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Speaker 1: Okay, So imagine you are a member of a worker

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Speaker 1: owned publishing collective. You and your comrades make a tidy

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Speaker 1: income split equally. Your motto is books for a better world.

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Speaker 1: Some of your publications include titles like Solidarity from the

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Speaker 1: Underground History and Class Consciousness, Let's Rethink Anarchy, and Damn

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Speaker 1: You Cinderella, a feminist rereading. Then one day in twenty eighteen,

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Speaker 1: a lawyer walks into your bookshop in Athens. Either key

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Speaker 1: ahto chefde.

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Speaker 2: This lawyer, it's best we don't say what her name is.

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Speaker 2: She found an envelope outside her office door or here

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Speaker 2: in Athens.

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Speaker 1: In the envelope was a manusctcript enclosed with a no.

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Speaker 2: This book is coming from a man who doesn't exist.

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Speaker 2: No one knows where he is.

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Speaker 1: That man who doesn't exist Vasili's Palio Costas, and he'd

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Speaker 1: signed it in a very specific Waylocostas.

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Speaker 2: Had left a palm print authorizing her to take the

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Speaker 2: necessary actions to publish it.

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Speaker 1: So the lawyer had come to them and said, read it,

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Speaker 1: see if you want to publish it.

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Speaker 2: Personally, I was impressed. I was impressed that the book

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Speaker 2: was extremely well written. But somehow the authenticity of the

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Speaker 2: text had to be checked.

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Speaker 1: But once Costas Legakis and his colleagues at the Collective

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Speaker 1: publishing house started reviewing.

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Speaker 2: The details, the text is so obviously genuine. No other

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Speaker 2: person could know so many details. It's just impossible.

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Speaker 3: Ohtably, in the book Bylocostas talks about the imprisonments, about

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Speaker 3: the escapes, about everything he's done in his life, and

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Speaker 3: he also learned the ideology of Palokostas, so to speak.

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Speaker 2: His morals of the so called ethical robbery.

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Speaker 1: The Greek edition has sold tens of thousands of copies,

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Speaker 1: but there are only a couple hundred in English, and

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Speaker 1: we got our hands on one of them. This dude

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Speaker 1: definitely thought he was being funny calling it a normal life,

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Speaker 1: because the book is as over the top as you

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Speaker 1: think it is. And while of course you can't believe

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Speaker 1: everything Vasilius wrote, he takes us behind the scenes of

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Speaker 1: every job and wild escape he pulled off, interspersed with

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Speaker 1: all these fever dream sequences and tangents about society and

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Speaker 1: his life philosophy. He even wrote dialogue like he was

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Speaker 1: screenwriting his own biopick. So of course we got an

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Speaker 1: actor to recreate all of it.

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Speaker 4: At that moment, a guard appeared from the corner of

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Speaker 4: the wall, running towards me, machine gun in hand, shouting Freeze, Freeze.

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Speaker 1: I Miles Gray from iHeartMedia and Kaleidoscope. This is the

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Speaker 1: Good Thief. Chapter one, Gamble on Yourself. Where we last

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Speaker 1: left our anti hero. It was early nineteen ninety one

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Speaker 1: and Vasili's Paliocostas was still new to crime. He'd gotten

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Speaker 1: caught trying to break his big brother Nicos out of prison,

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Speaker 1: but he went down for a lot more than that.

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Speaker 1: The cops charged our robin hood with a string of

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Speaker 1: robberies that he swore up and down that he had

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Speaker 1: nothing to do with. As he languished in a jail

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Speaker 1: cell awaiting trial, he heard that the police's case against

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Speaker 1: him was weak. There was a good chance that he'd

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Speaker 1: be let out. But for Vasili's it was a matter

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Speaker 1: of morality. As he puts it in his memoir, he

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Speaker 1: simply could not and would not participate in what he

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Speaker 1: called a devious process. As far as he was concerned,

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Speaker 1: the justice system was stacked against him.

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Speaker 5: I had the sacred duty to follow my personal instinct

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Speaker 5: concerning my own freedom, which was the cornerstone of my

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Speaker 5: moral and conscientious existence. I wished to remain free, and

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Speaker 5: I had no intention of negotiating or handing my rights

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Speaker 5: to anyone without a fight.

