Editing Jacques Mesrine (section)

==Canary Islands, