0:12

Prologue, how to rob

0:14

a bank. Here's

0:17

the thing about robbing a bank. As

0:19

soon as you walk in the door, every

0:22

single second counts, so

0:24

you'd better have a plan. When

0:27

Greece's top bank robber does a job,

0:30

he and his crew have it down to a science.

0:34

The three of us with

0:36

our face he san covert as

0:39

the other two step team. I stood near

0:41

the entrance. Let's get

0:44

a close up on this guy. He's

0:46

in his thirties, medium build, handsome

0:49

with a square job. His

0:51

name is Costas Samaras.

0:54

The press calls him the Artist

0:57

because he designs these brazen yet

0:59

perfectly crafted heists, with every

1:01

detail accounted for. The

1:04

clock is ticking, but the Artist

1:06

is relaxed. Focused. He

1:08

hangs back by the door while his partners walk

1:11

up to the teller and flash friendly smiles.

1:14

They also waived the semi automatics they're

1:16

carrying, you know, to move things along

1:18

a little bit. How

1:21

are you doing. We've

1:24

come for a loan. Yeah,

1:27

they're not here for a loan. They

1:30

keep it light, but move fast. They

1:32

know they have about four minutes before

1:34

the cops show up. And here

1:36

in the small city of Columbaca, Greece,

1:39

there really isn't anywhere to hide.

1:44

My two friends go to his

1:48

friends. They're brothers and

1:51

they're kind of famous in these parts. Nikos

1:54

is the older one. They call him the Ghost.

1:57

He's got a real talent for avoiding

2:00

arrests. He can't be god.

2:03

Then there's the kid brother, Vasilis. He's

2:06

actually the reason I'm telling you this story in

2:08

the first place. Vasilis

2:10

doesn't look like much, stocky,

2:13

balding, a little unassuming,

2:16

but they call him Robin Hood because

2:19

he's the generous one. Whether

2:22

he's a hero or a criminal, well

2:24

that depends on your perspective, but

2:28

right now he definitely

2:31

looks more like a criminal. Robin

2:34

Hood points his gun at the teller and

2:36

notices the man is shaking, so

2:39

he reassures him, gentlemen,

2:45

which is here to take the banks money, not

2:47

your lives. Still,

2:49

this is a robbery, and they've got three

2:51

minutes left

2:54

the safe. Robin

3:00

Hood and the Ghost walk over to the manager, who's

3:03

frozen behind his desk, opened

3:06

the safe. Now

3:09

they're down to two minutes. The

3:11

artist has his gun tucked under his coat

3:14

and he's watching the front door.

3:18

At some point in the lady of starts

3:21

walking into the bunk.

3:24

I'm standing next to sher and say

3:26

come on in, lady, come on in, but

3:28

see notices the other two holding guns.

3:31

Thence back. No, I'm leaving,

3:34

I'm leaving, she says. What

3:36

this lady doesn't know is that these guys

3:39

live by a simple do no harm,

3:41

coade, no drugs,

3:43

definitely no killing. They

3:45

just want the cash. They

3:48

don't want to get caught up with blood on their hands.

3:53

Finish up the brothers

3:55

phillip a few canvas bags with cash, and

3:57

then time's up. They need

3:59

to exit. Now we'll

4:04

go outside, we'll get in the car and

4:06

start driving. And within a few

4:08

meters so someone

4:12

is soothing of us. Instead of

4:14

minding her business, the lady

4:16

went for help. And now a

4:18

cop has taken aim at their getaway

4:20

call like he's some kind of hero. But

4:24

these guys are pros. They

4:26

don't even bother returning fire. They

4:28

just laugh and hit the gas, speeding

4:31

toward one of the stolen cars they'd stashed around

4:33

town. The North

4:38

Great Starr

4:42

was changed. Car changed

4:44

close, and just like

4:46

that, the three men disappear

4:48

into the dark mountains that loom over Columbaca.

4:57

That was June nineteen ninety two, and

5:00

they've made off with a crazy

5:02

amount of money. It's the equivalent

5:04

of about one point four million US

5:07

dollars. In fact, it's the biggest

5:09

bank robbery in Greek history.

