Jacques Mesrine
Encyclopedia
Jacques Mesrine was the most famous criminal
in modern French
history. He was responsible for numerous bank robberies, burglaries
, and kidnapping
s in France 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 a judge who had sentenced him. An aptitude for disguise
earned him the moniker "The Man of a Hundred 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 pair of films which came out in 2008
were based on Mesrine's life.
, he volunteered for special duty in the Algerian War as a parachutist/commando. While participating in ruthless 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 of Military Valour by General 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 behavior.
In 1961 Mesrine became involved with the Organisation de l'armée secrète. He married Maria De La Soledad; they had three children but later separated in 1965. In 1962 Mesrine was sentenced to 18 months in prison for robbery (his first prison sentence although he had been a professional criminal for a number of years). After being released Mesrine made an effort to reform: he worked at an architectural design company where he constructed models, showing considerable ability. However a downsizing in 1964 resulted in him being let go from the company. His family bought him the tenancy of a country restaurant, a role in which he was quite successful, but this arrangement ended after the owner paid a visit one evening to find Mesrine carousing with acquaintances from his past. The lure of easy money and women proved impossible for him to resist and he returned to crime. Overcoming some suspicion about his relatively middle class background, Mesrine began to establish a reputation in the underworld as a man who was crossed at one's peril.
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 December of the same year he robbed a jewellery store in Geneva and a hotel in Chamonix. The following year, Mesrine robbed a fashion store in Paris. In February 1968, he fled to Québec with his then mistress Jeanne Schneider and worked as a cook and chauffeur for grocery and textile millionaire Georges Deslauriers for a few months before an argument Schneider had with Deslauriers' long-time respected gardener led to them being dismissed. They then attempted to kidnap Deslauriers, but it went wrong due to the fact that the 'knock out drops' they used were inert, and on June 26, 1969, Mesrine and Schneider fled to the US. On June 30 Evelyne Le Bouthillier, an elderly lady who may have given them refuge, was found strangled. A couple of weeks later, on July 16, Mesrine and Schneider were arrested in Arkansas on information supplied by an accomplice and extradited back to Québec.
Mesrine was sentenced to ten years in prison for the bungled kidnapping but escaped a few weeks later, only to be reapprehended the next day. Mesrine and Schneider were acquitted of the murder of Bouthillier in 1971. With Jean-Paul Mercier, Mesrine cut through the wire to escape again on August 21, 1972 with five others from the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul
prison. Mercier, a wanted murderer, and Mesrine then robbed a series of banks in Montreal
, sometimes two in the same day. It was at this time that it became apparent that Mesrine did not have a normal criminal orientation towards minimizing the danger of being caught. Deeply resenting the way he had been treated in the prison, Mesrine and Mercier made an extremely risky attempt to precipitate a mass break out from the maximum security block of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul on September 3, 1972. However, their own break-out had caused perimeter security to be greatly increased and they found the area swarming with armed guards. There was a shoot-out in which two guards were seriously injured and Mercier was wounded before they managed to get away. The effrontery of escaped convicts returning to attack a prison infuriated Canadian law enforcement; the escapade predictably led to a hugely increased effort to apprehend the duo.
Mesrine continued robbing banks in Montreal, and even snuck into the US again for a brief stay at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York
, before moving to Caracas
, Venezuela
.
maximum security prison
where escape was thought to be impossible. In a plan likely formulated even before his arrest, Mesrine took a judge sentencing him on another matter hostage with a revolver (recovered from the courthouse lavatory where it had been hidden by an accomplice) and escaped. After being at large for four months, he was arrested in his new Paris apartment on September 28, 1973, on information supplied by an associate who wanted a reduced sentence. Mesrine was returned to La Santé
where he covertly wrote and smuggled out an autobiography, titled L'Instinct de Mort ("The Death Instinct"), in which he claimed to have committed upwards of forty murder
s, (thought by some to be a considerable exaggeration). The publication of Mesrine's book resulted in France passing a "Son of Sam law
", a law designed to keep criminals from profiting off the publicity of their crimes.
was seen as escape proof. In his escapes from his Canadian prisons, Mesrine had required little more than wire cutters and a very high degree of audacity, now 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 May 8, 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 and slid down the rope. The third man over the wall was shot dead by police in the street outside. Mesrine and Besse hijacked a car and evaded the police cordon; they had become the first men to escape from La Santé.
. 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. From the highest reaches of government the police agencies hunting Mesrine were pressured for results.
This proved to be difficult, not 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 himself from Mesrine and later disappeared. Besse was finally captured in 1994; he was paroled in 2006.
