''Les Apaches'' () was a

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

ian

Belle Époque The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque (; French for "Beautiful Epoch") is a period of French and European history, usually considered to begin around 1871–1880 and to end with the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Occurring during the era ...

violent criminal underworld subculture of early

20th-century The 20th (twentieth) century began on January 1, 1901 ( MCMI), and ended on December 31, 2000 ( MM). The 20th century was dominated by significant events that defined the modern era: Spanish flu pandemic, World War I and World War II, nuclear ...

hooligans Hooliganism is disruptive or unlawful behavior such as rioting, bullying and vandalism, usually in connection with crowds at sporting events. Etymology There are several theories regarding the origin of the word ''hooliganism,'' which is a ...

, night muggers, street gangs and other criminals.

Philipp Blom Philipp Blom (born 1970) is a German historian, novelist, journalist and translator. Biography Blom was born in Hamburg, Germany, grew up in Detmold, and studied in Vienna and Oxford. He holds a DPhil in Modern History from Oxford University. Af ...

, ''The Vertigo Years: Europe, 1900-1914'', 2008, ,
p. 372
/ref> After news of their notoriety spread over Europe, the term was used to describe violent street crime in other countries as well; for example, "Russian apaches."

Name

There are a number of stories about the origin of the term "Apaches," the common thread being that this was a comparison of their savagery with that attributed by Europeans to the

Native American tribe In the United States, an American Indian tribe, Native American tribe, Alaska Native village, tribal nation, or similar concept is any extant or historical clan, tribe, band, nation, or other group or community of Native Americans in the Unit ...

s of

Apache The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño an ...

s. A 1904 issue of the French Q&A magazine '' L'Intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux'' credited a journalist named Victor Moris with the popularization of the term. In November 1900 a police inspector of the Belleville district of police was describing to him a particularly bloody scene and concluded with the words: "C'est un véritable truc d'Apaches!". A story in a 1910 Sunday supplement of '' Le Petit Journal'' claimed that when a certain gang leader nicknamed ''Terreur'' (Terror) heard that the actions of the band were compared with these of the Apaches, he was so pleased that he proceeded to call his gang "Apaches of Belleville"."Comment debarasser Paris des Apaches?"
("How to Rid Paris of Apaches?"), ''Le Petit journal. Supplément du dimanche'', no. 1001, January 23, 1910

Description

During their heyday, the prospect of being mugged or otherwise assaulted by Apache gangsters was especially feared by members of the emergent

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...

. Some of the gangs used a unique type of pistol which was named the "

Apache revolver An Apache revolver is a handgun which incorporates multiple other weapons, made notorious by the French underworld figures of the early 1900s known as '' Les Apaches''. History The design dates from the 1860s, and is attributed to Louis Dolne. T ...

" or "Apache pistol": a

pinfire A pinfire cartridge is an obsolete type of metallic firearm cartridge in which the priming compound is ignited by striking a small pin which protrudes radially from just above the base of the cartridge. Invented by Frenchman Casimir Lefaucheux in ...

cartridge revolver with no barrel, a set of foldover

brass knuckles Brass knuckles (variously referred to as knuckles, knucks, brass knucks, knucklebusters, knuckledusters, knuckle daggers, English punch, iron fist, paperweight, or a classic) are "fist-load weapons" used in hand-to-hand combat. Brass knuckles ...

for a handgrip, and a folding knife mounted right underneath the revolver drum for use as a stabbing weapon. The Apaches also developed a semi-codified collection of "tricks" used in mugging and

hand-to-hand combat Hand-to-hand combat (sometimes abbreviated as HTH or H2H) is a physical confrontation between two or more persons at short range (grappling distance or within the physical reach of a handheld weapon) that does not involve the use of weapons.Huns ...

. The most famous was the ''coup du Père François'', a tactic by which a victim was stalked by several Apaches. One

garrote A garrote or garrote vil (a Spanish word; alternative spellings include garotte and similar variants''Oxford English Dictionary'', 11th Ed: garrotte is normal British English spelling, with single r alternate. Article title is US English spellin ...

d the victim from behind while taking him piggyback to prevent struggling; another Apache was assigned the job of searching through the victim's pockets for any valuables, while another served as a lookout. Although only meant to incapacitate, the chance of death from prolonged strangulation was still existent.

