The expression “serial killer” in its Greek version, and indeed of the female gender, was incarnated back in the “years of innocence” in the person of Ekaterina Dimitreas, in a small village of Mani, Stoupa.
Over a period of about four months, Demetraa committed four murders, almost wiping out her family by using parathion and forcing international media such as the Mineapolis Sunday Times to make its story known to the ends of the earth.
At 42 years old, the «dragoness» of Mani, as the media later called her, was divorced and suffering from hemiplegia on her left side. For the small, closed, provincial society it was a finger-pointing. She lived with her daughter in a village cottage and tried to live on her monthly allowance of about 200 drachmas from the state welfare system. Her life next to 10-year-old Stella was difficult but peaceful. Or at least that's how it seemed to the local community.
What may have happened in the mind of Ekaterina Dimitreas on the morning of May 27, 1962, no one could know, at least not until the moment she was forced to answer for her actions. On that day, Demetraa was at her home doing her daily chores. There was a knock at the door. It was her mother. He had come to visit her. The 42-year-old was going to kiss her a plate of spaghetti.
80-year-old Stefoula Loukarea will never realize that the «treat» was sprinkled with parathion. She will finish her meal and a few hours later she will be on the floor in terrible pain. Doctor Sakelaridis, who was called to the house urgently, certified the death of the woman from a cardiac embolism, which was considered normal since he was known to have heart problems.
Demetraa will continue her normal life for the next 1.5 months. She was spared, no one found out what had happened. But the «germ» had now entered her and on July 19 she invited her cousin Potula Tsiligena for coffee at home. The two women chatted for some time while the cousin enjoyed the coffee she had been offered. When she collapsed on the floor and a few hours later passed away, no one suspected anything, since in the fall he suffered a fractured skull and that's what her death was attributed to. Demetraa was safe again.
Her success up to that point led her after a few days to offer coffee and her brother Konstantinos Loukarea. Concerned, he too, drank his coffee with his sister and left the house. However, as he was walking down the street he felt severe stomach pains and fainted. As soon as his fellow villagers saw him, they immediately took him to the hospital, where his stomach was washed. Tests showed that he was having problems with his bile. Demetraa did not achieve her goal, but once again managed to avoid being exposed.
Her plan had gone back a little, but now she wanted to move forward quickly. Once her brother was discharged from the hospital, Demetraa saw an opportunity to make her goal a reality. On August 3, she invited him to her home to treat him. This time the menu included eggs. Of course, in order to be sure of the result, she overdid it with the amount of parathion she poured in, resulting in her brother passing out a few minutes later on the floor of the house.
«The death was caused by a heart attack due to an acute bile attack» will conclude doctor Sakelaridis, who within two months had examined three bodies from the same family. In the village they had already started talking about some dark curse that had fallen on the family, since there was no way to justify so many deaths in such a short time.
Demetraa's fatal mistake occurred on September 6, when she offered a loukoumi to her 5-year-old nephew. Little Elijah was delighted to receive a sweet from his aunt and enjoyed every bite. A few minutes later, he fainted, foaming at the mouth. The little boy's father attempted to take him to the hospital, but before he even arrived, the little boy was «gone».
But this time, there was no disease in the victim. No heart problems, no bile issues, no fall to justify the death. The village started talking again, as the first suspicions had now been raised. All of the victims had previously visited Dimitrea, and Sakelarides' conclusion was clear. Poisoning. The order to transfer the body to Kalamata Hospital was immediate. The autopsy revealed that the 5-year-old boy had traces of parathion in his intestines. The first investigations revealed that that morning Demetraa had argued with Elias' mother. At the same time, a witness reported that she had seen the 42-year-old woman offer a loukoumi to her nephew.
«They had to die because I was being mistreated. I didn't want to hurt anyone but my brother,» he will confess on September 10 to the president of the community. The gendarmerie will take the baton and lead him to a chapel half a kilometre outside the village. There she hid the bottle of parathion and a bottle of mercury, which she had originally purchased to carry out her plan. She will reveal to the investigating magistrate that she had tried to poison two other relatives. A few months earlier she had offered «tampered» chicken to her other brother's wife, while on the day he poisoned little Elijah, he had offered to 4-year-old Anthoula Thomea poisoned pomegranate. Fortunately for them, both potential victims had refused her offer.
“I put parathion in my mother's spaghetti to make it more... tasty. I put poison in my brother's eggs so he could see how... good a cook I am! My mother was torturing me and wanted me out of the house, and so did my brother. As for Chiligonea, she was putting words in my mouth to send me away, to starve me and my daughter to death. Why did the doctor who examined them find nothing?” she told reporters waiting for her outside the Kardamyli gendarmerie.
On September 12, the village will attend the exhumation of the remaining three victims in order to examine them and death by parathion is established. The next morning the 42 year old will pass the threshold of the investigator in Kalamata. She will be transported by bus line and under draconian security measures. She will repeat what she told reporters the previous days, adding only that she wanted to kill 4-year-old Anthoula to get back at her father who was friends with her brother and was “putting words” in his mouth to get her out of the house.
«They all wanted to hurt me»
«My mother tortured me all the time. My brother took me, beat me. I was a poor woman who was abandoned by her husband and had to live with my little girl, Stella. But I was treated with hostility by everyone. Especially my mother and my brother. They pressured me to do all the work even though they knew I was sick and suffering from a heart condition. Every hour I was told to leave the house. So I took revenge on them. They all hated me. They wanted my harm,» she said when asked why she was driven to her actions.
Of course, the police had concluded that her target was her family's property, once they learned that her mother was leaving the family home to her brother in her will. However, a statement sent her to Daphne a few days later. Demetraa revealed that she intended, at her brother's «fortieth», to put parathion in the vaginas, in such quantity that it would clear out the whole village.
In May 1963, the line she will follow during her trial at the Nafplio Court of Appeal is that of «insanity». In fact, during her initial statement to the audience, when asked about her guilt of the crimes, she replied that she did not remember. The opinion of the Fourth Psychiatric Clinic of Athens, which was read out in court, would refer to a low level of intelligence, without showing any kind of psychosis, but ’her physical ailments and in general the miserable conditions she has been living in during the last few years, have certainly contributed, in combination with her emotional immaturity, to the formation of her immature character and probably explain, to some extent, her objective reactions«.
The prosecutor will characterize it «hyena from hell», claiming that she is «perfectly sane». The jury was inexorable and the court will sentence her on May 8, 1963 to four death sentences and 15 years imprisonment for attempted manslaughter with intent. At dawn on 10 April 1965, the «poisoner of Mani» will go down in history as the the first Greek serial killer and will be executed in Goudi at 05.30 in the morning.
