BONNOT GANG'S CRIMES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15233, 21 February 1913, Page 7

BONNOT GANG'S CRIMES.

SIX MEN CONVICTED.

By Telegraph.—Press Association.— Copyright

, (Received February 20, 11.5 pan.) ' Paris, February 20. The Public Prosecutor has asked that the death sentence be imposed on Soudy, ' Cattemin, Dieudonne, Carouy, Metge, and .Monier, who liave been found guilty of participation in the Bonnot gang's outrages. The manager one of the newspapers has" been sentenced to five years' imprisonment for publishing threats to murder the jury.

! "A .career OP crime. The trial of the 22 persons charged with taking, part in, or being privy to the criminal acts of the Bonnot gang of motor bandite, has proceeded, in the Seme Court of Assizes for some time. The formidable list of charges includes no less than 33 murders. There are 304 witnesses Co be examined. The sensational robbery of the bank messenger Caby, in. the Eue Ordener, in Montmartre, Paris, on December 21, 1911, first brought the then unknown gang into notoriety. For sue months, the gang terrorised Paris and its neighbourhood. . The crimes attributed to • them included the murder .of a chauffeur named Platano by Bonnot at Chatelet-en-Brio, on November 27, 1911 murder of an old man named Moreau and his housekeeper, Madame Arfeux, at Thiais, on January 4,, 1912; attack on Les Aubrais Railway Station, near Orleans, on January 31, when a gendarme was killed; shooting of a policeman, who attempted to arrest the famous " grey "motor-car" in the Rue du Havre, on February 27; at- ; tack on the Chantilly Bank, on-March 25, robbery of £1902, and murder of two bank clerks, and the murder of M. Jonin, assistant-chief of the detective service at Ivrey. The ringleader of the band and bis confederate, Dubois, were run to earth at Choisy-le-B.oi, a suburb eight or nine miles south of Paris, on the morning of April 28. They were tracked to a motor-car garage, and after four hours' siege by the police and a company of the Garde Republicainej and a desperate fusillade on both sides, the [ building was blown up with dynamite and Bonnot was captured more than half dead, but fighting to the last. He died shortly after being taken to the hospital. Dubois was found dead when the police entered the building. On May" 14 two other members of the gang, Gamier and Vallet, were killed during the memorable night siege at Nogcnt-sur-Marne. Another . sensational incident occurred early last month when Eckerlen, a Erisoner in the Zante prison, escaped from is cell and. was liberating Bonnet's gang when he was discovered.