''Les Apaches'' () was a Parisian

Belle Époque The Belle Époque () or La Belle Époque () was a period of French and European history that began after the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 and continued until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Occurring during the era of the Fr ...

violent criminal underworld subculture of early 20th-century hooligans, night muggers, street gangs and other criminals. Philipp Blom, ''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, Indigenous tribe, or Tribal nation may be any current or historical Tribe (Native American)#Other uses, tribe, band, or nation of Native Americans in ...

s of

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

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 ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...

. Some of the gangs used a unique type of pistol which was named the " Apache revolver" or "Apache pistol": a pinfire cartridge pepperbox revolver with no barrel, a set of foldover

brass knuckles Brass knuckles (also referred to as brass knucks, knuckledusters, iron fist and paperweight, among other names) are a melee weapon used primarily in Hand to hand combat, hand-to-hand combat. They are fitted and designed to be worn around the kn ...

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 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 ranged weapons.Hunsicker, A., ''Advanced Skills in ...

. The most famous was the ''coup du Père François'', a tactic by which a victim was stalked by several Apaches. One garroted 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 the intent was to only incapacitate, death from prolonged strangulation could still occur.

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 among the city population than elsewhere in France. With the outbreak of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

in August 1914 the wholesale mobilisation of this generation 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, 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. The name of the dance is pronounc ...

and Apache shirt. 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, argo ...

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, Joseph Pleigneur and Dominique Francois Eugéne Lecac. At least two film versions followed decades later. '' Casque d'Or'', 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 without 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, w ...

Les Vampires ''Les Vampires'' () is a 1915–1916 French Silent film, silent Crime film, 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 an ...

'' (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 German silent film The Apache of Marseilles (1919), directed by

Ewald André Dupont Ewald André Dupont (25 December 1891 – 12 December 1956) was a German film director, one of the pioneers of the Cinema of Germany, German film industry. He was often credited as E. A. Dupont. Early life and career Born in Zeitz, Saxony and rai ...

, is a thriller that aims to show the violent criminal subculture of the Apaches. The popular Italian

pulp fiction ''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American independent crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino from a story he conceived with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; It tells four intertwining tales of crime and violence ...

writer Aristide Marino Gianella also wrote a serial novel 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'' (), 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 author Marcel Proust. This early twen ...

'', the French novelist and essayist

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'' and more r ...

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 his 1916 poem, “The Man From Athabaska” Robert W. Service mentions one of the WW I comrades serving alongside him is “…an Apache from Montmartre…” 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 princ ...

'', Maurice Chevalier sings the song "I'm an Apache", about the life of an Apache gangster. In the 2023 film '' Apaches: Gang of Paris'', the titular characters are Apaches members.

References

{{reflist Belle Époque Criminal subcultures Former gangs Gangs in Paris Street gangs