 0:01:56.360 --> 0:02:00.720 the Ghost. He's got a real talent for avoiding arrests. 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:05.360 He can't be god. Then there's the kid brother of Vasilis. 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:08.360 He's actually the reason I'm telling you this story in 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:14.400 the first place. Vasilis doesn't look like much, stocky, balding, 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:19.639 a little unassuming, but they call him Robin Hood because 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:23.840 he's the generous one. Whether he's a hero or a criminal, 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:30.520 well that depends on your perspective, but right now he 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:34.720 definitely looks more like a criminal. Robin Hood points his 0:02:34.760 --> 0:02:38.000 gun at the teller and notices the man is shaking, 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:45.760 so he reassures him gently. Which is here to take 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:50.880 the bank's money, not your lives. Still, this is a robbery, 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:56.799 and they've got three minutes left the key. 0:02:58.240 --> 0:02:58.400 Key. 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:02.760 Robin Hood and the Ghost walk over to the manager 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:04.919 who's frozen behind his desk. 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:08.639 Open the safe. 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:12.560 Now they're down to two minutes. The artist has his 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:17.000 gun tucked under his coat, and he's watching the front door. 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:23.000 At some point, the lady offers starts walking into the bank. 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:27.239 I'm standing next to her and say, come on in, lady, 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:31.119 come on in, but se notices the other two holding guns. 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:32.600 He turns back. 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:35.120 No, I'm leaving. I'm leaving, she says. 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:39.280 What this lady doesn't know is that these guys live 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:44.480 by a simple do no harm code. No drugs, definitely 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:48.480 no killing. They just want the cash. They don't want 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:51.760 to get caught up with blood on their hands. I 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:55.680 sawed to the brothers finish up. The brothers fill up 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:59.000 a few canvas bags with cash, and then time's up. 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:00.400 They need to exit. 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:06.480 Now we go outside, We get in the car, we 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:14.520 start driving, and within a few meters. 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:15.920 Someone is soothing others instead of minding her business. The 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:19.359 lady went for help, and now a cop has taken 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:22.200 aim at their getaway car like he's some kind of hero. 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:27.880 But these guys are pros. They don't even bother returning fire. 0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:31.800 They just laugh and hit the gas, speeding toward one 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:33.960 of the stolen cars they'd stashed around town. 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:40.839 We took the road north, where it's where the other 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:45.120 getaway car was changed. Car changed close. 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:49.000 And just like that, the three men disappear into the 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:59.000 dark mountains that loom over Columbaca. That was June nineteen 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:02.960 ninety two, and they've made off with a crazy amount 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:06.240 of money. It's the equivalent of about one point four 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:10.360 million US dollars. In fact, it's the biggest bank robbery 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:15.880 in Greek history. This wasn't their first bank job, and 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:19.040 it wasn't their last either. To date, they've held up 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:23.599 dozens of banks. They've evaded police with comical ease, and 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:26.120 even when they did get caught, they broke out of 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:32.960 prison not once, not twice, but ten times. These days, 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:35.760 the artists and the ghost they're out of the game. 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:40.839 But Vasilis Palio Coostas Robin Hood, he's still on the run. 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:44.479 He's one of the most wanted men in the world, 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:47.400 with a bounty of more than a million euros on 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:51.440 his head. Despite the best efforts of the Greek police, 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:55.960 various intelligence agencies, and even inner poll it's been fourteen 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:59.640 years since anyone's caught a glimpse of him, and that's 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:03.880 turned into a bona fide folk hero. He's like a 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:08.520 storybook character with all these tales following him around. Of 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:11.800 being a criminal with a conscience of sharing his lute 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:15.359 with the poor mountain folk he grew up with. The 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:19.760 thing is this Robin Hood. He isn't a character someone invented. 