Apaches

Les Apaches was a Parisian Belle Époque violent criminal underworld subculture of early 20th-century hooligans, night muggers, street gangs and other criminals. After news of their notoriety spread over Europe, the term was used to describe violent street crime in other countries as well; for example, "Russian apaches." Name There are a number of stories about the origin of the term "Apaches," the common thread being that this was a comparison of their savagery with that attributed by Europeans to the Native American tribes of Apaches. A 1904 issue of the French Q&A magazine L'Intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux credited a journalist named Victor Moris with the popularization of the term. In November 1900 a police inspector of the Belleville district of police was describing to him a particularly bloody scene and concluded with the words: "C'est un véritable truc d'Apaches!". A story in a 1910 Sunday supplement of Le Petit Journal claimed that when a certain gang leader nicknamed Terreur (Terror) heard that the actions of the band were compared with these of the Apaches, he was so pleased that he proceeded to call his gang "Apaches of Belleville".