Patrick Pesnot – Back on the set of
Witnesses of Ages for the last part of our issue devoted to Pierre Bonny's
Carlingue, but this time more specifically with regard to the period following the landing in Provence. The existence of this... institution will then be rather brief - what do you think, dear gentlemen?
Philippe Robert – The end of the affair was indeed remarkably quick – as quick as it had started in fact. As of September 6, the house on rue Lauriston seemed to be seized with panic. However, it is not yet as depopulated as has been said. And so she takes out suitcases of cash – on Bonny's instruction – to hastily buy up farms and country houses that can serve as refuges for the chiefs if necessary. Pierre Bonny thus becomes, through nominees, the owner of two farms in Brannay and Bazoches in Yonne.
Robert Stan Pratsky – German promises to quickly drive invaders back to sea fizzle out. Marseille is released on the evening of September 7, with Toulon. Avignon was cleared on the 8th, Montpellier reached on the 27th. It quickly became clear that the Allies would not leave!
Ph. R. – Logically, the service is gradually emptying. When Paris is liberated, there is no one left – the
Carlingue is empty. But Bonny made it a point of honor to provide anyone who asked for it with the means to flee – even to the North Africans of the BNA present in Paris, who received a “
pay advance” (sic!).
Mr. Raymond – Mr. Pierre also gave everyone a personalized bonus, depending on the services rendered and the time spent with him – as well as a blank identity card. We had only one condition to respect: to return our “service” weapon and especially our gestapo card. This done, he hastened to destroy
Ausweiss, service cards, files, indicator reports, accounts, traces of payments...! Then Bonny disappears in turn, without warning anyone, in a van loaded with furniture, with his wife and son Jacques.
Ph. R. – Which explains, among other things, the darkness that still surrounds
La Carlingue today. Nothing was to remain, no clue, no proof was to fall into the hands of the Republic. Only a remainder – a file concerning matters of close interest to the Germans – will be given to non-commissioned officer Emil Hess, who will take it to
Avenue Foch and then to Stuttgart. The Allied forces arriving in the capital in May 1944 therefore found absolutely nothing!
PP - Mr Raymond, before we go any further, can you confirm that, during the winter of 1943-44, the "
service" was affected by a kind of wait-and-see attitude, as we sketched out previously? I sometimes have the impression that during this period, parasitized as it was by the misadventures of the North African Brigade, the Cabin was, so to speak, technically unemployed!
Mr. Raymond – I will not go that far: the cases of blackmailing the release of prisoners and smuggling continued, although at a noticeably slower pace. And then, there were all the same tasks of repression and police…
PP – I beg your pardon?
Ph. R. – I understand that this may surprise – and yet! Due to the quasi-disappearance of the
Police Judiciaire and the
Gendarmerie, the
Carlingue did indeed deal with some common law cases... in its own way, of course, and certainly not for free!
M. Raymond – We are talking in particular about the affair of the Marquis de Sigoyer.
PP - What is it?
M. Raymond – Of the murder of Jeanine Kergot by her husband, the so-called Marquis Alain de Bernardy de Sigoyer – a little mythomaniac man who boasted that he was descended from the younger branch of the
Sigoyers. A crook with a thousand lives and ten thousand women, who had even pretended to be mad in order to avoid prison, before later converting to black magic! He had probably already killed several people before the war for unclear reasons – the conflict was in any case profitable for him, since he made his fortune selling alcohol to the Germans. But everything got complicated in July 1943…
Ph. R. – Let’s stay in… the audible, for the rest of our listeners. And let's just say that one fine morning, Madame de Sigoyer, née Kergot, finds her husband in bed with his maid. She asks for a divorce, of course… and disappears the next day. Fortunately for her husband, to whom she still paid 10,000 francs a month. The mobile is there.
Mme Kergot mother – although she herself had an affair with the alleged marquis…
PP- Oh! I…
Ph. R. – Sorry… Finally, Mrs. Kergot has a hard time believing in a runaway. She opens up to the “
normal” police, who decide not to get too involved in a settling of scores between collaborators. For lack of anything better, she therefore changed providers…
M. Raymond – And she goes to
rue Lauriston so that our services arrest and question the presumed widower, to make him confess his crime. It is Maillebuau “
Le Basque” who receives the lady and is convinced to accept the file. The marquis is therefore picked up, embarked, and brought back to the office to try to get him to sit down to talk.
He said nothing – despite the… classic protocol duly followed. And after some time, we are forced to release it. As
Le Basque later explained to Madame Kergot: “
Finally, Madame! He's been on the tub for three days and he still hasn't spilled the beans. This is proof that he is innocent! »
RSP – As has been rightly said, torture is an excellent way to convict a fragile innocent and exonerate a robust culprit.
Ph. R. – I am not denying a form of medieval logic here. But it's just a shame that Maillebuau was wrong - after the war, the maid will denounce the Marquis and point out the location of the body. Although he was defended by
Maître Jacques Isorni in person and he persisted in denying it with energy, Sigoyer was condemned to death and then guillotined in 1946. Ultimate farce in bad taste: the condemned man paid a post-mortem actor to disguises himself as a ghost and goes to “haunt” the lawyer who had – according to him – defended him so badly.
