highway bandits, yesterday and today

The news put into perspective every Saturday, thanks to the historian Fabrice d’Almeida.

This is information taken from Figaro (article reserved for subscribers) which has gone somewhat unnoticed. Between Roissy and Paris, “road pirates” attack the cars of wealthy personalities and take advantage of traffic jams to attack them and steal bags and jewelry.

France has known many of these highwaymen since its birth in the Middle Ages. We can even say that the big bandits have nourished our imagination. An example ? Cartouche, this bandit staged in 1962 in the film by Philippe de Broca, with Jean-Paul Belmondo in the title role. Philippe de Broca, who co-signed the screenplay, said he wanted to make Cartouche sympathetic, while the real historical character was a man without faith or law, a killer.

This former soldier, son of a mercenary, Louis-Dominique Garthausen known as Cartouche, began his career by organizing carriage attacks with his gang that went from Paris to Versailles. A road for the rich between the capital and the palace, a bit like the A1 nowadays between the airport and Paris.

Then he eliminated some of his competitors and organized his forces to reign over the capital’s underworld. For a moment he seems elusive. It is even rumored that he would be protected by the Regent. But he is betrayed by a member of his gang arrested and sentenced to death by the wheel. His legend is already in motion, that of a generous, original bandit, indifferent to wealth, even though it was the driving force behind his organization: theft.

Another bandit and smuggler arouses great curiosity: Louis Mandrin, who was the subject of an old popular song, Mandrin’s Complaint, which Yves Montand brought back into fashion. Mandrin is described in his time, in 1755, as a Robin Hood who attacks taxes and those who collect them, the farmers general. He too was the subject of a TV film, which in 1972 highlighted his dimension as a rebel and a free man. But the daily life of these gangs was far from romantic, revolving around money, theft and profit.

20th century: bandits become motorized

The public authorities have improved the police and gendarmerie forces since the Revolution, with the famous road brigades, then motorized motorized brigades; on several occasions certain types of travelers have been targeted. With a refinement of methods. In 1947, bandits stopped the car of the Minister of the Armed Forces and robbed his chief of staff. They were armed with fake weapons and robbed travelers in the Rambouillet forest in particular. There have been attacks on cash-in-transit vans since the 1960s. Then truck thefts, like in 2001, in Gard. This gang was dismantled, just like the one that attacked luxury cars in the Lyon region, in 2019.

These bandits generally end up behind bars, because once the surprise has passed, the police refine their methods and arrest them. Like Cartouche and Mandrel in the past.