5:13

This wasn't their first bank job, and it

5:16

wasn't their last either. To date,

5:18

they've held up dozens of banks. They've

5:20

evaded police with comical ease,

5:23

and even when they did get caught, they

5:25

broke out of prison not once,

5:28

not twice, but ten times.

5:32

These days, the artists and the ghost

5:34

they're out of the game. But Vasili

5:37

Spaliokostas Robin Hood,

5:39

he's still on the run. He's one

5:41

of the most wanted men in the

5:44

world, with a bounty of more than a

5:46

million euros on his head. Despite

5:49

the best efforts of the Greek police,

5:51

various intelligence agencies, and even

5:53

inter poll it's been fourteen

5:56

years since anyone's caught a glimpse of him,

5:59

and that's turned Sili's into a bona

6:01

fide folk hero. He's

6:03

like a storybook character with

6:05

all these tales following him around, of

6:08

being a criminal with a conscience of

6:10

sharing his loot with the poor mountain folk

6:13

he grew up with. The

6:15

thing is this Robin Hood. He

6:18

isn't a character someone invented, He's

6:20

actually real. I'm

6:25

Miles Gray from Kaleidoscope

6:27

and iHeart Podcasts. This

6:30

is the Good Thief Chapter

6:38

one, Cops

6:40

and Robbers. You

6:46

know something, Robin I would just wondering, are

6:49

we good guys? Are bad guys?

6:51

You know? I mean, are robbing

6:53

the rich to feed the poor? Rob

6:57

that's a naughty word. We never rob,

7:01

so the borrow of it from those who could afford it.

7:04

When I was growing up, every kid I knew

7:06

loved Robin Hood, and there was no shortage

7:08

of versions. I mean, there was the nineteen ninety

7:10

one movie, you know, shout out Morgan Freeman, The

7:12

Painted Man. There was the other

7:15

nineteen ninety one movie Robin Hood

7:17

Men in Tights, and then there's that animated

7:19

Fox. I mean, look, there's a lot to

7:22

choose from. Obviously, the

7:24

og legend has been around a

7:26

lot longer. For hundreds of

7:28

years, people have composed ballads,

7:30

poems, books, plays,

7:33

and now a podcast about

7:36

this idea of a lone swashbuckler

7:39

who steals from the rich and gives to the

7:41

poor. It's an idea that just

7:43

doesn't get tired, and these

7:45

days we need it more than

7:47

ever. You see it in

7:50

the news all the time, rich

7:52

and powerful people patting their pockets

7:54

at everyone else's expense, and

7:57

if they break a few laws along the way, they

7:59

don't care. For every evil billionaire

8:01

that gets caught, there's one hundred more

8:03

getting away with it. But robin

8:05

Hoods, they give us someone to root

8:08

for and something to believe in. It's

8:10

the idea that we can take back what's

8:12

ours. That's

8:15

what drew us to Vasilis Paliokostas.

8:18

He sounded like a crook with a conscience,

8:21

a real life Robin Hood who's out there

8:23

right now. But Vasilius

8:26

Pallyiokostas is a total mystery.

8:28

Nobody knows where he is or

8:31

who he really is. How we

8:33

got this way. We don't even know

8:35

if all the fantastic stories about his generosity

8:38

are true or if people just want

8:40

them to be true. So

8:44

oh fuck man, I can't.

8:48

We assembled a team in Athens and

8:50

decided to find this robin Hood ourselves.

8:53

It's like as

8:56

a woman and what looks like his dad.

9:00

One of my partners in cracking this case is

9:02

Daphne, our producer and lead reporter

9:04

in Athens. Daphne I'm guessing

9:07

you'd heard of Vasilis before we reached out

9:09

to you. Yeah, definitely. I mean,

9:11

everybody in Greece really knows the

9:13

name Blokos Tha's when

9:15

we were children, I remember hearing about them

9:18

on TV, in the newspapers, you

9:20

know, our parents mentioning their names.

9:23

So what did you know about them?

