A WANTED gangster dubbed “The Uncatchable” has fled prison ten times once using a helicopter and managed to evade cops for more than a decade.
Vasilis Palaiokostas, 58, is Greece’s most-wanted criminal with a jaw-dropping €1million bounty on his head.
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Starting as a petty thief, Palaiokostas and his brother Nikos became Greece‘s most notorious robbers after executing 27 robberies.
Rumours about Palaiokostas, from Trikala, spread like wildfire during his criminal career spanning three decades – and suggested that he was helping those in need by sharing his loot.
The pair targeted wealthy businessmen and state-owned banks and were in and out of jail before Vasilis was sentenced to 25 years behind bars for the kidnap of a CEO in 2000.
In 2009, it was his second time breaking from the Korydallos Maximum Security prison by helicopter and the criminal mastermind has not been seen since – despite an active police probe to locate him.
Dramatic footage from the elaborate escape shows a chopper landing on the roof of the prison while a rope is quickly thrown down.
Within seconds Palaiokostas and another inmate climbed into the helicopter using the rope and took off – meanwhile, other inmates can be heard clapping and cheering.
The gangster is so elusive that in 2021 he was able to publish an autobiography about his life while in hiding.
The criminal’s extraordinary life was recently turned into a podcast by Kaleidoscope – which sparked the idea of a potential film.
Producer of the podcast “The Good Thief” Konstantinos Linos says while the escape itself was rather cinematic, it carried a stronger symbolism.
He told The Sun: “It was helicopters from the maximum security prison in Greece, in downtown Athens.
“I think there was a Che Guevara flag involved, there was a ‘dark woman,’ there was a helicopter pilot who only had the best things to say about Palaiokostas.”
“The act itself is cinematic, crazy, wild, outlandish but the symbol, I think, is the story that raises a lot of questions.
“Both about criminal justice, about the systems that try to protect societies and criminals themselves, and some incredible failings that the Greek government had over the years.
“This guy was a farmer’s son, who was a small-time criminal from a rural village in Greece and he managed to embarrass the entirety of the Greek State, the entirety of Interpol, the entirety of Europe, and even CIA agents who are on the ground.
“So it’s an act of fanfare. It’s a criminal act, but it’s an act of resistance. And it’s an incredibly symbolic act that embarrasses so many people.”
Since his prison escape, Palaiokostas has remained on the run with members of the public likely keeping him hidden or failing to come forward with info about his whereabouts.
The bandit has become a symbol of troubled times in the country – similar to Jesse James and John Dillinger.
In 2010, a man resembling Paleokostas was spotted on surveillance cameras at a petrol station.
If it was the mastemind, it appeared that he’d had plastc surgery and was using a disguise to hide in plain sight.
In 2013, Greek police believed they had tracked down the elusive criminal at a farm in the mountains of Kozani.
When they arrived they found banknotes with matching serial to his robberies – suggesting he was still dishing out cash.
A CRIMINAL IS BORN
Palaiokostas started his career by breaking into jewellery stores but soon he evolved into a professional criminal.
Fed up with Greece’s financial status and wealth gap, he started targeting state-owned banks and kidnapping businessmen.
He became a legend in 1992 when he conducted the biggest heist in Greece’s history.
In an elaborate bold plan, Vasilis alongside his brother Nikos robbed a National Bank branch in the city of Kalambaka, using an AK-47 rifle.
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After taking off with a whopping £375,000 the pair escaped in a stolen car and started throwing wads of cash out of the window in front of stunned drivers.
It is estimated that Vasilis gave away £270,000 that day, earning him the nickname “Robin Hood.”
Stories detail how the criminal would throw wads of cash out of the car’s window every time he robbed a bank.
As he gradually became the public’s unsung hero, tales about his kind acts spread across the country.
Some say he would steal a car to evade police and would later leave it in the middle of the street sparkly clean and polished – with some cash hidden under the driver’s seat as a ‘thank you.’
Others described how families in need would receive envelopes with money to help put their children through school.
One of his former cellmates, Polykarpos Georgiadis recalled in a BBC interview: “Criminals snatch purses from old ladies. Vassilis was on a different level: he is a socially accepted bandit and a hero.”
Linos agrees and says the nickname ‘Greek Robin Hood “encapsulates his story perfectly” as there are many stories detailing the kind thief’s generous spirit.
He added: “I think, on the one hand, it’s an incredibly kind of universal story, a tale as old as time of someone who at least purports to rob the rich to give to the poor.
“At the same time, it’s a story of a legend, and how societies, especially societies that are facing a lot of inequality and look for these heroes and these folk heroes and build them up, even if the facts don’t necessarily support them.
“And at the same time these Robin Hood, because it’s just such an incredibly cinematic adventure story and all of the I mean, the cast is is taking straight out of central casting.”
The podcast’s host Miles Gray and a team of journalists from the US, and the UK travelled to Greece, trying to track him down.
Their journey started from Trikala, the thief’s hometown in central Greece and took them all over the country including Athens and the island of Ikaria.
While they weren’t able to locate him, they did manage to speak to members of his inner circle and chatted to cops who spent years trying to find him and a former Greek Prime Minister.
Linos says almost everyone had only positive words to say about the “good thief” who was supported by the public and other thieves.
Based on their investigation, Linos believes Paliokostas is not active today but remains in hiding – much closer to where everyone might think he is.
Even though rumours speculated Palikostas may be hiding in the secluded Moun Athos or may have fled abroad, the team believes he is actually somewhere close to his hometown.
Linos notes how Palaiokostas has an excellent grasp of how to use the media to his advantage – he’s even written an autobiography titled A Normal Life – and is adamant he has even listened to the podcast about him.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he also read your article when it comes out,” he says.
WHERE IS HE TODAY?
Despite ongoing police efforts and a €1million bounty on his name, Palaiokostas remains at large 14 years after his second jail break.
Linos believes the only reason Palaiokostas – who has escaped from prison ten times in total – has managed to evade arrest for years is support from the public.
“The only reason he managed to stay on the lam escalate his crimes and do some brazen attacks by the end of his criminal career is because he has profound popular support both in the communities and criminal underworld where he maintains a ton of respect from others and is seen as again.
“A moral thief who has a code both within his community and the people he grew up with who are actively sheltering him and had for a while, and within the larger public.
“His name has become synonymous with Robin Hood and Greece, and and abroad, and and yet he’s lionized around the country and elsewhere.
“And again, it’s incredibly curious that Interpol’s most wanted in the time of yeah severe financial crisis in Greece, where we had 40% unemployment and the average wage was less than €1000 a month this guy has a million-dollar bounty on his head, and no one has seen or heard of him for the past 15 years other than when he chooses to be seen and be heard from.
“I wouldn’t know where to start to kind of hide my track, so I’m sure he has a lot of kind of tips and tricks up his sleeve.”
OUTLAWS: The Good Thief by Kaleidoscope is available on Spotify.
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