The Pollet Gang (''La Bande Pollet''), also known as the Bandits of Hazebrouck (''Bandits d’Hazebrouck'') were a French criminal group active in

Nord Nord, a word meaning "north" in several European languages, may refer to: Acronyms * National Organization for Rare Disorders, an American nonprofit organization * New Orleans Recreation Department, New Orleans, Louisiana, US Film and televisi ...

and

Pas-de-Calais The Pas-de-Calais (, ' strait of Calais'; ; ) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments of France, with 890, and is the ...

, as well as Belgium from 1889 until their arrests in 1906. The group was primarily led by its founder Abel Pollet (9 October 1873 – 11 January 1909), along with his brother Auguste, Canut Vromant and Théophile Deroo. The joint execution of the four leaders for murder was the first following a three-year suspension of the death penalty in France.

Biography

Abel Pollet was born in

Vieux-Berquin Vieux-Berquin (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, department in northern France. Population Heraldry See also *Communes of the Nord department References Co ...

on October 9, 1873. He became a smuggler who put his native gift for leadership to good use organizing his fellow traffickers into a more lucratively violent line of work. Thanks, presumably, to the syndicate’s pre-existing professional aptitude for evasion, it persisted for years and authored a quantity of robberies and murders that authorities could only guess at. (The official homicide estimation ran north of 50.) It was a spree so atrocious that it helped force the end of the whole death penalty moratorium since sentiment was so strong against the ''Hazebrouck gang''. The murders committed in northern France by the Pollet brothers' gang, also known as the ''Hazebrouck's bandits'', hit the headlines. Four members of the bandits were sentenced to death on 26 June 1908 in

Saint-Omer Saint-Omer (; ; Picard: ''Saint-Onmé'') is a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department in France. It is west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais, and is located in the Artois province. The town is named after Sa ...

. ''

The Capricornian ''The Capricornian'' was a newspaper published in Rockhampton, Queensland from 1875 to 1929. History ''The Capricornian'' was published from 2 January 1875 to 26 December 1929 in Rockhampton, Queensland. It merged with the ''Artesian'' to f ...

'' in

Rockhampton Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. In the , the population of Rockhampton was 79,293. A common nickname for Rockhampton is "Rocky", and the demonym of Rockhampton is Rockhamptonite. The Scottish- ...

reported: Abel Pollet confessed of his own accord to participation in no fewer than 250 crimes.

Execution

'' The Advertiser'' in

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ran about the quadruple execution on February 20, 1909:The Advertiser, 1909-02-02

Sources

* Jacques Messiant: ''L'Affaire Pollet – À l'origine des Brigades du Tigre''. Éditions Ouest-France, Rennes 2015. . * Sylvain Larue: ''Les nouvelles affaires criminelles de France''. De Borée Éditions, 2009, p. 138–146. * ''Carnets d’exécutions, 1885–1939, Anatole Deibler'', présentés et annotés par Gérard A. Jaeger, Éditions L’Archipel, Paris 2004. * Matthias Blazek: ''Räuberbande versetzte in den Jahren nach 1900 ganz Nordfrankreich in Schockzustand – Guillotine wird nach jahrelanger Pause für Vierfachhinrichtung 1909 in Béthune aufgestellt''. In: ''Kameradschaftliches aus Fontainebleau – Mitteilungsblatt des Freundeskreises Deutscher Militärischer Bevollmächtigter in Frankreich'', nr. 43 and 44, September 2015 and April 2016,

Münster (Westfalen) Münster (; ) is an independent city#Germany, independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a ...

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, 2015/16, p. 8 ff. and 5 ff. * Matthias Blazek: ''Räuberbande versetzte in den Jahren nach 1900 ganz Nordfrankreich in Schockzustand – Guillotine wird nach jahrelanger Pause für Vierfachhinrichtung 1909 in Béthune aufgestellt''. In: ''Journal der juristischen Zeitgeschichte'' (JoJZG), nr. 3/2014, de Gruyter,

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, 2014, p. 104 ff.

Notes and references

External links

1909: The Pollet gang, breaking the French moratorium
*

''Il y a cent ans : la fin de la « bande à Pollet » à Béthune'', ''Généalogie'' 62, nr. 101, 1st trimestre 2009, Hénin-Beaumont, p. 31–37 (1800 ex.) *
Les exécutés
hazebrouck-autrefois.com. *
Les exécutés
hazebrouck-autrefois.com.
Guillotine wird nach jahrelanger Pause für Vierfachhinrichtung 1909 in Béthune aufgestellt
Matthias-Blazek.eu. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pollet, Abel 1873 births 1909 deaths 20th-century French criminals French gangsters