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Speaker 1: And so he starts planning his escape, which at first

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Speaker 1: is just a matter of sitting back and observing the

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Speaker 1: rhythm of prison life, collecting information on anything that could

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Speaker 1: prove useful, watching how the guards move and change shifts

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Speaker 1: at their posts. There's a holiday coming up, and he

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Speaker 1: knows the guards will be short staffed and distracted, so

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Speaker 1: he works quickly to come up with a plant. In

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Speaker 1: the bee wing of the prison, he's got a guy,

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Speaker 1: a fellow inmate, a long term who is at the

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Speaker 1: end of his sentence. He goes to see the guy

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Speaker 1: for a coffee and a chat in his cell, and

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Speaker 1: while they're sitting there, Vasilis notices the man has a

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Speaker 1: bucket stashed under his bed. He asked the old timer

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Speaker 1: where he got it. He tells Vasilis he can get

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Speaker 1: him one, to which Vasili says, I don't need.

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Speaker 5: The bucket, just it's handling. He said, whether are you

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Speaker 5: up to kid? Looking at me, Chicul, be careful. The

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Speaker 5: prison is full of snitches.

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Speaker 4: I know.

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Speaker 5: That's why I'm talking to you.

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Speaker 1: He tells the old timer he's going to need at

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Speaker 1: least five of those buckets and some bandages. Then he

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Speaker 1: approaches a sell ma asks him if he can keep

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Speaker 1: a secret, and as the guy a razor tells him

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Speaker 1: to start cutting up bed sheets as quietly as possible

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Speaker 1: so as not to wake their other sellies. Vasilis also

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Speaker 1: starts keeping track of supplies he may need in the

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Speaker 1: event that he pulls this off, because in all likelihood

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Speaker 1: he won't be unscathed. Before long, he gets his hands

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Speaker 1: on a stash of gauze from the prison pharmacy. On

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Speaker 1: the holiday, Vasilis looks for a quiet place to assemble

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Speaker 1: his kit. He hides everything in one of his buckets

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Speaker 1: and slips into a shower stall. There, he bends the

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Speaker 1: metal hooks into V shapes, curling the ends to make

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Speaker 1: double hooks. Then with the bed sheet, he lashes them together.

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Speaker 4: I tied three sheet strips around the showerhead pipe and

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Speaker 4: wove a nice rope. Then I tied the strings together,

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Speaker 4: placing the hook at their end. I bandoned my ankles,

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Speaker 4: then my knees, then my elbows, and finally my wrists.

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Speaker 1: Then he slips a tracksuit over all that padding.

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Speaker 4: The tracksuit was out of season, but there was no

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Speaker 4: better way to cover all those bandages.

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Speaker 1: Ready as he'll ever be, Vasili stuffs the diy grappling

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Speaker 1: hook into the bucket and heads out to the prison yard,

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Speaker 1: where there's an impromptu soccer game underway, real casual like.

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Speaker 1: He flips over the bucket and cops a squat, pretending

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Speaker 1: to just take a load off and watch the action.

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Speaker 1: He notices the old timer and his cellmates sharing a cigarette.

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Speaker 1: He thinks to himself, they've got front row seats to

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Speaker 1: watch the escape act. The plan is to make a

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Speaker 1: move when the bell rings to call the inmates back inside.

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Speaker 1: Vasili's eyes the guards as he predicted, one of the

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Speaker 1: guard posts is empty. The bell rings and there are

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Speaker 1: three dudes standing in his way, but he can't wait.

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Speaker 1: He grabs his kit and walks straight at them, screaming.

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Speaker 4: Stand outside, I'm breaking up.

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Speaker 1: That's literally what it says in the book. Anyway, the

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Speaker 1: dudes get out of his way. He makes it to

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Speaker 1: the yard's outer wall and lassos his makeshift grappling hook

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Speaker 1: into the air.

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Speaker 5: The rope that.

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Speaker 4: Had gotten wet in the shower and It's why it

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Speaker 4: prevented the hook from reaching as high.

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Speaker 5: As I wanted.

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Speaker 4: It Latched onto the concertina razor.

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Speaker 1: Wire, Vasilis knows he has a split second to make

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Speaker 1: a decision. It's not ideal that rope isn't where it

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Speaker 1: should be, but he just goes for it. Hoists himself up,

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Speaker 1: and as he nears the top of the wall, he

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Speaker 1: has to grab hold of the barbed wire. Razors gouge

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Speaker 1: his palms. Blood pours out, but there's no time to

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Speaker 1: second guess this escape. He squeezes his hands around the wire.

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Speaker 1: The blades dig into his palms as his hands take

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Speaker 1: the brunt of his body weight. Somehow, he pulls himself

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Speaker 1: up and swings his legs over.

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Speaker 5: Hi, where are you going, screamed the guard.

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Speaker 4: You'll see, I answered, before jumping off the edge, and then.