PP – Fascinating story, as romantic as it is sinister! But I must unfortunately return to the subject, dear guests! So Bonny is deserting, like all her accomplices?
M. Raymond – How you go! To desert ? Come on, the only official position he now holds – superintendent of trains – is largely fictitious. The few convoys still circulating in occupied France in the spring of 1944 were those of the German army! What would he have done in Paris?
I am afraid, dear Monsieur Pesnot, that you are also underestimating the… shall we say, sentimental aspect of the affair – an aspect which occupies a place at least equal to that of the financial aspect in Bonny’s decision. From September 1943, Mr. Pierre no longer believed either in the victory of his protectors or in his own lucky star. He is disgusted with a system that has taken him to the top and is abandoning him, once again. He now hopes simply to survive and be forgotten.
PP – Like all his subordinates?
Mr. Raymond – Not exactly. As I told you, if some members disappeared forever in the swamp of banditry even before the 'official' dissolution of the group, others remained active until the end - whether they hoped to return from right side of the fence, or for purely pecuniary reasons.
PP – By working as freelancers? And for whom? Who would recruit former Gestapists?
Mr. Raymond – Obviously nobody. At least officially! But before going into detail, let us observe, please, the context of the South of France in the autumn of 1943. What do we see, my dear gentlemen?
RSP – Provinces… culturally turbulent, relatively poor and largely rural, still bearing the scars of the 1940s fighting and once again becoming a battleground for an even more violent struggle. Stayed away from the Parisian shenanigans of Laval, for lack of means at its disposal, they spent three years under the German boot and are completely ruined.
Ph. R. – And so they are also – because I suppose this is what Monsieur Raymond is coming from – a battleground for the local underworld, whose most ambitious young members can finally hope to carve out a domain and take the place of the lords of recent years.
Mr. Raymond – That's it! The little
Sartore-Carbon/Spirito war and then the fall of the Bonny house at least had the merit of clarifying the situation for many “sizes” of the South – they now knew precisely what to expect. It is therefore logical that from June 1943, a good part of them began to contact the services of Algiers.
PP – In all logic… and in all honor, of course!
M. Raymond - Not having rendered too great a service to the enemy, but still able to render eminent service to the friend, it seems natural, I repeat, that they were well received... and that they were able to negotiate the price of their rallying. The summer of 1943 therefore saw the occurrence, not of a succession of stupid attacks as the Communists did, but of intense preparation with the pooling of equipment, hideouts and weapons between different groups.
Ph. R. – I suppose that, as in the past for the
Carlingue, this vast movement of opportunism had nothing really organized about it, even if it was spontaneous?
M. Raymond – Indeed, and moreover not all of them follow the movement. But nevertheless, a good part of the people of the
Milieu are now seen on the right side of the fence. The Guérini brothers, among others. But however patriotic they had become
[Violent cough…], they still lacked a bit of means. Thank God, there remained to remedy this certain former men of Bonny, including in particular Auguste Ricord, a friend of Carbone. As well as, through him, his comrades Joseph Piéreschi, Marius Manuelli or Joseph Orsini. The Corsicans have memory, it's true - but they also know how to be pragmatic when necessary.
PP - If we follow you well, and to paraphrase Brassens, as soon as the Boches have to be beaten, everyone reconciles?
Mr. Raymond – Everyone agrees to row in the same direction! The rest we will see later. Cazauba, on the other hand, chooses to partner with Danos and ... can I say it or will it trigger loud cries?
PP – Mr. Raymond, if I invited you, it is to testify. And I suppose that if you accepted this invitation – which I thank you for, of course – it is also because you want to… speak freely.
Mr. Raymond – Perfect! Well, on the advice of Joinovici, Cazauba therefore enters into business with a certain commissioner Blémant – of whom you may have heard, gentlemen, for his actions of Resistance, even for his secret missions, just like for his brutal end in 1965 .
RSP - For our listeners, let's say that Robert Blémant was a famous French counterintelligence policeman, who contributed a lot to the establishment of an effective Resistance in the South-East of France - in agreement with the local sponsors you have quoted. In doing so, he ends up crossing the yellow line, becoming a pure thug himself and will end up riddled with bullets on a road in Provence...
Mr. Raymond – It is really striking to see how much the careers of Mr. Pierre and Mr. Robert have similarities. Same departure house, same conception of work… In short – Blémant, like everyone else, is preparing for the D-Day landings. But there are not enough men to... let's say, to clear the ground. Indeed, not all of them want to expose themselves to the light of day as long as we are not really sure of seeing the Allies land. However, there are men that everyone would really like to be rid of – and if possible, before they are arrested and interrogated.
PP – Any name in particular?
RSP – Simon Sabiani!
Mr. Raymond – This very one! You will easily understand that, like many collaborators in other latitudes, the “
dog from Marseille” had quite a few files under his belt. So we had to take it out of the equation. Cazauba doesn't want to go it alone – he brings Abel Danos into the mix.
Ph. R. – Before we go any further – and sorry to interrupt you – I must however point out here that no tangible proof of what Mr. Raymond is going to mention has ever been produced. Apart from this testimony of course, as well as that of Danos' mistress, Hélène Maltat.
M. Raymond – Should I continue, or…?
PP – Continue, please.
Mr. Raymond – Good.
The Mammoth agrees – and through the
Marco Polo Network, they hatch a plan. It was initially a question of laying a simple ambush, on the road between Aix and Marseille – the trap was put in place… But the driver chickened out at the last moment. Sabiani then spent his last day in the
Vieux Port, surrounded so well that no one dared to try anything... However, something had to be done - at the rate the case was dragging on, he was going to succeed in escaping, getting capture or even turn around, the damn snake! And now the Allies landed, for good! SO…
PP - So?
Mr. Raymond – Stone throwing is a good activity to relax between two patrols. And you'd be surprised how quickly a crowd follows the motion of the waltz, once you set the tempo.
Tous des veaux (All are sheeps !) – as the General said!
Ph. R. – I confess that this would easily explain why we no longer heard of Danos and Cazauba in Paris between August 25 and September 12.
RSP – But how were they able to return to the capital, in the midst of the fighting?
Mr. Raymond – Thanks to the right people, and with disconcerting ease. You know, at that time, the German lines were thinner, in places, than the lace of the
Crazy Horse dancers' outfits.
PP – Bon bon bon… So they go back to Paris, there everyone returns their card and everyone disperses. It's as simple as that ?
Mr. Raymond – Yes – except that during the winter of 1943-1944 and as I have already said, some will still try to combine the pecuniary and the patriotic. Indeed, the pace of the Liberation is slowing down…
RSP – The fault of vigorous German counter-offensives and the logistical constraints of the Allies…
Mr. Raymond – Certainly! However, this break creates a problem: the German is hardly happy. He feels that he will soon have to leave. The majority of the NEF, notwithstanding the excited Doriot – same! So they loot everything they can, triggering unplanned violent actions from naïve youths excited by the approach of the allies.
RSP – Thereby turning the wheel of the attack-retaliation cycle at very high speed. However, at this moment, it is already no longer a question of arrangements but of settling scores. There would be a lot to say about the common actions carried out at this time by the forces of crime, the Resistance and the Allies...
PP – Without a doubt, and this will certainly be the occasion to invite you all back, dear friends. I obviously apologize, but the clock is ticking and I have to - alas, it's the radio! – to refocus the subject once again.
Ph. R. – So the French Republic, constrained by the fate of arms which is not yet completely favorable to it, sees its still prisoner population starving before its eyes. A bit like Henri IV besieging Paris, she therefore decided to let a lot of traffic take place, in particular channels to reach the liberated zone and to bring products from AFN or the USA to the north to supply the black market... and the occupied French. Everything - it seems - tolerated by the De Gaulle government itself!
M. Raymond – An unusual collaboration has thus been set up, between certain veterans of the
Carlingue, new innkeepers in business in Marseille and Resistance networks. I must admit that I am very, very surprised – even today – that it went so well. I am missing a big piece of the puzzle: it is rumored that Blémant would have gone directly to negotiate something at the
Longchamp Palace with an important person...
RSP – It does not really fit with the image of a legal government! Although… who knows?
Mr. Raymond – In any case, the activity was not without risk – and on the side of the two belligerents moreover. The MBF troops were now shooting on sight, like their colleagues in the “classic” army and all the more so as they were once again on the front lines. Maillebuau was also shot at the bend of a wood in the Morvan, by the FFI – was he there on business or simply on a hideout? I would not know how to say it. But in the end… a sort of balance was restored, however, until the spring 1944 offensives.
RSP – Cobra then
Overlord, who would definitely liberate France. It was undoubtedly the last upheaval for the veterans of the
Carlingue.
Ph. R. – Yes. From there, all remaining networks disappear, or almost, giving way to the individual destiny of each.
PP - Let's go to the end of the story of Pierre Bonny.
Ph. R. – To all lords, all honor. In the spring of 1944, he holed up on his farm in Bazoches, incognito.
Mr. Raymond – He even had his vehicle mowed down by the FFI, as a requisition. The story is deliberately ironic – he has to send his own son to Paris by bicycle to try to negotiate another truck from Joano, which would have allowed him to go to Switzerland.
Ph. R. – But Joseph Joinovici sees here the opportunity to regain his virginity on the cheap – and he doesn’t take long to sway his former friend. Through the intermediary of Inspector Morin, at the
Quai de Gesvres, he indicates the hideout to the Republican authorities who have just been restored. It will be no less than 200 soldiers, gendarmes and FFI who will storm the farm on June 31 at noon sharp. The event will also inspire Bonny to say a famously bitter phrase: “
For once Joano gives something! However, he does not put up any resistance. Three million francs will be found in his home, as well as a host of military archives.
M. Raymond – I would like to point out that there were four million in his trunks when he left Paris. I won't say where the missing million went, but I have my own idea!
PP - In the pockets of those who arrested him?
Mr. Raymond – Not only. And besides, since we are talking about it - the treasure of
Rue Lauriston has never been found... Oh certainly! It was no longer at its former level, but there was still 14 million in the vault the last time I had access to it. It is true, Mr. Pierre paid abundantly all those who had worked for him. But there is obviously a lack of it – and I observe that certain mafia families have revived their businesses very well after the war. A blessing is never lost.
