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Jules Joseph Bonnot (14 October 1876 – 28 April 1912) was a French soldier, Illegalism anarchist, bank robber, and murderer. He is notorious for his role in the French anarchist band "The Bonnot Gang" that committed many crimes in early 20th-century Paris.
Born in Pont-de-Roide, Bonnot experienced many hardships in his youth, such as his mother dying when he was a child. Before his gang affiliation and time serving in the army, he had several run-ins with the law as a teenager. In 1887, he joined the French Army as a mechanic, which resulted in an expertise in motor vehicles. After leaving the army, Bonnot adopted anarchist ideas in response to his frustration with the bourgeois society and followed a philosophy called illegalism.
Soon after, Bonnot formed the notorious "Bonnot Gang" in Paris, France with several fellow anarchists. They specialized in bank robberies utilizing motor vehicles to escape. From 1911 to 1912, the gang went on to commit many crimes around France that resulted in the deaths of many, including Bonnot's.
At the age of twenty-one, Bonnot was conscripted into the French army for a mandatory three years. He served in the 133rd Line regiment that was stationed near Lyon, France. During his time serving, Bonnot behaved himself and gained experience with the intricacies of the motor vehicles within the unit. When he finished his three years, he became engaged to a seamstress from Vouvray, France in 1900, named Sophie Burdet. They were married in August 1901, and they left to Bellegrade, France where Bonnot was employed at another factory. As a theme that was common in Bonnot's life, more tragic events unfolded. Bonnot's wife, Sophie, gave birth to a daughter in 1902 that only lived for four days. At the same time, Bonnot bounced around three different jobs but was fired for being violent and unruly towards his superiors. In 1903, Sophie gave birth to a son, who they named Justin after Bonnot's late brother. Later in 1903, when Bonnot contracted a case of tuberculosis, his wife Sophie left him to live in Dijon, France with a lover. Despite his calls for the custody of their son, Sophie refused every attempt and ceased all communication.
With another member of the anarchist group named Platano, Bonnot began burglarizing local companies and houses with the usage of his driver's license. According to Bonnot, the best way to fight against this new French society was to live outside the law and to get retribution against the wealthy. He began specializing in using motor vehicles to make a quick getaway from each incident. His group of anarchists burglarized many items that they rented a place out to store it all. In one particular occasion, Bonnot stole upwards of thirty-five thousand by utilizing the motor vehicle to great effect. He always considered himself as a professional burglar and favored wealthy outfits, a well-groomed appearance, and swift robberies.
This philosophy that he and his anarchist partners adopted and lived by was illegalism, a form of anarchism. In late 1911, the garages that held all the robbed items were discovered by the police. In response, both Bonnot and Platano fled to Paris; however, in a freak accident, Platano was fatally shot while fiddling around with his own pistol. As a result, blame was inevitably placed on Bonnot, for Platano had a considerable amount of money under his name. Bonnot then became wanted for murder and burglary by the Lyon police.
When Bonnot's frustration with capitalistic society grew to a breaking point, he decided that bank robberies were the most suitable expression of the sentiments of the Illegalists. The Bonnot Gang began by robbing a rare luxury car, a Delaunay-Belleville, to serve as the getaway vehicle for their crimes. This theft, in particular, was a triumph for Bonnot because it proved to him that the bourgeois were vulnerable to their exploits. The gang then built up an arsenal of weapons and a collection of hiding spots from the police. In late December 1911, the gang robbed and shot a bank messenger, stealing five thousand francs and bonds worth upwards of one hundred thousand francs. With this crime, several newspapers put up notices of a reward for the capture of the members of "The Bonnot Gang," and they were notorious among the general public of Paris as car bandits, an unprecedented new form of crime as motor vehicles had not been fully integrated into society at that point. This crime became known as one of the first robberies utilizing a motor vehicle to leave the crime scene. In light of their attacks against the capitalist society, the gang was able to garner support from some of the general public that sympathized with their hatred of the bourgeois. Bonnot never considered himself as the leader of the gang because each member played a crucial role in each crime; however, because of his past notoriety and skills with motor vehicles, Bonnot was stamped as the face of the group.
After taking a train to Paris and then traveling to Ghent, Garnier and Bonnot murdered a chauffeur and severely wounded a watchman as they attempted to steal two cars but returned to Paris emptyhanded in late January. While there, several members altered their appearance in order to evade arrest. Instead of laying low, Bonnot Bonnot and Garnier continued their bouts of crime, venturing into Belgium and southern France at times.
In late February, the duo traveled to a wealthy neighborhood of Paris and robbed another Delaunay-Belleville and changed the plates. While on their way to Southern France, the car broke down and was repaired. Bonnot, in a hurry after the delay, sped at significant speed and nearly caused an accident in a suburb of Paris. A police officer spotted their traffic infraction and attempted to stop the vehicle only to be mortally wounded. With Bonnot at the wheel, the gang's vehicle ran over and severely injured a young woman while in a haste to leave the scene. With the murder of the policeman, the French ramped up their efforts to round up the "bandits" and the general public was placed on high alert to report any suspicious activity directly to the French authorities.
In late March, the group attempted to rob vehicles owned by the bourgeois in two different instances and came up empty-handed in both. As a result, they plotted to rob a car in broad daylight in the middle of a Parisian road. On 25 March, they targeted a newly purchased luxury limousine that was being delivered. When the limousine was most vulnerable in a suburb of Paris, Bonnot and Garnier shot the passengers and hijacked the vehicle. Immediately, the gang embarked towards a bank that was seventy kilometers away from the scene. They entered, shot three bank clerks, and got away from the French police with fifty thousand francs and without any confrontation.
After this event, French police were placed on high alert and armed with revolvers in order to capture the gang once and for all. The infamy of the Bonnot Gang and the driving prowess of Bonnot was instilling fear in all of the French citizens. In the following days, some of the members of the Bonnot Gang were captured by the French police, and on April 24, while in hiding, Bonnot was surprised by police. He quickly drew his weapon and killed a policeman, wounded another, and evaded capture; however, four days later, the police caught him hiding in a residence in Choisy-le-Roi. Bonnot bunkered himself in the house while under siege by upwards of five hundred police men. He was able to wound three officers and fend off the force before the front of the residence was blown up with dynamite. Bonnot was shot ten times before finally being captured. The following day, April 28, 1912, Bonnot succumbed to his injuries and died in his hospital bed. He was not the only member of the gang to be killed. Rene Valet and Octave Garnier were killed the next month by French police in a shootout.
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