August 9, 1955
SPYRIDOULA TORTURE CASE: Piraeus police are investigating a crime of unprecedented brutality against a 13-year old servant girl, Spyridoula R. from the village of Matranga, Mesolongi. The child was tortured by a man identified as 31-year-old G.V., the director of the John Bull nightclub in Piraeus, and his wife A., at their home in Nea Kallipoli where the girl was employed. The crime took place under the following circumstances. The night before last, the nightclub owner called the girl and asked her to give him back $5 which he claimed she had stolen from his wallet. The girl categorically denied the theft, claiming that she had never touched her employer’s wallet. Enraged, G.V. conceived of an inhumanly sadistic form of torture. He stripped the girl and burned her repeatedly with a hot iron, causing serous burns to various parts of her body. Her condition was so bad that G.V., who was aided and abetted by his wife, was forced to take their victim to the Tzanneio hospital, which they did without revealing their identities. The attending doctor notified the police.