Ph. R. – Be that as it may, Pierre Bonny completely broke down and threw everything off, himself typing the statements he made to the inspectors. He was probably thinking of softening his pain in this way…
M. Raymond – He will thus definitively prove that he was not… one of us. Passing in front of his cell, his fellow prisoners systematically spat on him!
RSP – And yet he did not collapse when he was sentenced to death on October 31, 1944. Nor did he have to be dragged in front of the platoon. Morality and a sense of honor - that's pretty, no doubt. But that doesn't mean redemption in our civilized society. He was therefore shot at
Fort Montrouge, alongside Villaplana and Engel…among others.
Ph. R. – However, this death in no way put an end to the trials of the
Carlingue, whose members were now both known and wanted. The DGSS had also extensively infiltrated the office during the occupation, with Tissier, for example. Or Suzzoni.
Mr. Raymond – Tissier had been unmasked at the beginning of 1943 – the D team took care of it. As for Suzzoni, he had been introduced to Bonny by Jean Sartore, who was no doubt already preparing for the future. A condemned man in absentia! When I tell you that Resistants and guys from the cabin, it was the same!
It was obviously him – a respected Corsican – who encouraged the entry of Mediterraneans into the band. Guys who then trafficked with the Guérinis and allowed the setting up of the networks for the winter of 43-44. Bérangier, Guglieri, Dischépolo, Delschiappo, Joseph Orsini, Scotti… All of them did not necessarily stay long – but enough, in any case, to help themselves during searches and implant spies like Chausse, Meunier and Caselli. And besides, if you want to know, Suzzoni ends up fired by Bonny, following a theft of jewels
rue Saint-Georges, carried out out of all context. He summoned him to his office, forced him to return his card, weapons and jewelry, then expelled him manu militari from the building!
Ph. R. – I am not going to defend the indefensible – even if Captain Maréchal, of the Military Security Service, later affirmed that Suzzoni had been “
of very great importance” and that his information had precisely made it possible to counter certain shares of
Rue Lauriston. The French services - those of Algiers, of course - had to do well with the individuals who blended into the background! And besides, if the person concerned was cleared of the charge of intelligence with the enemy, he was also convicted for his thefts.
Better a real agent – even a crooked one – than a 25th hour spy. Speaking of which…Villaplana tried to pretend that he too was an Allied agent – without success, of course. And his testimony does not lack charm. You allow ?
“Question – During a previous hearing, you claimed to have entered the Rue de Lauriston
service on the advice of a certain Mr. André, belonging to the 2nd Bureau. You were responsible, according to you, for providing this organization with all information on the activity of the service in question. You must therefore know the organization perfectly.
Answer – […] I was absolutely nothing in this organization. I just know that Pierre “was affiliated with Avenue Foch”.
I don't know what goals he was pursuing. I considered as part of the staff of the service: Cazauba, Sartore, Cajac, Prévost […].
Question –
We would like to point out that you provide very little information about the organization that you believe you were responsible for overseeing. »
Mr. Raymond – Villaplana had been silly. Sartore and Gourari did better – having also joined
Marco Polo during the winter of 1943, they took the time to carefully reconcile their statements and did not hesitate to assert themselves as Resistance fighters since 1942, under the authority of Pallatier, says “
Gaspard”.
RSP - In fact, it was since October 1943 - and Commander Michel, of '
Marco Polo' (to whom it was nevertheless decided, at one point, to give the floor), affirmed that the information of two accomplices did not never had any use, always arriving too late. As for Pallatier, it was “
Riquet le Rouge”. A friend of Sartore, a mercenary without responsibility – a hitman, a cleaner, as you say. He represented no authority. The information of these individuals was therefore burst pipes, their thefts of plans of thefts at all and their eliminations of villainous assassinations.
Ph. R. – The preamble to the investigation report concerning them states: “
They waited until May 1944, that is to say the German rout, to truly enroll in the Resistance. They covered themselves as well as possible, like criminals accustomed to this kind of maneuver to ensure impunity. And they finally received ten years of forced labor as well as ten years of banishment.
PP – Which doesn't seem like much in the end, given what they were accused of.
Mr. Raymond – The Diversity of Fates – I told you at the start of the show. You could find everything,
rue Lauriston.
PP – Precisely, why not try to conclude with an overview of the most significant destinies of the former members of the
Carlingue, if one can say so?
Mr. Raymond – Pierrot Loutrel, “
Le Fou”(madguy) is a good case, even if he never really integrated into the service. In May 1943, he had already transferred to the SS in a counter-parachute team under the authority of Kieffer, via Placke. He meets George Boucheseiche there, and they become friends. Independent in character...
Ph. R. – Otherwise uncontrollable…
M. Raymond – Except by his mistress, Marinette Chadefaux… In short, Loutrel tries to get away from the cars by running a bar called “
Le Cocker” where many personalities from
Rue Lauriston come, on tour and in hiding.
In January 1944, he lost his mind once again, when he kidnapped, beat up and left for dead Inspector Ricordeau, of the
Police Judiciaire – who had made the great mistake of closing down the den of one of his friends. Then he flees south, crosses the lines and begins a… reconversion, if I dare say. He becomes “
Lieutenant FFI Déricourt” – a lieutenant charged by the French military secret services and the ‘Morhange’ network to eliminate enemy agents and collaborators.
