History of crime

Can we have a thread about the criminals of history? Their heists. Their schemes. Their accomplishments. Their defeats. All of it is interesting.

I'll christen this thread in the name of the Bonnot gang.

Other urls found in this thread:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Worth
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apaches_(subculture)
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

The Bonnot Gang originally consisted of a group of French anarchists centered around the individualist anarchist magazine l'Anarchie. The group was founded by Octave Garnier, Raymond Callemin, and René Valet. It was Garnier's idea to use automobiles in the service of a daring criminal act. Jules Bonnot joined them in December 1911.

The gang's political and social perspective was heavily influenced by Mikhail Bakunin and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon as well as Max Stirner, Ludwig Büchner, and Friedrich Nietzsche. Bonnot's ideas were more part with late anarchist Ravachol.

Born in Fontainebleau, Seine-et-Marne on Christmas Day 1889, Garnier worked as a butcher and baker at an early age. He took up theft at the age of thirteen and had served his first prison term by age seventeen. Garnier later wrote, "prison had made me even more rebellious."

Following his release from prison, Garnier dabbled in, and then became disillusioned with, both union syndicalism and revolutionary politics before turning to anarchism.

Following two additional stints in prison (one for assault), Garnier fled to Belgium in 1910 to avoid France's military draft. Abroad, he learned the art of burglary and counterfeiting from anarchist associates. In April 1911, Garnier and his partner Marie Vuillemin moved to Romainville to live with future gang members Raymond Callemin, Jean De Boe, and Edouard Carouy as well as Victor Kibalchich, then editor of l'Anarchie. Within this group, Garnier's political sympathies grew rapidly towards illegalism, a radical form of individualist anarchism that was heavily influenced by German philosopher Max Stirner.

Following an ideological split within l'Anarchie, Garnier and Vuillemin moved to Paris and he began work as a navvy, participating in strikes at Chars, Marin, and Cergy. Working as a burglar on the side to make ends meet, he was unhappy with his lot and dreamed of bigger heists. It was at this point that Garnier, in consultation with Callemin, began to plan the activities of an anarchist gang – a group that would be known in the press as first, "The Auto Bandits", and later, "The Bonnot Gang".

Étienne Monier was born in a family of winegrowers in Estagel, in Pyrénées-Orientales, a small town with a strong anarchist tradition since the local population resisted to Napoléon III taking power in 1851.Monier started by learning to become a gardener and a florist, before deciding to move to Paris in 1909. At the end of 1910, he refuses to go for military service and is forced to flee abroad. To be able to come back in France, he then uses the papers of an anarchist friend, Samuelis Simentoff, born in 1887 in Turkey. Back in Paris, he meets Victor Serge and Rirette Maitrejean and, later, Jules Bonnot, leading him to become a member of the Bonnot Gang.

Étienne Monier then worked some time in Antoine Gauzy's shop in Ivry-sur-Seine. Gauzy gave shelter to Bonnot later, sent by Monier and not knowing clearly his real identity. When the police came to Gauzy's shop on 24 April 1912, Bonnot killed Louis Jouin, the vice-chief of the French police, and escaped. On that same day, Monier was arrested in Belleville, in Paris.

Bonnot was born on October 14, 1876 in Pont-de-Roide, a town in Doubs, France (the same département in which anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was born). At the age of five, his mother died, leaving Bonnot in the care of his father (a factory worker) and grandmother.

As a teenager, Bonnot served time in prison on two occasions (the latter, for assaulting a police officer) and was compelled to leave his work at the factory after being accused of stealing copper shavings.

At the age of 21, Bonnot was conscripted for service in France's infantry, where he served three years as a truck auto mechanic. He was an excellent rifleman and left the army as a corporal first class.

Bonnot was married to Sophie-Louise Burdet in August 1901, but soon ran into problems at work. He associated with anarchists and was blacklisted as an agitator. After moving to Geneva, Bonnot acquired a job, but was fired after he hit his boss with an iron bar. In 1907, Sophie left Bonnot, taking their child with her.

In 1908, Bonnot began to associate with anarcho-individualists involved in counterfeiting. Along with several Italians, he began forging ten-franc pieces and carrying out minor thefts and burglaries. Eventually, using Bonnot's automotive skill, they progressed to the theft of luxury-cars in France and Switzerland.

In 1910, Bonnot began posing as a businessman in order to visit the homes of wealthy lawyers in Lyon. He would 'case' the property and then return to rob it.

The first robbery by Bonnot's Gang was at the money transfer of Société Générale Bank in Chantilly on December 21, 1911. They escaped in an automobile (a Delaunay-Belleville) they had stolen a week before. Robbers – Bonnot, Octave Garnier, Eugène Dieudonné and Raymond Callemin – got booty equal to 5,126 francs, but the rest of it was composed of securities.

On December 28, 1911, the gang broke into a gun shop in the Paris center. A few days later, on the night of January 2, 1912, they entered the home of the wealthy M. Moreau and murdered both him and his maid. The booty take was equal to 30,000 francs.

The National Police did its best to catch the gang. They were able to arrest one man based on their registry of anarchist organisations. The Gang fled temporarily to Belgium, where they sold the stolen automobile and tried to carjack another. In the process they shot a Belgian policeman.

The gang continued their automobile thefts and robberies, shooting two more policemen in the process. Automobiles were not yet common so the gang usually stole still expensive cars from garages, not from the street.

By March 1912, police had arrested many of the gang’s supporters and knew many of the members' faces and names. In March 1912, gang member and would-be leader Octave Garnier sent a mocking letter to the Sûreté – with his fingerprints. In those days, the French police still did not yet use fingerprinting.

