Arquímedes Rafael Puccio (14 September 1929 in Barracas, Buenos Aires – 4 May 2013 in General Pico, La Pampa) nicknamed "The crazy sweeper (in Spanish: El loco de la escoba)" was an Argentinian accountant, lawyer,[1] entrepreneur, SIDE member and member of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance, he also led the Batallón de Inteligencia 601[2] and participated in the Tacuara nacionalist movement.
[3] He was mainly known for being the leader of the Puccio Clan, a criminal organization famous for abducting and murdering three entrepreneurs: Ricardo Manoukian, Eduardo Aulet and Emilio Naum.
He was captured along with other clan members while trying to collect the ransom for their fourth victim, The funerary establishment owner and entrepreneur Nélida Bollini de Prado.
[4][5] Arquimedes had five children: Alejandro, player of the Argentina national rugby union team, Silvia, Daniel (Maguila), Guillermo and Adriana.
He also collaborated with his former workmates: retired colonel Rodolfo Victoriano Franco, Guillermo Fernández Laborda, Gustavo Contepomi, Roberto Díaz.
He got married in Buenos Aires on 5 October 1957 with an accounting [clarification needed] and mathematics professor Epifanía Ángeles Calvo, also born Buenos Aires on 5 August 1932 with whom he had five children: Alejandro Rafael in 1958, Silvia Inés in 1960, Daniel Arquímedes en 1961, Guillermo J. in 1963 and Adriana Claudia, the youngest, was born on 20 March 1970.
Argentine president Juan Domingo Perón bestowed his diploma because he achieved the merit of being the youngest diplomat at the time.
In 1973, he attended the Escuela Superior de Conducción Política, which depended on the Movimiento Nacional Justicialista (National Justicialist Movement).
[2][4] It is in this school where he meets his future accomplice, Guillermo Luis Fernandez Laborda, who worked as an administrator at the Ramos Mejia Hospital.
[2] During the dictatorship known as the National Reorganization Process[10] that governed the country from 1976 to 1983, there were numerous cases of extortive kidnappings perpetrated by police or members of the army.
However, he got cheated because he had a relationship with Alejandro, one of the involved in the Clan[14] He was held captive for 11 days, bound hand and foot and hooded in the bathtub on the first floor, with the bathroom's curtain closed.
[2][18][17] The women, the mother, the daughters and Alejandro's girlfriend denied knowing everything, but the judge in the case, María Servini de Cubría, was struck by the fact that none of them were surprised or asked what had happened.
[21][22] Arquímedes Puccio was taken to the Instituto Correccional Abierto de General Pico La Pampa, after having his house arrest revoked, as he had infringed its conditions.
[25] The Argentinian film director, Pablo Trapero directed a movie called El Clan based on the criminal story of the Puccio family.