9:25

I mean, I'd heard that Vassilis specifically

9:28

got started early in life,

9:30

you know, in this kind of line of work, partly

9:32

because it runs in the family. He's

9:35

got a big brother and older brother, Nikos,

9:37

who he often partnered with, the one

9:39

you called the ghost. And as

9:41

we discovered, these brothers had a

9:43

pretty wild upbringing. Here's

9:45

Christina, a reporter on Daphney's team.

9:48

Vasilisa Nichols grew up in a very

9:50

poor, farming family in the mountains

9:53

of northern Greece. The brothers

9:55

were very isolated until their teams

9:57

and eventually they moved near the

9:59

city Trika La and when they finally

10:02

got a taste of urban life, well

10:04

they took advantage of it. Even early

10:07

on. The petty crimes they committed were pretty

10:09

daring. There's so many stories

10:11

about them, but I think that my favorite one

10:13

from their early years was how as

10:16

Nikos was just starting in his life of crime,

10:18

he robbed a jewelry store directly across

10:21

the street from a police station. And

10:23

what he did was that he padlocked the police

10:25

station doors and then walked right across

10:27

the street, smashed the window and took

10:30

off with a bunch of jewels, and the cops couldn't

10:32

do anything about it because they were stuck

10:34

inside. I mean to be

10:36

clear, I don't condone stealing from small

10:38

businesses, but that's just funny.

10:41

It's creative, which became the hallmark

10:43

of the Parlokosta's brothers. They didn't

10:45

just commit crimes, they did it with

10:48

flair. Of course,

10:50

not everybody buys into the hype,

10:52

including Vasili's FDMU, a

10:54

cop who worked in the Tricalla Police department.

10:58

He spent years trying to track the

11:00

brothers down, and he knows better than anyone

11:02

what they're capable of. So

11:07

Daphne headed north to meet him.

11:13

I'm with my team and we're driving

11:15

to Trika La, and I should say, Trica

11:18

La is not the grease you probably know from

11:20

tourists pressures. It's not like colin ruins

11:22

and sparkling beach shide villas.

11:24

It's a bit more provincial. There's

11:26

rocky green peaks, cliff top monasteries

11:29

and these zig zagging dirt

11:32

roads. Isn't it lovely how the mountains

11:34

from a distance always look blue. It's

11:37

a bit strange looking at those mountains

11:39

whilst working on this project. I

11:42

can't help but wonder if facilitas somewhere close.

11:45

Rumors do suggest that he has secret

11:47

hideouts all over, and there's others.

11:49

Let's say that a network of supporters is

11:51

out there helping him stay hidden. The

11:53

team was driving to trica La to meet with the

11:56

man who once led to the effort to catch

11:58

Bala Costas, a retired

12:00

police officer named Vasilis Afimiu.

12:03

In two thousand and three, he received a

12:05

special assignment to scour those same

12:07

mountains in search of the country's most

12:10

wanted man. Mother.

12:13

The team was formed to chase the Plosta's

12:15

brother. Four people dealing

12:17

with this case on a daily basis around the clock.

12:21

Is retired now, so we met with him at

12:24

a cafe in the old Tricalla prison

12:26

that's now been turned into a museum.

12:29

He still maintains the gruffness of an

12:31

old school cop. He started

12:33

police work back in the eighties and proudly

12:35

claims that during all that time he

12:37

never picked up a pantophile a

12:39

pre investigation report. He

12:41

was always on the streets where the action was.

12:44

In nineteen ninety nine, he was working the streets

12:47

of Athens, but he decided to take his big

12:49

city shops back to his hometown, and

12:52

well, it didn't really take him very

12:54

long to find where the action was. It

13:01

was right before Christmas

13:04

two thousand and three a Sunday,

13:07

we had intel that a car had been

13:09

stolen. Ftmu and

13:11

his partners are driving an unmarked car

13:13

through the mountains when they hear the dispatch

13:15

radio crackle.

