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Bonnot Gang

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The Bonnot Gang (La Bande à Bonnot) or The Tragic Bandits (Les Bandes Tragiques) was a French criminal anarchist group that operated in France and Belgium during the late Belle Époque, from 1911 to 1912. Composed of individuals who identified with the emerging illegalist milieu, the gang used new technology, such as cars and repeating rifles not then available to the police.

A 1912 illustration of the Bonnot Gang stealing an automobile in the Forest of Senart.
Illustration of the robbery of Société Générale Bank in Chantilly on 25 March 1912

The press originally referred to them as simply "The Auto Bandits," as they carried out the first motorized robberies and bank raids in world history. The group also earned the moniker "Les bandes tragiques" from the press due to a sense of the group's "desperate courage," who were painted as tragic-comic figures for their working-class origins and espoused anarchist politics.[1] But ultimately the gang became known by the title of "The Bonnot Gang" after Jules Bonnot gave an interview at the office of Le Petit Parisien, a popular daily paper. Bonnot's perceived prominence within the group was later reinforced by his high-profile death during a shootout with French police in Choisy-le-Roi.

While many of the gang's members originated from regions across France and Belgium, such as Lyon, Brussels, Charleroi, Alais, they congregated in the city of Paris. Only some decades after the Commune of 1871 and the wave of anarchist terrorism of the 1890s, and not long after the General Strike of 1906 organized by the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT), Paris was a hotbed of anarchist debate and organizing, with ongoing bitter disagreements between the anarcho-individualists (such as the illegalists) and anarcho-communists and -syndicalists.[1]

Crime spree

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Courtroom photo from the Bonnot Gang mass trial at the Palais du Justice, February 3-27, 1913.

The first robbery by Bonnot's Gang was on 21 December 1911 at the AB Branch of Société Générale Bank, located at 148 rue Ordener in the 18th Arrondissement of Paris. They shot a collection clerk in the neck and lung (yet he survived) and snatched his cash bags.[2]

On 25 March 1912, the gang stole a de Dion-Bouton automobile in the Forest of Sénart south of Paris by shooting the driver through the heart.[1] They drove into Chantilly, north of Paris, where they robbed the local branch of Société Générale Bank, and fatally shot two bank cashiers and severely wounded a bookkeeper.[2]

Sûreté Chief Xavier Guichard took the matter personally. Even politicians became concerned, increasing police funding by 800,000 francs. Banks began to prepare for forthcoming robberies and many cashiers armed themselves. The Société Générale promised a reward of 100,000 francs for information that would lead to arrests.[2]

Members

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Some members of the Bonnot gang, including (from top left): Eugène Dieudonné, Jules Bonnot, Antoine Gauzy, Arthur Mallet, Pierre Cardi, Marius Metge, Edouard Carouy, Octave Garnier, René Valet, Joseph Renard, Émile Bachelet, Louis Rimbault, Marie Vuillemin, André Soudy, Étienne Monier, Raymond Callemin, Jean De Boë, and Bernard Godoresky.

Gang members included

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Mugshots of Bonnot Gang members

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See more

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Richard Parry, The Bonnot Gang: Story of the French Illegalists (Rebel Press, 1987), ISBN 978-0-946061-04-4.
  2. ^ a b c ""Skedaddle!" The Bonnot Gang targets Societe Generale". Societe Generale. January 10, 2017. Archived from the original on August 20, 2014. Retrieved September 11, 2019.

Further reading

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Film

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