Ph. R. – It is estimated that on this date, 93 Abwehr “
traitors”, Gestapists and spies had already been killed by the group – which in turn lost 34 of its members between shootings and arrest. We were before the liberation of the national territory… we understand that we needed Loutrel.
Mr. Raymond – Pierrot accomplishes several eliminations, including that of an important German officer who was having a drink at the
Place du Capitole. At this time, he met two colleagues: Henri Fefeu and Raymond Naudy – and resumed, while continuing the eliminations, certain bad habits in terms of looting and extortion that no longer passed. In early August, he was arrested, then transferred to Marseille. There, for some reason that escapes me, he was released in October 1944. I won't say anything… but it seems to me that it was more or less on this date that Michel Szkolnikoff “
Mandel”, the biggest textile trafficker under the Occupation, was found half-burnt dead near Madrid. According to some, his heart would have given out... Too bad, Commissioner Blémant had promised to bring him back to France to be tried...
PP – Good, good, good … let’s say that Justice will have taken the lead.
Mr. Raymond – Now free but undesirable, he continues to the
Côte d'Azur with his accomplices Ruel, Ruard, Laguerre and (still) Naudy, to make people talk about him again in winter. All together, between 1944 and 1945, they committed numerous armed attacks and other bloody attacks. In three months,
Pierrot le Fou's team carried out no less than five robberies, collecting several tens of millions of francs, forcing roadblocks, exchanging numerous shots with the police, killing a postman who claimed to be resisting... before the police leads on indication a real assault against their hideout at the
hotel Maxim's in Cannes – an assault which narrowly misses Loutrel but nevertheless allows the arrest of Laguerre and Ruard, wounded.
Ph. R. – Like three policemen! Loutrel was also arrested later in Marseille, but for a simple peccadillo. Unidentified by the police, he managed to escape from the
l’Evêché (Marseille's main police station) taking an agent hostage!
M. Raymond – As usual, Loutrel
Le Louf is out of control. It even seems that it was the Guérinis who gave his hideout to the police. Brief ! Loutrel goes back to Paris, where he meets Brahim “Jo” Attia.
Ph. R. – Jo Attia, former personal enemy of Bonny, accomplice of Cazauba and deported to the Mauthausen camp.
Mr. Raymond – He is, like Loutrel, a veteran of the
Bataillons d'Afrique (battalions of Africa - french disciplinary units). They were already comrades and friends, they become colleagues. And so they founded the
Tractions Avant (french type of car) gang, named after the car they used. Later, previous accomplices from the South would join them, as well as other former
avenue Foch and
La Carlingue veterans: Georges Boucheseiche, Henri Fefeu (again), Abel Danos and Julien Le Ny.
Six attacks follow one another during the summer of 1945: July 16 –
Société Générale on
rue de Rivoli. The 29 – the
SNCF of the
avenue de Suffren. On August 1, they failed at the
comptoir des métaux précieux (precious metals counter) on
rue Dareau, but then made up for it with three attacks on vans and cashiers.
Ph. R. – Pierrot le Fou caused terror to reign in
Ile-de-France, through this rapid succession of attacks of absolutely incredible violence – and audacity, it must be said. He is everywhere in the capital, and acts as he sees fit with apparent impunity. Thus, in a nightclub, he meets Martine Carol, a young actress in the making whom he undertakes to kidnap in his car! The Lady will resist his advances, and he will finally abandon her in the suburbs, annoyed and perhaps after some violence. Later, he will send his dressing room a big basket of flowers as a sign of apology...
That was obviously anecdotal – but one reality remains. We are now worried about Loutrel in public opinion as well as in the
Milieu – which feels that the agitation that is seizing the police is bad for its own business. Searches and dragnets follow one another... The Minister of the Interior himself orders all his services to agree to "
finally obtain results".
Mr. Raymond – Information obviously travels very quickly. Pierrot obeys nothing and is therefore protected by no one. On September 12, a new tip arrived on the office of the boss of
36 quai des Orfèvres. The “
Tractions avant” would be in the inn “
Les Marronniers”, in
Champigny-sur-Marne. Three hundred and fifty police officers invade the hotel... and find no one there. Lack of luck – Boucheseiche, Fefeu, Attia and two accomplices are right next door, in an establishment called “
L’auberge”, and are spotted there. A siege begins – the five men defend themselves with heavy fire. Reinforcements were brought up from Paris, including two
Greyhound armored cars, which machine-gunned the facade.
Informed of what is happening, Loutrel then performs an act that will make him a legend – he grabs a
Delahaye Coach, forces the roadblocks with it, recovers Fefeu and Attia under armored fire and flees! We will find the car reduced to the state of wreckage in the woods. As for Boucheseiche, he managed to hide at the bottom of a well, breathing through a straw.
Ph. R. – The police record is disastrous for such a deployment of forces – only two second knives, moreover killed in the shooting. An inspector with a strong mustache – whose name I no longer remember – will end up being transferred to Seine-Saint-Denis, as a good lightman of this fiasco. As for the criminals, they are already far away: they steal a convertible in Saint-Maur, then a truck in Armainvilliers. And finally hide in their hideout in Auvers-sur-Oise.
