VASSILIS STEFANAKOS

Mobster born in 1961 in Haïdari. Nicknamed "King of the Night" (Greek mobsters are traditionnally involved in nightclub owning and protection racket hence why most of them are called "Godfathers of the Night" ), he's involved in oil and cigarette smuggling, drug dealing, and protection racket. He became the head of his gang, along with Aristidis Lakiotis and Ioannis Skaftouros, after the death of his boss in the early 2000's. 

He was the one who ordered the death of Greek rival Godfather of the Night Themis Kalapotharakos in Nea Makri, in revenge for the murder of Themistoklis Papamalis, among other murders. In the 2000's, he was one of Attica's most powerful mobster: he collaborated with Yiorgos Tsakoyiannis and bought weapons from him and paid another Godfather of the Night, Alexandros Kosmopoulos, 1 million Euro's to not interfere in his business. Cigarettes were smuggled to Greek ports from Cyprus four times a week and then transported to Thebes with the help of two policemen on the Stefanakos payroll. They were rather violent and those who refused to pay were beaten and the businesses bombed. 

When Stefanakos girlfriend left him, he began to harass her and threatened her family, one member of her family who worked for Kosmopoulos even had to go into hiding and, among other things, he smashed her car with his and then assaulted with a knife two guys who asked why he did that. On 2006, he was convicted in absentia for battery, smuggling, and racketeering but managed to escape thanks to some cops who gave him a fake ID (others policemen helped him by informing him of police's decisions concerning him). 

He was also the one who staged Vassilis Paleokostas and Alket Rizaj's first prison escape. Rizaj was one of Stefanakos hitmen and was his food taster and bodyguard in jail. He was one of West Attica' s most wanted godfathers until he was arrested in Chaidari with three shotguns, flash grenades and ammunitions. He was also part of the Vlastos and Skaftouros mafia until the organization was disbanded. 

ENTER: PETE THE LEBANESE

I USED TO HAVE EVERYONE'S FULL NAMES AND CERTAIN DATES BUT FOR CERTAIN REASONS..I CURRENTLY DO NOT HAVE THEM. BUT THOSE DETAILS ARE NOT IMPORTANT. BUT THERE WAS A GUY FROM THE USA WHOSE ANCESTORS WERE FROM LEBANON. HIS NAME WAS PETER (PITIR?) AND HE LIKED SMOKING CRACK COCAINE. WHEN HE WAS STRAIGHT, HE WAS A PUSSY. WHEN HE WAS ON CRACK..HE WAS A COLD KILLER.

SO, ONE TIME HE WAS IN THE BACK SEAT OF A TAXI SOMEWHERE ON THE EAST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES WITH HIS GIRLFRIEND. I AM NOT SURE ABOUT HE EXACT DETAILS, BUT HIS GIRLFRIEND TOLD HIM TO BLOW THE TAXI DRIVERS HEAD OFF. WELL, HE PULLED OUT HIS GUN AND BLEW THE POOR GUYS HEAD OFF.

FOR SOME REASON, THE GREEK MOB IN ATHENS HAD A SOFT SPOT FOR THE SCUMBAG.

OK, TO CONTINUE THE STORY, PETER WAS A SPY FOR THE "TSAKO" CAMP. NICK, TEDDY, AND SOME OTHER "TORPEDOS" WHO WERE IN NICK AND TEDDY'S CAMP WERE SUPPOSED TO MEET UP WITH YIANNOPOULOS WITH TSAKOYIANNIS PLAYING THE MEDIATOR (BUT HE WAS REALLY 100% ALLIED WITH YIANNOPOULOS). I FORGET THE EXACT DETAILS BUT THEY GOT IN A SHOOTOUT IN THE PARKING LOT. NICK PULLED OUT AN UZI (OR SOMETHING SIMILAR) AND SPRAYED A JAGUAR FILLED WITH SOLDIERS WHO WERE ABOUT TO SUPRISE ATTACK NICK AND HIS BOYS.

