On the Revelations video series, Vernon speaks of a gambler friend of his from years past, a greek whose brother was D.A. of Athens. Particularly, this man was (apparently) a smart bottom dealer.
Now, Vernon calls this man John Rakanakis, or something similarly pronnounced. I would be very interested if anyone on this Café could correct me on the proper spelling of said cheater's name.

Respectfully,
Andrei

I thought Artanis was the Greek hustler Dai mentioned?

I think Artanis was Italian but I may read it backwards.

Ah yes, Old Blue eyes and his smooth takes...

Come fly away, come fly away with me...

Rakinakis...

Best, PSC

Many thanks,

Paul, are you certain that is the correct spelling? The reason I'm asking is because looking it up with a search engine (Google, for instance) only turns up one result and that is somebody referring to a Vernon work.

If this were the actual spelling of a greek name, which I assume many people have, plenty of results would turn up.

Respectfully,
Andrei

That name is a Greek name only for its ending. The -akis ending for Greek last names is referred to a specific territory of our country (Crete). By searching the telephone book, I didn't find any results for the Rakinakis last name. I'm sure, if he was a real person at Vernon's days the family name must continue to exist till our days. Or, the most possible, he didn't pronounce the word clearly enough to guide us to a more successful searching.

Vasilis

This is a mere shot in the dark, but....

Have you tried to activate the subtitle feature? It seems that if the dialouge was transcribed to provide captioning, then the name would be spelled there. Of course, if it is spelled there, it really means nothing. Words, and therefore names also, are misspelled in subtitles all too often.

Here's one last shot in the dark:
Why is this information of interest to you?

Card Cheat

Rakinakis is the name quoted in the Vernon Chronicles

There is also a picture of Rakinakis in the Vernon Chronicles

What page?

Why all the interest in a dead man?

Inquiring minds want to know...

Best, PSC

Vasilis has just brought somewhat compelling, empirical evidence that Rakinakis is not an actual greek name, so the question of the actual name remains unanswered.

Mr Chosse, I've never heard of a man who was made less interesting by death, and Rakinakis (?) sounded like a very interesting person while alive. Also, I am very interested, from an academic standpoint (as academic as pasteboards get) what it would take for a bottom deal to be dubbed excellent by Vernon, who had probably seen his share of crooked moves.

I must also admit to curiosity on my part. The justice department in my country keeps a record of all people who have occupied the function of D.A. over the years. I assume it is much the same in Greece. I would be extremely happy-go-lucky, would I stumble upon such a record, and furthermore, if a certain Rakinakis would be featured therein. These little historical tidbits are all the more wonderful when they tie together. Since, however, there seem to be no Rakinakis left in the world, I doubt I'll have my day made on this one.

Respectfully,
Andrei

Unless OBVIOUSLY (and I had to have this pointed out to me) John Rakinakis is just a greek nickname and not a greek name. I don't think there is any greek named John.

Somehow it was not apparent to me that there was no reason for Vernon or anyone else to use his real name.

I stand thoroughly corrected.

Andrei

John is a natural and common name in Greece.In Greece 'John' is 'Giannis' so I believe is a greek name and not nickname.

That still can't explain why there are no other Rakinakis on the planet.

Beats me like the cut,
Andrei

Are you speculating that he didn't exist?

I think he did exist. I also think either him or Vernon didn't release his actual name, as is common amongst men with dubious incomes.

Andrei

Just because Vasilis didn't find anyone named "Rakinakis" in the telephone book, it doesn't mean that this name doesn't exist. The ending "-akis" is very prominent in Crete but that doesn't mean that there aren't other people in Greece from different parts, that share the same ending in their surname.

As 1908 correctly said, John in Greek is "Yiannis" or "Giannis" or "Yanni" like the famous Greek-American musician.

Yiannis, you'd think Google would turn up at least ONE Rakinakis if that name existed.
We're dealing with probability here but I think this holds strong.

Andrei

Andrei,

you should try the greek version of Google, or a greek search engine. Greek names often have many spellings when you try to right them down with latin characters. So you can never be sure if a simple search is definite. For better results, you should try a greek engine with the name written in Greek fonts.