Antonio Garcia Lopez (criminal)
Encyclopedia
- For other people with similar names, see Antonio GarcíaAntonio GarcíaAntonio García nom de guerre of Eliécer Erlington Chamorro Acosta , one of the main commanders of the Ejército de Liberación Nacional , or National Liberation Army.The ELN is a revolutionary, Marxist, insurgent guerrilla group that has been operating in several regions of Colombia...
, Antonio LopezAntonio LopezAntonio Lopez is the name of:* Antonio López de Santa Anna, Mexican general, famous for leading Mexican forces to victory at the Battle of the Alamo* Antonio Lopez , American fashion illustrator* Antonio López Álvarez, Spanish football player...
.
Francisco Antonio García López (1943–1995), also known as Toño Bicicleta (or Tony Bicycle in English
English language
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), was a Puerto Rican
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
criminal famous for escaping from jail several times. García managed to become part of Puerto Rican folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
and the object of constant references in popular culture. His escapes have become legendary in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
.
Biography
Believed to be born in LaresLares
Lares , archaically Lases, were guardian deities in ancient Roman religion. Their origin is uncertain; they may have been guardians of the hearth, fields, boundaries or fruitfulness, hero-ancestors, or an amalgam of these....
, Puerto Rico, García was originally accused of the murder of his wife. He was mostly known as Toño Bicicleta because he never owned a car, and his favorite means of transport was a bicycle.
Criminal history
According to popular legend and police investigation, in 1968 Antonio García murdered his lover Gloria Soto after she told him she was leaving him for her husband. García beheaded Soto with a machete in front of her 4 year old son and sister, for which he was sentenced to life in prison. However he managed to escape two years later.In 1974, García was again captured by a civilian in a farm in the town of Bayamón, Puerto Rico. He was incarcerated in the prison of Sabana Hoyos in Arecibo
Arecibo
Arecibo may refer to:*Arecibo, Puerto Rico, a municipality located by the Atlantic Ocean*Arecibo Observatory, a very sensitive radio telescope located approximately south-southwest from the city of Arecibo...
, Puerto Rico until 1981 when he escaped again.
His numerous escapes helped him become part of the local lore. Allegedly, during his escapes he would continue committing rape and kidnappings. However, some people claim that due to his notoriety he was used as some sort of scapegoat both by authorities and civilians to several crimes in the island.
In 1983, García escaped for the seventh and last time. That time, he was able to stay on the loose for 12 years before being caught. In 1987, he killed his uncle and stepfather. That same year, García killed Luis Rodríguez and kidnapped his girlfriend, Diana Pérez Lebrón. The woman stayed with the criminal for eight years and was with him at the moment of his last showdown with authorities.
Death and burial
In the morning of November 29, 1995, García was allegedly working in a coffee plantation in Castañer, Puerto Rico. Police arrived at 7:30 am, and Officer Luis Rosa Merced of the Puerto Rico Police Department shot the notorious criminal in the genitals. García eventually bled to death.García's burial was attended by close to 3,000 people curious to see Puerto Rico's most notorious criminal of the 20th Century.