Jacques Mesrine (; 28 December 19362 November 1979) was a French criminal responsible for numerous murders, bank robberies, burglaries, and kidnappings in France, the US, and Canada. Mesrine repeatedly escaped from prison and made international headlines during a final period as a fugitive when his exploits included trying to kidnap the judge who had previously sentenced him. An aptitude for disguise earned him the moniker "The Man of a Thousand Faces" and enabled him to remain at large while receiving massive publicity as a wanted man. Mesrine was widely seen as an anti-establishment Robin Hood figure. In keeping with his charismatic image, he was rarely without a glamorous female companion. A two-part film, Mesrine, which came out in 2008, was based on Mesrine's life.

Early life and criminal career up to 1965

Jacques René Mesrine was born in Clichy, near Paris on 28 December 1936 to a couple of blue-collar origin who had moved up in social class. As a child, he witnessed a massacre of villagers by German soldiers. His parents had great aspirations for their son and sent him to the prestigious Catholic Collège de Juilly where his friends included the likes of musician and composer Jean-Jacques Debout. Mesrine was an extremely unruly pupil and he was expelled from Juilly for attacking the principal. He went on to be expelled from other schools and fell into the lifestyle of a juvenile delinquent, much to the dismay of his family. In 1955, at age 19, he married Lydia De Souza in Clichy; the couple divorced a year later. Drafted into the French Army, he volunteered for special duty in the Algerian War as a parachutist/commando. While participating in counter-insurgency operations, Mesrine's duties are said to have included the killing of prisoners. Although he disliked military discipline, Mesrine enjoyed action and was decorated with the Cross for Military Valour by General Charles de Gaulle before leaving the army in 1959. His father was later to claim that the time in Algeria had brought about a noticeable deterioration in Mesrine's behaviour.

In December 1965, Mesrine was arrested in the villa of the military governor in Palma de Mallorca. He was sentenced to six months in jail and later claimed that Spanish authorities believed he was working for French intelligence. in which he claimed to have committed upwards of forty murders, a number thought by some to be a considerable exaggeration. The appearance of Mesrine's book resulted in France passing a "Son of Sam law", designed to stop criminals profiting from the publication of their crimes.

Escape from La Santé

La Santé was seen as an escape-proof prison. In his escapes from his Canadian prisons, Mesrine had required little more than wire cutters and a very high degree of audacity. During this incarceration, however, he faced security far better than any he had defeated before. A report noted that Mesrine had been seen doing exercises in his cell and was behaving like a man who had received good news. On 8 May 1978, he produced a gun, stole keys and, with François Besse (a highly accomplished escaper in his own right), and another man, Mesrine got out of a cellblock and into a fenced-off yard walkway. They had a grappling iron with them and Mesrine forced some workmen with an extending ladder to bring the ladder along. The trio unlocked a yard gate in an inner wall; an armed guard was taken by surprise at his post. The men then reached an isolated part of the 14 metre (46 ft) high exterior wall (which would have presented a considerable challenge without the ladder). They hooked the grappling iron onto the top of the ladder, scaled the wall, and slid down a rope. The third man over the wall was shot dead by police in the street outside. Mesrine and Besse hijacked a car and evaded a police cordon; they had become the first men to escape from La Santé.

Mesrine as fugitive

Mesrine and Besse robbed a Paris gunsmith four days after their escape from La Santé. On 26 May 1978, the duo robbed the Deauville Casino of 130,000 francs, but the police arrived as they exited. Around 50 shots were exchanged and Mesrine was wounded, but the duo made a getaway. Mesrine and Besse eluded the subsequent massive sweep of the area by taking a farmer and his family hostage and forcing him to drive them to safety. Subsequently, the kidnapping of a banker netted them 450,000 francs in ransom. Despite his position as "French public enemy number one" (l'ennemi public numéro un), Mesrine was featured on the cover of the 4 August 1978 Paris Match. In an interview inside, he threatened the Minister of Justice. By remaining at large in the Paris area, despite his notoriety, Mesrine appeared to be making a fool of the law and the state; the Paris Match interview was the last straw. The police agencies hunting Mesrine were pressured for results from the highest echelons of government.

This proved to be difficult, not the least because of rivalry between the various agencies. The usual informants were of little use as Mesrine generally avoided contact with the criminal underworld. Moreover, he was adept at disguising his appearance and allaying suspicion from members of the public: he reportedly went for a drink with his neighbours and laughed when one said he "looked like Mesrine". Mesrine travelled to Sicily, Algeria, London, and Brussels, and back to Paris in November 1978, where he again robbed a bank. Objecting to Mesrine's proposed kidnapping of a senior judge, and not sharing his desire for revenge against the system, François Besse disassociated with Mesrine and later disappeared. Besse was finally captured in 1994; he was paroled in 2006.

Sylvia Jeanjacquot underwent multiple operations and served more than two years in prison before being ultimately acquitted of any crime.

Mesrine's former defence lawyer, Maître Malinbaum, continued for 30 years to fight for a judicial investigation into the events surrounding Mesrine's death at Porte de Clignancourt and to have the French state held accountable for what she saw as the assassination of her client.

Murder of Gérard Lebovici

By law, Mesrine could not profit from L'instinct de Mort, but the publishers had received a threatening letter from him in 1979 demanding payment nonetheless. L'instinct de Mort was republished in 1984 by Champ Libre Editions, The founder of Champ Libre, Gérard Lebovici, was a gifted entrepreneur, influential in the French film industry, and known for his fascination with criminals. Lebovici adopted Mesrine's daughter after her father's death.

On 7 March 1984, the body of Gérard Lebovici was found in the Avenue Foch underground car park. It was determined that he had been shot dead two days earlier, with the bullet wounds forming a square: a traditional underworld sign for a contract that has not been fulfilled. One theory is that Lebovici may have been killed by a close associate of Mesrine's with whom Lebovici may have had an appointment on the day of his death.

Pop culture references

The 1979 film The Police War (La Guerre des polices), released a few days after Mesrine's death, was based on the real-life competition between French police divisions to capture Mesrine.

In the 1980 comedy film Inspector Blunder (Inspecteur la Bavure) Gérard Depardieu plays a character based on Mesrine.

In the 1998 French novel Blood Red Rivers (Les Rivières Pourpres), it is mentioned that the protagonist, Detective Superintendent Niemans, was involved in Mesrine's killing.

The two-part film, Mesrine recounting Mesrine's career and starring Vincent Cassel in the lead role, was released in France in 2008 and in the UK in August 2009. The first part is titled Mesrine: Killer Instinct (L'instinct de mort) and the second one Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1 (L'ennemi public No. 1). Gérard Depardieu, who had played a Mesrine pastiche in 1980, also appears in that film, this time as Mesrine's mentor.

Notes

References

Jacques Mesrine, Richard Cobb People and Places, Oxford University Press 1986. Essay appeared as review of Carey Schofield, Mesrine, The Life and Death of a Supercrook (Penguin) in the Times Literary Supplement, May 1980.

Further reading

  • The Indomitable Gaul! – World's Greatest Prison Escapes: Jacques Mesrine
  • video Jacques Mesrine
  • Interesting TV on Jacques Mesrine Information on the two films and Mesrine's autobiography: L'Instinct De Mort