Puccio family
The Puccio family were an Argentine criminal family. Three members of the family were convicted of four kidnappings and three murders in the early 1980s.
Background
The family lived in a house in San Isidro, a wealthy suburb of Buenos Aires.[1] The family consisted of father Arquímedes, mother Epifanía Calvo, and five children (three sons and two daughters) – Alejandro, Silvia, Daniel, Guillermo, and Adriana.[1] Arquímedes is suspected to have been involved in forced disappearances during the Dirty War.[1] Alejandro was a rugby player and Silvia was an art teacher.[1]
Crimes
The first known case involving the Puccio family was the kidnapping of Ricardo Manoukian, aged 23, who disappeared on July 22, 1982. His family paid a ransom of $250,000, but he was later killed with three shots to the head.[2] He was a rugby teammate of Alejandro Puccio.[1]
Engineer Eduardo Aulet was kidnapped on May 5, 1983. His family paid $150,000 for his ransom. His body was found four years later.[2]
Emilio Naum was kidnapped in June 1984, and attempted to resist the kidnapping. He was shot right there.[2]
The family's last victim, Nélida Bollini de Prado, was kidnapped for almost a month. The Puccio family were detained as they attempted to retrieve the ransom, as well as Alejandro and his girlfriend, who were home at the time.[2] Bollini de Prado was released in a police raid on the Puccio house on 23 August 1985.[1][3]
Arquímedes and two of his sons – Alejandro and Daniel – were convicted of the crimes, along with three other accomplices.[1] Arquímedes and Alejandro received a life sentence, while Daniel was also jailed for a number of years.[1] Epifanía Calvo, Silvia, Guillermo and Adriana were never convicted of any involvement in the crimes.[1]
Later life
Alejandro Puccio died in 2008, while his father Arquímedes died in 2013.[1] As of 2015, Epifanía Calvo and Adriana still own the house in San Isidro where the crimes were perpetrated.[1]
In popular culture
The family and their crimes are the subject of a book by Rodolfo Palacios, and the 2015 film The Clan, starring Guillermo Francella as Arquímedes.[1][3] Also in 2015, Telefe made a TV series, Historia de un clan, starring Alejandro Awada.[4]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Irene Caselli (September 3, 2015). "Puccio crime clan continues to intrigue Argentina". BBC News. Retrieved September 3, 2015.
- 1 2 3 4 "Puccio: Qué fue de la vida del clan y quiénes fueron sus víctimas" [Puccio what has been of the clan and who were their victims] (in Spanish). Perfil. August 18, 2015. Retrieved September 3, 2015.
- 1 2 Gosselin, Wendy (14 August 2015). "Out Now: El Clan". The Argentina Independent. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
- ↑ Martín Artigas (September 11, 2015). "Cinco diferencias entre la película y la serie sobre el clan Puccio" [Five differences between the film and the series about the Puccio family] (in Spanish). La Nación. Retrieved September 10, 2015.