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Speaker 1: He free falls fifteen feet onto the concrete below, Bloodied

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Speaker 1: but alive. He's made it over the wall, but as

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Speaker 1: he looks back, he realizes he's square into the sights

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Speaker 1: of the guard's machine gun. But Vasilis doesn't think. He

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Speaker 1: just turns tail and starts sprinting. Somehow, someway, the guy

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Speaker 1: doesn't get shot as sirens Blair Vasilis just trots his

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Speaker 1: way into the sunset. Literally. He makes it to a

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Speaker 1: quiet fishing cove on the crystal clear water of the

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Speaker 1: Aegean Sea, where a few people are enjoying an evening swim.

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Speaker 1: He just plays it off like he's merely jogging, and

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Speaker 1: then when no one's looking, he takes cover in some

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Speaker 1: overgrown brush and hides out till dark.

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Speaker 5: I found myself sitting on a rock high above the city,

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Speaker 5: fishing boats and sailboats creas crossing the water, moving like fireflies.

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Speaker 1: Just a few hours ago, Vasili's Polyocostas was in prison.

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Speaker 1: It had been the twenty five year old's first time

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Speaker 1: behind bars, trapped in a hot, concrete wasteland. But now

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Speaker 1: he inhales the salty air. As he washes the dried

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Speaker 1: rivulets of blood off his arms, he stares up at

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Speaker 1: the stars, and for the very first time, he understands

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Speaker 1: just how fragile freedom can be.

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Speaker 5: Where would I be if I hadn't taken a risk

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Speaker 5: in the small chamber that reeked of death For a fugitive.

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Speaker 5: Freedom is not an abstract concept. Freedom requires courage.

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Speaker 1: In that moment, as he watches the boats pass and

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Speaker 1: revels in the quiet, Vasilis promises himself he won't go

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Speaker 1: back to prison. He will never go back. According to Vasilis,

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Speaker 1: he had entered prison as a quote law abiding citizen.

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Speaker 1: He had never robbed a bank, or broken down a

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Speaker 1: or stolen a single scent. But now he was a fugitive,

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Speaker 1: and from this day forward he'd spend the rest of

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Speaker 1: his life on the run. Chapter two, The Romantic Rebel.

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Speaker 1: Reading Vasilis's book, you start to get a sense of

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Speaker 1: how all the pieces of the Paliocosta's puzzle worked together.

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Speaker 1: From his rough upbringing in the mountains, the reverence he

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Speaker 1: had for the clefts, his identity as a Greek ethnic

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Speaker 1: minority himself. But what his writing really lays out is

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Speaker 1: just how carefully he draws his own lines between right

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Speaker 1: and wrong.

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Speaker 5: Life taught me to walk a tight rope concerning my

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Speaker 5: own double nature, being at the same time an attacker

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Speaker 5: aiming to deci mantle the system and a romantic rebel

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Speaker 5: who refuses to dismantle his own character in a battle

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Speaker 5: between means and ends, who justifies whom.

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Speaker 1: It's easy to see how Vasilis grew up in this

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Speaker 1: perfect cocktail for being radicalized. He grew up in extreme isolation,

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Speaker 1: high poverty, a lack of services, and in official spheres.

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Speaker 1: He witnessed a culture of corruption. So it makes sense

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Speaker 1: that one of the things you hear in Vasilis's stories

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Speaker 1: is that he is constantly weighing out, both for us

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Speaker 1: and for himself, who are the real criminals in a

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Speaker 1: corrupt society. But Vasilis is also very much a product

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Speaker 1: of his particular generation. When we were making this series,

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Speaker 1: our producers in Greece kept taking us back back to

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Speaker 1: the grease of Vasilis's childhood. Here's Christina, it's the circumstances.

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Speaker 6: Right. In nineteen sixty seven, one year after the Citlis

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Speaker 6: was born, there was a coup where Greek colonels overthrew

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Speaker 6: the government.

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Speaker 1: The military regime in Greece has largely been the creation

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Speaker 1: of one man. This man, Prime Minister George Papadopoulos.

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Speaker 6: The Hunter, which was a group of ultranationalist colonels drive

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Speaker 6: their tanks onto the streets of Athens and point them

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Speaker 6: at the Royal Palace and government buildings, taking control essentially

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Speaker 6: of the country. These colonels enforced a far right, hypernationalist,

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Speaker 6: hyper religious dictatorship. Martial law is implemented in free speech disappears.

