Placed under surveillance due to his involvement in revolutionary politics by 1894, Alexandru Bogdan-Pitești was eventually expelled from France, despite Huysmans' intervention in his favor. Reputedly, the deportation document identified him as a "threat to public order". One urban legend recounts that Bogdan-Pitești was present at Vaillant's public execution and leaned over to kiss Vaillant's mangled body, which both disgusted and alarmed the judicial establishment. Zambaccian suggests that the decision to deport the Romanian provocateur was not politically motivated. He writes that Bogdan-Pitești had exhausted the patience of French authorities by trafficking in stolen bicycles.