Placide Schouppe

Placide Schouppe, born on 12 March 1858 in Dikkelvenne, Belgium, and dead in Mons on 20 January 1913, was a Belgian mechanic, burglar, and illegalist anarchist. He is mainly known for his central role in the birth and development of illegalism, founding one of the first illegalist groups, the Schouppe gang. Schouppe was also very close to Vittorio Pini, another one of the main founders of this tendency of anarchism and of the Intransigents of London and Paris group, with whom he escaped from the penal colony of Cayenne. Moreover, Schouppe was the main suspect for the 1888-1889 anarchist bombing campaign, although his culpability was never proven.

After deserting the Belgian army and arriving in France, Schouppe joined the anarchist movement in France. He and his wife, Élise Pelgrom, along with some of his brothers, became involved in the early illegalist groups. He met Pini, and the two committed around ten burglaries together before their arrest in 1889. They were deported to the penal colony together and escaped two years later. Although Pini was caught by the authorities, Schouppe managed to return to Europe, where he resumed his burglaries. The anarchist was arrested multiple times and imprisoned for five years in Belgium. Upon his release on 1897, he became involved in new burglaries, was arrested in France, and sentenced to fifteen years in the penal colony – Schouppe escaped once again in 1905. He was arrested by the Belgian authorities in 1908 and likely deported to the penal colony again. He died in 1913 in Belgium.

His police mugshot is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) collections and dates from 1889, making it one of Alphonse Bertillon's earliest and one of the first in history.