He helped coordinate 3,000 murders, served 23 years in prison and came back only to become one of Colombia‘s most famous YouTubers. Jhon Jairo Velásquez was one of Pablo Escobar’s deadliest hitmen. Nicknamed ‘Popeye’ his victims included prominent politicians, underworld rivals and even an airplane full of innocent civilians.During the 1980s and early 90s, Velásquez murdered more than 250 people and arranged 3,000 additional killings for Escobar and the Medellín Cartel. He was arrested in 1992 and spent nearly 23 years behind bars for murder, drug trafficking and terrorism, among other crimes. After his release in 2014, he began a career completely unexpected for a criminal, he became a YouTube star. He began a channel titled ‘Repentant Popeye’ and criticised the Colombian government while recounting some of his most infamous hits, according to a report by All That’s Interesting.
The boy who dreamed of joining the police
Jhon Jairo Velásquez was born in Yarumal, Colombia in 1962. He dropped out of high school to join the Colombian Navy, where he earned the nickname “Popeye” due to his appearance. However, he soon left and started training to become a police officer.When it didn’t work out, a friend found 17-year-old Velasquez a job as a driver and bodyguard for a young woman, who also happened to be Pablo Escobar’s girlfriend. By the time he was 18, Velásquez had received orders to carry out his first hit for the up-and-coming Medellín Cartel.“I had to kill a bus dispatcher,” Velásquez told Revista Bocas in a 2013 interview. “Back when the man was a driver, the mother of a friend of Pablo Escobar boarded his bus; he pulled away before she could get off, causing her to fall. He left her lying on the ground without offering any help, and she died.”When Escobar’s friend asked him to seek revenge, Velásquez was assigned the task. “I handled reconnaissance, tracked the guy down, and killed him,” Velásquez recalled. “I didn’t feel a thing… I haven’t lost any sleep over the acts I’ve committed.”With his first kill under the belt, Velásquez soon gained the trust of Escobar and quickly rose through the ranks of the cartel.
The life of a killer
Over the next decade, he killed more than 250 people for Escobar. He took out journalists, drug trafficking rivals, high-profile political figures, and even his own girlfriend. Around 1984, Velásquez arranged the murder of Wendy Chavarriaga Gil, who had previously dated Escobar himself. Velásquez loved her, but Escobar believed she was working as an informant, so she had to die. “What happened with Wendy was madness,” Velásquez told Revista Bocas. “I sent a group of guys… who were under my command. I couldn’t bring myself to carry it out personally. I set up a meeting for her, and they took care of it.”In the 1980s, Velásquez was involved in Escobar’s most notorious crimes. In January 1988, Velásquez helped orchestrate the kidnapping of Andrés Pastrana Arango, who was running for mayor of Bogotá. The police found him a week later, and he went on to become the president of Colombia in 1998. Just a week after Pastrana’s abduction, the cartel kidnapped Carlos Mauro Hoyos, another Colombian politician. There are several versions of the story, but according to Velásquez himself, he was ordered to assassinate Hoyos. While the Colombian Army was out searching for Hoyos, Velásquez reportedly disguised himself in a sweater and glasses and bypassed a military checkpoint by claiming to be a student delivering medicine to a relative. When he arrived at the ranch where Hoyos was being held, Velásquez shot him three times.The following year, he helped arrange the murder of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán, who was shot to death in front of 10,000 people while surrounded by 18 bodyguards as he walked onto a stage in Soacha to give a speech.However, his most famous crime came in November 1989, when he was involved in planning the bombing of Avianca Flight 203. The airplane left Bogotá with 101 passengers and six crew members — and an explosive planted inside. As the plane flew over Soacha, a young man pushed a button that he reportedly thought would record a conversation. Instead, it detonated the bomb, killing all 107 people on board and three more victims on the ground.Escobar targeted the plane because he thought that presidential candidate César Gaviria would be on the flight, but he was not, and he went on to win the 1990 election. By 1991, Escobar had arranged a deal to surrender to Colombian authorities if he could serve his sentence at La Catedral, the luxury prison he built for himself. Velásquez decided to go with him to serve as his bodyguard. And when Escobar eventually escaped and went on the run, Velásquez accompanied him.Finally, in October 1992, Jhon Jairo Velásquez turned himself in as the Medellín Cartel began to crumble. He was convicted of murder, terrorism, extortion, and drug trafficking, and he received the maximum sentence of 30 years. Velásquez was released in 2014, and began an unexpected new career as a YouTuber.
A repentant man?
Pablo Escobar died in a shootout with the police while Velásquez was behind bars, and Velásquez had decided not to return to his former life of crime. “I want to enjoy the little things in life now. One thing is certain: I will never again accept a contract to kill someone,” he told Revista Bocas a year before his release.Instead, Velásquez started a YouTube channel called “Repentant Popeye,” which gained more than 1.2 million followers. In his videos, he criticised Colombia’s government and recalled several of the murders he committed.Velásquez also helped produce a movie about his life and wrote two books: My Life as a Hitman for Pablo Escobar and Surviving Pablo Escobar: “Popeye” the Hitman.“I’m a professional killer; I killed for money,” Velásquez said in the 2017 documentary Escobar’s Hitman. “I also killed out of love and respect for Pablo Escobar.”As Velásquez told interviewers in 2013, “If Pablo Escobar were to be reborn, I would go with him without thinking.”Then, in 2018, Velásquez returned to prison for extortion and criminal conspiracy. Two years later, on Feb. 6, 2020, he died from oesophageal cancer at age 57.
