Bonnot Gang - Crime Spree

Crime Spree

The first robbery by Bonnot's Gang was at the money transfer of Société Générale Bank in Paris 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. The gang had the dubious honour of being the first to use an automobile to flee the scene of a crime, presaging by over twenty years the later methods of John Dillinger and Bonnie and Clyde.

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.

French Central Police Sûreté Nationale 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 Sénart Forest 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.