[7] True to their principles of illegalism, the commune's members adopted nicknames to avoid being identified or tracked; Vuillemin took the name La Belge (English: The Belgian).

[9] The couple moved into Garnier's mother's house in Vincennes,[10] living an ostensibly normal life while meeting with other members of what became the Bonnot Gang.

[12] After the Bonnot Gang carried out an armed robbery against the Société Générale,[13] the police initiated an intensive search operation to find the culprits.

Garnier and other accomplices rented a safe house in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, while Vuillemin went to stay at the offices of the individualist magazine L'Idée libre [fr].

[1] Garnier, still a fugitive, began to deeply miss Vuillemin and considered meeting her in Vincennes, but initially decided against it due to the risk of capture.

For appearances, the couple attempted to live a normal life in Nogent, playing music, gardening and exercising, and even once attending a local fête.

[24] That evening, while Vuillemin was cooking a vegetarian meal of macaroni and Garnier prepared potatoes and leeks, they heard a shout from their garden gate: "Surrender in the name of the Law!

[27] The police bombarded the house with machine gun fire and explosives, covering a team's entry into the building,[28] where they finally killed Valet and Garnier.

While Maîtrejean attempted to use their sentence as an opportunity to teach Le Clerc'h how to read, Vuillemin retreated inwards, dissociating herself from her experience.

The public prosecutor Théodore Lescouvé [fr] opened the case by classifying the members of the Bonnot Gang into different categories: the principal offenders, the intermediaries, the harbourers, the firearms providers, and the women.

The prosecution thus defined the women – Marie Vuillemin, Rirette Maîtrejean and Barbe Le Clerch – according to their gender, rather than their role in the gang's operations.