Nico Mastorakis

Nico Mastorakis (Greek: Νίκος Μαστοράκης; born 28 April 1941 in Athens, Greece) is a Greek filmmaker, director and radio producer.

At the age of 18 Mastorakis as a young reporter with the Greek newspaper Ethnikos Kirikas scored his first international scoop, an exclusive interview with the exiled Princess Soraya. Later, as an investigative reporter for the daily Messimvrini, adding to multiple award-winning reports, he created the first "automobile page" in Greek press.

In his last job as a reporter for the daily Apogevmatini he posed as a musician for the group of popular singer Yanni Poulopoulos and gained access to Onassis’ yacht, the Christina where Onassis was hosting Jackie and Ted Kennedy.

He used a Minox camera hidden behind the strings of his guitar to take photos but was inevitably discovered by Ted's security men and although managing to fly out of Skorpios with his negatives intact he was later arrested by the junta's secret police and detained for the night while his negatives were discovered and confiscated.

Although his article about that night being heavily censored he broke the news of Ari and Jackie getting married months before the official announcement.

Mastorakis’ adventure on board the Onassis yacht was later described in detail in both Ari and Nemesis, by Onassis’ biographer Peter Evans, who writes: "… Onassis used his pull with the colonels and Mastorakis was picked up in Athens… later Ari showed me a copy of Mastorakis’ original story which had been cut to ribbons by the military censors…"

He was already a radio personality since the late 1950s, considered by many to be the DJ who brought international pop to Greek radio. In all, he hosted and produced more than 22 different radio shows.

In the late sixties Mastorakis was introduced to the Beatles and became friends with John Lennon. On April 17, 1967 he produced the first ever international pop concert in Athens, booking the Rolling Stones for a memorable albeit troubled concert, dominated by police and amidst the riots which plagued Athens at the time. The military coup came four days later.

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Wikipedia