Dimitris VAKRINOS
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Revenge - Quarreling
Number of victims: 5
Date of murders: 1987 - 1995
Date of arrest: April 9, 1997
Date of birth: 1961
Victims profile: Panayiotis Gaglias, 53 (his room-mate) / Anastasia Simitzi, 26 / Theodoros Andreadis, 39 / The brothers Costas and Antonis Spyropoulos, 33 and 35
Method of murder: Beating with an iron bar - Fire (burning alive) - Shooting
Location: Athens, Greece
Status: Committed suicide in prison by hanging on May 12, 1997
Taxi driver arrested for series of murders
The Athens News Agency
April 11, 1997
Athens police arrested a taxi driver on charges of committing five murders as well as a number of attempted murders and armed robberies over the past 10 years.
Dimitris Vakrinos, 35, has reportedly admitted to killing his room-mate, 53- year-old Panayiotis Gaglias on Aug. 6, 1987, by using an iron bar. The victim had apparently stolen a hunting rifle from Vakrinos and when the latter told him that he would go to the police, Gaglias threatened to beat him up.
Vakrinos' second victim was Anastasia Simitzi, 26, whom he killed on Nov. 20, 1993.
According to reports, after leaving a nightclub the woman asked Vakrinos to take her home. Instead, he asked her to make love with him and when she refused and insulted him, Vakrinos drove her to a remote area near Mantra, Attica, doused her with petrol and burned her alive, police said.
His third victim was a collague, Theodoros Andreadis, 39, who was murdered on Jan. 9, 1994. The two taxi drivers had quarrelled four months before the murder because the victim had picked up a customer from a taxi lane.
Posing as a customer, Vakrinos asked Andreadis to take him to Loutraki. Along the way, he asked the driver to stop and shot him four times. He then drove the taxi back to Elefsina where he doused it in petrol, burning both the vehicle and the driver.
Vakrinos' last two victims were the brothers Costas and Antonis Spyropoulos, 33 and 35, respectively, whom he killed on Dec. 21, 1995.
The two brothers were shot repeatedly after chasing Vakrinos, who had earlier stolen the car of Costas Spyropoulos.
Vakrinos is also alleged to be responsible for four cases of attempted murder, one of which was against a police officer and five armed robberies.
Authorities believe Vakrinos committed the murders because he had an acute inferiority complex and psychological problems since a child, in addition to childhood abuse.
Vakrinos reportedly spent many of his childhood years in an orphanage.
Dimitris Vakrinos
May 12, 1997
Diminutive Greek serial killer Dimitris Vakrinos was found dead in the showers of the prison's isolation ward. The former taxi driver was hanging by the neck from shoelaces tied to a shower head.