Political pressure has not worked, so we return to the basic work of the police: investigation while waiting for an error. She comes. On September 30, Henri Fefeu was arrested in Montmartre – he telephoned from a garage in La Ferté, which was tapped.
Mr. Raymond – Fefeu will die in prison of tuberculosis, much later. The rest of the group resumed their attacks, after a period of calm: in October, it was the Bercy wine merchants. As they leave, they pass through a police ambush... which does not stop them, because another group was expected! Finally, after another failed robbery at Versailles, comes the mishap. On November 5, Loutrel walked drunk into a jewelry store on
rue Boissière, whose owner, Mr. Sarafian, defended himself and touched Pierre in the abdomen.
Ph. R. – Hum! Some gossips claim that he injured himself with his weapon while getting back in the car! And in the shooting, the jeweler is killed...
Mr. Raymond – More precisely, he leaves his business injured to be run over by a car. No luck, unfortunate! In short – picked up by his accomplices, Loutrel is taken to an “understanding” doctor, who quickly declares that the case is beyond his means. Attia and Boucheseiche therefore have him hospitalized under a false name at the
Diderot clinic. Three days later, they come back to pick him up disguised as paramedics – but pay the bill when they leave! Loutrel is then dying. He stayed several days with a friend from Porcheville, Edmond Courtois, where he died. They bury him on an island in the Seine...
Ph. R. – His death will not be known until three years later. In the meantime, the band disbands – even though it will still be talked about from time to time in the offices, and most often wrongly. All its members will be caught in the years to come: Jo Attia and Georges Boucheseiche in 1946, Abel Danos and Raymond Naudy in 1947. For Boucheseiche, seven years of forced labor, for Attia only three – moreover purged during his preventive.
PP - Attia will not have paid very much, tell me!
Ph. R. – Do not forget that as a former deportee, he had retained a capital of sympathy with some. In particular with Mr. Edmond Michelet, minister and himself a former resistance fighter and fellow member of block...
Mr. Raymond – The Danos case is a bit special. As soon as Loutrel died, he and Naudy had crossed the border with women and children, to settle in Milan. There, they resumed their activities: violent hold-ups that claimed three victims. But, I've said it before – Southerners don't like competition. Denounced in July 1947, they boarded a boat for Menton… and were awaited at the landing stage by the gendarmerie. A very violent shooting escapes – Naudy and his wife fall, as well as a gendarme. Incredible: Danos makes it through alone! He arrives in Paris let down by everyone… he does burglary to survive. This is how he gets caught – he will be recognized and then sentenced to death twice for his past activities, without anyone intervening as had been the case with Attia.
RSP – The cinema will later take over the character and his end – the film
Classe tous risques (All Risks included), with Lino Ventura in the role of Danos and Belmondo as an accomplice.
Ph. R. – Danos was shot in Montrouge on March 13, 1951. It should be noted that Boucheseiche and Attia resumed their careers after their release, taking advantage of the suspicious passivity of the police services… but that takes us far too far from our story.
M. Raymond – A word on the band of Corsicans, on the other hand? They also had a brilliant career. Especially Auguste Ricord!
PP – Without going too far, why not?
Ph. R. – I guess everyone here will have winced when they heard about Orsini – it makes sense, he and Ricord founded what was called the “
French Connection”.
Mr. Raymond – And you see where I'm coming from when I say that the
Rue de Lauriston treasure was not lost to everyone… The war had done well for Ricord – a war he spent most of gone to an apartment on the
avenue de Wagram with six servants. This ended, he joined forces with Orsini “
the Bloodthirsty” and De la Palmira – a hero of the two world wars reconverted in the alcohol traffic (
Note : De la Palmira had his own gambling den at the Hotel Montana, two floors below the rooms occupied by the Nazis. He had also teamed up with Robert Moura to hold the cabaret "Le petit chapiteau", very popular with Bonny's men. All for spy purposes for the Allies... but not only !). The three of them set up a network that truly flooded the North American cocaine market via South America through an old friend: François Spirito! Which always knew how to make itself indispensable.
PP - And the police made no attempt to stop this magnificent undertaking, which moreover was carried out by perfectly identified individuals?
Mr. Raymond – Why? It was going to the Yankees!
Ph. R. – If you want to know everything, Orsini had even obtained a certificate of Resistance from the Republic, with the support of De Palmira. The latter also held the Aix-les-Bains casino until 1955, while continuing his traffic.
And during this time, '
the bloodthirsty' had settled in Paraguay under the protection of the North American Italian mafia and the Corsican Union... There, Auguste Ricord became "
El Viejo", as powerful as General- President Alfredo Stroessner! He was finally extradited under pressure from Nixon in 1972… It would take hours to exhaust the subject!
PP – And the clock is ticking, unfortunately. Let's finish quickly with one last character. Here, Joseph Joinovici!
Mr. Raymond – Oh, old Joano always gets away with it! At least at the start. At the Liberation, he was arrested several times, for various reasons. Once, at a barrage of FFIs, he gets tangled up in the crowd of documents that clutter his wallet and pulls out his gestapo card!
