The PAIR Program

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src="Tony Kiritsis, 72, found dead of natural causes_files/image-218441-1309.jpg" border=1> Anthony G. "Tony" Kiritsis held a shotgun to the head of Richard Hall on Feb. 10, 1977. After a live, profanity-laced television news appearance, Kiritsis released Hall. Kiritsis later spent 11 years in mental wards until his release in January 1988. -- Jim Young / The News

Anthony G. "Tony" Kiritsis, who made national headlines when
he wired a sawed-off shotgun around the neck of an Indianapolis mortgage
company executive in 1977 and paraded him through Downtown streets, was
found dead in his home Friday.

Kiritsis, 72, virtually held the city at bay for more than
two days before ending the 63-hour hostage ordeal at his apartment. Found
not guilty by reason of insanity, Kiritsis spent 11 years in mental wards
until his release in January 1988.

On Friday, he was found dead at his Speedway home in the
1500 block of Mickley Avenue by an acquaintance, who notified police. The
Marion County coroner's office said Kiritsis died of natural causes.

Efforts to contact family members Friday were unsuccessful.
It is unclear what Kiritsis had been doing since his release from
custody.

The events of Feb. 8, 1977, elevated Kiritsis to an
instantly recognizable household name as he talked repeatedly on the air
with veteran radio newsman Fred Heckman of WIBC-AM (1070). Kiritsis also
insisted on live television coverage of him reading a statement -- all
while his shotgun was still wired around the neck of Richard O. Hall, with
whom Kiritsis was angry about a business deal.

The incident would forever change the way broadcast
journalists cover such incidents and would lead to what some called "The
Kiritsis Law" after he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. His
acquittal prompted Indiana legislators to amend the law to provide for
verdicts of "guilty but mentally ill" and "not responsible by reason of
insanity."

Kiritsis confronted Hall in his office at 129 E. Market St.,
angry about a possible foreclosure on land Kiritsis had hoped to develop.
Kiritsis, who described himself as having been angry all his life,
attached Hall to a wire noose bolted to the end of his shotgun and put his
finger into a metal ring that was wired to the trigger.

He led Hall through Downtown Indianapolis, surrounded by
police and horrified office workers, until he reached Washington Street
and Senate Avenue. There, he commandeered a police squad car and drove to
his apartment at Crestwood Village. Kiritsis contended the apartment was
wired with explosives.

After negotiating with authorities, he left his apartment
with Hall still wired to the shotgun, walked into the lobby of the complex
and demanded that television cameras be turned on. In a profanity-laced
proclamation, Kiritsis called himself a national hero.

The incident proved to be a "watershed" story for
television, said Mike Ahern, who retired in December as the longtime news
anchor at WISH (Channel 8).

Back then, local stations had just acquired the capability
of going live with "mini-cams," Ahern explained. "We honestly didn't know
what we were doing then; those cameras were so new."

Ahern, who had been out to the apartment complex, was back
at the station when the hostage ordeal ended. He remembers looking up at a
television screen and watching as the face of John Wayne (on an awards
show) was replaced by the ranting and raving face of Kiritsis.

Tom Cochrun, news director at WISH, was a news reporter for
WIBC at the time and remembered wondering how Kiritsis' tirade would
end.

"Tony's moods would vacillate from anger, rage and
frustration, where he was screaming and yelling to where he was crying,
and then he would laugh," Cochrun said.

The station's telephone lines were flooded with calls by
people angry about Kiritsis' foul language being aired, but Ahern was more
worried about viewers seeing an execution in their living rooms.

"We didn't know what to do. Our hands were tied at that
point because Kiritsis had demanded live coverage. If we pulled the plug,
who knows what would have happened?" Ahern said.

But the larger question is whether the station should have
been plugged in to begin with, Ahern said. "Should we have gone out there
'willy-nilly' with our cameras running because we had these new toys in
our arsenal?"

In retrospect, Ahern said, the answer is no.

"If that thing taught us anything, it's caution and
perspective and responsibility," he said. "It taught us a lot about how
vulnerable we can be in a situation like that."

Call Star reporter Rob Schneider at (317) 444-6278.