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Speaker 6: Suddenly it's illegal to listen to the Beatles and to

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Speaker 6: reed told story. Women are barred from wearing mini skirts,

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Speaker 6: men are banned from growing beards or long hair. Labor

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Speaker 6: unions become illegal, church attendance becomes mandatory, and thousands of

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Speaker 6: dissidents are beaten and imprisoned and tortured and exile to

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Speaker 6: islands in the Aegy and by the end of the

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Speaker 6: Hunter's rule, student protests and with dozens being killed by

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Speaker 6: the army and the police. This Hunter ruled for the

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Speaker 6: first eight years of Vasilis's life, but despite all the repression,

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Speaker 6: the colonels had a lot of support where he was

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Speaker 6: growing up. Their appeals to old fashioned values warned people's admiration,

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Speaker 6: and the new rulers also paid outsized attention to rural regions,

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Speaker 6: canceling all loans held by farmers, increasing agricultural pensions, and

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Speaker 6: throwing money at small rural schools. But despite this local

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Speaker 6: atmosphere of support, a young Vasilis came to hate the regime,

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Speaker 6: which collapsed in nineteen seventy four.

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Speaker 7: The period of the Hunter of the seven Years was

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Speaker 7: really terrible. It was very miserable for a lot of Greeks,

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Speaker 7: and it was a police state.

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Speaker 1: That's Ambassador Tom Miller. He served as the US ambassador

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Speaker 1: to Greece in the Earth two thousands and has spent

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Speaker 1: decades working there and in the Balkans. He told us

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Speaker 1: that even though many years have passed, collective trauma from

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Speaker 1: the junta still lingers.

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Speaker 7: The memory is still fresh in people's mind. It passes

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Speaker 7: down from generation to generation. It's kind of a symbol

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Speaker 7: of the perception of many Greeks that they have of

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Speaker 7: fighting against all odds, fighting against the oppressure.

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Speaker 1: The junta created what Miller describes as a reflexive antipathy

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Speaker 1: toward this state, and in many parts of Greece that

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Speaker 1: antipathy stoked a red hot distrust of the police, who

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Speaker 1: had spent years propping up the junta and doing its bidding.

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Speaker 1: In Vasilis's memoir, he often compares the police to the junta.

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Speaker 1: In his opinion, the junta never left. They just traded

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Speaker 1: in their uniforms for police badges and business suits.

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Speaker 8: As he writes, the transitional government never other to stamp

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Speaker 8: out the masked fascism on the contrary seizing power, they

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Speaker 8: pinned up a bright sign that said democracy and everything

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Speaker 8: else remained the same. Or, to put it another way, therefore,

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Speaker 8: democracy is a bankrupt sham, reheated shit on a luxurious

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Speaker 8: porcelain plate.

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Speaker 5: Scandals, political favors, bribes, those were only a few of

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Speaker 5: their great weaknesses. Affluent families knew how to give favors,

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Speaker 5: and in return, politicians wrote laws to protect them.

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Speaker 1: Now, to be clear, the vast majority of Greeks who

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Speaker 1: grew up poor and oppressed by the junta did not

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Speaker 1: become bank robbers. Vasilis chose his life of crime. But

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Speaker 1: here's the secret. According to sociologists, robin hood figures or

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Speaker 1: social bandits always rise to fame during periods of deep inequality,

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Speaker 1: when corruption feels rampant, when authority figures are absent or abusive.

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Speaker 1: Time and again history has shown that these conditions will

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Speaker 1: always compel somebody to stand up and resist. The Great

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Speaker 1: Depression made Bonnie and Clyde, the Mexican Revolution made Pancho Villa,

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Speaker 1: and all these things happening in Greece made vasili s

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Speaker 1: Palio Costas. Chapter three, Getting the Band back together, free

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Speaker 1: but very much a wanted man Vasili Spalio Costas was

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Speaker 1: on the run, still in his bloody tracksuit. There was

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Speaker 1: nothing to do but start walking. He came upon a

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Speaker 1: house where he helped himself to a pair of Bermuda

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Speaker 1: shorts and a T shirt that were drying on the clothesline,

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Speaker 1: just hanging there, as he wrote, as if they were

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Speaker 1: waiting for me, and he kept it moving, breaking into

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Speaker 1: a farmhouse the next day, in typical Robin Hood fashion,

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Speaker 1: he felt conflicted.

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Speaker 5: I broke into a farmhouse whose residents were away. I

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Speaker 5: found some money. It was the first, and hopefully the last,

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Speaker 5: time I entered someone's home uninvited out of necessity. I

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Speaker 5: dreaded the feeling because I had always considered homes sacred places,

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Speaker 5: a kind of personal asylum. That's why I wrote a

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Speaker 5: short letter to its owners, explaining that I really needed

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Speaker 5: the money I took from them, and begging them to empathize.

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Speaker 5: If I had entered the villa, I wouldn't have done that.

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Speaker 5: But a humble shelter and a guarded palace are two

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Speaker 5: different things.

