It is a hot day in 1983 and in Chalkida, there is an unusual chaos, with police patrol cars blocking off the Evripos bridge and other main avenues.
The news that Mr Vangelis Rochamis he’s got escape from the prisons of the city, it doesn’t take long to circulate and a sneer, sometimes even a smile is the first reaction of people who hear the news.
“Did she do it to them again? Hey what is he?’ they say to groups in the cafes, at the same time that the police are “combing” Chalkida, determined to catch the Greek “Butterfly”.
A few kilometers away from the center, Rochamis, hidden and equipped with a police motorcycle, listens to the commander’s orders and focuses on his voice. A little while later he starts talking like him and mentions that Rochamis was located at a certain point in the center of the city, simultaneously giving the order: “All forces hurry immediately…”.
Indeed, all the forces hurry, together with the patrol cars that were at the block of the Evripos bridge, and a quarter of an hour later Rochamis passes unmolested, in a fast car that he had stolen of course and disappears.
This morning the legendary fugitive “escaped” suddenly for the last time, when during a dialysis he suffered a heart attack at the age of 73.
He left behind a path that until 2000 was constantly in the “red”, as a robber who could endure a lot, but not a narrow prison cell, or a ward in Korydallos.
The principle of illegality
The child of a large family, Vangelis Rochamis did not grow up with comforts, but from a young age he started working to contribute to his family.
Born in 1951, his only enjoyment as a child is western movies, where he always likes the bad guys, those against the law who are thieves and robbers.
Shortly before becoming a soldier he is already married and during his service he is transferred to Syros, he learns that his wife has given birth to their daughter and asks for permission to see the baby.
The “no” he receives from his commander opens the dance of mythical escapes, since Rochamis sneaks out of the camp at night without being noticed and takes the boat to Piraeus.
There he will steal a moped to go to Chalkida and when he returns he gets a reprieve, collects the first sentence for the theft he did and is sent to Korydallos prison for three and a half months.
He has crossed the Rubicon now, without imagining that in the years to come, he will become the most famous fugitive from Greek prisons, before Kostas Samaras and Vassilis Palaiokostas.
In 1976 he returns to prison for the second time when he robs the post office of his village and when he is released he leaves for Cyprus.
He hopes for a new future, but the easy money – he never counted on it – pushes him back into the illegality and in 1980 he is arrested while selling stolen televisions.
Korydallos awaits him with open arms but Vangelis Rochamis in the coming years will prove to be too smart to stay and sometimes too tough to catch.
The keys and the lawyer
As he himself has revealed, the biggest loot he ever got from a robbery amounted to 60,000,000 drachmas, which of course disappeared since the expenses were high.
As a measure of his escapes, he needed people to help him and houses – at one point he rented 14 apartments in different places – to hide from the prosecuting authorities, while he also did a lot of charity to people in need.
In order to leave Korydallos, he had to copy in plasticine all the keys that opened the doors and were in plain sight, a process that took a year.
With convictions for a string of robberies and armed robbery, Rochamis was almost permanently in a penitentiary, except he didn’t sit for long.
He had an “allergy” in prison and proved to be an expert in disguises when necessary, such as in the famous escape with the keys from Korydallos.
As soon as the visit was over “Butterfly” went in somewhere, threw away the overalls and when he came out he was wearing a suit and a wig, so he left like a lawyer!
As he himself has said, he has escaped from all Greek prisons except the one in Patras, “where I spent two and a half years in solitary confinement and it was impossible to escape.”
On April 7, 1986, Rochamis is detained again in Korydallos, when his brother-in-law goes to visit him and with a back to back he escapes again, after someone had abused his daughter and wanted to clean up himself.
The bouzoukis, the woman and Nasiudjik
In contrast to other criminals, Vangelis Rochamis exercised an incomprehensible sympathy for many in Greek society, to such an extent that while the police were looking for him, he had fun playing the bouzoukis and the patrons never thought of pinning him down.
In the spring of 1994, his daughter Maria is on trial in a provincial appeals court and the authorities take draconian measures since Rochamis is a fugitive again, lest he appear in court.
No one pays attention to a woman of about 45 who enters the courtroom and sits in the back seats to watch the trial.
It is Vangelis Rochamis, who once again fools the police, who later learn that “Butterfly” entered the appeals court in disguise!
His figure and his general attitude excite the media of the time, newspapers often have him on the front page and television journalists interview him in his hiding place.
His friendship with Thanasis Nasioudzik, who was accused of murdering writer Thanasis Diamantopoulos, was born in prison in the mid-80s.
When Rochamis escaped he did not forget his friend and in April 1986 when the trial started he set up his best disguise, presenting himself as an old woman.
Passing under the noses of dozens of policemen, he walks up to Nasiudzic and starts talking to him while the defendant smiles, perhaps because he initially can’t believe that he has Rohamis by his side.
The fugitive tells him: “If you want, I’ll take you now and we’ll leave. I have four or five outside waiting for us’ but the author politely declines perhaps the most spectacular courtroom escape attempt.
As soon as he realizes that his friend is gone, he calls his daughters and tells them the incredible incident, which could be a scene from a movie.
Last exit: Lefkadi
In any case, Vangelis’ life resembles an action movie with stormy rhythms, since he spent 22 years of his life in prison at intervals.
This lasted until 2000 when he was released from prison, throwing his own “black stone” into the life of the outlaw who paid him dearly.
Since then he lived in Evia, opened a canteen in Lefkadi, married a second time to the woman he loved and calmed down from a life full of escapes, imprisonments and not a few episodes that built his legend.
After the canteen called “The ark of Rohamis”, he opened a shop on the sea, “Limanaki tou Rohamis” which acquired just as fanatical customers as his first business venture.
How legal he was was verified by the auditors of AADE, when they went to check on him at some point, and they did not find the slightest financial impropriety.
In 2002, he appeared in Nikos Zervos’ film “In the Shadow of Lemmy Cosion” as a guest star, playing himself.
When the appointment was made with Nikos Zervos, Rochamis went to meet him at the well-known “Autoforo”, a restaurant on Alexandras Avenue.
While they were talking about the role, his wife called him and asked him where he was to get the answer “I’m in “Autoforo””, which made her exclaim: “Vangelis again?”.
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