IT ALL HAPPENED SO FAST AND IT WAS THE EVENT THAT LET EVERYONE KNOW THAT THERE WAS A WAR GOING ON..NO DOUBT ABOUT IT. THE BOYS KNEW TSAKO WAS FULL OF SHIT. ALL THE CARDS WERE ON THE TABLE. THE ONLY THING IS THE GRIGORAKOS FAMILY HAD "9 LIVES". THE TSAKO/YIANNO CAMP TRIED MANY TIMES TO ATTEMPT ASSASSINATIONS BUT THEY PROVED TO BE HARD TO HIT. THEY HAD A SIXTH SENSE THAT WENT WELL WITH THEIR STREET SMARTS AND PARANOIA.

BECAUSE THERE WAS A LEAST ONE SPY IN THE GRIGORAKOS CAMP (CRACK HEAD PETE), THE TSAKO/YIANNO GANG SEEMED THEY WERE ALWAYS ONE STEP AHEAD OF THE AMERICANS. THIS CAUSED A LOT OF ANXIETY IN THE GRIGORAKOS GANG. THEY WERE NOT SURE IF THEIR HOUSE AND CAR WERE BUGGED OR MAYBE THEIR PHONES. WHENEVER A SOLDIER WOULD TRY AND STALK TSAKO..ALL OF A SUDDEN TSAKOS BOYS (OR EVEN POLICE OFFICERS ON TSAKOS PAYROLL) ALL OF A SUDDEN WOULD STALK THE STALKERS.

HERE IS SOMETHING NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW..NOT EVEN TSAKOYIANNIS. ONE NIGHT, TSAKO WAS WITH HIS FAMILY RELAXING ON A BALCONY. NICK, TEDDY, AND THEIR FATHER WERE ACROSS THE STREET STALKING THEM. THEY HAD SOME SORT OF WEAPON..LIKE A GRENADE LAUNCHER OR SOMETHING. THEY WERE READY TO TAKE OUT TSAKO, EVEN IF IT MEANT COLLATERAL DAMGAGE. NTG AND TEDDY WERE READY TO DO IT. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN A MAJOR BLOW TO THE TSAKO/YIANNO SIDE AND MIGHT HAVE ENDED THE WAR. BUT THE FATHER INSISTED NO INNOCENT BYSTANDERS.

TSAKO, YOU GOT A PASS THAT NIGHT AND YOUR FAMILY SURVIVES TO THIS DAY. I WONDER IF YOU EVEN KNOW HOW CLOSE YOU AND YOUR FAMILY CAME TO BECOMING BURNT FLESH AND BONE PIECES.

ONE DAY, TEDDY WAS BUYING OR DELIVERING AT LEAST ONE KILO OF COCAINE. HE WAS APPROACHED BY MANY ARMED MEN WHO HE THOUGHT WAS ABOUT TO ROB HIM. HE PULLED OUT HIS AUTOMATIC AND SPRAYED THEM.

WELL, THEY WERE COPS AND HE WAS RIGHT..THEY WERE WITH TSAKO AND WERE ABOUT TO ROB HIM AND WHO KNOWS WHAT ELSE THEY WERE GOING TO DO TO HIM. HE WAS EVENTUALLY ARRESTED AND THE COPS SAID THEY WERE NOT ROBBING HIM BUT INSTEAD CONDUCTING AN INVESTIGATION OR WHATEVER BLAH BLAH.

WHILE TEDDY WAS IN PRISON, NICK THE GREEK WAS COMING OUT OF A COURTHOUSE (OBVIOUSLY UNARMED) WHEN AN ALBANIAN MAN SHOT HIM AND KILLED HIM. THIS WAS A BIG BLOW WITH NICK DEAD AND TEDDY IN JAIL.

TEDDY WAS FEELING THE HEAT AND FROM HIS CELL HE WAS PROMISING HIS CRONIES US$100,000 AND TERRITORY IF THEY KILLED TSAKO.