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:29.120 He's actually real. I'm Miles Gray from Kaleidoscope and iHeart Podcasts. 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:41.320 This is the Good Thief Chapter one, Cops and Robbers. 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:47.520 You know something, Robin. 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:51.440 I was just wondering, are we good guys or bad guys? 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:51.839 You know? 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:55.279 I mean, are Robin the rich to feed the poor? 0:06:55.640 --> 0:07:01.560 Rob That's a naughty word. We never rob so to 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:03.360 borrow a it from those who could have thought it. 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:07.360 When I was growing up, every kid I knew loved Robinhood, 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:09.480 and there was no shortage of versions. I mean, there 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:12.160 was the nineteen ninety one movie, you know, shout out 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:15.480 Morgan Freeman, The Painted Man. There was the other nineteen 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:18.960 ninety one movie Robin Hood Men in Tights, and then 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:21.880 there's that animated Fox. I mean, look, there's a lot 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:26.160 to choose from. Obviously, the Og legend has been around 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:33.160 a lot longer. For hundreds of years, people have composed ballads, poems, books, plays, 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:38.080 and now a podcast about this idea of a lone 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:41.559 swashbuckler who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:45.720 It's an idea that just doesn't get tired, and these 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:49.880 days we need it more than ever. You see it 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:53.240 in the news all the time, rich and powerful people 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:57.480 patting their pockets at everyone else's expense, and if they 0:07:57.480 --> 0:07:59.640 break a few laws along the way, they don't care. 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:03.360 For every evil billionaire that gets caught, there's one hundred 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:07.080 more getting away with it. But robin hoods, they give 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:09.800 us someone to root for and something to believe in. 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:13.440 It's the idea that we can take back what's ours. 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:18.880 That's what drew us to Vasili's Paliocostas. He sounded like 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:22.520 a crook with a conscience, a real life robin Hood 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:27.360 who's out there right now. But Vasilis Paliocostas is a 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:31.480 total mystery. Nobody knows where he is or who he 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:35.120 really is, how he got this way. We don't even 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:38.400 know if all the fantastic stories about his generosity are 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:41.520 true or if people just want them to be true. 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:46.439 So oh fuck may okay. 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:51.520 We assembled a team in Athens and decided to find 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:53.400 this robin hood ourselves. 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:58.160 It's like three as a woman, and what looks like 0:08:58.280 --> 0:08:59.640 is that you can't see. 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:03.400 One of my partners in cracking this case is Daphne, 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:07.199 our producer and lead reporter in Athens. Daphne, I'm guessing 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:09.440 you'd heard of us Elis before we reached out to you. 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:13.480 Yeah, definitely. I mean, everybody in Greece really knows the 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:17.360 name Palo Costas. When we were children. I remember hearing 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:20.560 about them on TV, in the newspapers, you know, our 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:22.360 parents mentioning their names. 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:25.079 So what did you know about them? 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:29.360 I mean, I'd heard that Vasilis specifically got started early 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:32.400 in life, you know, in this kind of line of work, 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:35.280 partly because it runs in the family. He's got a 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:38.920 big brother, an older brother, Nikos, who he often partnered with, 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:40.680 the one you called the ghost. 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:44.840 And as we discovered, these brothers had a pretty wild upbringing. 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:47.720 Here's Christina, a reporter on Daphne's team. 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:52.120 Vasilisa Nikos grew up in a very poor farming family 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.920 in the mountains of northern Greece. The brothers were very 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:59.640 isolated until their teams and eventually they moved near the 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:02.920 city Strikla, and when they finally got a taste of 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:06.920 urban life, they well, they took advantage of it. Even 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:10.080 early on. The petty crimes they committed were pretty daring. 