Those who viewed Mesrine sympathetically because he was embarrassing the government did not seem to dwell on the murder of the forest rangers (and even less on that of the elderly woman in Canada). Mesrine made good copy for the press, clowning for the camera and asserting that his criminal activity was politically motivated.
Jacques Tillier
(a former Directorate of Territorial Security policeman) had written disparagingly about Mesrine in the French newspaper Minute
but on September 10, 1979 he went, rather incautiously, to a clandestine meeting with Mesrine on the promise of an interview. The incensed Mesrine had other plans: he shot Tillier in the face, leg and arm. However, during his contact with Mesrine, Tillier had discovered the identity of Mesrine's accomplice.
Three days later, on November 2, 1979, the couple left the apartment for a weekend in the country, taking Jeanjacquot's pet poodle with them. Mesrine and Jeanjacquot had reached Porte de Clignancourt on the outskirts of Paris when the gold BMW they were driving was boxed in at the entrance to an intersection and police marksmen in the rear of a truck immediately in front of their car threw open a tarpaulin. Reportedly, in the instant before the police opened fire Mesrine's eyes were described as being so shocked they seemed to be bursting from his head as he realized he was trapped. Twenty rounds were fired at point blank range; Mesrine was hit 15 times. A coup de grâce
was then administered with a pistol. Sylvia Jeanjacquot lost one eye and suffered lasting damage to her arm. Her pet dog was killed.
. There were complaints that Mesrine had been shot without warning in a way which amounted to extrajudicial killing, but the police pointed out that he had sworn that he would never surrender and that, as well as having a gun on him, Mesrine had been armed with two grenades which were taped together and adapted so they could be brought into action instantly.
Sylvia Jeanjacquot was not charged with any crime. Mesrine's former defense attorney, 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.
, 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 March 5, 1984, the body of Gérard Lebovici was found in the Avenue Foch underground car park. He had been shot dead, 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 who Lebovici may have had an appointment with on the day of his death.
, was released in 1984. It featured Nicolas Silberg in the title role and was written and directed by André Génovès. Hard Rock
ensemble Trust
dedicated two tracks ("Le Mitard" and "Instinct de Mort") to Mesrine on their 1980 album Repression. Punk Rock band The Blood
also recorded a track titled "Mesrine" on their 1983 False Gestures For A Devious Public LP. There is a Quebec-based grindcore
band named Mesrine. In the French novel, Les Rivières Pourpres, the protagonist, Niémans, is implicated in Mesrine's assassination.
A pair of films, L'instinct de mort (English
title: Mesrine: Killer Instinct) and L'ennemi public No. 1 (English title: Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1), recounting Mesrine's career and starring Vincent Cassel
in the lead role, were released in France in 2008 and in the UK in August 2009. Sylvia Jeanjacquot disliked the second production: she insisted that Jacques Mesrine was not as aggressive (or paunchy) as he was portrayed in L'ennemi public No. 1.
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
in modern French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
history. He was responsible for numerous bank robberies, burglaries
Burglary
Burglary is a crime, the essence of which is illicit entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offense. Usually that offense will be theft, but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary...
, and kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
s in France and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Mesrine repeatedly escaped from prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
and made international headlines during a final period as a fugitive when his exploits included trying to kidnap a judge who had sentenced him. An aptitude for disguise
Disguise
A disguise can be anything which conceals or changes a person's physical appearance, including a wig, glasses, makeup, costume or other ways. Camouflage is one type of disguise for people, animals and objects...
earned him the moniker "The Man of a Hundred 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 pair of films which came out in 2008
2008 in film
This is a list of all major films made in 2008.-Highest-grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2008...
were based on Mesrine's life.
Early life and criminal career, through 1965
Jacques René Mesrine was born in Clichy-la-Garenne 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 Collège de 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 ArmyFrench Army
The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...
, he volunteered for special duty in the Algerian War as a parachutist/commando. While participating in ruthless 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 of Military Valour by General 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 behavior.
In 1961 Mesrine became involved with the Organisation de l'armée secrète. He married Maria De La Soledad; they had three children but later separated in 1965. In 1962 Mesrine was sentenced to 18 months in prison for robbery (his first prison sentence although he had been a professional criminal for a number of years). After being released Mesrine made an effort to reform: he worked at an architectural design company where he constructed models, showing considerable ability. However a downsizing in 1964 resulted in him being let go from the company. His family bought him the tenancy of a country restaurant, a role in which he was quite successful, but this arrangement ended after the owner paid a visit one evening to find Mesrine carousing with acquaintances from his past. The lure of easy money and women proved impossible for him to resist and he returned to crime. Overcoming some suspicion about his relatively middle class background, Mesrine began to establish a reputation in the underworld as a man who was crossed at one's peril.
