Eugène Dieudonné

In 1906 Dieudonné was friends with a group of anarchists that included Jules Bonnot, Victor Serge, Raymond Callemin and Octave Garnier. Bonnot soon formed a gang that included local anarchists. Serge was totally opposed to what the group intended to do. On 21st December, 1911 the gang robbed a messenger of the Société Générale Bank of 5,126 francs in broad daylight and then fled in a stolen Delaunay-Belleville car. It is claimed that they were the first to use an automobile to flee the scene of a crime. The gang then stole weapons from a gun shop in Paris. On 2nd January, 1912, they broke into the home of the wealthy Louis-Hippolyte Moreau and murdered both him and his maid. This time they stole property and money to the value of 30,000 francs. Bonnot and his men fled to Belgium, where they sold the stolen car. In an attempt to steal another they shot a Belgian policeman. On 27th February they shot two more police officers while stealing an expensive car from a garage in Place du Havre. On 25th March, 1912, the gang stole a De Dion-Bouton car in the Sénart Forest by killing the driver. Later that day they killed two cashiers during an attack on the Société Générale Bank in Chantilly. Leading anarchists in the city were arrested. The police offered a reward of 100,000 in an effort to capture members of the gang. This policy worked and on information provided by an anarchist writer, André Soudy was arrested at Berck-sur-Mer on 30th March. This was followed a few days later when Edouard Carouy was betrayed by the family hiding him. Raymond Callemin was captured on 7th April. Dieudonné was also arrested because he was a known associate of Soudy, Carouy and Callemin. The trial of Dieudonné, Raymond Callemin, Victor Serge, Rirette Maitrejean, Edouard Carouy, Jean de Boe, André Soudy and Stephen Monier, began on 3rd February, 1913. Callemin, Soudy, Dieudonné and Monier were sentenced to death. When he heard the judge's verdict, Callemin jumped up and shouted: "Dieudonné is innocent - it's me, me that did the shooting!" Carouy was sentenced to hard labour for life (he committed suicide a few days later). Serge received five years' solitary confinement but Maitrejean was acquitted. Dieudonné was reprieved by Raymond Poincare but Callemin, Soudy and Monier were guillotined at the gates of the prison on 21st April, 1913. Dieudonné was sent to Îles du Salut where he served his time as a cabinetmaker. He was later transferred to the penal colony of Cayenne but managed to escape in December, 1926. He eventually reached Brazil. Meanwhile, back in France, the journalist, Albert Londres ran a campaign to get him pardoned. This was achieved in 1927. He settled in Faubourg Saint-Antoine where he became a cabinet-maker.