“We were led to the Third Cemetery of Kokkinia. There were about 40 carabinieri officers gathered. […] The Italian soldiers then took them to the execution site. They positioned them to face west, and 18 carabinieri lined up behind them, opening fire and killing them. A coup de grâce was fired, and then they were ordered to fire another volley at the bodies lying on the ground. A second coup de grâce was fired, and afterward, I requested permission and approached the bloodied martyrs of Faith and Homeland, and subsequently read the funeral service, accompanying them to the grave. Eternal be their memory.”
Excerpt from the report by the priest Ioannis Maroulis on “the execution by the Italians of three condemned men on January 7, 1943.”
The executed were Nikolaos Lampropoulos (a 23-year-old merchant from Kalamata), his cousin Georgios Makaronas (a 26-year-old student), and Fotios Kalogeris (29 years old from Ikaria), who were sentenced to death for criminal actions against the occupying forces.
The condemned would often give notes to the priests for their relatives. Otherwise, they would toss the notes from the vehicle taking them to the execution site.