In December 1965, Mesrine was arrested in the villa of the military governor in Palma de Mallorca
Palma de Mallorca
Palma is the major city and port on the island of Majorca and capital city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. The names Ciutat de Mallorca and Ciutat were used before the War of the Spanish Succession and are still used by people in Majorca. However, the official name...
. He was sentenced to six months in jail and later claimed that Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
authorities believed he was working for French intelligence
Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage
The Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage was France's external intelligence agency from 6 November 1944 to 2 April 1982 when it was replaced by the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure...
.
Canary Islands, Canada, Venezuela, 1966–1972
In 1966, Mesrine opened a restaurant in the Canary IslandsCanary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
, in December of the same year he robbed a jewellery store in Geneva and a hotel in Chamonix. The following year, Mesrine robbed a fashion store in Paris. In February 1968, he fled to Québec with his then mistress Jeanne Schneider and worked as a cook and chauffeur for grocery and textile millionaire Georges Deslauriers for a few months before an argument Schneider had with Deslauriers' long-time respected gardener led to them being dismissed. They then attempted to kidnap Deslauriers, but it went wrong due to the fact that the 'knock out drops' they used were inert, and on June 26, 1969, Mesrine and Schneider fled to the US. On June 30 Evelyne Le Bouthillier, an elderly lady who may have given them refuge, was found strangled. A couple of weeks later, on July 16, Mesrine and Schneider were arrested in Arkansas on information supplied by an accomplice and extradited back to Québec.
Mesrine was sentenced to ten years in prison for the bungled kidnapping but escaped a few weeks later, only to be reapprehended the next day. Mesrine and Schneider were acquitted of the murder of Bouthillier in 1971. With Jean-Paul Mercier, Mesrine cut through the wire to escape again on August 21, 1972 with five others from the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul
Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, Quebec
Saint-Vincent-de-Paul is a neighbourhood in the eastern part of Laval, Quebec, Canada. Saint-Vincent-de-Paul was a town before August 6, 1965. Saint-Vincent-de-Paul is named after Vincent de Paul.- Geography :...
prison. Mercier, a wanted murderer, and Mesrine then robbed a series of banks in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, sometimes two in the same day. It was at this time that it became apparent that Mesrine did not have a normal criminal orientation towards minimizing the danger of being caught. Deeply resenting the way he had been treated in the prison, Mesrine and Mercier made an extremely risky attempt to precipitate a mass break out from the maximum security block of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul on September 3, 1972. However, their own break-out had caused perimeter security to be greatly increased and they found the area swarming with armed guards. There was a shoot-out in which two guards were seriously injured and Mercier was wounded before they managed to get away. The effrontery of escaped convicts returning to attack a prison infuriated Canadian law enforcement; the escapade predictably led to a hugely increased effort to apprehend the duo.
Murder of Médéric Cote and Ernest Saint-Pierre
A week after their foiled attempt to free the prisoners, Mesrine and Mercier went for a target practice session, taking Mercier's girlfriend along. But the location, though three miles down a dirt track through the forest, was far from being truly remote and the noise of them blasting away at targets all afternoon could be heard in Plessisville where there was a Ministry of Natural Resources and Wildlife station. When Mesrine and company drove back along the track, two forest rangers, Médéric Cote, aged 62, and Ernest Saint-Pierre, aged 50, were waiting. The rangers were armed but their jobs had mainly involved enforcing hunting and firearms regulations, and in any case there was no reason for them to expect that the men who had been making themselves conspicuous by such a disturbance would actually be wanted escapees. Realizing they were not policemen, Mesrine submitted to a search of the car, but on finding loaded guns in the trunk the rangers told them that they would have to follow their car back to Plessisville. While Mesrine was trying to talk them out of this, Cote, possibly alerted by the sight of the arsenal of weapons, suddenly recognized the pair, whereupon Mesrine and Mercier shot both officers dead.Mesrine continued robbing banks in Montreal, and even snuck into the US again for a brief stay at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, before moving to Caracas
Caracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
, Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
.