13:25

The car was seen on the mountain range of Trika,

13:28

So my team and I drove into the mountains to kick

13:30

him and trap him. The

13:33

police accelerate up these steep

13:35

inclines. Suddenly

13:37

Fdmus spots the stolen car racing

13:40

ahead and figures he can catch up. But

13:42

then when

13:45

he sees us in the mirror, he spits up and drives

13:47

higher. Fdmus steps

13:49

on the gas and the engine grinds

13:52

into high gear. He's white knuckling

13:54

around a series of hairpin turns.

13:56

He thinks he's gonna catch them, and

13:58

then he comes upon the

14:01

car. He'd

14:03

made a U turn and turns the car the sideways

14:06

tour bas The stolen

14:08

car is just parked there, and for

14:10

a moment, Fdemu is convinced

14:13

he has the fugitive trapped.

14:16

But that thought only lingers for

14:18

a second. We

14:20

hear a barrage of shots. Bang,

14:22

bang bang. It's a gun and

14:25

not just any gun. He

14:27

had a scorpios I'm missing. The

14:29

bullets were flying. Heaverywhere above us,

14:31

to the right, to the left. Ftmu slams

14:34

on the brakes. He opens the driver's

14:36

side door ducks. He's rolling

14:38

out onto the dirt. We got

14:40

out of the car, and to cover up, he reaches

14:42

for his service weapon and then opens

14:45

fire. Bullets fly.

14:48

The police scramble for a ditch. One

14:52

of her hoodets kick his car on the passenger

14:54

side and went through the windshields. Then

14:57

he reverts them left. For the mom

15:00

Ftemu watches as the stolen

15:02

car speeds away, disappearing

15:05

behind a cloud of dust. The

15:12

officer's heart is still racing. He

15:14

looks around and notices something

15:16

unusual. His car is

15:19

fine, like none of the bullets

15:21

got anywhere near him or his team.

15:24

The crook, he realizes, was

15:27

shooting toward them, not at

15:29

them, and that confirmed

15:31

femus suspicions. It

15:33

has to be a Polyocostus boy

15:36

behind the wheel. Chapter

15:54

two, Hometown Heroes.

16:01

Officer FTMU has chased Vasilis

16:03

Paleokostas around Greece for years.

16:06

There have been high stakes chases and

16:08

bullets flying, but he has a funny

16:10

relationship to his target. While

16:13

he made clear to us that he does

16:15

not like Vasilis, in fact, FTMU

16:17

considers him a terrorist, he

16:20

has come to have a level of admiration

16:22

for Vasilis's skill. Vasilis,

16:25

he tells us, isn't like other criminals.

16:28

He's dangerous for sure, I mean, due is armed

16:30

to the teeth, but he never shoots

16:33

to kill in His ability to

16:35

get away every single time

16:38

is frankly impressive.

16:41

But Christina, my colleague that we met earlier,

16:43

she discovered that in Vasilis's hometown,

16:46

the admiration goes a lot further.

16:49

As we were trying to get a read on

16:52

how locals view the Palokosta's brothers,

16:54

we met with Valien Kola, a journalist

16:57

who spent a lot of time in Trikola, reporting

16:59

on their ad enters. She told

17:01

us that the first time she visited, she was struck

17:03

by just how many people sympathized with Vasilis.

17:10

The locals, they were very reluctant to

17:12

talk to her, and the people who did talk

17:14

they said really good things about both

17:17

Vassilis and Nico Costas.

17:21

Photo Apparently she encountered

17:23

a man that was hitch hiking. They

17:25

decided to pick him up and they

17:28

introduced themselves. They said that they were journalists,

17:31

that they wanted to do a story on Costas,

17:33

and the man turned around and said, Vasilis

17:36

is a good guy. We were classmates

17:39

at the sixth primary school.

17:44

He said, I don't believe he's a common criminal.

17:46

He's helping people. And he pointed

17:48

at the Valia that Costa's brothers hadn't

17:50

killed anybody.

17:57

Valia kept hearing stories like this.

