Alexandros Schinas (, c. 1870 – 6 May 1913), also known as Aleko Schinas, assassinated King George I of Greece in 1913. Schinas has been variously portrayed as either an anarchist with political motivations (propaganda by deed), or a madman, but the historical record is inconclusive. Schinas described himself as a socialist.
The details of the assassination itself are known: On 18 March 1913, several months after capturing Thessaloniki from the Ottoman Empire during the First Balkan War, King George I was out for a late afternoon walk in the city and, as was his custom, lightly guarded. Encountering George on the street near the White Tower, Schinas shot the king once in the back from close range with a revolver, killing him. Schinas was arrested and tortured. He said he acted alone, blaming his actions on delirium brought on by tuberculosis. After several weeks in custody, Schinas died by falling out of a police station window either as murder or suicide.
The details of Schinas's life before the assassination are unclear. His occupation and native Greek birthplace are unconfirmed. According to Schinas, he finished medical school but practiced medicine without authorization because he could not afford to pay for a medical degree. Several years before the assassination, Schinas may have left Greece for New York City, working in two hotels before returning in February 1913. Some contemporary sources reported that he advocated anarchism or socialism, and ran an anarchist school that was shut down by the Greek government. Other sources suggested he was mentally ill or exacting revenge against the king for denying a request for financial assistance. Conspiracy theories have claimed that Schinas acted as a foreign agent, but no evidence supporting these theories has emerged.
Early life
Very little is confirmed about Schinas's life before he assassinated King George I. Schinas was born around 1870, reportedly in the area of Volos or Serres, both of which were under Ottoman control at the time. He had two sisters, one older and one younger, and may have had a brother named Hercules who ran a chemist shop in Volos where Schinas may have worked as an assistant. Schinas told an interviewer that he suffered from an unspecified "neurological condition" beginning at age 14, which he said began "torturing" him at age 25. He studied medicine, possibly at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, where he may have also been an instructor. Lacking the funds needed to obtain a degree, Schinas left Athens and took a teaching job in the Greek village Kleisoura. After a financial dispute with his sisters, he resigned and moved to Xanthi, where he practiced medicine without a degree until stopped by authorities.
Schinas's life after Xanthi is the subject of some dispute. In a New York Times interview after the assassination, the Greek consul general for New York said that Schinas opened a school in Volos called the Centre for Workingmen with a doctor and a lawyer. The school was closed down by the government within months for "teaching anti-government ideas". The doctor and lawyer were sentenced to three months in prison but, for reasons unknown, Schinas was not punished. According to the consul general, during this period, Schinas also stood unsuccessfully as a candidate for the office of deputy from Volos in the national legislature.
The New York-based Greek newspaper Atlantis disputed the consul general's account, publishing a letter from an acquaintance of Schinas stating that the Schinas who ran for office in Volos was someone else. The letter, which was endorsed by the newspaper's editors as accurate, contested Schinas's involvement in the Centre for Workingmen school, writing: "Schinas had nothing to do with any school and had no idea of entering politics. He was known as a man who loved isolation and his backgammon. He wore a beard and was an anarchist." The newspaper's founder suggested that the conflicting stories about Schinas may be due to the surname's commonality in Greece and the likely existence of multiple people named "Aleko Schinas".
Leaving Thessaloniki
According to Schinas, in 1910 he was deported from Thessaloniki by the Young Turks for being "a good Greek patriot". The Greek consul general in New York suggested another explanation for Schinas's departure: that he was evading the police following the closure of the Center for Workingmen school in Volos. The Atlantis letter, on the other hand, wrote that Schinas left because of a family quarrel with his brother Hercules.