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Speaker 1: He used the money for a ticket on the first

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Speaker 1: train headed for Athens, where his old pal, the artist

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Speaker 1: Costa Samaras, happened to be turned out his mentor was

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Speaker 1: in prison, and he too was planning to make a

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Speaker 1: break for it. But the artist's plan was a little

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Speaker 1: more involved than jumping a fence. Samaras was scheduled to

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Speaker 1: appear in court back in his hometown of Tricola, two

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Speaker 1: hundred miles north of Athens. The authorities plan to transport

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Speaker 1: him in a police van equipped with a jail cell

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Speaker 1: or what he called a cage in the back. He

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Speaker 1: told us all about it when we interviewed him.

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Speaker 9: I learned that the large cages that were used on

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Speaker 9: the route from Athens to Corfu had floors of plastic,

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Speaker 9: and under the plastic surface there was plywood.

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Speaker 1: Plastic and plywood were all that separated him from freedom.

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Speaker 1: So Samaras hatched a plan. The transport trip to Tricola

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Speaker 1: included a multi day layout in a nearby port city,

300
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Speaker 1: where he'd be held at a local prison.

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Speaker 9: In the old prison, there was a carpentry workshop on

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Speaker 9: the ground floor where some prisoners walk making woodcarvings and SATs.

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Speaker 9: From some acquaintances, I got a couple of tools so

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Speaker 9: show blade and its seasily.

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Speaker 1: While on the road, Samaras was going to saw his

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Speaker 1: way to freedom.

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Speaker 9: When we started driving, I took cut the tools. I

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Speaker 9: started to carve the book.

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Speaker 1: Within three hours, Samaras cut out a hole in the

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Speaker 1: bottom of his cage.

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Speaker 9: When I was done with it, you could see straight

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Speaker 9: out onto the road below.

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Speaker 1: But he wasn't about to jump out of a moving vehicle,

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Speaker 1: so he waited for the police to park.

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Speaker 9: I got down from mander, crawled a little, and went

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Speaker 9: out on the road. I walked normally, as if nothing

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Speaker 9: was happenings.

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Speaker 1: Forming nobody noticed a thing.

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Speaker 9: Vasilis had escaped from Halkida prison a month before by

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Speaker 9: jumping the wall, so he and I agreed that he

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Speaker 9: would be waiting for me.

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Speaker 1: Back together, fugitives from the law ready for their next

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Speaker 1: big act. It was the fall of nineteen ninety one. Vasilis, Samaras,

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Speaker 1: and Nkos had all broken out of prison, and they

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Speaker 1: were all hungry for money. That's how they started robbing banks,

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Speaker 1: first in Ioannina and then well everywhere, just traveling from

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Speaker 1: town to town, planning and executing bank robberies. They were

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Speaker 1: making good money, but they weren't getting rich. The trio

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00:21:55,359 --> 00:21:59,359
Speaker 1: stole a couple thousand dollars here, another thousand there. It

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Speaker 1: was never another to live off of, and certainly not

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Speaker 1: enough to just give away, that's for sure. So after

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Speaker 1: a spree of minor heists, Vasilis and his merry men

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Speaker 1: set their sights on something bigger on Columbaca. If I'm not.

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Speaker 9: We decided to do something as big as we could.

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Speaker 1: Columbaca is an otherworldly place a short drive from Tricola.

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Speaker 1: The town is hugged by towering sandstone pinnacles. On the

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Speaker 1: cliff's edge are Orthodox monasteries. The robbers planned to sin

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Speaker 1: in their shadows. Vasilis didn't feel bad about it. He

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Speaker 1: figured any money he stole would return to the bank

340
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Speaker 1: once he and his pals started spending it.

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Speaker 4: No matter how many bangs you robbed, eventually the money

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Speaker 4: will go right back to the banks. They're the only

343
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Speaker 4: ones that never lose.

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Speaker 1: They were just borrowing the money. It's the perfect victimless crime.

345
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Speaker 1: Vasilis had adopted a Gandhi quote to justify his actions.

346
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Speaker 1: Poverty is the worst form of violence, so maybe redistributing

347
00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:10,480
Speaker 1: this money was actually a solve for a broken society. Plus,

348
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Speaker 1: the men were always careful. They planned each heist precisely

349
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Speaker 1: to avoid hurting anyone. They carried automatic weapons. Sure, but

350
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Speaker 1: as Samaras told us, the whole point was to scare

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Speaker 1: people into giving them the cash.

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Speaker 9: It's all about psychology. If you go into a bank

353
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Speaker 9: to do something illegal, you have to look convincing and

354
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Speaker 9: there will really be a reaction unless someone wants to

355
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Speaker 9: play the hero. We had prepared a lot in advance

356
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Speaker 9: to avoid any violence.

357
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Speaker 6: So you believe that there were no casualties victims in

358
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Speaker 6: this sense.

359
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Speaker 5: No.