18:00

People told her that Polio Costa stole

18:02

cars and returned them in mint condition

18:04

with wads of cash on the passenger

18:07

seat. Others have reported that he

18:09

put young women through school, helped

18:11

poor farmers pay off loans. One

18:14

time he stole a farmer's tractor and returned

18:16

it with the wagon filled with fresh

18:18

hay. Others said that when

18:21

he robbed banks, he tossed money out

18:23

the window of his getaway car to the pedestrians.

18:26

It struck Valia that nobody

18:28

had any real criticisms of this

18:30

guy, I mean, with stories

18:33

like that. Of course, Vasilis and

18:35

his brother were celebrities here, but

18:37

Valia noticed that nobody seemed to

18:39

have firsthand experience with all

18:42

this generosity. Either it

18:44

was always from a cousin's neighbor or

18:46

a friend of a friend, which felt

18:48

suspicious. And also she

18:51

couldn't really nail down the details.

18:53

The stories are always a little vague,

18:56

and when she pushed for more, it seemed

18:58

like there was something that didn't want

19:00

to say.

19:03

It's a strange thing. It was as if

19:05

they were trying to protect the brothers and

19:08

vot this feeling that they didn't want to say

19:10

too much. They only wanted to say the best

19:12

things about them. She would push back,

19:15

but what do you think You know that they've lived a

19:17

life of hard crime, and they would

19:19

always answer, sure, but

19:21

they've also been helping lots of the locals.

19:25

I don't know about you, but this made

19:27

my ears perk up, Like why

19:30

was everybody so tight lit Is

19:32

it possible they knew where Vasilis

19:35

was hiding? After all, this

19:37

is his home turf. Those rugged

19:40

mountains outside the city, they're

19:42

the perfect place to hide if

19:45

you know your way around. So

19:48

is somebody watching out for Vasilis Palio

19:50

Costas. We asked Vali if

19:53

she ever got to the bottom of it, but she

19:55

said no. Every time she raised

19:57

the question of his whereabouts, she always

20:00

got the same answer. Vasilis

20:03

Palio Costas is untouchable.

20:10

They were talking to Vali about

20:12

Robin Hood Palo Costas, and they said, Vasilis

20:15

is gone. The man knows the mountains, he

20:17

knows how to hide, he knows how to disguise himself.

20:20

He's brilliant, and no matter what

20:22

happens, they will never find him.

20:28

Chapter three, The

20:31

Artist's Apprentice. For

20:35

the past fourteen years, Vasilis Palio

20:37

Costas has been m i a,

20:39

avoiding the spotlight and

20:41

the Greek prison system.

20:44

Some say he's in Athens, Others

20:46

say he's hiding in the mountains of northern

20:48

Greece. Still others suggest

20:51

he's kicking back, sipping on Margharita's

20:53

on one of the many far flung islands where

20:56

Greeks go to disappear. It's

20:58

all hearsay. Afney

21:00

and her team spent months pulling on threads,

21:02

chasing internet leads, and hitting dead

21:05

ends, but one name kept

21:07

popping up. We

21:13

interviewed dozens of people handful

21:16

more that spoke off the record, but

21:18

many of them kept mentioning the name Samadas

21:21

Costa Samaras, also

21:23

known as the Artist. Does

21:26

the word artist ring a bell, well,

21:28

you should. Costa Samaras is

21:30

the artist, the criminal mastermind

21:33

who was guarding the bank entrance at the

21:35

top of this episode. Samaras

21:37

is a career criminal. He spent twenty one

21:39

years in prison. He's seen the inside of twelve

21:41

or thirteen different jails, and he's

21:43

also a bonafid escape artist. He's

21:46

escaped prison five different

21:48

times. George, another

21:50

reporter on Daphney's team, dug deep

21:52

into Samatas's background to find

21:54

out why this guy is so important.

21:57

Turns out, Samaras actually played quite

21:59

a big pa to Vasilis's origin story.

22:02

Samaras is one of the main people that helped

22:04

the Silis go from poor Mountain kit to

22:06

one of Greece's most wanted criminals and

22:09

the subjectory is actually kind of funny because

22:11

originally Samaras was actually friends

22:13

with the older brother Nikos, but eventually

22:16

he'd take Vasilis under his wing. And

22:18

this was when in the in the nineteen eighties.

