Thomas Puccio, Abscam Prosecutor and Defense Lawyer in von Bulow Acquittal, Is Dead at 67
A New York lawyer who first made a major name for himself prosecuting congressmen in the Abscam trials of the 1980s and then represented big-name defendants has died of leukemia.
Thomas P. Puccio was 67 years old, reports the New York Times (reg. req.).
Among his most famous cases was the acquittal he won in 1985 for Claus von Bulow, a Danish-born socialite accused of killing his high-society wife by injecting her with insulin.
The win helped launch him into partnerships at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy. In 1992, he started his own firm.
In a 1995 book, In the Name of the Law: Confessions of a Trial Lawyer, which he co-authored with journalist Dan Collins, he offered a list of Puccio’s Principles.
Among them: “Go for the jugular.” And “not losing is more important than winning.”
