Antonio Garcia Lopez (criminal)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other people also named Antonio Lopez, see Antonio Lopez (disambiguation).
- This article is about Antonio Garcia Lopez also known as "Toño Bicicleta". For other uses of "Tono", see Tono.
Antonio Garcia Lopez, also known as "Toño Bicicleta" (1943-1995), was a Puerto Rican criminal who escaped from jail seven times. Accused of the murder of his wife, Garcia Lopez was a native of Lares. He was much better known as Toño Bicicleta. He was nicknamed that because he never owned a car, his favorite means of transportation was a bicycle.
Garcia Lopez became a legend almost by accident. According to popular legend (and police investigation), one day during the middle 1960s, he caught his wife cheating on him. Garcia Lopez/Bicicleta shot her to death, and was later sentenced to life in jail.
Garcia Lopez/Bicicleta then began his legendary escapes from jail. He became part of Puerto Rico's lore during the 1970s because of the apparent ease he had in escaping. Each of his escapes was well documented on newspapers such as El Nuevo Dia and El Vocero, and on the different tv news shows. During that decade, a song (La Bicicleta de Toño, or Toño's Bicycle) and a movie about him were released. During his escapes he would go on to commit rape and kidnappings.
In 1983, Garcia Lopez/Bicicleta escaped for the seventh and last time. That time, he was able to stay on the loose for 12 years before being caught. When he was caught in 1995, in a confusing incident, he was shot to death by the police. Garcia Lopez/Bicicleta's legend is still alive in Puerto Rico. Many argue that Garcia Lopez/Bicicleta had to have people help him with food and other basic necessity items in order for him to survive as an escapee for so long, suggesting then, that Garcia Lopez was probably loved and admired by many in Puerto Rico.
