Johny Indo: Legend of the Last Great Outlaw — Chapter-2: The Rise of Modern-Day Robin Hood

The legend took root in a modest house in Mangga Dua. Smoke curled through the air, cheap coffee on the table, while Johny and three buddies cooked up one hell of a score: The Gold Shop Job.

When Guns Met Gold

Packing a solid plan, a Smith & Wesson .32-caliber revolver, a .45, and a Thompson submachine gun, they had all the confidence in the world. The target was set: the Gold Shop on Gang Lontar, Kebon Kacang. D-day: September 20, 1977, just before noon.

The big day finally rolled around. Johny and his crew needed wheels for their operation, so they ‘borrowed’ a black Corolla—normally moonlighting as an illegal taxi. The driver? Let’s just say he got a good snooze in the bushes of somewhere in Bogor: eyes covered, hands tied, dignity slightly bruised. With the ride secured, our merry band of robbers cruised back to Jakarta.

Before noon, Johny and his crew were already parked outside their target. One guy stayed behind in the Corolla, while Johny and the other two stormed inside. Bang! Without warning, Johny fired his revolver into the air. Panic erupted. Shoppers froze, cashiers screamed, and Johny yelled, ‘Stay calm!’ Well, staying calm under gunpoint doesn't seem like an easy thing to do, Johny.

Two of the crew smashed the display case and grabbed every gold piece they could find. Within five minutes, they were back in the Corolla, tires squealing as they sped away. Two kilos of gold in hand, their first heist was officially a roaring success!

Johny ditched the getaway car at some random rich guy’s pad in Kebayoran. Three of his buddies grabbed a taxi back to Mangga Dua; Johny hopped on a city bus. They melted down the stolen gold to cover their tracks, turning it into unrecognizable ingots, and sold them to dealers around Jakarta.

True to his twisted sense of charity, Johny even handed out some of the loot to the poor around the city. He continued to do this every time he committed a robbery. It wasn’t long before people started calling him the Modern-Day Robin Hood.

January 3, 1978. Time for round two. This time, Johny stayed out of the action, keeping his distance and letting his crew do the dirty work. He perched about 50 meters away, his eyes sharp as he scanned the scene.

Two soldiers hanging around the target caught his attention. Without missing a beat, Johny fired a shot into the air—his own little signal flare. His crew immediately fled the scene. 4 kilograms of gold secured. Another heist, another clean getaway.

Once Johny Indo, Gouw Kim Hok (aka Sukiman), and Thung Hong Kie (aka Kikih Arianto) pulled off the Gold Shop job, word spread like wildfire. Their reputation blew up. Some wannabe bandits, hungry for action, followed Johny. Their little crew soon ballooned to 12 members. They slapped a name on themselves: Pachinko. Naturally, Johny got the crown as the big boss.

As a leader, Johny ran the show in his own unique style. He had a strange method of picking who would rob on any given day. Not by any skill tests or seniority, he claimed to use ‘psychic powers,’ looking at the faces of his posse like a coffee-shop fortune teller. Fresh-faced? Congrats, you’re on robbery duty—you’re blessed with long life. Looking haggard or worn-out? Step aside, you’d probably die and ruin the job. In Johny’s mind, it was totally legit.

Another oddity? Johny drilled his rules into every man in his gang—No killing the victims. Hands off the women. No serious abuse—Instructions that sounded absurd for a band of armed robbers, but nobody dared disobey. They all knew their boss wouldn’t hesitate to put a bullet in the head of anyone who broke the rules.

Pachinko’s robberies sent shivers through Jakarta. The cops weren’t about to twiddle their thumbs. They made Team 9, an elite squad of the city’s sharpest detectives, handpicked from all corners of the force. Their mission was clear: catch the entire Pachinko gang, and especially their elusive leader, Johny Indo.

Team 9 worked tirelessly day and night, combing through every suspicious area, from shady alleys to abandoned buildings across the city, relentlessly hunting the gang that had the city holding its breath.