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Speaker 1: Look, I don't have a ton of sympathy for bank CEOs,

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Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, is there really

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Speaker 1: such a thing as a victimless crime? It might not

363
00:24:01,400 --> 00:24:04,160
Speaker 1: be for the dude holding the gun to say. When

364
00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:07,439
Speaker 1: we pressed some of us on this, he conceded some ground,

365
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Speaker 1: but only a little.

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Speaker 4: Ala.

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Speaker 9: Someone is a victim, but it's the least share that

368
00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:16,160
Speaker 9: could be done.

369
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Speaker 1: The way he sees it, they were trying to do

370
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Speaker 1: the least harm they could. But sometimes a little suffering

371
00:24:24,119 --> 00:24:30,480
Speaker 1: is just the cost of doing business. If costas some

372
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Speaker 1: of us feels bad about any of this, well, he

373
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Speaker 1: didn't show it. When we asked him, can there be

374
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Speaker 1: a crime without a victim? He started to wax philosophical

375
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Speaker 1: and deflect, blame.

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Speaker 9: Every ali, all of the steps into something bigger. In

377
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Speaker 9: twenty ten, there was a domino effect in the banking

378
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Speaker 9: system where the economy is collapsed because the banks were

379
00:24:54,720 --> 00:24:58,280
Speaker 9: playing games at the expense of the people. If this

380
00:24:58,359 --> 00:25:01,760
Speaker 9: is not a crime against the men, what is? I

381
00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:04,679
Speaker 9: will not sit down and count the examples. There's no

382
00:25:04,720 --> 00:25:07,240
Speaker 9: such thing as trying to keep a balance of doing

383
00:25:07,320 --> 00:25:11,600
Speaker 9: the least harm possible. The questions should be who commits

384
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Speaker 9: a crime and whose crime is greater.

385
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Speaker 1: This is the exact sentiment Christina kept reminding me about

386
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Speaker 1: that from the late nineteen sixties era of the junta

387
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Speaker 1: through today. For many, like Vasilis, the Greek state doesn't

388
00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:34,720
Speaker 1: play fair. The effects of the twenty ten banking crisis

389
00:25:34,760 --> 00:25:37,679
Speaker 1: that some of us is talking about still play greace

390
00:25:37,800 --> 00:25:41,920
Speaker 1: to this day. It led to an extreme austerity plan

391
00:25:42,160 --> 00:25:45,879
Speaker 1: and a massive loss of income. The whole thing rose

392
00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:49,639
Speaker 1: to a scale of a humanitarian crisis, and of course

393
00:25:50,119 --> 00:25:54,280
Speaker 1: it's the common people who suffered. In his book, Vasilis

394
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Speaker 1: likens it to a relentless war of haves and have nots.

395
00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:02,000
Speaker 5: On one hand, lords who had reaped the gains of

396
00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:06,919
Speaker 5: a democratic fiction to solidify their authority, usurping this country's wealth.

397
00:26:07,840 --> 00:26:11,480
Speaker 5: On the other hand, young man who refused to accept

398
00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:14,720
Speaker 5: misery as a way of life and refused to tolerate

399
00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:19,960
Speaker 5: authorities but pressing on their necks. When the unjust pistoizes

400
00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:32,680
Speaker 5: in front of you, you must take up arms.

401
00:26:35,920 --> 00:26:52,399
Speaker 1: Chapter four, Escaping Columbaca, You mustamata distrapeza or he The

402
00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:54,919
Speaker 1: Columbaca heist, the one I told you about in the

403
00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:57,919
Speaker 1: very first episode where they hit the National bank that

404
00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:03,040
Speaker 1: was June nineteen ninety two and opened the safe. I

405
00:27:03,119 --> 00:27:05,040
Speaker 1: don't have the key. Who has the key?

406
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:06,400
Speaker 9: The manager?

407
00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:10,240
Speaker 1: The brothers filled up a few canvas bags with cash,

408
00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:14,560
Speaker 1: and then when time's up, they hit it. The police

409
00:27:14,560 --> 00:27:17,159
Speaker 1: tried stopping the getaway by emptying their guns, but the

410
00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:21,000
Speaker 1: trio just laughed it off. The robbery went off without

411
00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:24,000
Speaker 1: a hitch, and now they were crammed inside a small

412
00:27:24,040 --> 00:27:26,879
Speaker 1: stolen car, speeding away from the scene of the crime.

413
00:27:27,640 --> 00:27:29,280
Speaker 1: Some of us told us the rest.

414
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:37,480
Speaker 9: We took the road north, reached where the other getaway

415
00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:39,320
Speaker 9: car was changed.

