Famous Greek prison escapee dies

Vangelis Rochamis, known in Greece as “Papillion”, has died at the age of 73. With his robberies and especially his numerous prison escapes, the criminal Rohamis worried the Greek authorities for more than two decades.

In total, he spent 22 years in prison and managed to escape more than ten times. With his legendary prison escapes, he created his own myth.

The iron bars in the prisons of Korydallos, Chalkis, Corfu and Alikarnassos were not strong enough to keep him inside.

For many years he was a constant target for the prosecutor’s office.

Vangelis Rohamis was born in Evia in 1951. A child from a large family, he began working to support himself at the age of 16.

During his military service in Syros (1971) and because he was not given permission to visit his newborn daughter, he escaped from his unit. He was also accused of stealing a moped and came into conflict with his military superiors, after which he received a temporary deferment from service.

For the theft, he was sentenced to three and a half months in Korydallos prison.

In 1976, he was jailed for a theft he committed from his village’s post office. At the end of the 70s, he received an unofficial divorce from his wife and went to Cyprus for several months.

In 1980, he was arrested for trying to sell stolen televisions and imprisoned in Korydallos prison.

In December 1981, he was seen in the first prisoners’ speech in prisons, marking himself as an uncompromising and assertive leader. He was tried in 1986 for his participation in the uprising and sentenced to 27 months in prison.

He was convicted of robbery, theft, damaging someone else’s property, carrying and using weapons. Friends helped him escape, and women helped him hide.

Rohamis played cat and mouse with the police for many years, and a very typical incident occurred in the mid-1980s. While the police were looking for him as part of a large-scale coordinated operation, Rokhamis was having fun in a nightclub. Neither the club owners nor the public reported him to the authorities.

He was released from prison by decision of the Judicial Council in 2000.

After his release he lived in a village in Evia.

Vangelis Rohamis died in a hospital in Chalkis on February 6, 2024

Perception of Rohamis by Greek society

During the 1980s and 1990s, he was a constant source of ambivalent media interest, with the public viewing him as an “anti-hero” who fought the police and exposed the prison system from the inside, as someone who ridiculed the police and the legal order. …

The fact that he was never convicted of a crime involving the taking of human life played an important role in this favorable perception.

To this day, part of society believes that he was unjustifiably kept in prison for so many years, arguing that “he is not a murderer, he has never killed anyone.”

Some Greeks, upon learning of his death, even praised him as a kind of “Robin Hood” who used stolen money to help poor families.

Vangelis Rohamis became synonymous with indomitable masculinity, one newspaper wrote.

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