INTERVIEW
Forty years ago to the day, Porte de Clignancourt in Paris and after 18 months on the run, Jacques Mesrine, the most wanted man in France, was killed by the police. For Matthieu Frachon, author of the history of crime, the former public enemy number 1 was "a clever and intelligent thug, it is a cocktail that can jump to the face of anyone".
Jean-Louis Fiamenghi, former RAID boss, is the policeman who killed Jacques Mesrine. He is the author of the book "In the secret of the action" (Mareuil editions) which tells the hunt and the last moments of the bandit. He tells Europe 1 what happened on November 2, 1979 at 3:15 pm, Porte de Clignancourt. "When the police begin to walk towards Mesrine's vehicle, everyone sees Jacques Mesrine moving inside the vehicle and we thought he wanted to grab the weapons that were on his left in the bag." is this movement that provoked the reaction of the shooters and we fired, as we said to the investigating judge, in a state of self-defense. "
Mesrine is "someone who has forged his own legend"
A first robbery at 23, a multiplication of looting, "the man with a thousand faces" strikes in Europe but also in Quebec. He is arrested five times. "Jacques Mesrine is probably one of the 'Christ' of that time, in the emblematic sense, someone who forged his own legend, who managed to make everyone believe he was a bandit with a big heart, a bandit even claiming, which was not the case at all, "notes Matthieu Frachon.
In 1978, Mesrine escapes while he is in the upper security neighborhoods. And he sends a tape where he confides in the media. Europe 1 will receive this tape and will not broadcast it at the time, not to apologize for a mobster. In this tape, he said: "I think it's not that bad to go all the way, and that's what you need in life. [...] The only thing I know is that if you listen to this tape it's because I'm in a cell from which you can not escape. "
"He understood some form of communication and his speech was relayed," analyzes Matthieu Frachon.