416
00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:43,560
Speaker 1: Car change close. But after they got back on the road,

417
00:27:44,119 --> 00:27:49,400
Speaker 1: Nico sees this flash of red and blue lights.

418
00:27:50,320 --> 00:27:53,520
Speaker 9: We crossed two police caps. That old is windy and

419
00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:56,840
Speaker 9: you don't have good visibility behind you. For a moment,

420
00:27:56,960 --> 00:27:59,120
Speaker 9: Nichols thought that the police had stopped.

421
00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:02,800
Speaker 1: The sight of the police cruisers spooks them. What if

422
00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:06,159
Speaker 1: the police are blocking the road ahead? Nkos calls an

423
00:28:06,160 --> 00:28:09,760
Speaker 1: audible as Vasilis once put it. Nicos knew all the

424
00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:14,720
Speaker 1: country's freeways, roads, dirt roads and paths like Google Earth

425
00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:17,400
Speaker 1: was planted in his mind before it was even invented.

426
00:28:18,440 --> 00:28:21,440
Speaker 1: So he cuts the wheel and veers onto a winding

427
00:28:21,520 --> 00:28:22,200
Speaker 1: mountain road.

428
00:28:25,560 --> 00:28:28,720
Speaker 9: We took the road, then went up the Pindush to

429
00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:38,840
Speaker 9: the mountain range. We turned on their radio. Within five

430
00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:41,240
Speaker 9: minutes of the robbery, they had announced it on the

431
00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:43,120
Speaker 9: radio from Tricala.

432
00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:46,400
Speaker 1: Nkos floors it. The tires kick up dust as the

433
00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:50,680
Speaker 1: car drives higher. As they turn the road reveals an

434
00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:54,320
Speaker 1: immaculate stone building surrounded by gardens.

435
00:28:54,360 --> 00:29:01,000
Speaker 9: Oho We passed in front of the to Ma Monastery.

436
00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:04,760
Speaker 9: The monastery was on one side of the dirt road.

437
00:29:05,280 --> 00:29:07,880
Speaker 9: There was a nun outside sar car.

438
00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:12,360
Speaker 1: Two nuns tending to their flower beds stare at the

439
00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:15,960
Speaker 1: three men stuffed inside a tiny sedan tearing up the mountain.

440
00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:20,840
Speaker 1: Nikos respectfully presses the brake for a second. He doesn't

441
00:29:20,840 --> 00:29:23,080
Speaker 1: want to disturb the nuns with a cloud of dust.

442
00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:26,720
Speaker 1: But as he accelerates up the slope, the road fades,

443
00:29:28,840 --> 00:29:31,960
Speaker 1: Rocks scrate the undercarriage, and the car is swallowed by

444
00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:33,760
Speaker 1: a dark chestnut forest.

445
00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:39,520
Speaker 9: That attended. So we left the car and covered it

446
00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:44,040
Speaker 9: with some branches. We divided the weapons and continued on foot.

447
00:29:45,320 --> 00:29:48,880
Speaker 1: It's August, the sun is beating down and the men

448
00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:53,480
Speaker 1: have no food, no water, But they also have no choice.

449
00:29:54,040 --> 00:29:58,240
Speaker 1: They have to hide in the mountains. Before they part ways,

450
00:29:58,240 --> 00:30:02,120
Speaker 1: they split the loop. As they begin to count the spoils.

451
00:30:02,160 --> 00:30:07,239
Speaker 9: Malaca, vasiline, catnico, spend, cat meria, rachmes.

452
00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:12,160
Speaker 1: They're speechless. It's one hundred and twenty five million drafmas,

453
00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:16,720
Speaker 1: the equivalent of about one point four million US dollars.

454
00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:21,600
Speaker 1: They've just pulled off the biggest bank robbery in Greek history.

455
00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:26,520
Speaker 1: But instead of being able to relax, they're trapped in

456
00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:31,160
Speaker 1: those mountains, climbing higher and higher. For the brothers, there's

457
00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:35,200
Speaker 1: a certain romance to it, feasting at cherry orchards, spending

458
00:30:35,320 --> 00:30:39,640
Speaker 1: nights in caves, but there's little to eat, and they're famished.

459
00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:44,360
Speaker 1: At one point, almost like a fever dream, Vasilis finds

460
00:30:44,480 --> 00:30:47,440
Speaker 1: himself staring into the eyes of a doe just to

461
00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:50,920
Speaker 1: skip away from his cave on a nearby rock, and

462
00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:54,400
Speaker 1: though he's armed, he won't point a gun at the creature.