THEN, ON TEDDY'S BIRTHDAY, THEY MADE SPAGHETTI TO CELEBRATE. WELL, GUESS WHO WAS IN JAIL WITH TEDDY AT THE TIME..PETER THE CRACK HEAD. TSAKO ORDERED PETER TO TAKE OUT TEDDY. PETER COULD NOT KILL HIM WITH A WEAPON BECAUSE TEDDY WOULD HAVE TAKEN IT AWAY AND KILLED PETER WITH HIS BARE HANDS. SO, PETER POISONED TEDDY'S SPAGHETTI AND KILLED HIM.

I'M NOT SURE IF IT HAPPENED BEFORE OR AFTER TEDDY'S DEATH..BUT ONE NIGHT, THEIR FATHER WAS ASSASSINATED ON VOULAGEMENI BLVD AS HE DROVE HIS CAR.

TSAKO AND HIS BOYS WON AND THE GRIGORAKOS UNDERLINGS ALL SCATTERED TO OTHER COUNTRIES TO AVOID GETTING WHACKED, ARRESTED, OR BOTH.

BUT ONE DAY, A RELATIVE OF THE GRIGORAKOS FAMILY STRUCK OUT IN REVENGE. AFTER A LITTLE BIT OF TIME, TSAKO WAS FEELING SAFE NOW THAT ALL OF HIS ENEMIES WERE DEAD..OR WERE THEY?

SOMEONE SHOT AND KILLED TSAKOS COUSIN AT TSAKOS BUSINESS (WHO LOOKED MUCH LIKE TSAKO) BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT IT WAS TSAKO.

FROM WHAT I UNDERSTAND, BUT I AM NOT SURE IF THIS IS ACCURATE..TEDDY'S WIDOW MADE A DEAL WITH TSAKO ASSURING HIM THAT THERE WOULD BE NO MORE ATTEMPTS ON HIS LIFE. SHE JUST WANTED TO RAISE HER CHILD (TEDDY'S LITTLE BOY) IN PEACE. SHE DID WHAT ANY GOOD MOTHER WOULD DO AND PROTECTED HER SON. LOL, I WONDER IF SHE COULD BEAT TSAKO IN A ONE ON ONE FIGHT. SHE IS A TOUGH GREEK-AMERICAN BITCH!

EVENTUALLY, PETER MADE HIS WAY TO SOUTH AMERICA WHERE HE TRIED TO STAY LOW. THERE ARE RUMOURS THAT HE KILLED SOME INNOCENT PEOPLE THERE AS WELL. I BELIEVE IT WAS VENEZUELA WHERE PETER WAS KILLED. MAYBE TSAKO SENT HIS BOYS OUT THERE TO WHACK PETER TO SHUT HIM UP OR MAYBE PETER WAS KILLED BY SOMEONE HE WAS TRYING TO ROB. NO ONE KNOWS FOR SURE.

LASTLY, ACCORDING TO SOURCES WHO POST ON HERE, A COUPLE OF NICK AND TEDDY'S FRIENDS CAUGHT THE ALBANIAN WHO KILLED NICK AND TORTURED HIM AND KILLED HIM. THIS HAS NOT BEEN CONFIRMED BUT I BELIEVE IT.

I WONDER WHAT THE GREEK UNDERWORLD IN ATHENS WOULD HAVE BEEN LIKE IF THE GRIGORAKOS FAMILY WON THE WAR AND CONTROLLED THE ATHENS UNDERWORLD. ONLY ZEUS KNOWS!!!

GODFATHER OF NIGHT: A Greek Mafia Father, a Drug Runner Son, and an Unexpected Shot at Redemption (UPDATED)

My friend ordered the book "Godfather of Night" and after I read it, I will tell you how I like it. Here is some info from Amazon.com:

From Publishers Weekly
Reformed gangster Pappas offers a potent, fast-paced memoir: I didn't become a gangster out of greed, money, or to drive fancy cars. I got into it to make a point: To prove my manhood to a father who denied me. That father was Lukie Pappas, head of the biggest Greek crime family in the Southeast. At age 17 the author learned he was Lukie's illegitimate son. He changed his name from Kevin Cunningham to Kevin Lucas Pappas, but still received only a cold denial from Lukie. Angered by the rejection, Pappas began his own criminal life of swindles, drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering. As a kingpin in Atlanta, he found the cocaine competition turning ugly: At age 24, he landed in the violent Atlanta federal prison. While serving two consecutive life sentences, Pappas agreed to an FBI offer: freedom in exchange for infiltrating his father's group as an informant: I walked out of prison full of anger and animosity toward my so-called father. Pappas is adapting this high-octane book into a documentary, scheduled for 2010 release. 8 pages of b&w photos. (Aug. 11)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description
What if you belonged nowhere and to no one? What if you learned as a teenager that the father who had mistreated you for years wasn’t your father at all–and that you were actually born to the mistress of a Greek gangster? And what if the only way to connect with your real father was to become his fiercest rival?

Kevin Cunningham grew up in Tarpon Springs, Florida, just another kid from the wrong side of the tracks. But from his first days, Kevin gravitated toward power, and in Tarpon Springs that meant local crime boss Lukie Pappas. As a boy, Kevin hung out at the Pappas Restaurant, and he saw how the townspeople approached Lukie. How they respected him. How they came to him for help. How they called him nounos–Greek for “godfather.” From the shadows, Kevin admired it all.

When he turned seventeen, Kevin’s world flipped upside down. His dying father confessed that Kevin was the son of another man–and not just any man. He was the son of Lukie Pappas. Suddenly, Kevin’s destiny was clear. His lineage became his fate. His rightful place was beside the Greek godfather who ruled his hometown.

But Lukie coldly rejected him, as both a son and a colleague. Fueled by rage and pride, Kevin claimed the Pappas name as his own and embarked on his own criminal enterprise. From two-bit swindling he rose quickly to high-stakes drug trafficking. Money laundering, gun running, and racketeering polished his underworld résumé, even as they placed him squarely in the cross-hairs of every federal agency with three initials and a most-wanted list. And when he got caught, Kevin’s time behind bars only honed his criminal instinct, hardened his resolve, and cemented his reputation as a larger-than-life outlaw who sometimes went down but could never be taken out.

Still in his early twenties but as powerful as any crime boss, Kevin surrounded himself with an elite group, a posse that called itself the Band of Five. Flush with fast cars, boats, planes, and women, they wanted for nothing, but their antics invited violent attempts to bring Kevin to his senses–or at least to his knees.

More than a gripping tale, Godfather of Night unveils the Greek American crime syndicate and its close alignment to power and takes readers to a dark place where family secrets collide with high-level crime and corruption. Kevin Pappas’s story is a true-crime epic for a new generation of wiseguys–full of the harrowing war stories and hard-won wisdom of a man who lived by his own rules, broke everyone else’s, and dared the world to try to stop him.

UPDATE AUGUST 29, 2009: I READ THIS BOOK IN FOUR DAYS AND I ENJOYED THE WAY HE TOLD HIS LIFE STORY. THERE WAS VERY LITTLE WRITTEN ABOUT THE GREEK MAFIA THOUGH. BASICALLY, IT'S ABOUT A GUY WHO WAS BROUGHT UP LIVING IN A MOSTLY GREEK TOWN IN FLORIDA. EVEN THOUGH HIS MOTHER AND FATHER WERE NON-GREEKS, HE LEARNED THE GREEK LANGUAGE AS WELL AS GREEK DANCING. HE WAS REALLY INTO THE GREEK CULTURE BUT NEVER REALLY KNEW WHY. THEN HE FOUND OUT THAT HIS MOTHER CHEATED AND HIS REAL FATHER WAS A GREEK MOB BOSS THAT WOULD NOT ADMIT THAT HE WAS HIS REAL FATHER. SO, BASICALLY HE BECOMES A BIG TIME COCAINE DEALER IN ATLANTA AFTER STARTING SMALL AT A VERY YOUNG AGE AND GOES THROUGH THIS ROLLER COASTER OF A LIFE. I DON'T WANT TO GIVE ANYTHING AWAY, BUT I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK EVEN THOUGH THERE IS VERY, VERY LITTLE ABOUT GREEK ORGANIZED CRIME IN IT.