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:13.080 There's so many stories about them, but I think that 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:16.120 my favorite one from their early years was how as 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:18.760 Nikos was just starting in his life of crime, he 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:21.720 robbed a jewelry store directly across the street from a 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:24.959 police station. And what he did was that he padlocked 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:28.360 the police station doors and then walked right across the street, 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:31.199 smashed the window, and took off with a bunch of jewels, 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.040 and the cops couldn't do anything about it because they 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:34.840 were stuck inside. 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:38.360 I mean, to be clear, I don't condone stealing from 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:40.880 small businesses, but that's just funny. 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:45.079 It's creative, which became the hallmark of the Palokostas brothers. 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:48.280 They didn't just commit crimes, they did it with flair. 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:54.160 Of course, not everybody buys into the hype, including Vasilis Fimiu, 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:57.200 a cop who worked in the trica La police department. 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:01.320 He spent years trying to track the brothers down and 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:07.000 he knows better than anyone what they're capable of. So 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:13.559 Daphne headed north to meet him. 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:17.120 I'm with my team and we're driving to Tricarla, and 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:19.120 I should say tri Calai is not the grease you 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:22.079 probably know from tourist brush shaws. It's not like colin 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:26.439 ruins and sparkling beachside villas. It's a bit more provincial. 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:31.439 There's rocky green peaks, cliff top monasteries and these zigzagging 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:32.440 dirt roads. 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:35.400 Isn't it lovely how the mountains from a distance always 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:39.600 look blue. It's a bit strange looking at those mountains 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:43.240 whilst working on this project. I can't help but wonder 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:46.480 if the silica is somewhere close. Rumors do suggest that 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:49.480 he has secret hideouts all over, and there's others that 0:11:49.640 --> 0:11:52.280 say that a network of supporters is out there helping 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:55.440 him stay hidden. The team was driving to Tricola to 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:57.760 meet with the man who once led to the effort 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:02.679 to catch Paalo Costas, retired police officer named Vasili Sefimu. 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:06.600 In two thousand and three, he received a special assignment 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:09.800 to scour those same mountains in search of the country's 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:11.040 most wanted man. 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:12.800 O Mother. 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:16.600 The team was formed to chase a Costas brother had 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:19.600 four people feeling this case on a daily basis around 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:24.120 the Clockma. 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:24.120 Is retired now, so we met with him at a 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:27.679 cafe in the old tricala prison that's now been turned 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:31.400 into a museum. He still maintains the gruffness of an 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:34.480 old school cop. He started police work back in the 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:37.640 eighties and proudly claims that during all that time he 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:41.840 never picked up a pantophile a pre investigation report. He 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:45.080 was always on the streets where the action was. In 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:47.640 nineteen ninety nine, he was working the streets of Athens, 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:50.240 but he decided to take his big city shops back 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:53.920 to his hometown and well, it didn't really take him 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:56.000 very long to find where the action was. 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:03.480 Attend the Printristulian and it was right before Christmas. December 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:08.880 two thousand and three, Sunday, we had intel that a 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:10.040 car had been stolen. 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:13.920 Ftmu and his partners are driving an unmarked car through 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:19.960 the mountains when they hear the dispatch radio crackle. 