463
00:30:55,360 --> 00:30:59,080
Speaker 5: With our pursuers on our tail, we almost forgot we

464
00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:03,600
Speaker 5: were in an ecosytem of unparalleled beauty. The little those

465
00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:07,520
Speaker 5: eyes seemed stuck on us. How can you point the

466
00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:12,160
Speaker 5: gun against this living miracle of nature? We preferred to starve.

467
00:31:13,560 --> 00:31:16,240
Speaker 1: They had no qualms about robbing a bank, but they

468
00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:20,920
Speaker 1: couldn't take an innocent deer's life. After days of not eating,

469
00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:24,760
Speaker 1: the men were struggling. The roads were blocked, and they

470
00:31:24,840 --> 00:31:28,200
Speaker 1: knew they couldn't stay up there for long. So Nicos

471
00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:32,320
Speaker 1: and Vasili's decided to try something bold. They descended the

472
00:31:32,360 --> 00:31:35,720
Speaker 1: mountain and made their way to a funk, and Nicos

473
00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:40,800
Speaker 1: called the cops like they called the cops on themselves.

474
00:31:41,320 --> 00:31:44,160
Speaker 1: He just straight up called up Petricola Police and asked

475
00:31:44,200 --> 00:31:47,800
Speaker 1: to talk to the chief. Vasilis gives us the dialogue.

476
00:31:48,280 --> 00:31:54,000
Speaker 5: Tell him Paleo Costas's asking for him. Nicos, Palo Costas, Yes,

477
00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:58,880
Speaker 5: who is it, mister grab it all? I called to

478
00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:02,600
Speaker 5: tell you to call off your people, get your people

479
00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:07,560
Speaker 5: off the mountain. You fuck them over enough already Bye.

480
00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:15,160
Speaker 1: And according to Vasili's deploy works, the cops abandoned the roadblocks,

481
00:32:15,520 --> 00:32:18,720
Speaker 1: and two weeks later the trio climbs back into the

482
00:32:18,760 --> 00:32:26,360
Speaker 1: mountains to get their stashed loop. Shortly after, the three

483
00:32:26,400 --> 00:32:29,120
Speaker 1: bandits will high tail it out of the country, going

484
00:32:29,160 --> 00:32:34,560
Speaker 1: their separate ways. But true freedom always requires more money,

485
00:32:34,760 --> 00:32:39,360
Speaker 1: real money, and Vasilis Palio Costas was about to make

486
00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:47,480
Speaker 1: the rich pay next time. On The Good Thief.

487
00:32:47,480 --> 00:32:50,880
Speaker 5: The idea of kidnapping a businessman for ransom kept drifting

488
00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:51,600
Speaker 5: through my mind.

489
00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:54,720
Speaker 1: I lived in a car for four days. They treated

490
00:32:54,720 --> 00:32:55,280
Speaker 1: me humanely.

491
00:32:55,320 --> 00:33:00,760
Speaker 10: Above all, she knows how to hide. He may have

492
00:33:00,960 --> 00:33:05,360
Speaker 10: changed his face. His fingerpaints. You lads are in luck.

493
00:33:06,240 --> 00:33:08,040
Speaker 10: You've got Palo Costas.

494
00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:34,640
Speaker 1: The Good Thief is a Kaleidoscope production in partnership with

495
00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:39,560
Speaker 1: iHeart Podcasts. I'm Miles Gray. Our executive producers are Mangesh,

496
00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:45,120
Speaker 1: Hettika dur Costas, Linos Oz Wallashan, and Kate Osborne. From

497
00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:49,880
Speaker 1: iHeart executive producers are Katrina Norvel and Nikki Etoor. Our

498
00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:54,480
Speaker 1: partners at The Greek Podcast Project. Our executive producer Daphne Carnesis,

499
00:33:54,720 --> 00:33:59,160
Speaker 1: field producers Christina Bilioni and George Miatis, and sound designer

500
00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:03,520
Speaker 1: Nico Sclebnis, who edited and mixed the episode and provided

501
00:34:03,560 --> 00:34:07,440
Speaker 1: the English voice of Costa Samaras. Mary Philip Sandy is

502
00:34:07,480 --> 00:34:11,560
Speaker 1: our supervising producer. Shane McKeon is our producer. The show

503
00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:14,879
Speaker 1: is written in research by Lucas Riley, fact checking by

504
00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:19,560
Speaker 1: Donia Suleman, sound design and final mix by Pran Bandy.

505
00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:24,600
Speaker 1: This episode featured the voice of Yorgos Karamijos. Our theme

506
00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:29,360
Speaker 1: song is by Imam Baldy with additional music by Body. Finally,

507
00:34:29,680 --> 00:34:33,839
Speaker 1: thanks to Will Pearson Connell Byrne, Bob Pittman and John

508
00:34:33,880 --> 00:34:40,560
Speaker 1: Mary napolis