'Popeye,' the Colombian hitman who killed over 300 people for Pablo Escobar, dies of natural causes
He killed hundreds for Colombian kingpin Pablo Escobar and his Medellín cartel, but in the end the assassin known as “Popeye” went out on his own terms, dying of stomach cancer at a Bogotá hospital.
Jhon Jairo Velásquez, 54, died on Thursday, Colombia’s National Penitentiary and Prison iInstitute confirmed to media outlets. The mass killer, who got his nickname because he had once done a stint in the Colombian navy, had been in hospital since Dec. 31.
The hitman had spent 22 years in prison, and had confessed to personally killing over 300 people for the cartel boss. On top of that, he had set up hundreds of car bombs as Escobar went to war against his rivals, as well as overseeing dozens of political assassinations and killings of police officers.
Escobar would die in a hail of bullets on a Medellín rooftop in December of 1993, after a team made up of Colombian forces, the DEA and Escobar’s one-time partners in the drug world conspired to finally end his reign. As Escobar terrorized Colombia, Popeye had been his main hitman, known as a sicario.
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