Serial Killer Who Feared People in the Ottoman Era: Hrisantos

Hrisantos, who has been involved in a crime from his childhood; He became the leading role in many crimes such as theft, banditry and murder. The real name of this young murderer, who was only 23 when he was killed Hristo Anastadiadis Veledi Ahilyawas ‘. He was only 16 years old when the criminal records of the Ottoman police were passed.

During the armistice times of Istanbul, bandits, cults, loggers and collaborators roamed the troubled streets. The most fearsome gang of these times was Hrisanto, aka. “The November Monster” was forming.

Working as a tailor’s apprentice, Hrisantos comes from a Greek family.

of Hrisantos His father, Ahilya, He went to Athens in 1910 and was never seen again. His mother Andernohin, formerly known as Beyoğlu Derviş Street (currently known as Peremeci Sokak) was running a brothel. Kasimpasa Monster had a sister and an older brother 5 years older than him.

His older brother, Laternacı Koço, is the person who burned Hrisantos’ head.

“The nose of the one whose guide is the crow will not get rid of the filth” As they say, the cause of the troubles that befall Hrisantos is actually his older brother Koço. Instead of being busy with his craft, he is a vigilante who is in the business of stealing. His older brother, who also “guided” his brother at a young age, raises Hrisantos in crime. He starts off with a mixology. In simple terms, this is robbery with death threats.

When Hrisantos turns mixing into a craft over time, he slowly starts to gain a reputation around because he is fast and fierce. Of course, when you make a name, you get stuck with it, and the known gangsters of that period join Hrisantos and form a gang. Members of the gang: Zafiri, Fantoma Mehmet, Harito, Pasta maker Niko, Blacksmith Andon.

All Istanbul was afraid to run into Hrisantos and his gang.

At night, when the Pera region, where people from all nationalities were living, was not already safe, this notorious gang emerged on top of it. People were reluctant to go out on the street just because of this. In the back streets of Feriköy, Papazköy, Dolapdere, Sinanköy, Bülbülderesi and Beyoğlu After a while, the extortion gang starts not to cut it, and they plan to do something one click above: rob a shop.

The main purpose of the gang, which entered the shop on the pretext of buying milk, was to make a profit.

The gang, which started to robbery by roaming the shops with a knife and a gun, one day Recep Usta, who works as a pudding maker in the Boğazkesen regionThey are dripping in the first light of the morning in ‘s shop. The neighborhood is quiet, it is early in the morning, there is no one around. They kill 65-year-old Recep Usta with iron pieces and wedges in their hands and take the money from the safe. The year is controversial, thought to be 1915 or 1918. The gang is then arrested.

The gang was tried at the Divan-ı Harbi Örfi, sentenced to 15 years of hard labor and sent to the General Prison to spend their days in detention.

Although the people took a deep breath, the detention of the murderers did not last long. A few weeks after the signing of the Armistice of Mudros Istanbulites, who started to read the morning newspapers, came across the following news:

“Hrisantos, Zafiri, Makarnacı Niko and Fantoma Mehmet, who were convicted of the murderer and theft of safes and were in the General Prison, managed to escape by opening a sewer under their ward. The police are vigorously following them.” Thus, Chrysanthos escaped. regained his freedom. While he was in prison, Istanbul was occupied by the Allied Powers, and after that, Hrisantos cooperated closely with the representatives of the Entente Powers in Istanbul. Hrisantos, who started to work as a spy in the British Intelligence Service, was also receiving money and weapon aid from the British.

Hrisantos, who became an unstoppable murderer with the support of the British and the Greeks of Beyoğlu, started to commit serial murders with his gang until he was caught.

One night, Hrisantos and his gang are in Beyoğlu. They want to intercept and rob Madam Despina. After the woman resisted by shouting and asking for help, Mehmet Efendi, one of the officers of the Taksim Police Station, finds himself in the incident. The police officer rushes to her aid when he hears her screams. When the gang sees the police officer, they immediately point the barrel at him and rain bullets. Mehmet Efendi, on the other hand, dies on the spot.

The police killings were just getting started.

The prosecution against Hrisantos became even tighter after this incident. Commissioner Fahri Efendi He entered the Beyoğlu district, taking with him three police officers whom he especially trusted. Their aim was to raid Chrysanthos suddenly. However, because Hrisantos and his gang got the early news, they followed the police and suddenly opened fire. Fahri Efendi also died during this time; The Hrisantos gang, on the other hand, became land again.

They did not hesitate to show up around because they had become the most notorious karmayola gang in Istanbul. The Allies rumble and rumble behind them. The gang come across two policemen in Beyoğlu Ziba Street: Deputy Commissioner Hüsnü Bey and Police Officer Ali Efendi. Although the police followed Hrisantos for a long time, Hrisantos, who understands the situation, kills those policemen by acting early with his gun.

The gang are free to visit entertainment venues by waving their arms.