April 17, 1979, was a good day for them. While patrolling through the city, they noticed a motorcyclist acting way too suspicious. They signaled him to stop—but instead, he gunned it.

Cue a full-blown, Fast & Furious-style chase through Jakarta streets. Tires screeched, hearts raced, chaos ensued. Finally, Team 9 cornered the guy. Voila! Surprise, surprise—it was a member of Pachinko. And just like that, he spilled the beans: Johny Indo, the gang, and their secret HQ in Mangga Dua.

The cops moved fast. At 4 a.m., Team 9 rolled out to raid Pachinko’s HQ in Mangga Dua, backed by two elite units, weapons primed and ready. The place was locked down on all sides—escape seemed nearly impossible.

The ambush kicked off. Smoke, shouts, and gunfire filled the air. Johny’s gang was left helpless, caught flat-footed and scrambling for cover. In the end, nearly every member of the Pachinko was captured. But Johny? That sly fox slipped through the net, vanishing like a ghost. From that day on, he wasn’t just a criminal—he was the city’s most wanted man.

Last Man Running

Johny’s first stop was his uncle’s place in Parung, Bogor. His uncle told him to turn himself in rather than spend his life on the run. Johny, with stubborn eyes and a restless heart, refused point-blank. For him, surrender was no option.

He walked out and headed for Pandeglang. His destination: the abode of a powerful shaman. Johny carried within him a desperate hope—that the shaman could teach him secret knowledge, forbidden chants, or some dark rituals to keep him one step ahead of the cops.

After receiving the shaman’s blessing, Johny made his way back to Jakarta. Yet the knot of anxiety in his chest remained. He couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched, convinced the police might spring an ambush at any moment.

Hoping for relief, he sought another shaman in Tanjung Priok. This one told him to meditate in a cave in Sukabumi, once linked to the legend of Prabu Siliwangi. Trusting the advice, Johny complied.

When Johny reached the sacred cave, the caretaker stood before him, demanding an honest reason for his presence. This old guardian warned him that deceit would bar him from entering the cave for all eternity. Left with no choice, Johny confessed—his name already splashed across the city’s headlines as a fugitive.

The caretaker froze in shock. Never in his life had he imagined that the man standing before him was Johny Indo, one of the country’s most wanted men. Once Johny stepped into the cave, the old guardian wasted no time. He rushed to the nearest police station to report what he had just known.

A squad of officers closed in on the cave, breaking the silence with shouts and the clatter of boots. Amid the chaos, Johny Indo—the Phantom Chief of the Pachinko gang—was finally captured on April 26, 1979. That day marked the dramatic end of one of the nation’s most relentless and infamous manhunts.

On December 17, 1979, Johny was brought to trial and sentenced to fourteen years in prison—ten for illegal possession of firearms, and four for robbery. At first, he was locked inside Cipinang Prison in Jakarta, but after just nine months he was transferred to Nusakambangan—the most terrifying prison in Indonesia.

Nusakambangan, a tiny 210 km² island off Java’s southern coast, floats like a watery coffin, separated from the mainland by the restless Segara Anakan Strait. The only way in—or out—is by boat, unless you can swim twelve kilometers without being swept away.

The island itself is a death wish disguised as paradise. Dense tropical forests, jagged karst cliffs, and murky swamps can swallow the unprepared whole. Add to this a buffet of predators that see humans strictly as appetizers—leopards (Panthera pardus melas), estuarine crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus), reticulated pythons (Python morullus), and venomous snakes. Danger lurks around every corner, ready to strike when you least expect it.

The Dutch first turned it into a prison in 1908; after independence, the Indonesian government continued the practice, holding political prisoners and the most dangerous criminals under maximum security. Its isolation and fearsome reputation earned it a nickname every convict knows: Indonesia’s Alcatraz.

To most inmates, the island was a never-ending nightmare. Johny, however, faced the beginning of another chapter—a daring escape that would make his name echo louder than his robberies....... To be continued in Chapter-3.