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:28.480 The car was seen on the mountain range of so 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:30.679 my team and I drove into the mountains to locate 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:31.720 him and track. 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:38.800 The police accelerate up these steep inclines. Suddenly Ftmu spots 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:41.959 the stolen car racing ahead and figures he can catch up. 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:46.920 But then when he sezes in the mirror, he speeds 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:48.400 up and drives higher again. 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:52.400 Ftmu steps on the gas and the engine grinds into 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:55.720 high gear. He's white knuckling it around a series of 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:58.839 hairpin turns. He thinks he's going to catch them, and 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:01.640 then he comes upon the car. 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:05.640 Give me a U turn and turns the car the 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:09.280 sideways bas The stolen car is just. 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:13.640 Parked there, and for a moment Ftmu is convinced he 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:18.240 has the fugitive trapped. But that thought only lingers for 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:18.880 a second. 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:23.720 We hear a barrage of shots. Bang, bang bang. 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:26.240 It's a gun, and not just any gun. 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:29.920 He had a scorpions, a machine gu The bullets were 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:32.680 flying everywhere above us, to the right, to the left. 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:37.400 Ftmu slams on the brakes. He opens a driver's side door, dusts. 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:39.320 He's rolling out onto the dirt. 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:41.640 We go out of the car and took cover. 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:45.600 He reaches for his service weapon and then opens fire. 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:49.760 Bullets fly. The police scramble for a ditch. 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:54.520 One of our bullets hit his car on the passenger 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:58.400 side and went through the windshiels then he refers to 0:14:58.560 --> 0:14:59.400 left for the mountain. 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:03.840 If the Mu watches as the stolen car speeds away, 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:13.000 disappearing behind a cloud of dust. The officer's heart is 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:18.320 still racing. He looks around and notices something unusual. His 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:22.560 car is fine, like none of the bullets got anywhere 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:27.040 near him or his team. The crook, he realizes, was 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:31.600 shooting toward them, not at them, and that confirmed f 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:35.920 the MEU's suspicions. It has to be a Palocostis boy 0:15:36.080 --> 0:16:02.240 behind the wheel. Chapter two, Hometown Heroes. Officer Ftimiu has 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:06.520 chased Vasilis Palocostis around Greece for years. There have been 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:10.200 high stakes chases and bullets flying, but he has a 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:13.960 funny relationship to his target. While he made clear to 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:17.760 us that he does not like Vasilis, in fact, Ftmiu 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:21.280 considers him a terrorist, he has come to have a 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:26.480 level of admiration for Vasilis's skill. Vasilis, he tells us, 0:16:26.800 --> 0:16:30.040 isn't like other criminals. He's dangerous for sure. I mean, 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:33.200 dude is armed to the teeth, but he never shoots 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:37.120 to kill and his ability to get away every single 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:42.760 time is frankly impressive. But Christina, my colleague that we 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:47.600 met earlier, she discovered that in Vasilis' hometown, the admiration 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:49.000 goes a lot further. 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:52.400 As we were trying to get a read on how 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:56.120 locals view the Palocostas brothers. We met with Valiant claud, 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:58.960 a journalist who spent a lot of time in tricolars 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:02.280 reporting on their ures. She told us that the first 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:04.720 time she visited, she was struck by just how many 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:12.199 people sympathized with Vasilis. The locals, they were very reluctant 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:14.720 to talk to her, and the people who did talk 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:20.720 they said really good things about both Vasilis and Nas. 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:25.919 Apparently she encountered a man that was hitch hiking. They 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:29.360 decided to pick him up and they introduced themselves. They 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:32.119 said that they were journalists, that they wanted to do 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:35.919 a story on Costas, and the man turned around and said. 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:37.400 Vasilis is a good guy. 