The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-07-21
A PARIS APACHE.
The Character and Career of Theo
phile la Bonte.

From the Boston Transcript
For long Paris has been almost at the
mercy of its "Apaches." Murders on pub
| lie and much-frequented highways have
| been numerous enough of late to attract
! the attention of the French cabinet. L he
police seem unable to cope with the dan
| gerous hordes, and might have grounds
for actual fear of them. A Paris CORES
! pendent of The Cosmopolitan furnishes
a sufficiently terrifying description of
hoodlum, typical of his outrageous kind
captured recently, and sentenced to prison
| for life.
The de Montparno," says this cor
respondent, Just convicted at the Seine
Assizes, is the perfect Apache. He fits
| the character so marvelousy we'll that
one suspected him at first of acting up
to 1t deliberately and with careful art
| But the thought was an unjust one, for
he Is entirely genuine and sincere lie
is natural born Apache and naturally
| and radically bad. He does not even
glory in the fact, but takes it quite I'M
affectedly. and has evidently never for
a moment considered the possibility of
being other than he Is.
BY remarkably irony of chance his
real name is "Theophile la Bonte" He
could hardly have chosen one more Gym
ical for himself If he had tried. He is
five-and twenty, slight with a SLOUGH
tered down over his temples with poma-
tum glistening, sinister eyes, a mouth
! which let's words drop out in a horrible
drawl and an imperturbably nsolent man
ner. He was convicted of the murder of
a ackguard called the "Deni-
cheur,' that is. the man who ferrets out
things, whom he shot down in a bar of
the Boulevard de Clinchy, whittier he
had wandered from his own domain. the
Montparnasse quarter, whence he takes
his name. He never remembers having
lived otherwise than by preyng on wo-
men since he was 10. He haunted places
charmingly called Manon Lescaut's bar,
the Algeran's Cave the Little Iron Pot
and so on. He is the author of the
Apaches' "Marsellaise.' one stanza of
| which runs: Our forefathers took the
Bastille; let us storm the Sante Jail and
ST. Lazare where the girls go, and the
depot, and the Surete. Let as break our
chains; no more slavery; and let us curse
society. Apaches society has called us;
! let us be revenged then, like savages."
And the burden is: ITO arms, gallant
thieves, Anarchists and Souteneurs." Theo
Is decidedly character. London had
the felicity to harbor him for a time,
and he prospered as a Souteneur round
about Coventry street and Leicester
square.
What did you do in London?' asked
the judge.
Il lived he replied, with a wave of
the hand. When stating his profession he
| calls himself a greengrocer carpenter or
| bookmaker's clerk indfferently, and
seems not to have the slightest desire to
| be believed. AT the trial Sc seemed to
| care little whether his lies took any one
In or not. and rebutted charges with such
answers as, II was not at such a place
| In the morning, because | have made 1t a
| rttln -. 10 lx.r.
| insolent sneer.
He shot the Denlcheur to punish him for
having peached on a friend of his, Lucas
now under a cloud in consequence, bring
| ing him down with a revolver In Manon's
| bar. He spoke at the trial with great
| disgust and look of wild hatred in his
beady eyes of all informers and all detec-
tives. When a policeman, Inspector Fleu-
| ry, gave evidence, If a look could have
killed. Theos would have done it, and
| he Kissed THAT man Fleury If / only
| had him."
| One single witness dared appear in court
| the mistress of the Denicheur, from whose
evidence 1t was abundantly clear that
| the murder of her man was no loss to
the world. dozen other possible wit
nesses lay low, fearful of punishment by
! Theos friends. Theos threats against
| informers generally were fearful in court.
According to him. the Denicheur had
killed six men, that is to say given them
away to the police. Theo himself had
| been peached upon, as he remarked, by
| his mstresss present lover" He had
| spoken seriously to the lady on the mat
| ter when she came to console him In
prison. The actual evidence against Theo
| was only crcumstantial, but the jury
| was not long in finding a verdict of
| guilty. Asked what he had to say before
sentence was passed, Theo Jerred: Be
| tween turning informer and twenty years
| hard l choose the hard" He was a little
wrong in his surmise, however, for the
| judge sentenced him not to twenty years,
| but to hard labor for life He showed no
| sign of disappointment nevertheless, and
| as he was being taken down shouted "Au
| revoir' to the court, with a fearful gest-
| ure of his hand as though gripping an
| unseen knife to stab. On the whole, we
| do not want to see Thee la Bonte again.