Return to France: 1972-1977
By the end of 1972 Mesrine had returned to France where he resumed robbing banks. On March 5, 1973, during an argument with a cashier in a coffee bar, Mesrine brandished a revolver and seriously injured a police officer who tried to intervene. He was arrested 3 days later. In May, he was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment - which, considering his record, was lenient for the time and place - to be served at La SantéLa Santé Prison
La Santé Prison is a prison operated by the Ministry of Justice located in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, France. It is one of the most famous prisons in France, with both VIP and high security wings....
maximum security prison
Maximum security prison
Maximum security prison and Supermax are grades of high security level used by prison systems in various countries.*For the United States see Incarceration in the United States#Security levels...
where escape was thought to be impossible. In a plan likely formulated even before his arrest, Mesrine took a judge sentencing him on another matter hostage with a revolver (recovered from the courthouse lavatory where it had been hidden by an accomplice) and escaped. After being at large for four months, he was arrested in his new Paris apartment on September 28, 1973, on information supplied by an associate who wanted a reduced sentence. Mesrine was returned to La Santé
La Santé Prison
La Santé Prison is a prison operated by the Ministry of Justice located in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, France. It is one of the most famous prisons in France, with both VIP and high security wings....
where he covertly wrote and smuggled out an autobiography, titled L'Instinct de Mort ("The Death Instinct"), in which he claimed to have committed upwards of forty murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
s, (thought by some to be a considerable exaggeration). The publication of Mesrine's book resulted in France passing a "Son of Sam law
Son of Sam law
A Son of Sam Law is any American law designed to keep criminals from profiting from the publicity of their crimes, often by selling their stories to publishers. However, this is not in the same manner of asset forfeiture, which is intended to seize assets acquired directly as a result of criminal...
", a law designed to keep criminals from profiting off the publicity of their crimes.
Escape from La Santé
La SantéLa Santé Prison
La Santé Prison is a prison operated by the Ministry of Justice located in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, France. It is one of the most famous prisons in France, with both VIP and high security wings....
was seen as escape proof. In his escapes from his Canadian prisons, Mesrine had required little more than wire cutters and a very high degree of audacity, now 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 May 8, 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 and slid down the rope. The third man over the wall was shot dead by police in the street outside. Mesrine and Besse hijacked a car and evaded the 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 May 26, 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 4th August 1978 Paris MatchParis Match
Paris Match is a French weekly magazine. It covers major national and international news along with celebrity lifestyle features. It was founded in 1949 by the industrialist Jean Prouvost....
. 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
Paris Match
Paris Match is a French weekly magazine. It covers major national and international news along with celebrity lifestyle features. It was founded in 1949 by the industrialist Jean Prouvost....
interview was the last straw. From the highest reaches of government the police agencies hunting Mesrine were pressured for results.
This proved to be difficult, not 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 himself from Mesrine and later disappeared. Besse was finally captured in 1994; he was paroled in 2006.
Public Enemy No. 1
Mesrine's next exploit occurred in November 1978. It was a daring attempt to kidnap a judge (who had sentenced him) as part of a campaign to get maximum security prisons closed. His accomplice was captured but Mesrine escaped by running downstairs past several policemen telling them "Quick! Mesrine's up there!" A young policeman posted outside was found handcuffed to a drainpipe weeping. On June 21, 1979, Mesrine kidnapped millionaire real estate mogul Henri Lelièvre and received a ransom of six million francs.Those who viewed Mesrine sympathetically because he was embarrassing the government did not seem to dwell on the murder of the forest rangers (and even less on that of the elderly woman in Canada). Mesrine made good copy for the press, clowning for the camera and asserting that his criminal activity was politically motivated.
Jacques Tillier
Jacques Tillier
Jacques Tillier is a French journalist. He is the managing editor of the l'Union, L'Est-Éclair, Libération Champagne and L'Aisne Nouvelle. He was seriously injured in 1979 by Jacques Mesrine while working for the Minute...
(a former Directorate of Territorial Security policeman) had written disparagingly about Mesrine in the French newspaper Minute
Minute (French newspaper)
Minute is a weekly newspaper, initially right-wing but now extreme-right, circulated in France since 1962. Its editorial position is satirical and conservative. According to figures announced by the paper's leadership, it had a circulation of 40,000 copies each week in 2006.- Right-wing period :In...
but on September 10, 1979 he went, rather incautiously, to a clandestine meeting with Mesrine on the promise of an interview. The incensed Mesrine had other plans: he shot Tillier in the face, leg and arm. However, during his contact with Mesrine, Tillier had discovered the identity of Mesrine's accomplice.
