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Demetrios, later known as Claw, was a Greek demolitions expert who worked at an archaeological dig in Egypt until he killed a man to loot a precious jackal headpiece from the ancient tomb of Kha. Although his crimes were discovered, Demetrios absconded with the artifact. He resurfaced as an arms dealer in Mexico eight years later and it was there that a chance re-encounter with Indiana Jones led to his demise.

Biography[]

A native of Greece, Demetrios was born around 1868.[2]

Egypt[]

Indiana Jones and Miss Seymour encountered Demetrios in 1908 in Egypt at the archaeological dig site of Kha the architect's tomb, being excavated by Howard Carter. Demetrios was in charge of setting the explosives used for clearing the roadway to the dig site.[1]

Demetrios goes boom

Demetrios at work in the Valley of the Kings

After the tomb was opened, Demetrios murdered Rasheed Sallam, who was guarding the tomb, and removed the mummy to incite fear of a curse to cover his theft of a headpiece in the shape of a jackal, with rubies for eyes.[1] With Indy's help, T. E. Lawrence eventually solved the murder case and confronted Demetrios, who escaped with the jackal headpiece[3] and headed for his home country.[2]

However, Indy claimed later in life that although Lawrence left to confront Demetrios, his ship had left dock just minutes before Lawrence arrived. Indy kept a photograph of Demetrios from the 1908 meeting in his diary. At some point after this encounter, Demetrios lost a hand, which was replaced with a metal claw.[1]

Mexico[]

By March 1916, Demetrios lived in the northern part of Mexico, supplying arms and explosives to Pancho Villa and was known simply as Claw. After negotiating a deal with Villa, he overheard the target of Villa's next raid: Ciudad Guerrero. Jones, captured by Pancho Villa's men, recognized Demetrios after the man used Arabic to tell Indy and another captive to hurry up when unloading munitions.[1] He also recognized him as he was present when when Pierre took a photo of him in Egypt.[4] Later, Indy was sent to help pick up arms at Claw's house and confirmed that Claw was Demetrios.[1]

Demetrios sold the information about Villa's next raid to General John J. Pershing, who then ordered a counterattack that drove Villa's gang from Ciudad Guerrero.[1]

Several nights later, Demetrios found Indiana breaking into his cupboard of archaeological artifacts. Demetrios and Indy fought in the house, which eventually caught fire. During the fight, Demetrios was knocked into the weapons storage cellar and used a heavy machine gun against Indy, who fled with the jackal headpiece. Demetrios was killed when the gunpowder in his cellar exploded, causing his entire house to be destroyed. His severed claw landed close to where Indy had stopped to catch his breath.[1]

Behind the scenes[]

Demetrios was portrayed by Vic Tablian in Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal.[1] Tablian had previously played the roles of both Barranca and the Monkey Man in Raiders of the Lost Ark.[5]

In August 1997, Tablian returned to the role of Demetrios to film the scene of his confrontation with T. E. Lawrence (with Joseph Bennett returning to play that role) during the production of the 1999 film Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in Tunisia. This footage was used to bridge[6] the Egypt and "Tangiers, July 1909" segments for My First Adventure.[7]

Demetrios, as Claw, appears as the final Mexico level boss in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles video game on the NES. A loose adaptation of the "Mexico, March 1916" segment of the television episode, to recover the stolen Jackal headpiece, Indiana Jones confronts Claw in an abandoned silver mine where the demolitions expert survives his defeat to, according the game manual, "plan another dastardly plot".[8]

In the educational game The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Revolution, Demetrios's name was misspelled as "Demetrius".[9]

Appearances[]

Sources[]

Notes and references[]

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