Jacques Mesrine - Early Life and Criminal Career, Through 1965

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 Army, 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 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 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 made redundant. 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.