1
Mesrine-Part I (2008) /Elements
• The honing of war—torture in
Algeria(Lombroso: soldiers, shepherds and
priests)/1959-1961
• From the war-zone to the “civilized”-zone: JOB
• “La dentelle”…Petite bourgeoisie, “Bel avenir”
• Place Pigalle, Moulin Rouge –Paris’ Red
District
• The Lombrosian tandem:
Delinquent/prostitute ~ “Moral insanity”
2
Mesrine-Part I/Elements
• Gambles his pay away
• Gambling/narcotics/prostitution=remit of the
low-tenacity-violent quadrant of Veblen’s
diagram
• Gambling: belief in luck, animism, erotic
dissipation
• “Boulot au noir”: low-tenacity, hire me 
criminal subculture, established network
3
Mesrine-Part I/Elements
• Starts at the bottom: burglaries
• He is part of “Guido”’s (G. Depardieu) team: local
boss of a wider constellation, part of the MOB….
• Itself with very solid political ties, OAS
(Organisation de l'armée secrète/ old school
imperialists) vs. General C. De Gaulle
• “Boulot au noir”: low-tenacity, hire me 
criminal subculture, established network (“part”
of the system…)
4
Mesrine-Part I/Elements
• Hierarchy is clear from the outset: Guido’s
“wisdom”: if you’re lucky you’ll end up with “this”
(mangy bar)…
• Toward a finer psycho-sociological portrait of
Mesrine: low-tenacity, violent, macho but NOT
GREEDY…One stock character of the underworld
that he hates, which?
• The pimp… Gruesome execution, tinged with
racism “arabe”…
• Unlike most mobsters he is not ATTACHED to life,
the accumulation of money being the symbol of
such attachment
5
Mesrine-Part I/Elements
• Breaks with the exigencies of a respectable
milieu bourgeois
• Does not go to work—no “slave to the alarmclock”
• Insults his father, gives in to his wanderlust
(Lombrosian trait)—can’t stand still
• WOMEN –eroticism, all kinds: from the
prostitute, the easy ones, the demur type,
anything he can seduce (dissipation)
6
Mesrine-Part I/Elements
• LOVE
– Janou (Jeanne Schneider), 1966-69
– Joyce, 1970-1973
– Sylvia Jeanjacquot, 1978-1979
• Career: from burglary to hold-ups (du casse au
braquage)
• Cycle: 1962 in prison, caught—
• Tries to go clean, Tabacoff’s workshop, artistic
disposition (erotic types knack for art)
• Laid off, immediate relapse
7
Mesrine-Part I/Elements
• Violent reaction against his first wife, Sofia:
“…I will always choose my friends”…
• Psychopathy
• Canada: result of his emergeing RENEGADE,
ANARCHISTIC bent
• Gang subculture (Ohlin, Kubrin): from
“criminal” to “conflict” subculture—Bandit
plays solo/no structure
• Yearning for HEROISM in a world that has left
no space for the expression thereof
8
Mesrine-Part I/Elements
• POLITICS/ Crime never happens in a vacuum:
– FLQ: Jean-Paul Mercier
– In prison meets Paul Rose (FLQ, Laporte)
• And they all have something in common…
• The kidnap fails, and there is the Le Bouthillier
murder case, linked to his trajectory, which
will never be solved…
• Apprehended in Arizona, extradited to
Montreal, the myth takes shape, the media
pounce on it….
9
Mesrine-Part I/Elements
• USC: the infamous Unité spéciale de
correction, St Vincent de Paul, Laval
• Lo and behold Mercier is there too
• Escape was sensational…
• But the single (double)-handed enterprise to
free all the prisoners was nothing short of
legendary
• An exploit of pure heroism cherished by ALL
[incarcerated] criminals, from low-class
delinquents to terrorists
10
Mesrine-Part I/Elements
• “On passe à la télé, Jean-Paul…la GLOIRE, la
gloire…”
• Heroism, to be remembered
• Now the icon is assembled: PUBLIC ENEMY #1
• The media, us, have a natural hunger for such
types…
• Interesting scene: the break-up with Janou
occurs in the [sheltering] office of a LAWYER,
• Insulating conduit between the two worlds…
11
Mesrine-Part I/Elements
• Which two worlds?
• The upper and the lower barbarous ones,
divided by the tenacity-divide…
• Then, he and Mercier kill the two rangers and
pass the point of no return…
• To Janou: “No one gets me killed until I decide
it to be so”
• Dehors ou mort(s)…
• Embrace with DEATH/end of part I
12
Mesrine-Part I/Elements
• 1970-1973: roves –from the USA to Venezuela,
with Mercier and his girlfriend
• Eventually returns to Paris
• Throughout this interlude Possibly shielded by
the remnants of the former OAS network
• All in all this extraordinary exile had lasted 6
years—long time to earn the mob’s forgiveness
• 1972 caught; pulls off another pehenomenal
escape from the courthouse of Compiègne with
the help of his new associate, Michel Ardouin
(highlight of part II)
13
Mesrine-Part I/Elements
• But that only buys him 4 months of freedom
• Meanwhile the show thickens: enter
Commissaire Broussard, the SUPERCOP
• The natural enemy of Public Enemy #1
• Both tough, both ambitious, vain—respectful
of each other’s manhood
• A total show
• The paper are having a ball with this, of course
14
Mesrine-Part I/Elements
• Broussard apprehends him in 9/1973
• And M. ends up at La Santé, Paris’ Highsecurity penitentiary/sentenced to 20 years
• In essence it is over—the jig is up
• But then, possibly to cause an embarrassment
to the presidency of Giscard d’Estaing
• 3/1978: His lawyer (most likely) slips a pair of
guns in the prison so that Mesrine may
improvise one more, his last, evasion…
15
Mesrine-Part I/Elements
• 1978-1979: the final act
• Variety of shenanigans, robberies, obscure
political dealings
• But mostly an absurd circus of publicity,
fomented by the media, which interview him in
clandestine fashion, even though he is a
supposedly super-dangerous fugitive
• The obvious finale: the grand ambush (possibly
orchestrated by pro-Giscardian forces to put an
end to the charade) at the Porte de Clignancourt
16
“The Bandit”
• Spiritual drift: Peaceable vs. Barbarous
• Tenacity: Low vs. High
• This yields 4 categories:
– PLoT: The Dropout
– PHiT: “The Engineer”
– BLoT: The Low-Class delinquent/Don
– BHiT: The politician/CEO/Techno-General
• And Mesrine?
17
“The Bandit”
• Spiritual drift: Mixed, with far weightier
leaning toward violence, “un fauve” (Sylvia)
• Tenacity: Decidedly low
• BUT intelligent, artistic (fine writer, illustrator
and cook), dissipative, erotic, HEROIC (code of
honor)…AND…
• DEATH-PRONE
• The third dimension…Greedy vs. DeathProne
18
“The Bandit”
• So may redefine our 4 initial categories:
– Low-Class Delinquent?
– BloT/G
– CEO?
– BHiT/G
– The Engineer?
– PhiT/G
– The Dropout?
– PloT/G
• And 4 new categories…
19
“The Bandit”
• Consider:
– PloT/D:
– The terrorist (righteous)
– BHiT/D
– The Condottiere (Mussolini, Hitler…)
– PhiT/D
– The Martyr
– BloT/D:
• The BANDIT
20