soon employed, as chauffeur and housekeeper, by a Montreal millionaire. But after rows with other staff, they were sacked. So Mesrine and Jeanne simply kidnapped the millionaire and held him for $200,000 ransom. Unfortunately they were caught and charged both with the kidnap and with the murder of a rich widow they’d befriended in the small town of Percé nearby.
From the beginning Mesrine was outraged: he insisted they’d had nothing to do with the widow’s murder. (They were both eventually acquitted.) But he engineered his and Jeanne’s escape from the Percé jail; and after they were caught again, and tried and sentenced for the kidnap, he organized another spectacular escape from the ‘escape-proof’ St. Vincent de Paul prison at Laval. (He later tried to go back to free the rest of the prisoners, but got into a gunfight with the police along the way.)
The escape made Mesrine a national celebrity in Canada, but his reputation darkened after he shot to death two forest rangers who’d recognized him. So finally, after some extraordinarily insouciant bank hold-ups – he robbed one bank twice because a cashier had scowled at him on the way out the first time – he decided to take the money, and a new mistress, to Venezuela.
In 1973, though, Mesrine was back in France and up to his old tricks. After a string of armed robberies, he was finally arrested. But he again escaped, this time from the Palais de Justice in Compiègne. By now, he was deep into his gentleman-thief, Robin-Hood role. When, during a bank robbery, a young woman cashier accidentally pushed the alarm button, he said,
‘Don’t worry, my dear. I like to work to music,’
and calmly went on gathering the money. On another occasion, when his father was in hospital, dying of cancer and closely watched, he simply dressed up as a doctor – with white coat and stethoscope – and went to visit him.
Mesrine was eventually shot dead by Parisian police
When he was finally arrested and then held in Santé Prison, he whiled away the time writing his autobiography. Then, when his case, after three and a half years, came to trial, he gave a demonstration in court that was to seal his reputation. After saying that it was easy enough to buy a key for any pair of handcuffs, he simply took out a key from a match-box hidden in the knot of his tie and opened his own handcuffs.
A year later, after being sentenced to twenty years, he escaped yet again, and continued his bizarre adventures. He walked into a Deauville police station, saying he was an inspector from the Gaming Squad and asked to see the duty inspector. When told he was out, he took himself off and that night robbed a Deauville casino. He also invaded the house of a bank official who’d testified against him at his trial, and forced him to withdraw half a million francs from his own bank. He gave an interview to Paris Match , the first of several he gave to journalists; and he even then attempted to kidnap the judge who’d tried him. Though this went badly wrong, he escaped by telling the police whom he met on their way up the stairs: ‘Quick, quick, Mesrine’s up there.’
By the time he was finally caught up with, he was living with a girlfriend in a luxury apartment in Paris; and the police were in no mood to compromise. They staked out the apartment, and then when the couple came out and climbed into his BMW, they were soon hemmed in by two lorries. Unable to move, he was then shot – in effect, executed. The police thereupon kissed each other and danced in the street – and President Giscard d’Estaing was immediately informed of their triumph.
Dr. Marcel Pétiot
D r. Marcel Pétiot’s crimes, among the most grisly in European history, were motivated by nothing but greed. As he walked to the guillotine in Paris on May 26th 1946, he is said to have remarked:
‘When one sets out on a voyage, one takes all one’s luggage with one.’
This was not a privilege given to any of his
From the beginning Mesrine was outraged: he insisted they’d had nothing to do with the widow’s murder. (They were both eventually acquitted.) But he engineered his and Jeanne’s escape from the Percé jail; and after they were caught again, and tried and sentenced for the kidnap, he organized another spectacular escape from the ‘escape-proof’ St. Vincent de Paul prison at Laval. (He later tried to go back to free the rest of the prisoners, but got into a gunfight with the police along the way.)
The escape made Mesrine a national celebrity in Canada, but his reputation darkened after he shot to death two forest rangers who’d recognized him. So finally, after some extraordinarily insouciant bank hold-ups – he robbed one bank twice because a cashier had scowled at him on the way out the first time – he decided to take the money, and a new mistress, to Venezuela.
In 1973, though, Mesrine was back in France and up to his old tricks. After a string of armed robberies, he was finally arrested. But he again escaped, this time from the Palais de Justice in Compiègne. By now, he was deep into his gentleman-thief, Robin-Hood role. When, during a bank robbery, a young woman cashier accidentally pushed the alarm button, he said,
‘Don’t worry, my dear. I like to work to music,’
and calmly went on gathering the money. On another occasion, when his father was in hospital, dying of cancer and closely watched, he simply dressed up as a doctor – with white coat and stethoscope – and went to visit him.
Mesrine was eventually shot dead by Parisian police
When he was finally arrested and then held in Santé Prison, he whiled away the time writing his autobiography. Then, when his case, after three and a half years, came to trial, he gave a demonstration in court that was to seal his reputation. After saying that it was easy enough to buy a key for any pair of handcuffs, he simply took out a key from a match-box hidden in the knot of his tie and opened his own handcuffs.
A year later, after being sentenced to twenty years, he escaped yet again, and continued his bizarre adventures. He walked into a Deauville police station, saying he was an inspector from the Gaming Squad and asked to see the duty inspector. When told he was out, he took himself off and that night robbed a Deauville casino. He also invaded the house of a bank official who’d testified against him at his trial, and forced him to withdraw half a million francs from his own bank. He gave an interview to Paris Match , the first of several he gave to journalists; and he even then attempted to kidnap the judge who’d tried him. Though this went badly wrong, he escaped by telling the police whom he met on their way up the stairs: ‘Quick, quick, Mesrine’s up there.’
By the time he was finally caught up with, he was living with a girlfriend in a luxury apartment in Paris; and the police were in no mood to compromise. They staked out the apartment, and then when the couple came out and climbed into his BMW, they were soon hemmed in by two lorries. Unable to move, he was then shot – in effect, executed. The police thereupon kissed each other and danced in the street – and President Giscard d’Estaing was immediately informed of their triumph.
Dr. Marcel Pétiot
D r. Marcel Pétiot’s crimes, among the most grisly in European history, were motivated by nothing but greed. As he walked to the guillotine in Paris on May 26th 1946, he is said to have remarked:
‘When one sets out on a voyage, one takes all one’s luggage with one.’
This was not a privilege given to any of his
Similar Books
