Étienne Monier
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Étienne Monier (20 April 1889 – 21 April 1913), also known as Élie Monier and nicknamed Simentoff, was a French
anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...
and member of the infamous Bonnot Gang.


Life

Étienne Monier was born into a family of winegrowers in Estagel, in
Pyrénées-Orientales Pyrénées-Orientales (; ; ; ), also known as Northern Catalonia, is a departments of France, department of the Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Southern France, adjacent to the northern Spain, Spanish ...
, a small town with a strong anarchist tradition since the local population resisted
Napoléon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...
taking power in 1851. Monier himself was under police surveillance for his anarchism by the age of 16. Monier left home at 18 and found work as a gardener in Alais and
Nîmes Nîmes ( , ; ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Gard Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of Southern France. Located between the Med ...
, before deciding to move to Paris in 1909, where he became close with André Lorulot. Monier and others like him disagreed with Léon Jouhaux, who advocated for revolutionaries to join the army and disseminate anarchist propaganda among the soldiers, so in December 1910 he left for Belgium to avoid military service. There, he took on the identity of an anarchist friend, Samuelis Simentoff, born in 1887 in Turkey. He returned to Paris by the end of 1910, settling in
Romainville Romainville () is a commune in the Seine-Saint-Denis department, located in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. Location It is located from the center of Paris. History On 24 July 1867, a part of the territory of Romainville was detached ...
with other anarchists he met in Belgium. The group, including him, were vegetarians and teetotalers. In 1911, he worked with Joseph Renard as a travelling salesman and burglar. In Paris, he met
Victor Serge Victor Serge (; born Viktor Lvovich Kibalchich, ; 30 December 1890 – 17 November 1947) was a Belgian-born Russian revolutionary, novelist, poet, historian, journalist, and translator. Originally an anarchist, he joined the Bolsheviks in Janu ...
and Rirette Maîtrejean and, later, Jules Bonnot, leading him to become a member of the Bonnot Gang. While laying low in between the gang's escapades, he worked for some time in the shop of Antoine Gausy, an individualist anarchist, in
Ivry-sur-Seine Ivry-sur-Seine () is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Paris's main Asian district, the Quartier Asiatique in the 13th arrondissement, borders the ...
. On 25 March 1912, the gang, including Étienne Monier, stole a
de Dion-Bouton De Dion-Bouton was a French automobile manufacturer and railcar manufacturer, which operated from 1883 to 1953. The company was founded by the Marquis Jules-Albert de Dion, Georges Bouton, and Bouton's brother-in-law Charles Trépardoux. Ste ...
automobile in the Forest of Sénart south of
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
and shot the driver through the heart. They drove into Chantilly, north of Paris, where they robbed the local branch of the
Société Générale Société Générale S.A. (), colloquially known in English-speaking countries as SocGen (), is a French multinational universal bank and financial services company founded in 1864. It is registered in downtown Paris and headquartered nearby i ...
bank, 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. Gausy gave shelter to Bonnot later, though he told the police he had been introduced to him by Monier as a Russian revolutionary hiding out after the
Lena massacre The Lena Massacre or Lena Execution () refers to the shooting of goldfield workers on strike in northeast Siberia near the Lena River on . The strike had been provoked by exceptionally harsh working conditions, and when the strike committ ...
. When the police came to Gausy'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 accused of shooting one of the bank employees, which he denied. Monier was sentenced to death with André Soudy and Raymond Callemin. All three were guillotined on 21 April 1913. In his will, written in prison, he bequeathed his books to the Paris Municipal Library, and his gun to a Paris museum, "in memory of an innocent victim of an affair which threw the country into a state of terror". He was buried in Ivry Cemetery. Marie Besse, a seventeen-year-old shop assistant who had been Monier's lover, is said to have died two months later from the shock of his execution.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Monier, Etienne 1889 births 1913 deaths People from Pyrénées-Orientales Illegalists French anarchists French bank robbers French gangsters Executed anarchists People executed by the French Third Republic by guillotine People executed for robbery