Léon Ortiz

Léon Ortiz (born Léon Schiroky; 18 November 1868 – 5 May 1955) was a French-Mexican accountant, burglar, and anarchist militant. He is particularly known for his involvement in the rise of illegalism, of which he was a prominent figure with his group, the Ortiz gang.

Son of Eva Schiroky and orphaned from his father as a child, he grew up in poverty before gradually turning to anarchist activism. In this context, he became politically active with his friends Louise Michel, Charles Malato, and Jacques Prolo, a group that founded La Révolution Cosmopolite, a 1880s anarchist publication in France. Later, as a contributor to l'Endehors, he met Émile Henry, who became his friend. After joining the nascent illegalist movement through his contact with the Intransigeants of London and Paris and Vittorio Pini, Ortiz embarked on a significant series of burglaries and robberies with his group, the Ortiz Gang —all while evading the police across Western Europe. According to French authorities of the period, he may have funded Émile Henry to commit the Café Terminus bombing.

Arrested with Antoinette Cazal, his partner, he was put on trial and specifically targeted by the Trial of the Thirty, being one of the few to be convicted, while all other anarchists were acquitted. Sentenced to fifteen years of deportation to the Guyane penal colony, he abandoned anarchism and collaborated with French authorities there before being released. In 1901, he left France and traveled to New York. In 1925, Ortiz obtained American citizenship in Wilmington, where he died in 1955.

Biography

Youth and beginning his militancy

Léon Schiroky was born in Paris on 18 November 1868. registered his birth alone, and he grew up without a father. In 1886, Eva Schiroky married Philippe Ortiz, a Mexican valet twelve years her junior, who officially adopted Léon. Schiroky studied at Collège Chaptal, focusing on "biology and political economy", according to Le Maitron. It was in the latter that he connected with other burgeoning anarchist militants, including Charles Malato or Jacques Prolo. He also met and became friends with Louise Michel. With this group of activists, Ortiz co-founded La Révolution Cosmopolite, serving as a key author and a member of the editorial committee. He notably published the journal's Manifesto. Although the group's members, including Ortiz who was the poorest among them,

Ortiz welcomed numerous fellow anarchists passing through and met Émile Henry within the circles orbiting l'Endehors (1891-1893). The latter, like Ortiz, were far more severely punished. He died there on 5 May 1955.

Works La Révolution Cosmopolite (1886-1887), including :

Manifeste du Groupe cosmopolite aux révolutionnaires étrangers, 1887 (Issue 1, Series 2) Guerre à la guerre !, 1887 (Issue 2, Series 2)