On March 25, 1912, the gang stole a de Dion-Bouton automobile in the Forest of Sénart south of Paris by shooting the driver through the heart. They drove into Chantilly north of Paris where they robbed the local branch of Société Générale Bank – shooting the bank's three cashiers. They escaped in their stolen automobile as two policemen tried to catch them, one on horseback and the other on a bicycle.

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.

On March 30, police arrested André Soudy at the English Channel coast, where he announced that he did not care whether he died of tuberculosis or by guillotine. Édouard Carouy was arrested April 3. Raymond Callemin was arrested April 7, and police had to prevent an angry mob from lynching him on the spot. Étienne Monnier was arrested in Paris on April 24. By the end of that month, police had arrested 28 gang members and supporters. Still, Bonnot, Octave Garnier and René Valet remained at large.

On April 24, three police officers surprised Bonnot in the apartment of a suspected fence. He shot at the officers, killing one and wounding another, and then fled over the rooftops. Part of the 100,000 francs reward was later given to the widow of the killed police officer (Louis Jouin, the vice-chief of the French National Police).

On April 28, police had tracked Bonnot to a converted garage in the Paris suburb of Choisy-le-Roi. The building had only one entrance so it was easy for Bonnot to keep the police at bay. They besieged the place with 500 armed police officers, soldiers (with one brand new Hotchkiss machine gun), firefighters, military engineers and private gun-owners. By noon, after a sporadic firing from both sides, Paris Police Chief Louis Lépine sent three police officers to put a dynamite charge under the house. The explosion demolished the front of the building. Bonnot was hiding in the middle of a rolled mattress and tried to shoot back until Lépine shot him non-fatally in the head. Afterwards police again had to prevent the spectators from lynching Bonnot. They simply told the crowd that Bonnot was already dead and had been buried in a secret grave.

On the evening of May 14, Octave Garnier and Rene Valet were besieged in the Paris suburb of Nogent-sur-Marne by a large force including 300 police officers and gendarmes and 800 soldiers. Sûreté Chief Xavier Guichard himself led the siege. The firing from both sides was intense, and at 2 AM, Guichard decided to blow the place up. Garnier died in the explosion, but Valet tried to keep firing despite his wounds.

The trial of the Gang's survivors began on February 3, 1913. Victor Serge was sentenced to five years for robbery. All the others were initially sentenced to death. The sentence of Eugène Dieudonné was commuted to life imprisonment. Sentences of Édouard Carouy and Marius Metge were commuted to life imprisonment at hard labor. Carouy later committed suicide. Metge was sent to a penal colony. Raymond Caillemin, Étienne Monier and André Soudy refused to plead for clemency and they were executed by guillotine.

...

>In March 1912, gang member and would-be leader Octave Garnier sent a mocking letter to the Sûreté – with his fingerprints. In those days, the French police still did not yet use fingerprinting.
Maximum teasing.

Je suis tombé par terre,
C'est la faute à Baader.
Le cul dans le ruisseau,
C'est la faute à Bonnot !

This is more macro-level than what you guys are talking about, but the violent crime rates of Europe from 1200-1800 fascinate me.

Couldn't someone feasibly get away with murder if they secretly killed their victim right before they went away on a ship to the Western Hemisphere colonies or join an Asian-bound merchantman for a few years? Like some time in the 1600's to the early 1800's?

I think it's safe to say that a lot of murder happened :)

this is the golden age of piracy and slave trade after all

I'd be very surprised if anybody here knew Adam Worth. I don't know of any master thief more badass than this guy right here. Pure Victorian English.

Not so much a question about crime, but does anyone know anything about the history of policing in America? I'm writing a detective story that takes place in the 18th century and I want to make the investigation methods as accurate as I can.

Joseph Stalin was a violent bankrobber and thug

Try checking out the history of Pinkerton inc. Very involved with American police investigation. Though, they're more 19th century than 18th.

That might be interesting. My protagonist is a Philadelphia nightwatch member in the 1750s who takes his part time job a little too seriously. I'm sure a lot of investigative methods carry over

Never heard of him, care to share more info?

The roving gangs that used to pilfer entire towns is pretty nuts. A wild time to be alive for sure.

Basically the greatest master thief of the Victorian Era. Stole the famous Gainsborough painting of the Duchess of Devonshire. Became obsessed with it actually and made it his entire life's aspiration to have it, and safeguard it.

Operated major thief rings around America, England and I think France too. Overall very fascinating character, and he was the lifelong obsession of Detective William Pinkerton, who caught him after so many years.

Here's the wiki page on him, but the best book to read about him chronicling his life and adventures is "The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth" by Ben Macintyre. Very interesting read. Easy read too.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Worth

Sounds like an interesting guy, thanks for sharing.

Traditionally detectives use eclectic methods of analysis and observation they've developed themselves.
>"THE mental features discoursed of as the analytical, are, in themselves, but little susceptible of analysis. We appreciate them only in their effects. We know of them, among other things, that they are always to their possessor, when inordinately possessed, a source of the liveliest enjoyment. As the strong man exults in his physical ability, delighting in such exercises as call his muscles into action, so glories the analyst in that moral activity which disentangles. He derives pleasure from even the most trivial occupations bringing his talent into play. He is fond of enigmas, of conundrums, of hieroglyphics; exhibiting in his solutions of each a degree of acumen which appears to the ordinary apprehension preternatural. His results, brought about by the very soul and essence of method, have, in truth, the whole air of intuition."
-The first paragraph of the first detective story ever written.

Why?

is that guy with the beige suit Ted Cruz?

Basically because it's an enormous example of eugenics. In 1200, violent crime was Africa-tier in most of the continent, but huge numbers of criminals were hanged, possibly as much as 1% of the adult male population every year.

The genes for violent crime were slowly wiped out from the gene pool until by 1800, violent crime was miniscule.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apaches_(subculture)

What's the book?