Octave Garnier (25 December 1889 – 14 May 1912) was a French anarchist and founding member of the infamous Bonnot Gang.

Life

Seine-et-Marne Seine-et-Marne () is a department in the Île-de-France region in Northern France. Named after the rivers Seine and Marne, it is the region's largest department with an area of 5,915 square kilometres (2,284 square miles); it roughly covers its ...

Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, ...

1889, Garnier worked as a

butcher A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesale food establishm ...

and baker at an early age. He took up

theft Theft is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal shorthand term for som ...

at the age of thirteen and had served his first

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

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 Syndicalism is a revolutionary current within the left-wing of the labor movement that seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes with the eventual goal of gaining control over the means of prod ...

and revolutionary politics before turning to anarchism. Following two additional stints in prison (one for assault), Garnier fled to

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

in 1910 to avoid France's

military draft Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day und ...

. 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 A gang is a group or society of associates, friends or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collective ...

members Raymond Callemin, Jean De Boe, and Edouard Carouy as well as Victor Kibalchich, then editor of ''

l'Anarchie ''L'Anarchie'' (, ''anarchy'') was a French individualist anarchist journal established in April 1905 by Albert Libertad. Along with Libertad, contributors to the journal included Émile Armand, André Lorulot, Émilie Lamotte, Raymond Callemi ...

''. Within this group, Garnier's political sympathies grew rapidly towards

illegalism Illegalism is a tendency of anarchism that developed primarily in France, Italy, Belgium and Switzerland during the late 1890s and early 1900s as an outgrowth of individualist anarchism. Illegalists embrace criminality either openly or secretly ...

, a radical form of

individualist anarchism Individualist anarchism is the branch of anarchism that emphasizes the individual and their will over external determinants such as groups, society, traditions and ideological systems."What do I mean by individualism? I mean by individualism th ...

that was heavily influenced by

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

philosopher

Max Stirner Johann Kaspar Schmidt (25 October 1806 – 26 June 1856), known professionally as Max Stirner, was a German post-Hegelian philosopher, dealing mainly with the Hegelian notion of social alienation and self-consciousness. Stirner is often seen a ...

. Following an ideological split within ''l'Anarchie'', Garnier and Vuillemin moved to Paris and he began work as a

navvy Navvy, a clipping of navigator ( UK) or navigational engineer ( US), is particularly applied to describe the manual labourers working on major civil engineering projects and occasionally (in North America) to refer to mechanical shovels and eart ...

, participating in strikes at Chars, Marin, and

Cergy Cergy () is a Communes of France, commune in the French Departments of France, department of Val-d'Oise, in northwestern suburbs of Paris. It is located from the Kilometre Zero#France, centre of Paris, in the "new town#France, new town" of Cerg ...

. 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".

Death in Nogent-sur-Marne

On 14 May 1912 Garnier and René Valet were killed in a

shootout A shootout, also called a firefight or gunfight, is a fight between armed combatants using firearms. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used to describe those that do not involve military forces or only invo ...

with French authorities when their

safe house A safe house (also spelled safehouse) is, in a generic sense, a secret place for sanctuary or suitable to hide people from the law, hostile actors or actions, or from retribution, threats or perceived danger. It may also be a metaphor. Histori ...

Nogent-sur-Marne Nogent-sur-Marne () is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Nogent-sur-Marne is a '' sous-préfecture'' of the Val-de-Marne ''département'', being the seat of the Arrondissement of Nogent-s ...

was raided by police. Armed with seven 9 mm Browning semi-automatics and two long-barreled Mausers, the two outlaws, who had barricaded themselves inside the rental house, faced 50 detectives, 250 police from Paris, Republican Guards, and 400

Zouaves The Zouaves were a class of light infantry regiments of the French Army serving between 1830 and 1962 and linked to French North Africa; as well as some units of other countries modelled upon them. The zouaves were among the most decorated unit ...

from Nogent. As the six-hour stand-off stretched on, Valet and Garnier burned 10,000 stolen

franc The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centu ...

s but managed to hold back the army outside. At midnight, having failed to remove the bandits, French authorities succeeded in positioning one and a half kilograms of melinite in the house. The resulting explosion rendered the structure's inhabitants unconscious, and Garnier was then executed by a 9 mm shot to the right temple. Both men were buried in unmarked graves. A

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...

, found by police on Garnier's body, explained his criminal activities and summed up: "It's for all these reasons that I rebelled, it's because I didn't want to live this life of present-day society, because I didn't want to wait and maybe die before I'd lived, that I defended myself against the oppressors with all the means at my disposal..."

References

* Parry, Richard. (1987) ''The Bonnot Gang''. Rebel Press. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Garnier, Octave 1889 births 1912 deaths People from Fontainebleau Illegalists French anarchists French bank robbers French gangsters Bakers People shot dead by law enforcement officers in France