22:21

Yeah, that's right, Vassilis was about

22:23

twenty years old. And what's really

22:25

interesting is that, you know, in addition

22:27

to teaching him how to pick locks and steel

22:29

cars, Samaras apparently taught

22:32

Vasilius that the crime doesn't always need a victim,

22:35

you know, that crimes can be done morally

22:37

and that there can be this real honor amongst

22:40

thieves in a sense. We

22:42

wanted to learn more about this so called moral

22:45

code to crime, so we

22:47

track down somebody who wants interview Samaras.

22:49

An investigative journalists from Reporters United

22:52

named Vothoris Jodrojanos

22:58

told us cost Us Samaras was obsessed

23:00

with fighting any system that hurts the

23:02

week, and he told us that what struck him

23:05

is how Samaras and the Palikosta's brothers

23:07

were always thinking of things in moral terms,

23:10

Like he gave us this example of

23:12

a bank robbery and the fact that

23:15

they're robbing a bank, they're not you

23:17

know, robbing the people. They're not stealing grandma

23:19

and grandpa's pension. If they're they're stealing

23:21

from the strong, and a

23:24

lot of people would see that as as a positive

23:26

thing. Okay, think

23:28

about it. What have big, faceless

23:30

corporate banks ever done for you except

23:34

try to nickel and dime you with overdraft

23:36

fees that don't make sense. A

23:38

good old fashioned bank robbery is kind

23:41

of a perfect crime. The banks

23:43

are ensured, the customer's personal

23:45

accounts aren't touched, and meanwhile,

23:48

the execs are probably committing white collar

23:50

crime literally as we speak. At

23:53

least that's what Vasilis and Samadas

23:55

thought, and that's what made them such

23:57

a good team. They punched

23:59

up, never down. Besides,

24:03

it wasn't just somewhat US's philosophy that

24:05

impressed the ladies. He was

24:07

also blown away by Somewhat US's determination

24:09

to be free, Like even

24:12

when he got caught, he always

24:14

found a way to break out. Oh

24:20

smous Thoris

24:24

loved the facts that Samaras never gave up.

24:26

You'd expect that he commits a crime, gets called,

24:29

goes to jail, and it's over, but

24:31

no, he never let the system all

24:34

an arrest anyway, get the better

24:36

of him. He just had this crazy

24:38

never say die attitude, which obviously

24:41

rubbed off on Vasilius. One

24:43

time, some of us had just done a robbery

24:46

and as he's racing away, he gets cornered

24:48

on a rooftop with nowhere to jump.

24:51

Caught, he ends up cuffed and

24:53

taken downtown. But

24:55

just a few days later, some of

24:58

us puts his natural charms to work.

25:01

He befriends this prison guard and starts

25:03

shooting the breeze with him. They even

25:06

share a meal together, grubbing on chicken.

25:08

When Samaras looks down at his hands,

25:10

where Greece has collected on his fingers

25:15

or I feel like I'm

25:17

going bled that idiot, Samaras

25:20

sees the opportunity. He asked the guard

25:22

if he can go wash his hands, and he lets him go

25:25

very calmly. Samaras goes into

25:27

the bathroom and he heads out of the bathroom

25:29

window and he goes out, hops

25:31

onto the roof terrace, looks around and heads

25:34

to the stairs, and at some point there's

25:36

this lady and she's shouting, hey, one

25:38

of them is trying to get away police, But

25:40

he just jumps off the stairs and makes

25:42

a run for it. Samaras

25:45

hadn't even been in prison for more than a

25:47

week, and he's already got his sight set on freedom.

25:50

You know, he wants to get out. He's got this fire

25:52

to be free.

25:59

And that's not even like one of the better

26:02

Samaras stories. One time he

26:04

broke out by digging through walls and

26:06

hiding in the pits below vault toilets.

26:09

Another time police were transferring

26:11

him by truck and he chiseled a

26:14

hole in the bottom of his holding cell

26:16

while the truck was speeding down a highway

26:19

like Looney Tune style. He just saw

26:21

it his way onto the road and made a break

26:23

for it. And after that escape,

26:26

who do you think he called to come get

26:28

him. That's right, his young

26:30

pupil, Vasilis Paliokostas.