PP - It's nerd.
Mr. Raymond – As you say. But he is still released on the orders of the
Prefecture of Police! Tired, the DGSS ended up coming to question him directly on the premises of this institution, so that things could finally be clarified – they then made him leave by the fire escape! He fled abroad in 1946.
Ph. R. – It should be noted, however, that the prefect at the time, Charles Luizet, would then be replaced “
due to illness”… And that Joinovici would eventually return to be arrested six months later.
Mr. Raymond – Yes, again, he goes straight to the PP – he really didn't like the DGSS, the Joano. His 1948 trial was flamboyant, he had had time to prepare his defense.
Ph. R. – A few excerpts: “I
was not sold to the Germans since I was the one who paid them! or
"What did you want to do against the Germans?" Me, I made a fortune”. He was sentenced to five years in prison, but was released after four. No one knows what to do with him anymore – the man is ruined, does not really have French nationality… but no country wants him. Romania, which had become a communist, no longer knew him, and neither did the USSR... Finally, he was placed under house arrest in Mende.
M. Raymond – The first reception is rather cold. The gendarme who welcomes Joinovici when he arrives balances him: “
I would say to you: welcome to Mende, but the heart would not be there. However, after some time, he went into business with the local scrap dealers, a well-to-do businessman named Laffont-Chamberlain and… the machine started up again. At least, until the tax authorities had the curious idea of asking him for his unpaid tax arrears during the Occupation! He fled to Geneva, Casablanca and eventually Haifa – where he tried to obtain Israeli citizenship.
RSP – Mr. Joinovici is to this day – along with Mr. Lansky, the American mobster, and Robert Sloblen, the Soviet spy – one of only three Jews who have been denied the right of return. Tel-Aviv expelled him after confiscating his assets in Switzerland – assets which he intended to transfer to Israel in exchange for a residence permit – pointing out to him that "
When it comes to confiscating money from Jews, you know very well that the Swiss have a long experience. »
M. Raymond – The end is all the same sad. He returned to Marseilles, found himself at Les Baumettes and embarked on a hunger strike. It is then completely ruined and eaten away by arteriosclerosis. He was let out in 1962, for health reasons. He died in 1965 in Clichy in a one-bedroom apartment on avenue Anatole France, which he shared with his wife and former secretary Lucie
‘Lucie-fer’ (lucifer) Schmidt.
PP – Beyond the Carlingue, we can see how the Bonny watchdogs have shaped the French criminal world – even today.
RSP - The archives of the
Service d'Action Civique (De Gaulle's private secret service, knowed for out-of-the-law politicals violence) also mention very familiar names... But we can still congratulate ourselves today that the Republic has not failed or given up. If France had given up the fight, who can say what additional criminal adventure would have led the
Carlingue, thanks to a war that would undoubtedly have been longer. I shudder to imagine the consequences in terms of looting, repression… and deportation.
Ph. R. – And the recent speech by the President of the Republic during the commemoration of the roundup – fortunately failed – of the
Vel' d'Hiv reminds us, if need be, of the responsibility in the Shoah of certain French people who have not fortunately only ever represented themselves.
RSP – I am not afraid, however, to affirm here that the policy of economic drying up pursued by Germany, of course, but with the active complicity of the
Carlingue, had a lot to do with the difficulties that the country encountered from the end of the war and during the post-war period. It prevented the formation of a larger army than expected for the German campaign, then during the reconstruction, the rapid construction of housing or infrastructure yet so necessary. With funding still seriously lacking, the government then made some mistakes that we still deplore today. Some large
districts in particular!
Mr. Raymond – [Laughs.] Ah! And what do you know who paid to build the northern districts of Marseille!
RSP – A belated and self-serving generosity! One thing, however, remains certain. In 1939, the GDP of France was 395 billion Francs. In 1945, it had fallen to less than 200 billion, while inflation had quadrupled. Let's count how much the
Carlingue and the Reich robbed the French. I have been keeping notes for a while now... on the only elements that we have mentioned, we are at 35 billion between WIFO, Joinovici and company, simple thefts and confiscations. If we add the 600 billion occupancy costs and other little things, we arrive at… 675 billion. Two years of national wealth confiscated in just three years. And we are surprised that France ended up in debt…
M. Raymond – La
Carlingue was… particularly effective, or rather harmful, it’s true. Why ? Because it still constitutes a unique historical case today. The quasi-federation of the Parisian criminal world, if not national, on the rubble of a beaten state. This federation is nowadays destroyed – it is obviously… happy. However, the connections that were made at that time remain, and have explained quite a bit until recently. But now the old people are dead – and the new generation…
Ph. R. – What Monsieur Raymond is saying is interesting – especially if we compare the case thus described with that of the Italian
Mafia. The latter, vigorously fought by Mussolini under the Fascist regime, was paradoxically saved by the Allied secret services, then by AMGOT. The capi have been as useful to the Americans as our mobsters to the Germans – especially in a country even poorer and weaker than France. It is not for nothing that one of the first actions of the allies was the restoration of the
Cosche chiefs in Palermo.