One day, Chrysanthos and Zafiri secretly from a marijuana-smoking coffeehouse As they were passing by the Avangeliya Church, Police Abdurrahman Efendi, who was patrolling the area, was having his shoes shined at that time. They meet as soon as they enter the street. When they see someone in uniform, Hrisantos and Zafiri rush towards Abdurrahman Efendi to take his gun and the police officer is there. he is martyred.

As if these weren’t enough, they open fire on all the police gang after them in Istanbul.

Capture of Chrysanthos For the Istanbul Police, it had become a matter of honor rather than duty. Although the team finally met with the gang members in Dolapdere after a follow-up that lasted for about three weeks, as a result of the clash between the two sides, none of the members of the gang were caught, and Osman Efendi, one of the police officers, also fell a martyr.

The martyrdom of his friends one by one by the Hrisantos Gang had inflamed the fire of revenge in the Istanbul police.

Especially Second Branch Manager Faik Bey, who is after both Hrisantos and the others separately, is after Hrisantos’ right-hand man Zafiri. After the report that Zafiri entered a pudding shop in Kalyoncukollığı, Faik Bey goes here and stands in front of Zafiri and asks for his head paper. Zafiri put his hand in his pocket and suddenly pulled out his gun. He shoots Faik Bey. Faik Bey must have guessed that he would do this, because he is shot in the left side of his chest, even if he bends down immediately, but he draws his gun and fires, regardless of his wound.

This event caused great joy both in the high-level bureaucratic levels of the Ottoman Empire and among the people of Istanbul.

The one who killed Zafiri by publishing a will-i seniyye by the Sultan. Faik Bey was awarded the third degree Osmani OrderThe Minister of Internal Affairs of the period, Adil Bey, personally handed this badge to Faik Bey, who was going to the hospital where Faik Bey was taken, and whose treatment continued.

This time, Hrisantos appears as Doctor Yani.

When the second and third men of the gang were killed, a difficult process began for Chrysanthos, and he could not be seen for a while. When you have to change your identity “Doctor So” He changed his appearance from head to toe, taking on a false identity in his name. While they were continuing their murders in this guise, their gang was caught one by one and they were talking and betraying the “Kasimpasa Monster”.

Hrisantos, who was left alone, is only a matter of time before he is caught in Istanbul, and there is no one he can trust. He knows that if he stays here, he will die and finds the solution by escaping. With his lover Eftimya He fled to Greece in March 1920. Settling in Piraeus. Here, Hrisantos opens a tavern and starts operating it. But unfortunately, trouble does not leave him. This time, a gendarme named Panayot, who was on duty in Piraeus, did not hesitate to kill his lover when he was hanged on Eftimya. There he becomes a fugitive and flees to Thessaloniki.

When Eftimya returned to Istanbul, the adventure of Hrisantos began again.

When Hrisantos learns that his lover has returned to Istanbul, he goes mad with anger, thinking that she betrayed him, he takes a fake Greek passport named Achilles Anastasyadis to kill Eftimya and ends up in Istanbul. The date is 1920, the month is September.

Brava, the father of Eftimya, who learns that Hrisantos has come to Istanbul, is at the Dolapdere Police Station. He also tells the police where he hides, saying that the murderer has returned to Istanbul and that their lives are in danger. on information Dolapdere Police Station Commissioner Hasan Tahsin Bey and Deputy Commissioner Muharrem Efendi, He contacts Agaton the Fisherman, with whom he is hiding. By the way, Muharrem Efendi is the father of famous actress Selda Alkor.

The story of Chrysanthos comes to an end.

• Source: BOA, DH.EUM.AYŞ., DN53, GN26

Hrisantos, who was ambushed to be caught inside the house, was wounded there and caught after a long struggle. The revenge of so many innocent people and martyred policemen was finally taken. His body was first taken to the Dolapdere Police Station. He was then handed over to the Sinanköy Church Priest. With a ceremony attended by the Greeks of Hrisantos, Papazköprü, Tatavla, Dolapdere and Pangaltı. He was buried in a cemetery near the church.

His life has been the subject of books and movies.

The most well-known work is “How I Killed Chrysanthos” written by Muharrem Alkor, a close witness of the event. is a book. in Turkish cinema Istanbul Crying Blood (1952) and Three Honor Guards (1969) It has also been the subject of two separate films.

While Istanbul is Crying Blood may be the most important of these films. The reason is the author in Agah Özgüç’s Encyclopedia of Turkish Cinema History: Screenwriter Osman Seden, for scripting Hrisantos While doing research, he met an old Greek who knew the events in Dolapdere in the early 1950s. This person says there was another woman named Fifica with Eftimya. Jealousy between two women fificaHe tells that ‘s reported Hrisantos to the Turkish police. After Fifica, Chrysanthos saw Eftimya and fell in love with her, and kidnapped her at gunpoint from her family. It is said that the subject of Eftimya’s father came from there.