Page 56 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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Anarchism———29

Anarchists demonstrate in Chicago on May Day, 1887.
Source: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division (LC-USZ62-69545).

William McKinley in 1901, and of Prime Minister such uncompromising individuals as Henry would
Canalejas y Mendez of Spain in 1912. explain their position by their total disdain of the lives
To fulfill their wish to have the state wither away, of the bourgeoisie.
some devoted anarchists began to attack institutions The anarchist movement accepted François-
and organizations that represented the “false” values Claudius Königstein (known as Ravachol), a criminal
of bourgeois society. In 1882, a bomb exploded in a with a long history of theft and murder, as one of its
popular music hall in Lyons, France; in 1886 Charles own only after his death. Ravachol, who never
Gallo threw a bottle of vitriol and fired a revolver into claimed to be an anarchist, was captured after police
the crowd of brokers in the Paris stock exchange. determined that he was responsible for two bomb
Auguste Vaillante detonated a bomb in the Chamber explosions in Paris in 1892. His trial was conducted
of Deputies in Paris in 1893 (no one was killed); in an atmosphere of vengeance. Cesare Lombroso, a
Vaillante was sentenced to death and executed. A year famous Italian criminologist, who developed a phys-
later, Emile Henry, in an act of retaliation for the exe- iognomy of the “born criminal,” declared that
cution of Vaillante, deposited a bomb in the Café Ravachol’s physical features exemplified the criminal.
Terminus, where shopkeepers, clerks, and even some The French verb ravacholiser (to blow up) is derived
workers were drinking and listening to a band. Twenty from his name.
people were wounded, one of whom later died. The Based on the many assassinations and bombings in
majority of anarchists condemned terrorist actions that different countries, police postulated an international
would cause damage and death to so many people, but conspiracy of anarchists. French police, for example,