It was also a clearly assumed policy – I found a copy of the British Sicily Zone
Handbook. He specifies the list of members of the Honorable Society, accompanied by comments revealing the very pragmatic attitude of the Allies towards the
Cosa Nostra. At random, in front of a name: “
Head of a mafia cosca […] – anti-fascist who […] can provide useful information. Uneducated but very influential […]. »
Mr. Raymond – Yes, but they were on the right side. And you now understand the reason, among the Italians – a bit like among the Corsicans… – for the persistence of old “
families” and old customs that have disappeared elsewhere. I even think that without certain interventions in the winter of 1943-44 – of which I don't have the key, as I told you – it would have been very possible that France – well, the French environment – would definitely have passed under the cut of a foreign organized crime.
PP – This is all very exciting, dear guests. But time is running out – hey, news awaits! Quickly, Monsieur Raymond, a final word – an opinion on the attitude of members of the
Milieu during the Occupation? What could they tell us if we could ask them today?
Mr. Raymond – [Coughs.] Hum! I will probably shock you, but probably they would tell you that they regret nothing, except for some excesses and some deaths. Honor is a notion not worth redemption, you said earlier. This is true for you, but not for them.
They sat down, it's true, and they helped themselves – they knew easy money, the good life, power and they loved sublime women. But if they helped themselves, it is also because they were invited to do so and that others would have taken their place if by chance they had disdained it. Later, still others came to present the bill to them. Some balked, some tried to free ride – but overall, they all got it sorted, and I think I made it clear – that wasn’t the case for everyone in France! And among these bad payers, many then put on a costume that was not theirs, to better teach lessons that they were careful not to apply. In the end, for those in the
Carlingue, Justice is over – they no longer owe anyone anything.
RSP – I will quote Jean-Paul Sartre, in the third volume of his
Situations: “
Someone who was asked what he had done under the Terror replied: 'I lived...' This is an answer that we could all do today.
For four years we lived and the Germans also lived, among us. »
Ph. R. – The historical figure mentioned by Sartre was Abbé Sieyès. And as Paul Morand said in Fermé la Nuit: “
History, like an idiot, mechanically repeats itself. »
PP – This will be the quote at the end – the production manager is waving at me to go back on air. But since we are here, we will leave in song. You will see, I chose it myself and I am quite happy with it. Thank you, dear guests [Answers from the guests…], and to you too, dear listeners. See you next week for a next issue of
Witnesses of the Age, which this time will be devoted to a much more artistic subject: Joan Miro. See you soon !
Mr. Raymond – Where is my cane, good God?
À la Société Générale,
Une auto démarra et dans la terreur,
La bande à Bonnot mit les voiles,
Emportant la sacoche du garçon payeur,
Dans la De Dion-Bouton qui cachait les voleurs,
Octave comptait les gros billets et les valeurs,
Avec Raymond-la-Science les bandits en auto,
C’était la bande à Bonnot !
Les banques criaient « Misérables ! »
Quand s’éloignait le bruit du puissant moteur,
Comment rattraper les coupables
Qui fuyaient à toute allure à trente-cinq à l’heure,
Sur les routes de France, hirondelles et gendarmes
Étaient à leurs trousses, étaient nuit et jour en alarme,
En casquette à visière, les bandits en auto
C’était la bande à Bonnot !
Mais Bonnot rêvait des palaces
Et du ciel d’azur de Monte-Carlo,
En fait il voulait vite se ranger des voitures…
Mais un beau matin la police
Encercla la maison de Jules Bonnot,
À Choisy, avec ses complices,
Qui prenaient dans sa chambre un peu de repos,
Tout Paris arriva à pied, qui en tram qui en train,
Avec des fusils, des pistolets et des gourdins,
Hurlant des balcons : « Les bandits en auto ! »
C’était la bande à Bonnot
Et menottes aux mains,
Tragique destin,
Alors pour la dernière course,
On mit dans le fourgon la bande à Bonnot !
La bande à Bonnot
(Joe Dassin, 1968)
At Societe Generale,
A car started and in terror,
Bonnot's gang set sail,
Carrying the paymaster's satchel,
In the De Dion-Bouton that hid the thieves,
Octave counted the big bills and the securities,
With Raymond-la-Science the bandits in the car,
It was Bonnot's gang!
The banks were shouting “Miserables! »
When the noise of the mighty motor went away,
How to catch the culprits
Who were fleeing at full speed at thirty-five an hour,
On the roads of France, swallows and gendarmes
Were after them, were night and day in alarm,
In peaked caps, the bandits in the car
It was Bonnot's gang!
But Bonnot dreamed of palaces
And from the azure sky of Monte Carlo,
In fact, he wanted to quickly get rid of the cars…
But one fine morning the police
Surrounded the house of Jules Bonnot,
In Choisy, with his accomplices,
Who took a little rest in his room,
All of Paris arrived on foot, who by tram who by train,
With rifles, pistols and clubs,
Yelling from the balconies: “The bandits in the car! »
It was the Bonnot gang
And handcuffs,
tragic destiny,
So for the last race,
They put Bonnot's band in the van!
The Bonnot band
(Joe Dassin, 1968)
THAT'S ALL FOLKS. I will add a fews pics then we will move on.