Biography

Tony Kiritsis is best remembered for a 1977 incident where he held mortgage executive Richard O. Hall as a hostage on a standoff that lasted 63 hours and was closely followed by TV crews, curious people and the police in Indianapolis downtown. Kiritsis got mortgage from Hall's company to obtain a land for commercial purposes but after failing with payments and seeing that his property was increasing in value, he assumed that Hall and his associates wanted him to foreclosure his property. Tony's used a sawed-off shotgun with the trigger connected to a wire directly pointed to Hall's neck, so if police open fire against him or Hall try to escape the wire would be pulled off killing the manager. His demand was to Hall sign a document confessing his errors and also demanded for a huge payment for his all troubles. After the standoff, Tony was tried and considered not guilty for reasons of insanity and was confined to a mental institution until early 1988.