On Tuesday, September 16, 2025, West Chester University will host Greek American author Stelios Maltepes and his son Mattheo as part of the Crime & Justice Lecture Series. The event will take place in CBPM Room 101 from 7:15 to 8:30 pm and will give students and the community a chance to hear first-hand how one family’s $200 gamble to leave Greece grew into a three-generation story of resilience, risk, and legacy.
The story they will share began in Kontariotissa, a village in Pieria where Mount Olympus rises behind the fields and houses. In 1969, Theofanis Maltepes left the village with his wife and children, arriving in America with little more than determination and two hundred dollars. By the 1970s, the family had settled in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, where nearly every house on Kent Road was Greek and the community centered on St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church.
Stelios remembers his father working sixteen-hour days, often selling hot dogs on the streets of Philadelphia. “He’d come home at two or three in the morning, wake me up just to give me a kiss, but I never saw him smile,” Stelios recalls. “The day he became an American citizen was the first time I saw him truly happy. That’s when I knew the gamble had paid off.”
Now Stelios and Mattheo carry that legacy forward. Mattheo, a Rowan University graduate, says the story still shapes his own path. “My father always said his dad was Superman. To me, my father is Superman.” For him, heritage is alive in small rituals. “Every time I make Greek coffee, it takes me back to my yiaya making it for me when I was seven. It gives me that sense of home and culture.”
Earlier this year, father and son published BOOKED: PhillyGodfather, which reached number one on Amazon’s organized crime new releases. The memoir tells their family’s story across three generations. At West Chester, that story moves beyond the page. Students and the community will hear directly how immigration, faith, and resilience built a foundation for success, and how those same lessons apply to risk and responsibility today.
Stelios has also built a national profile as “The Philly Godfather,” a professional sports bettor who often appears on television. At West Chester, his message will not be about picks or predictions. Instead, he will speak about the discipline behind betting, the mathematics of risk, and the dangers of addiction. “It’s about showing how quickly entertainment can become destructive, and why knowledge and discipline matter,” he explains.
Away from the spotlight, Stelios restores classic muscle cars, which he calls “Picasso on wheels.” For him, they are a way of bringing something forgotten back to life, just as his father’s story has been restored and passed on. “The lessons my father taught me have been passed down to my children. Over seventy-five years of work and resilience, from him to me and now to my kids, so they can have a better life and a chance to succeed.”
The lecture at West Chester University is a chance to move beyond the pages of a book and reflect on the risks that define families, the responsibilities that follow, and the legacy that endures.
Event Details
Date: Tuesday, September 16, 2025
Time: 7:15–8:30 pm
Location: CBPM Room 101, West Chester University
