Bonnot Illegalism

Bonnot Illegalism (BonIll)'' Is a form of illegalism that directly alligns to The bonnot gang (La Banda Bonnot).

Members
(no known picture)
 * Jules Bonnot
 * Octave Garnier
 * Raymond Callemin
 * Anna Dondon
 * Marie Vuillemin
 * André Soudy
 * Édouard Carouy
 * Jeanne Belardi
 * Jean De Boe
 * Étienne Monier
 * Eugène Dieudonné

Jules Bonnot(wikipedia)
the person where The Bonnot Gang is based of, was a French bank robber famous for his involvement in a criminal anarchist organization dubbed "The Bonnot Gang" by the French press. He viewed himself as a professional and avoided bloodshed, preferring to outwit his targets.

Octave Garnier(wikipedia)
, 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(wikipedia)
Étienne Monier was born into a family of winegrowers in Estagel, in Pyrénées-Orientales, a small town with a strong anarchist tradition since the local population resisted 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, refusing to fulfill his military service, he was forced to flee abroad. To be able to come back in France, he used the papers of an anarchist friend, Samuelis Simentoff, born in 1887 in Turkey. Back in Paris, he met Victor Serge and Rirette Maîtrejean and, later, Jules Bonnot, leading him to become a member of the Bonnot Gang.

On 25 March 1912, the gang, including Étienne Monier, 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 the Société Générale Bbank – 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.

Étienne Monier then worked for 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 the same day, Monier was arrested in Belleville, in Paris.

The trial of the gang's survivors began on 3 February 1913. Monier was sentenced to death with André Soudy and Raymond Callemin. All three were guillotined on 21 April 1913.

Eugéne Dieudonné(wikipedia)
Eugène Dieudonné (1884–1944) was a French anarchist and illegalist. He was a frequent visitor of the headquarters of L'Anarchie and accused of being a member of the Bonnot Gang. Despite Jules Bonnot and Octave Garnier exonerating him, he was accused and convicted of participating in the robbery of a Société Générale branch in Paris in 1912. Initially sentenced to death, his sentence was commuted to forced labor for life and he was sent to French Guiana from where he was able to flee to Brazil in 1926. Journalists Albert Londres and Louis Roubaud secured his pardon and he returned to France where he spent the rest of his life as a furniture manufacturer.

Bonnot gang(wikipedia)
France's Bonnot Gang was the most famous group to embrace illegalism. The Bonnot Gang (La Bande à Bonnot) was a French criminal anarchist group that operated in France and Belgium during the Belle Époque from 1911 to 1912. Composed of individuals who identified with the emerging illegalist milieu, the gang utilized cutting-edge technology (including automobiles and repeating rifles) not yet available to the French police.

Octave Garnier and Jules Bonnot cofounded the Bonnot Gang. Originally referred to by the press as simply "The Auto Bandits," the gang was dubbed "The Bonnot Gang" after Jules Bonnot gave an interview at the office of Petit Parisien, a popular daily paper.

The group originated in Belgium, a location conducive to the congregation of political exiles and young men who wanted to escape obligation to serve in the French military. They fraternized over shared ideological values and began to organize in Brussels.

Garnier was incarcerated at the age of 17, yet found the world of work more alienating than that of crime or prison. During his time in the workforce, he was increasingly disillusioned to the practicality of radical economic change, dissatisfied even by the work of union leaders, who he considered as exploitative as the capitalists. In his biography, he identifies this period as the point at which he "became an anarchist. [He] was about 18 and no longer wanted to go back to work, so once again [he] began la reprise individuelle." He was among those who found refuge from compulsory French military service in Belgium. This is where he encountered the editor of Le Révolte, a prominent anarchist paper in Brussels which upheld anarchist, individualist thought and activity.

Literature such as this served as a catalyst for the expansion of illegalist thought. Another paper, l'Anarchie, included an article by Victor Kibalchich, which expressed the following sentiment: "In the ordinary sense of the word we cannot and will not be honest. By definition, the anarchist lives by expediency; work for him, is a deplorable expedient, like stealing... He takes no account of any conventions which safeguard property; for him, force alone counts. Thus we have neither to approve nor disapprove of illegal actions. We say: they are logical. The anarchist is always illegal - theoretically. The sole word 'anarchist' means rebellion in every sense." The paper was eventually controlled entirely by illegalists, with Kibalchich assuming a role as editor. This production of illegalist thought was opportune for the education and organizing behind the formation of the Bonnot Gang.

Jules Bonnot differed from the other members of his gang in the sense that he did serve in the military. He used the experience as an opportunity to refine technical skills which would help him in his life of crime. He was also roughly 10 years older than the rest of the group, which was advantageous in that it gave him a distinct confidence and infectious measured recklessness. His first significant robbery was in July 1910, when he stole 36,000 francs from the home of a wealthy lawyer in Vienne. Garnier was on a panel of illegalists which gathered to hear Bonnot's account of a supposed homicide and recognized Bonnot as the right candidate to form an illegalist action group with.

The Bonnot Gang committed its first robbery at a bank in Paris in December 1911, during which they shot a collection clerk, stole over 5,000 francs, and escaped in a stolen vehicle. They broke into a gun store a week later. A few days after this, in January 1912, they stole 30,000 francs from the home of M. Moreau and murdered him, along with his maid. They quickly became a target for law enforcement and did not hesitate to kill police officers who pursued them. They continued with patterns of robbery throughout the next couple of months, losing some members to arrest along the way. Garnier and Bonnet were among members who persisted in their resistance throughout this time. The prominence of both figures within the group was later reinforced by their high-profile deaths during separate shootouts with French police. In February of 1913, remaining members were tried and received their respective sentences to imprisonment and death.