Evening star., 1922-02-26
'QUEENS'' RULE APACHE: BANDS OF PARIS
AND DIVIDE CITY INTO THREE DOMAINS

was IN full business management 70: =
| reliable ''backer"
/ THE lads do not "obey" her. but
they trust the business woman a.
| they would not trust each other. re-
| spect her connection "higher up" and
accept the scenario she brings. The
see the value of her ready cash for
goods: they hope for an occult pro-
lection (Which is problematicaI. ex-
cept for the LADY,. and her very my-
| terry is reassurihg.
DO not look fo- intelligence on hei-
1 face. Crime puts. a smudge on WON
ans features. The intelligence
| deeper back. inside her head. He"
heart is her one weakness There
fore the man higher up seeks a plain.
| faced girl as much as possible for the
! queen business.
The strongest queen of all. they say
\ is Annie Maitrejean-yes. still. today
+. Does the name say nothing TO you
! Rfri. Rirette. Little Laughter?
| in 1913, just before the war, the
cable was full OF her-she of the Band
| of Bonnet tblown up by the police a.
Choisy). of .Careny (who committed
suicide in PRISON.. Of Dieudonne. Cal
lemin and Monnier (who were guillo-
! tined). and of Mile. Smoofs. the "very
: Little, queen" who actually was ac-
quilted along with Riri.
i Gan you Jail a girl for evil infiu-
ence2
She laughed at the judges. Laugh
ing is her specially. Her name il.
laughter. She had always the art I"
appear frivolous and lightweight. The
, Muse of the Tragic Band-this deli
cate. educated young woman invented
scientific desperate raiding just 70,
the fun of it. they Say. and which i.
as out of date today in France a
sticking UP bank runner.
But Riri survives. a queen.
She has been had ten times by III.
police, yet never nailed with a con-
viction. She is SO frail and little.
who would think her capable OF writ
ing the poisonous letters which judges.
on two occasions. have read aloud ia
court?
/ Originally she was nursery gov
erness in a judges family. and actu-
ally served as a kind of private sec
retary to the magistrate
|. So later she developed her aston
| ishing ingenuity in adapting" new
legal papers of civil status for TIL"
comrades out of genuine document
which they picked up in their burg
laries. This gift. they say. she has
developed greatly. Thanks to sucl,
authentic and official identificatio;.
papers, the men of Riri's band havc
great luck in masking their per
sonality.
1t was this woman who invente.t
the scheme of stealing a chance motor
car anywhere in the street to bring of
an affair and then at once ahau-
don IT.
IN THOSE days to drive a car Wa
still a speciality. and Il broug,r,
Bonnot. the tragic chauffeur. into tii.:
! combination; but since the war ar
young man in France. you may say.
cannot only steal car, but repair 4
| in'case of sudden. breakdown.
1t will still be remembered how
they stuck up Caby. the bank runner.
with sS,10o cash and $4,000 securi-
ties in bis satchel The band had no
/ E"feurgue" to take care of the business
end, SO that their failure to Iiquidat.
the securities in Switzerland and theiI
impatience in offering part of them
in Paris brought about the arrest or
Rodriguez and the final catastropli..
i toward which the shooting up of th..
Chantilly Bank was the last leap o.
desperation.
! Rirette was not in it.
Riri was living quietly. in a boar,-
ing house of the odeon quarter. along
| with Mile. Smoofs-who was so stupid
that she never knew what she was az
| cused Of Riri was following l.r-
| lures at the Sorbonne. Il knew thos.
| men," she said. but found them bad
companions. so i quit them. / hav..
| nothing to do with their business
/ affairs
All the same. they had her up for
trial.
Riri. Rirette. Little Laughter was
, acquitted along with Mile. Smoofs
! The others were guillotined or got
life sentences. So here is a queer
thing that came out in the war One
,.day. in 1918. there came trickline
! down from Brussels those old stolen
! securities which they had taken fro,
Caby. the bank runner.
Honest value had been paid for
them by innocent third parties. and
the bonds were traced. slowly. To
brokers Of the perfectly legitimat,
/ curbstone bourse of Rotterdam vino
had disappeared in the world war.
Rotterdam had bought the bonds in
1915. 1t was two years after the
tragic band had utterly dissolved in
DEATH.
l. The sole survivor was the lady
Riri.