Hrisantos

Hrisantos (born 1889 in Istanbul ; died July 8, 1920 there ) was a multiple murderer and criminal gang leader in occupied Istanbul during the last years of the Ottoman Empire . Hrisantos' gang is said to have killed 21 people, including 13 police officers. Hrisantos was an Ottoman of Greek descent. His full name was Hristo Anastadiyadis Veled-i Ahilya. The addition Veled-i Ahilya means "son of Ahilya".

Beginnings

Hrisantos was born in 1314 AH (1889 AD) in Papazköprü ( Beyoğlu ) in the house of the shopkeeper Yorgi. His mother's name was Andernohin and she ran a brothel in what was then Derviş Sokağı in Beyoğlu. Hrisantos' father Ahilya left the family in 1910. Hrisantos had a sister and an older brother who was later called Latarnacı Koço ("Koço, the organ grinder"). In 1915, in the entertainment district of Beyoğlu, Hrisantos is described as a handsome young man with dark complexion and eyes. The two criminals Meyhaneci Deli Panayot ("the innkeeper the crazy Panayot") and Sarı Hristo ("the blonde Hristo") are said to have quarreled over him. Sarı Hristo was killed in the process. Hrisantos was a regular guest in the coffee houses and taverns.

According to the police archives, Hrisantos is said to have started an apprenticeship as a tailor, but first worked with his brother as a pickpocket and later as a mugger. Hristantos founded his own gang with other figures from the Istanbul underworld .

The gang committed the first robbery of the 65-year-old pudding maker Recep Usta. The timing of the crime is controversial, the information ranges from 1915 to 1918. Hrisantos and his two accomplices Fantoma Mehmet and Makarnacı Niko were caught, brought to justice and sentenced to 15 years in prison. However, the three and one other inmate managed to escape through the sewer system.

Police murders

The first policeman the gang killed was Mehmet Efendi. He wanted to intervene when gang members molested a woman and was shot. This was followed by the shooting of inspector Fahri Efendi and, three months later, of police officer İbrahim Bey. Another policeman was shot dead in 1920 by Hrisantos and his former inmate Zafiri when he was having his shoes cleaned on the street. Two other police officers were shot dead by gang members while they were checking a coffee house because Hrisantos was disturbed while gambling.

The Istanbul police formed a special investigation team of four officers. After three weeks of investigation, there was a shooting with Hrisantos' gang, in which one of the four police officers was killed. Another officer was shot dead shortly afterwards when the police unsuccessfully surrounded a house where the gang were staying. Shortly afterwards, an officer on the patrol in Galata was shot dead.

Breaking the gang

First the police succeeded in catching Hrisantos' right hand Zafiri. Zafiri was killed and the policeman injured in the shooting. The official received a reward and the Mecidiye Order III. Class. Harito, another gang member and former Iranian tobacco dealer, was also killed by the police a little later, on January 7, 1920. Hrisantos then changed his appearance and now pretended to be Doctor Yani. After a carousing, there was a shooting in the Ziba Sokağı with two policemen, both of whom were killed by the gang.

Two siblings of the money changer were killed in a robbery on the money changer Mihail, but Makarnacı Niko ("Niko the dough maker"), a gang member from the very beginning, was also caught. His statements led to the arrest of gang member Fantoma Mehmet. The police also found the hiding place of the gang member Demirci Andon ("Andon, the blacksmith") and put him there. Andon surrendered injured and another policeman was killed.

Escape

In March 1920, Hrisantos went to Greece with his lover Eftimya and started running a tavern in Piraeus . Here he killed a gendarme who was molesting Eftimya. Hrisantos had to go into hiding again and went to Thessaloniki, which was then still Ottoman . Eftimya, who remained in Piraeus, returned to Istanbul and Hrisantos followed her in July 1920 with a false Greek passport under the name Aşil Anastasyadis.

death

Istanbul police monitored an Armenian criminal named Nobar. On July 6, 1920, she set an ambush near his home. There was a shooting in which two people escaped, one of whom was wounded by a bullet. As it turned out later, that person was Hrisantos. Eftimya's father turned to the police the following day with the news that Hrisantos had returned and that he and his daughter feared for their lives. At the same time, the father disclosed the whereabouts of Hrisantos. He was injured and was staying at the Balıkçı Agaton ("Agaton, the fisherman"). The police contacted the fisherman and on the night of July 8th, the officers surrounded the house and shot Hrisantos.

The two officers involved in the shooting of Hrisantos, Muharrem Efendi (later Muharrem Alkor) and Cafer Tayyar Efendi, received a reward and the Mecidiye Order, 5th class. Thousands of people attended Hrisantus' funeral. The fisherman Agaton was later killed as a traitor in an assassination attempt in which he and his two children were seriously injured. The weapon that killed Hrisantos is still kept in the Istanbul Police Museum.

reception

Hrisantos is considered a serial killer in Turkey and the media are of the opinion that the English and French occupiers of Istanbul had worked with him because of his religious affiliation and protected him. The policeman who killed Hrisantos later wrote the book: Hristantos'u Ben Öldürdüm . The title translates as "I killed Hrisantos". The story of Hrisantos was also the subject of the films İstanbul Kan Ağlarken (1952) and Üç Namus Bekçisi (1969).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} news portal haberler.com from July 12, 2016
2. ↑ ^{a b} Avni Özgürel: İmparatorluğun seri katili, in: Daily newspaper Radikal of January 5, 2003
3. ↑ ^{a b} daily newspaper Hürriyet from May 18, 2002
4. ↑ Entry on sinematurk.com

source

• Gürkan Fırat Saylan: İşgal İstanbul'unda Eli Kanlı Bir Örgüt: Hrisantos Çetesi, in: Türkiyat Dergisi of the Ataturk University Erzurum 2010, No. 44, pages 325–343, online as PDF [1]