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:44.440 We we were classmates at the sixth primary school. He said, 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:47.560 I don't believe he's a common criminal. He's helping people, 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:50.640 and he pointed at the value that Costas brothers hadn't 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:55.119 killed anybody. 0:17:57.160 --> 0:18:01.120 Valia kept hearing stories like this. People told her that 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:05.080 Jaaliocosta stole cars and returned them in mint condition with 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:08.920 wads of cash on the passenger seat. Others have reported 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:12.280 that he put young women through school, helped poor farmers 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:15.720 pay off loans. One time he stole a farmer's tractor 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:19.160 and returned it with the wagon filled with fresh hay. 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:23.040 Others said that when he robbed banks, he tossed money 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:25.400 out the window of his getaway car to the pedestrians. 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:30.600 It struck Valia that nobody had any real criticisms of 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:34.400 this guy, I mean, with stories like that. Of course, 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:38.800 Vassilis and his brother were celebrities here, but Valia noticed 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:42.040 that nobody seemed to have first hand experience with all 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:45.719 this generosity. Either it was always from a cousin's neighbor 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:50.280 or a friend of a friend, which felt suspicious. And 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:54.040 also she couldn't really nail down the details. The stories 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:57.520 are always a little vague, and when she pushed for more, 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:01.160 it seemed like there was something they didn't want to say. 0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:04.560 In the perier, It's a strange thing. 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:07.080 It was as if they were trying to protect the 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:10.359 brothers and Vandigotta's feeling that they didn't want to say 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:13.040 too much. They only wanted to say the best things 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:16.040 about them. She would push back, but what do you think. 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:19.240 You know, they've lived a life of hard crime, and 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:22.720 they would always answer, I'm sure, but they've also been 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:24.400 helping lots of the locals. 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:28.200 I don't know about you, but this made my ears 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:32.760 perk up, Like why was everybody so tight lipped? Is 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:37.040 it possible they knew where Vasilis was hiding? After all, 0:19:37.560 --> 0:19:41.399 this is his home turf. Those rugged mountains outside the city, 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:46.120 they're the perfect place to hide if you know your 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:51.320 way around. So is somebody watching out for Vasilis Palo Coostas. 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:54.199 We asked Vali if she ever got to the bottom 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:57.720 of it, but she said no. Every time she raised 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:01.760 the question of his whereabouts, she always got the same answer. 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:05.960 Vasilis Palio Costas is untouchable. 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:13.760 They were talking to Valley about Robinhood Balo Costas, and 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:17.359 they said, Vasilis is gone. The man knows the mountains, 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:20.160 he knows how to hide, he knows how to disguise himself. 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:24.520 He's brilliant, and no matter what happens, they will never 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:28.640 find him. 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:36.520 Chapter three, The Artist's Apprentice. For the past fourteen years, 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:40.240 Vasilis Palo Costas has been m i a, avoiding the 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:45.760 spotlight and the Greek prison system. Some say he's in Athens, 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:49.199 Others say he's hiding in the mountains of northern Greece. 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:54.160 Still others suggest he's kicking back, sipping on Margarita's on 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:56.639 one of the many far flung islands where Greeks go 0:20:56.760 --> 0:21:01.080 to disappear. It's all hearsay. Daphne and her team spent 0:21:01.280 --> 0:21:05.720 months pulling on threads, chasing internet leads and hitting dead ends, 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:09.800 but one name kept popping up. Of course, that's Samaras 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:12.680 oh Cosa Samaras Yamara. 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:17.280 We interviewed dozens of people, handful more that spoke off 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:21.240 the record, but many of them kept mentioning the name Samaras. 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:26.720 Coursta Samaras, also known as the Artist. Does the word 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:30.960 artist ring a bell, well, you should costa. Samaras is 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:34.280 the Artist, the criminal mastermind who was guarding the bank 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:36.320 entrance at the top of this episode. 