26:34

For years, some of us mentored Vasilis.

26:37

He taught him everything he knew, how

26:40

to commit an ethical crime, one where

26:42

no one got hurt, how to plan

26:44

a heist and get away when there was

26:46

no exit in sight, and

26:48

he taught him how to do it with

26:51

flair. But

26:53

long after these lessons were over, and

26:56

long after the pair had parted ways,

26:58

Vasilis paliokos Us would one

27:01

up his mentor, hatching

27:03

the jail break that would make

27:05

him a legend. Chapter

27:19

four, A Great Escape.

27:28

Vasili Spalio Costas is the legend

27:30

he is today because his mentor,

27:32

Costas Samaras taught him

27:34

the ropes. Together

27:37

they perfected the art of the bank robbery.

27:40

But here's the strange thing. When

27:42

some of us talked to journalists, jos

27:46

he was downright humble about his role.

27:48

He was

27:52

actually surprisingly modest. He

27:54

didn't take any credit to teaching Greece's

27:56

most want his man. He just indicates

27:58

it that there was this una

28:01

between him and Facilis Samaras.

28:04

When you're living in an illegal life, it doesn't

28:07

really matta, he teaches, Hey, you know what's

28:09

more important is that the camaraderie

28:11

lusts. I

28:14

mean, there's a phrase thickest thieves for

28:16

a reason, after all those

28:18

years of stick ups and escapes. Of

28:20

course, he's not just gonna go and snitch on his boy.

28:23

But Floris wondered if it was something

28:26

deeper than that, Like maybe

28:28

there's something else some of us doesn't want

28:30

to talk about, like how

28:33

Vasilis escaped prison with more

28:35

panache than anyone before him,

28:37

how he secured his place as Greece's

28:40

greatest living folk hero, because

28:42

forget the bank robberies and the stories of his generosity,

28:46

this is the part that no writer could

28:48

make up. Vassilis Paliokostas

28:51

has pulled off not one, but

28:53

two of the most absolutely

28:56

insane prison breaks of all

28:58

time, and once you hear this story,

29:00

it's easy to see why Samadas might be just

29:03

a little jealous of his pupil. Cut

29:08

to Athens, February two thousand

29:10

and nine, Corridallos,

29:13

the biggest maximum security prison

29:15

in Greece. Corridallos

29:18

is Greece's Alcatraz. It's

29:20

where the country's most dangerous criminals

29:23

are detained, and among

29:25

them is Vasilis Paliokostas.

29:29

He's been locked up for just a few

29:31

weeks, on trial for a past

29:33

that finally caught up to him.

29:36

The verdict is coming soon, and

29:38

he knows he's probably facing a

29:40

life sentence. Vassilis

29:43

is under heightened surveillance, kept

29:46

in solitary with armed guards and cameras

29:48

monitoring his every move. Around

29:55

three in the afternoon, the beat of

29:57

helicopter blades creates this

29:59

coca inside the jail cells. A

30:02

helicopter is hovering just above

30:04

the roof of the prison. Right on

30:07

top of the roof covering the solitary

30:09

confinement way, a rope

30:11

ladder drops from the chopper. People

30:14

in nearby apartments lean out their windows

30:16

to see. Some grab their cameras and start

30:18

filming. Suddenly guards

30:21

appear on the roof. They start chasing

30:23

after a shadowy figure scrambling

30:25

up the rope ladder into the helicopter,

30:29

and then the chopper begins

30:31

to rise. The

30:34

guards open firebricks. They're too late.

30:36

The helicopter rises above the hail of

30:38

bullets and keeps climbing. It

30:40

reaches altitude, rotates northeast,

30:44

speeds off towards downtown Athens,

30:46

and then the prison

30:48

yard erupts with sheers.

30:52

Every inmate knows who just

30:55

escaped, and soon the

30:57

world will too.

