Pablo Escobar’s hitman turned into a local celebrity, happily giving autographs and selfies. After serving 23 years in jail for murdering a presidential candidate, John Jairo Velásquez Vásquez, a.k.a. ‘Popeye’ was released on parole in 2014 and launched a second career: he parlayed his criminal past into a popular YouTube channel, wrote two books and was featured in several documentaries. One year after the documentary’s premiere, Popeye was imprisoned again on charges of extortion and died 2 years later in jail. Will Popeye’s memory die together with that of the cartel, or will the harrowing record of its crimes keep the myth of «the Mafia’s general» alive?
