The day I got a call from Tony Kiritsis . . .

UPI Pulitzer Prize-winning photo by John H. Blair, showing Tony Kiritsis holding Richard Hall hostage in 1977.

There’s a lot of buzz out now about the new movie “Dead Man’s Wire,” opening in theaters Jan. 16. Indiana moviegoers are especially interested in this Gus Van Sant drama starring Bill Skarsgard as Tony Kiritsis, a disgruntled Indianapolis man who made history as a kidnapper.

On February 8, 1977, Kiritsis entered the downtown office of Richard O. Hall, president of the Meridian Mortgage Company, and took him hostage with a sawed-off shotgun wired with a "dead man's wire" from the trigger to Hall's neck. Kiritsis had fallen behind on mortgage payments for a piece of real estate, and when Hall refused to give him additional time to pay, Kiritsis became convinced that Hall and Hall's father wanted the property. 

Kiritsis held Hall hostage for 63 hours, finally releasing him without incident. He was immediately arrested and ultimately was found not guilty by reason of insanity. In 1988, he was released from a mental health facility and continued to live on the Westside of Indy until his death in 2005.

One day, a year or two after his release, he called me and wanted to talk about movies. Yes, movies.

In the 1980s and ’90s, I was reviewing movies as an entertainment reporter for The Indianapolis Star. I wish I could remember the details, such as the year and the movie titles. I didn’t think it would be important a quarter of a century later.

I was alone in the office when my phone rang and the caller said, “Hi, I’m Tony Kiritsis. Do you know who I am?” I told him I did, wondering why he was calling me and not a Star City Room reporter. “Well,” he said, “I read your review of XXX and wanted to talk to you about it.”

For the next 10 minutes or so, we talked about current movies and what he thought about them. He actually made some thoughtful comments, as I remember. He didn’t sound like the deranged maniac we saw in 1977, with Star staff members staring at the small City Room TV as the kidnapping unfolded just a few blocks away. We were all wondering if we were going to see a killing on live TV!

When my colleagues returned to the office after my phone call, I told them I had been chatting with Tony Kiritsis about movies.

“Yeah, riiiight!”

I wonder what he'd think of THIS movie . . .

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