31:02

Vasilio Costas escaping

31:22

the Greek Alcatraz by helicopter is

31:24

impressive, but the most incredible

31:27

thing is this wasn't the first

31:29

time. Just two and a half years

31:31

earlier, Vasilis Palio Coostas

31:33

had broken out of the exact same

31:36

prison the exact same

31:38

way. Whatever heightened

31:40

security measures were in place, they

31:42

weren't enough, because he managed

31:44

to catch people off guard. It's

31:46

like a magician who performs a trick, explains

31:49

how he did it to the audience, then somehow

31:51

does it again, astonishing everyone.

31:55

On February twenty second, two thousand

31:57

and nine, Vasilis palio Coostas

32:00

disappeared into the sky. Since

32:03

that afternoon, fourteen years ago,

32:05

nobody's seen him. The

32:08

Greek police interpoll even

32:10

the world's top intelligence agencies. None

32:13

of them know where he's hiding, but

32:16

that hasn't stopped them from looking. Because

32:18

Vasilis Paliokostas is much more

32:21

than a clever fugitive on the run. He

32:24

humiliated the people who were supposed to

32:26

keep him behind bars. He

32:28

is widely considered a genuine

32:31

threat to the rich and powerful.

32:33

The authorities aren't going to let that slide, and

32:37

yet so many people

32:39

are rooting for him to stay free,

32:42

maybe even me. There's

32:44

just something about a heroic outlaw

32:47

getting one over the system, a

32:49

living, breathing exception to the rule

32:51

that the rich get richer. Maybe

32:55

it doesn't have to be this way, Maybe

32:57

we just need the fairy tale to come to

33:00

life every once in a while. Either

33:02

way, I want to go deeper. I

33:05

want to get lost in the Greek mountains trying

33:07

to find this guy. I want to understand

33:09

his motives, his instincts, but

33:13

the first step has got to be with

33:16

the man who inspired the Greek robin

33:18

Hood. We need to find his mentor,

33:21

the man they call the artist

33:24

Costas sam of us. This

33:31

season on The Good Thief, would

33:33

this have been a place that Panio Costas would coming

33:35

to hang out in these villages?

33:38

If you say anything bad about Polo Costas,

33:40

they will kill you. We went over to the

33:43

embassy and there's this big, humongous

33:45

six foot rocket smoldering.

33:48

One of the reactions is to look for the robin Hood.

33:50

You put your hope in This robin

33:53

Hood's

33:55

brilliant and no matter what happens,

33:58

they will never find him.

34:14

The Good Thief is a Kaleidoscope production and partnership

34:16

with iHeart Podcasts. It's hosted

34:18

by me Miles Gray. Our executive

34:20

producers are man Gesh Hatikador Coosas,

34:23

Linos Ozwalishan, and Kate Oswald.

34:26

From My Heart executive producers are Katrina

34:28

Norvelle and Nikki Etor. We

34:30

are so grateful to our partners at the Greek Podcast

34:32

Project in Athens, without whom this show

34:34

would not be possible. That's executive

34:37

producer Daphne Cartnizis, field

34:39

producers Christina Pilioni and George

34:41

Miadis, and sound designer Nicos

34:44

Scalavintis, who edited and mixed

34:46

this episode and provided the English

34:48

voice of Cosa Samaras. Here

34:51

in the US, Mary Philip Sandy is our supervising

34:53

producer and Shane McKeon is our producer.

34:56

The show is written in researched by Lucas Riley.

34:59

Danya Suleman is our fact checker, sound

35:01

design and final mixed by Soundboard. This

35:04

episode featured the voice of George I Valiotis.

35:07

There's gonna be a lot of great music in this series,

35:09

and that's thanks to a Mom Baldi who wrote

35:12

our theme song, and Botany who composed

35:14

additional music. If you want to hear more

35:16

from them, we've put links in the show notes,

35:18

or you can find them on your favorite music streaming

35:21

service. Last, but not

35:23

least, you want to thank Will Pearson, conal

35:26

Byrne, Bob Pittman, and John

35:28

Marinapolis. Thanks so much for

35:30

listening.