Family, childhood and education Alexandros Panagoulis was born in the
Glyfada neighbourhood of
Athens. He was the second son of Vassilios Panagoulis, an officer in the
Greek Army, and his wife Athena, and the brother of Georgios Panagoulis, also a Greek Army officer and victim of the Colonels' regime, and Efstathios, who became a politician. His father was from Divri (
Lampeia) in
Elis (Western
Peloponnese) while his mother was from the Ionian island of
Lefkada. Panagoulis spent part of his childhood during the
Axis occupation of Greece in the
Second World War on this island. He studied at the National Technical University of Athens in the School of Electrical Engineering.
Politics From his teenage years, Alexandros Panagoulis was inspired by democratic values. He joined the youth organisation of the
Centre Union party (E.K.), known as O.N.E.K., under the leadership of
Georgios Papandreou. The organisation later became known as
Hellenic Democratic Youth (E.DI.N.). After the
fall of the Colonels' regime and the restoration of parliamentary rule, Panagoulis became the Secretary-General of E.DI.N., on 3 September 1974.
Resistance to the dictatorship Alexandros Panagoulis participated actively in the fight against the
Regime of the Colonels. He deserted from the Greek military because of his democratic convictions and founded the organization National Resistance. He went into self-exile in
Cyprus in order to develop a plan of action. He returned to Greece where, with the help of his collaborators, he organized the 13 August 1968 assassination attempt against Papadopoulos, close to
Varkiza. The attempt failed and Panagoulis was arrested. In an interview held after his liberation, Italian journalist
Oriana Fallaci quoted Panagoulis as saying:
I didn’t want to kill a man. I’m not capable of killing a man. I wanted to kill a tyrant. He also stated that he had no regrets about his attempt to kill Papadopoulos as "he destroyed the legal government - he abolished the liberties of the people". Panagoulis was put on trial by the Military Court on 3 November 1968, condemned to death with other members of National Resistance on 17 November 1968, and subsequently transported to the island of
Aegina for the sentence to be carried out. As a result of political pressure from the international community, the junta refrained from executing him and instead incarcerated him at the Bogiati (Boyati) Military Prison near Athens on 25 November 1968. Alexandros Panagoulis refused to cooperate with the junta, and was subjected to physical and psychological torture. during a failed attempt by Papadopoulos to liberalize his regime. Panagoulis went into self-exile in
Florence, Italy, in order to continue the resistance. There he was hosted by
Oriana Fallaci, his companion who was to become his biographer.
Restoration of democracy After the restoration of democracy during the
Metapolitefsi, Alexandros Panagoulis was elected as Member of Parliament for the
Center Union - New Forces party in the
November 1974 elections. He made also a series of allegations against mainstream politicians who he said had openly or secretly collaborated with the junta. He eventually resigned from his party, after disputes with the leadership, but remained in the
parliament as an independent deputy. He stood by his allegations, which he made openly against the then Minister of National Defence,
Evangelos Averoff, and others. He reportedly received political pressure and threats against his life in order to persuade him to tone down his allegations.
Death . Panagoulis was killed on 1 May 1976 at the age of 36 under suspicious circumstances in a car accident on
Vouliagmenis Avenue in Athens. A speeding car driven by a Corinthian named Stefas diverted Panagoulis' car and forced it to crash. The crash killed Panagoulis almost instantaneously. Albeit the judicial investigation prompted by the Panagoulis family ruled out an assassination attempt, witnesses at the scene declared that Panagoulis car swerved due to the car in front abruptly braking in a dangerous maneuver. This event occurred two days before he was purportedly going to make public files of the junta's military police, allegedly revealing several ties within the junta and government officials. Files that, however, were never materialized. , Oriana Fallaci and memorial to Panagoulis A memorial to Panagoulis is near
Oriana Fallaci's tomb at
Cimitero degli Allori, Florence. == Poetic work ==