Editing Jules Bonnot (section)

== 1912 crime spree and Bonnot's death ==
[[File:La fin du bandit - Le Petit Journal.jpg|thumb|1912 French magazine cover depicting Bonnot's death]]
Once the year turned 1912, "The Bonnot Gang" were beginning their infamous series of crimes. In addition to France, the gang commenced expanding their crime to [[Belgium]]. In January, the gang murdered two elderly people in their houses and stole several thousands of francs.<ref name=":1" /> In Paris, they successfully sold stolen goods for eight thousand francs and robbed a wealthy residence. Later that month, several friends of the members of the gang were arrested and interrogated by the French police. Bonnot and Octave Garnier were able to evade capture while they were in Lyon.<ref name=":2" />

After taking a train to Paris and then traveling to Ghent, Garnier and Bonnot murdered a chauffeur and severely wounded a watchman as they attempted to steal two cars but returned to Paris emptyhanded in late January. While there, several members altered their appearance in order to evade arrest.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jensen |first=Richard Bach |title=The battle against anarchist terrorism: an international history, 1878-1934 |date=2014 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-03405-1 |location=Cambridge New York}}</ref> Instead of laying low, Bonnot Bonnot and Garnier continued their bouts of crime, venturing into Belgium and southern France at times.<ref name=":1" />

In late February, the duo traveled to a wealthy neighborhood of Paris and robbed another Delaunay-Belleville and changed the plates. While on their way to Southern France, the car broke down and was repaired. Bonnot, in a hurry after the delay, sped at significant speed and nearly caused an accident in a suburb of Paris. A police officer spotted their traffic infraction and attempted to stop the vehicle only to be mortally wounded. With Bonnot at the wheel, the gang's vehicle ran over and severely injured a young woman while in a haste to leave the scene. With the murder of the policeman, the French ramped up their efforts to round up the "bandits" and the general public was placed on high alert to report any suspicious activity directly to the French authorities.<ref name=":1" />

In late March, the group attempted to rob vehicles owned by the bourgeois in two different instances and came up empty-handed in both. As a result, they plotted to rob a car in broad daylight in the middle of a Parisian road. On 25 March, they targeted a newly purchased luxury limousine that was being delivered. When the limousine was most vulnerable in a suburb of Paris, Bonnot and Garnier shot the passengers and hijacked the vehicle. Immediately, the gang embarked towards a bank that was seventy kilometers away from the scene. They entered, shot three bank clerks, and got away from the French police with fifty thousand francs and without any confrontation.<ref name=":1" />

After this event, French police were placed on high alert and armed with revolvers in order to capture the gang once and for all. The infamy of the Bonnot Gang and the driving prowess of Bonnot was instilling fear in all of the French citizens.<ref name=":0" /> In the following days, some of the members of the Bonnot Gang were captured by the French police, and on April 24, while in hiding, Bonnot was surprised by police. He quickly drew his weapon and killed a policeman, wounded another, and evaded capture; however, four days later, the police caught him hiding in a residence in [[Choisy-le-Roi]].<ref name=":0" /> Bonnot bunkered himself in the house while under siege by upwards of five hundred police men. He was able to wound three officers and fend off the force before the front of the residence was blown up with dynamite. Bonnot was shot ten times before finally being captured. The following day, April 28, 1912, Bonnot succumbed to his injuries and died in his hospital bed. He was not the only member of the gang to be killed. Rene Valet and Octave Garnier were killed the next month by French police in a shootout.<ref name=":2" />