Death
The special police unit tasked with finding and capturing Mesrine found it impossible to track him down directly. Eventually, by utilizing information supplied by Tillier, they ascertained the license number of the car that a woman named Sylvia Jeanjacquot, believed to be Mesrine's mistress, had used and checked parking tickets which it had received months previously. These tickets indicated that she had been frequenting a certain district without any obvious cause. Undercover patrols combed the area and a man fitting Mesrine's description was spotted walking with a woman believed to be Jeanjacquot on October 31, 1979. One officer who had seen Mesrine at court confirmed the identification by noting Mesrine's distinctive build. The couple were followed home and their building surveilled around the clock.Three days later, on November 2, 1979, the couple left the apartment for a weekend in the country, taking Jeanjacquot's pet poodle with them. Mesrine and Jeanjacquot had reached Porte de Clignancourt on the outskirts of Paris when the gold BMW they were driving was boxed in at the entrance to an intersection and police marksmen in the rear of a truck immediately in front of their car threw open a tarpaulin. Reportedly, in the instant before the police opened fire Mesrine's eyes were described as being so shocked they seemed to be bursting from his head as he realized he was trapped. Twenty rounds were fired at point blank range; Mesrine was hit 15 times. A coup de grâce
Coup de grâce
The expression coup de grâce means a death blow intended to end the suffering of a wounded creature. The phrase can refer to the killing of civilians or soldiers, friends or enemies, with or without the consent of the sufferer...
was then administered with a pistol. Sylvia Jeanjacquot lost one eye and suffered lasting damage to her arm. Her pet dog was killed.
Aftermath
French police announced that their operation a success and received congratulations from then President Valéry Giscard d'EstaingValéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing is a French centre-right politician who was President of the French Republic from 1974 until 1981...
. There were complaints that Mesrine had been shot without warning in a way which amounted to extrajudicial killing, but the police pointed out that he had sworn that he would never surrender and that, as well as having a gun on him, Mesrine had been armed with two grenades which were taped together and adapted so they could be brought into action instantly.
Sylvia Jeanjacquot was not charged with any crime. Mesrine's former defense attorney, 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 couldn't 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 LeboviciGérard Lebovici
Gerard Lebovici was a French film producer, editor and impresario.His mother was executed in a Nazi concentration camp during the Second World War...
, 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 March 5, 1984, the body of Gérard Lebovici was found in the Avenue Foch underground car park. He had been shot dead, 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 who Lebovici may have had an appointment with on the day of his death.
Pop culture references
A film about Mesrine, MesrineMesrine (1984 film)
Mesrine is a 1984 French film written and directed by André Génovès. A biographical film based on the life of Jacques Mesrine, it focuses on the eighteen months following his escape from La Santé Prison in May 1978 until his death in November 1979...
, was released in 1984. It featured Nicolas Silberg in the title role and was written and directed by André Génovès. Hard Rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
ensemble Trust
Trust (band)
Trust is a French rock band closely associated with both AC/DC and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.-History:Trust was founded in 1977 by:* Bernard "Bernie" Bonvoisin * Norbert "Nono" Krief...
dedicated two tracks ("Le Mitard" and "Instinct de Mort") to Mesrine on their 1980 album Repression. Punk Rock band The Blood
The Blood
The Blood are a London-based punk rock band, formed in 1982. Led by Cardinal Jesus Hate and JJ Bedsore , the band formed in the early 1980s under the name Coming Blood. Their music is a blend of hardcore punk, Oi!, heavy metal, football chants and shock rock.Many of their songs criticize religion...
also recorded a track titled "Mesrine" on their 1983 False Gestures For A Devious Public LP. There is a Quebec-based grindcore
Grindcore
Grindcore is an extreme genre of music that started in the early- to mid-1980s. It draws inspiration from some of the most abrasive music genres – including death metal, industrial music, noise and the more extreme varieties of hardcore punk....
band named Mesrine. In the French novel, Les Rivières Pourpres, the protagonist, Niémans, is implicated in Mesrine's assassination.
A pair of films, L'instinct de mort (English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
title: Mesrine: Killer Instinct) and L'ennemi public No. 1 (English title: Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1), recounting Mesrine's career and starring Vincent Cassel
Vincent Cassel
Vincent Cassel is a Cesar award winning French actor probably best known to English-speaking audiences through his performances in the Ocean's Trilogy of films and Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan.-Personal life:...
in the lead role, were released in France in 2008 and in the UK in August 2009. Sylvia Jeanjacquot disliked the second production: she insisted that Jacques Mesrine was not as aggressive (or paunchy) as he was portrayed in L'ennemi public No. 1.
External links
- The Indomitable Gaul! - World's Greatest Prison Escapes: Jacques Mesrine
- video Jacques Mesrine
- Killer, Robber, Master of Disguise ... and now the Biggest Movie Star in France by Andrew Hussey, The Observer, July 12, 2009