Kosta Fotopoulos and Deidre Hunt
Kosta Fotopoulos was a married man living in Daytona Beach, Florida. Him and his wive Lisa owned several lucrative businesses. Mainly due to Lisa's parents wealth.
Kosta ran a pool hall called Top Shots located on the strip in Daytona Beach. He was also apparently involved in making counterfeit money. It is said that Kosta had $100,000 in counterfeit $100 dollar bills and was passing them around the Southeastern US. He was also identified by the US secret service as a person of interest.
Kosta also had a fascination with guns and often lied to people and told them that he worked for the CIA and was a professional assassin. He even claimed that he had killed 8 people. He had a whack load of guns stored across his house and pool hall. In 1989 he had a waitress working at his pool hall named Deidre Hunt. The 2 began having an affair. When Kosta's wife Lisa found out about the affair she threatened Kosta with divorce unless he ended the affair and fired Deidre.
Obviously that didn't sit well with Kosta as he would lose everything. After all it was Lisa's parents that financed everything.
The Crime: In 1987 Kosta Fotopoulos was about to lose it all. His wife was about to divorce him, he would of lost his business, and to top it off an employee named Kevin Ramsey was threatening to blackmail him. What a way to extort your boss telling him you will rat out his counterfeit operation.
Instead of admitting to the affair and doing what Lisa wanted Kosta denied it. Lisa didn't buy it. She even almost crashed her car chasing Kosta one night from an apartment Kosta rented as a love shack to be with Deidre. Finally Lisa told Kosta she was getting a divorce and he would receive nothing.
Kosta took action to insure he would not lose everything. First on October 29th, 1989 he took Deidre and an employee named Kevin Ramsey for a drive out into the woods. Ramsey was under the assumption that he was joining a "hunter killer club". Ramsey really believed that Kosta was an assassin who worked for the mob and CIA.
Ramsey willingly got tied up to a tree by Deidre believing that it was part of an initiation to join the club. While Kosta was holding a camcorder. Deidre then shot Ramsey three times in the chest while Kosta was recording the whole thing. Then as Ramsey is lifeless Deidre lifts his hanging head up and shoots him in the temple. Kosta burried the tape in his back yard. So Kosta has part of his plan complete now round 2.
Lisa Fotopoulos had to go also plus she had $700,000 worth of life insurance. So on November 4th, 1989 he decided to hire a local drifter named Brian Chase as the hitman. Deidre drove Chase to the Fotopoulos house where Kosta was in bed with Lisa. Chase shot Lisa in the head as Kosta slept beside her. Then Kosta woke and shot Chase a few times in the chest killing him. Now Kosta looks like the hero. But why would the hitman target Lisa first? Problem for Kosta Lisa was still alive.
Kosta and Deidre were panicking and even were plotting away to send a bomb to the hospital which was heavily guarded.
The cops soon found holes in Kosta's story. Wondering why the intruder would kill Lisa before him. And the fact that Chase seemed like an unlikely burglar, and why the alarm system never went off. When news of the story hit the press a man named Mike Cox who was friends with Deidre and Chase came forward telling police their scheme. He was also asked to kill Lisa for $10,000. Once this information came forward the police brought Deidre in for an interview. There she spilled the beans on everything. Deidre even lead the police to Ramsey's remains. Once they searched Kosta's property with him already in custody they found alot of guns including Ramsey's murder weapon and the video tape.
Victims
Kevin Ramsey: Was employed by Kosta at the Top Shots pool hall and was fired for stealing money from the register. He still lurked around the pool hall after being fired pick pocketing and stealing. And in this Kosta thought he had the perfect guy to help him with his money scheme. Would Ramsey would do was take a fake $100 to a local business and buy a pack of smokes. Then return half the change to Kosta and keep the other half plus the smokes. He was 19 at the time of his murder.
Brian Chase: Chase was new to Daytona and just moved at the time from Ohio. He was 18 at the time of his murder.
Culprits
Konstantinos X Fotopoulos: (Born July 26th, 1959) Kosta was born in Greece but left the country when he was in his late teens.
Deidre Hunt: (Born February 9th, 1969) Deidre moved to Daytona Beach from New Hampshire when she was 20 years old.. She was a victim of sexual abuse and even served a 6 month sentence for being a part of an armed robbery once. She was in trouble in New Hampshire and decided to move to Southern Florida where she ended up working for Kosta at Top Shots. Kosta was also quite abusive to Deidre while they were together apparently.
Sentencing
Deidre and Kosta were both sentenced to death. However Deidre's was later commuted to life in 1996. Kosta still denies any involvement. Kosta tried to get off of death row in 2008 and was denied.
Outcome
Lisa Fotopoulos well now Lisa Psaros is still alive and really did get the last laugh. She is remarried and alive and well still living in Daytona Beach, Florida. Nice to see Kosta and Deidre in jail. I wish they would put Deidre back on death row and kill them both soon.
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