Notorious robber and fugitive Vangelis Rochamis died at the age of 73

Who was Vangelis Rochamis?
Vangelis Rochamis was born in 1951 in Evia and died on February 6, 2024, at the age of 73 while being treated in the hospital of Chalkida. A member of a large family, at the age of 16 he started working to support himself. During his military service in Syros (1971) and because he was not granted permission to visit his newborn daughter, he escaped from the camp. He was also accused of stealing a moped and clashed with his superiors in the army whereupon he received a temporary reprieve.

In 1976 he was imprisoned for the theft he carried out at the post office of his village. Towards the end of the 70s he got an informal divorce from his wife and for a few months he went to Cyprus. In 1980 he was arrested for attempting to sell stolen televisions and imprisoned in Korydallos.

In December 1981, he starred in the first prisoners' riot at the prisons.

He has made more than ten escapes from the prisons of Korydallos, Chalkida, Corfu and Halicarnassus. Friends helped him in his escapes, while women helped him hide.

He was released under terms in April 2000 and since then he had lived in Lefkadi, Evia.

"I don't regret anything," he said in 2016
Sixteen years after his release from prison, in 2016, the notorious robber and fugitive Vangelis Rochamis spoke about everyone and everything on the show "Vrady" and Petros Kostopoulos. He told the story of his life without guilt for what he did and lived.

"I don't regret anything" he answered the question about what he would change if he could go back in time. "Since I was a small child I watched westerns and I liked the 'bad guys', the old guys."

When the conversation turned to his escapades and Vangelis Rochamis remembered that he left as... a lawyer from Korydallos, something reminiscent of Hollywood, as Petros Kostopoulos pointed out, he said: "To go to the visitor's office we passed at least ten doors. Some needed keys and some didn't. When we passed the secretariat, I saw that the keys were  on a board. When I first saw them, I made sure to have a piece of plasticine with me. When I passed by – usually on my way back from the Courts – and I had ten minutes until my turn, I'd take a key and stamp it (he'd put it on the clay). It took ten months, maybe even time, to get the 5-6 keys I needed. I would give them to someone outside and they would make them for me. Opening all the doors was a matter of patience. The last two were opened by themselves, from where the lawyers were leaving, because that's how I left. I was dressed like a lawyer" while he admits that he had help from a friend, who had opened the door for him before the main gate..