Disappearance

The existence of Apaches as a semi-organised gang-culture in Paris during the early 1900s was exaggerated in media coverage, although it did reflect the reality of a higher proportion of young males amongst the city population than elsewhere in France. With the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in August 1914 the wholesale mobilisation of this class for military service led to a reduction of violent street crime and the subsequent fading of Apache mythology. After 1919 the incidence of urban violence returned to pre-war levels but without such symbols supposedly favoured by Apaches, such as the wearing of coloured sashes or the carrying of specially designed weapons.

Cultural influence

Certain elements of the Apache "style" became influential in French and then international

popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...

, including the

Apache dance Apache, or La Danse Apache, Bowery Waltz, Apache Turn, Apache Dance and Tough Dance is a highly dramatic dance associated in popular culture with Parisian street culture at the beginning of the 20th century. In fin de siècle Paris young members ...

and

Apache shirt The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño an ...

. Classes were offered in "la langue verte", the colourful

argot A cant is the jargon or language of a group, often employed to exclude or mislead people outside the group.McArthur, T. (ed.) ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (1992) Oxford University Press It may also be called a cryptolect, argot ...

spoken by Apache gangsters. The play '' Gigolette'' (slang for young prostitute) was based on the story of a love triangle between prostitute Amelie-Elie and members of the Apache gang. At least two film versions followed decades later. ''

Casque d'Or ''Casque d'Or'' ("Golden Helmet") is a 1952 French historical drama film directed by Jacques Becker. It is a Belle Époque tragedy, the story of an ill-fated love affair between characters played by Simone Signoret and Serge Reggiani. The story wa ...

'', the 1952 film by

Jacques Becker Jacques Becker (; 15 September 1906 – 21 February 1960) was a French film director and screenwriter. His films, made during the 1940s and 1950s, encompassed a wide variety of genres, and they were admired by some of the filmmakers who led th ...

, tells the story of a young demi-mondaine mixed up with a Belleville street gang. The famous French 10-part seven-hour

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

Les Vampires ''Les Vampires'' is a 1915–16 French silent crime serial film written and directed by Louis Feuillade. Set in Paris, it stars Édouard Mathé, Musidora and Marcel Lévesque. The main characters are a journalist and his friend who become invol ...

'' (1915, re-released on DVD in 2005) is about an Apache gang named "the Vampires". Emilio Ghione's ''La Mort'' series of films—of which only ''I topi grigi'' (''The grey rats'', 1918), ''Anime buie'' (''Dark souls'', 1916) and a fragment of ''Dollari e Fracks'' (''Dollars and dinner jackets'', 1919) still exist—was about the adventures of a 'noble' Apache in the Parisian underworld and further afield. The popular

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

pulp fiction ''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who conceived it with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhame ...

writer

Aristide Marino Gianella Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 15 July 1953) is a Haitian former Salesian priest and politician who became Haiti's first democratically elected president. A proponent of liberation theology, Aristide was appointed to a parish in Port-au-Prince i ...

also wrote a

serial novel In literature, a serial is a printing or publishing format by which a single larger work, often a work of narrative fiction, is published in smaller, sequential instalments. The instalments are also known as ''numbers'', ''parts'' or ''fascicle ...

called ''Gli apache parigini'', which was first available in short installments and then within a complete volume. In his book ''

In Search of Lost Time ''In Search of Lost Time'' (french: À la recherche du temps perdu), first translated into English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'', and sometimes referred to in French as ''La Recherche'' (''The Search''), is a novel in seven volumes by French ...

'', the French novelist and essayist

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel ''In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous Eng ...

uses the bellicose practices of the Apache gang as an illustration of the sort of duplicitous survival instincts of nation states which wage wars, or make threats of war, out of fear of losing their sovereignty. In the 1932 film ''

Love Me Tonight ''Love Me Tonight'' is a 1932 American pre-Code musical comedy film produced and directed by Rouben Mamoulian, with music by Rodgers and Hart. It stars Maurice Chevalier as a tailor who poses as a nobleman and Jeanette MacDonald as a princess ...

'', Maurice Chevalier sings the song "I'm an Apache", about the life of an Apache gangster.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Apaches Gangs in France Criminal subcultures Belle Époque