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:39.640 Samaras is a career criminal. He spent twenty one years 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:41.959 in prison. He's seen the inside of twelve or thirteen 0:21:41.960 --> 0:21:45.160 different jails, and he's also a bona fide escape artist. 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:48.640 He's escaped prison five different times. 0:21:49.240 --> 0:21:53.520 George, another reporter on Daphne's team, dug deep into Samaras's 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:57.399 background to find out why this guy is so important. 0:21:57.400 --> 0:22:00.240 Turns out Samaras actually played quite a big part to 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:03.879 Vasilis's origin story. Samaras is one of the main people 0:22:03.920 --> 0:22:06.840 that help Vasillis go from poor Mountain kit to one 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:10.240 of Greece's most wanted criminals. And the trajectory is actually 0:22:10.400 --> 0:22:13.560 kind of funny because originally Samaras was actually friends with 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:17.560 the older brother Nikos, but eventually he take Vasillis under 0:22:17.560 --> 0:22:17.920 his wing. 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:20.880 And this was when in the in the nineteen eighties. 0:22:21.240 --> 0:22:24.960 Yeah, that's right, Vasillis was about twenty years old. And 0:22:25.000 --> 0:22:27.720 what's really interesting is that, you know, in addition to 0:22:27.760 --> 0:22:31.080 teaching him how to pick locks and steal cars, Samaras 0:22:31.119 --> 0:22:34.840 apparently taught Vasillis that the crime doesn't always need a victim. 0:22:35.280 --> 0:22:38.240 You know, that crimes can be done morally and that 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:41.359 there can be this real honor amongst thieves in a sense. 0:22:42.320 --> 0:22:44.960 We wanted to learn more about this so called moral 0:22:45.040 --> 0:22:48.440 code to crime, so we track down somebody who wants 0:22:48.520 --> 0:22:53.680 interview Samaras. An investigative journalist from Reporters United named Doloris 0:22:54.080 --> 0:23:00.000 jdro Janos or Cos Samarass told us cost Us Samaras 0:23:00.200 --> 0:23:03.720 obsessed with fighting any system that hurts the week and 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:06.159 He told us that what struck him is how Samaras 0:23:06.160 --> 0:23:08.880 and the Palo Costas brothers were always thinking of things 0:23:08.880 --> 0:23:12.520 in moral terms, Like he gave us this example of 0:23:12.600 --> 0:23:16.240 a bank robbery and the fact that they're robbing a bank. 0:23:16.359 --> 0:23:19.080 They're not, you know, robbing the people. They're not stealing 0:23:19.119 --> 0:23:23.520 grandma and grandpa's pension. They're stealing from the strong. And 0:23:24.200 --> 0:23:26.960 a lot of people would see that as a positive thing. 0:23:28.080 --> 0:23:31.800 Okay, think about it. What have big, faceless corporate banks 0:23:31.880 --> 0:23:35.400 ever done for you except try to nickel and dime 0:23:35.480 --> 0:23:39.120 you with overdraft fees that don't make sense. A good 0:23:39.160 --> 0:23:42.679 old fashioned bank robbery is kind of a perfect crime. 0:23:43.320 --> 0:23:47.240 The banks are ensured the customer's personal accounts aren't touched, 0:23:47.600 --> 0:23:51.160 and meanwhile the execs are probably committing white collar crime 0:23:51.280 --> 0:23:54.840 literally as we speak. At least that's what Vasili Sin 0:23:54.880 --> 0:23:58.480 Samaras thought, and that's what made them such a good team. 0:23:59.000 --> 0:24:03.600 They punched up up, never down. Besides, it wasn't just 0:24:03.600 --> 0:24:07.159 some of US's philosophy that impressed the Ladis. He was 0:24:07.200 --> 0:24:10.760 also blown away by someone Us' determination to be free, 0:24:11.480 --> 0:24:14.879 Like even when he got caught, he always found a 0:24:14.920 --> 0:24:23.280 way to break out. Oh, somebodras. I'd better this for this. 0:24:23.440 --> 0:24:26.400 So Thoris loved the facts that Samaras never gave up. 0:24:26.720 --> 0:24:29.240 You'd expect that he commits a crime, gets caught, goes 0:24:29.280 --> 0:24:32.880 to jail, and it's over. But no, he never let 0:24:32.880 --> 0:24:36.920 the system or un arrest anyway get the better of him. 0:24:37.160 --> 0:24:40.399 He just had this crazy never say die attitude, which 0:24:40.680 --> 0:24:44.639 obviously rubbed off on Vassilis. One time, some of us 0:24:44.720 --> 0:24:47.399 had just done a robbery and as he's racing away, 0:24:47.560 --> 0:24:51.920 he gets cornered on a rooftop with nowhere to jump. Caught, 0:24:52.200 --> 0:24:55.960 he ends up cuffed and taken down town. But just 0:24:56.080 --> 0:24:59.359 a few days later, some of us puts his natural 0:24:59.480 --> 0:25:03.800 charms to work. He befriends this prison guard and starts 0:25:03.920 --> 0:25:07.119 shooting the breeze with him. They even share a meal together, 0:25:07.520 --> 0:25:10.840 grubbing on chicken. When Samaras looks down at his hands, 0:25:10.880 --> 0:25:13.680 where Greece has collected on his fingers. 0:25:15.400 --> 0:25:20.399 Or go to samarasda idiot. 0:25:19.800 --> 0:25:22.960 Samaras sees the opportunity. He asks the guard if he 0:25:23.000 --> 0:25:24.800 can go wash his hands, and he lets him go 0:25:25.080 --> 0:25:28.679 very calmly. Samaras goes into the bathroom and he heads 0:25:28.760 --> 0:25:31.960 out of the bathroom window, and he goes out, hops 0:25:32.000 --> 0:25:34.920 onto the roof terrace, looks around and heads to the stairs, 0:25:35.359 --> 0:25:38.200 and at some point there's this lady and she's shouting, hey, 0:25:38.320 --> 0:25:40.520 one of them is trying to get away police, but 0:25:40.640 --> 0:25:43.040 he just jumps off the stairs and makes a run 0:25:43.040 --> 0:25:47.320 for it. Samaras hadn't even been in prison for more 0:25:47.359 --> 0:25:49.520 than a week, and he's already got his sight set 0:25:49.520 --> 0:25:51.640 on freedom. You know, he wants to get out. He's 0:25:51.640 --> 0:25:55.840 got this fire to be free. 0:25:59.800 --> 0:26:03.160 And that's not even like one of the better Samaras stories. 0:26:03.560 --> 0:26:06.720