The first episode of a Spotify podcast about the life of Greece’s most-wanted man –notorious gangster Vasilis Palaiokostas- made it to the US Top 10 within 48 hours since its premiere.
The 8-episode podcast series, titled “OUTLAWS: The Good Thief,” is produced by New York-based Kaleidoscope and iHeartProductions, supported by a team of reporters from The Greek Podcast Project.
Host Miles Gray and a team of Greek reporters follow the fugitive’s trail from Athens to tiny islands to remote mountain hideouts. Along the way, they meet Palaiokostas’s inner circle, and chat with police chiefs and prime ministers.
“We’re on the trail of Vassilis Paleokostas, Greece’s most-wanted man —a real-life Robin Hood known for stealing from the rich to give to the poor. Fourteen years ago, after pulling off a string of unbelievable heists, Vassilis disappeared. Where is he now? And why does his legend still have such a hold on people?”, the series’ description reads.
Greece’s most-wanted man is on the lam for over a decade
Besides bank robberies, burglaries and car thefts that he was involved in, Palaiokostas was also found guilty for the notorious abduction of a Greek businessman but managed to twice escape prison by helicopter before disappearing for good.
He has often made headlines on international media, which dub him either “the uncatchable” or “the Greek Robin Hood” – the latter for his habit of giving away stolen money to the poor.
As the podcast highlights, in his absence, legends of his generosity have grown. But no one knows where he is, or if the stories are even true.
Palaiokostas wrote an autobiography entitled A Normal Life, published in November 2021 by Freedom Press.
Palaiokostas’s prison breaks by helicopter
From the biggest bank robbery in Greek history to his second escape from the same maximum security jail by helicopter, someone would think that the life of Vasilis Palaiokostas sounds more like a ganster film script than a real-life story.
His first prison break, organised in 2006, was pulled off by two accomplices who hired a trip on a sight-seeing helicopter from Athens only to hijack it and force the pilot to fly to the prison.
Guards at the facility -where Palaiokostas was serving a 25-year sentence for kidnapping- allowed the helicopter to land as they thought that it was a visit from prison inspectors.
Despite this spectacular first escape, Palaiokostas was re-captured in August 2008, in Thessaloniki.
But he wasn’t to stay in prison for longer than a few months before his final prison break.
In February 2009, Palaiokostas again escaped from Athens’ Korydallos Prison by helicopter, this time with his cellmate, Alket Rizai. They climbed a rope ladder thrown to them by a female passenger in a helicopter as it flew over the prison courtyard.
Guards on the ground opened fire while the woman fired back with an automatic rifle. No injuries were reported in the gun fight, which was captured on video by an area resident.
The helicopter was later found abandoned near a highway north of Athens, its pilot bound and gagged, with a hood over his head. He told police the helicopter had been chartered by a couple who had chartered the helicopter a number of times in the previous weeks.
According to the pilot, the two fugitives were delivered to a getaway car.
While Rizai was re-arrested in November that year, Palaiokostas is still at large with a one-million euro bounty placed on him for information leading to his arrest.
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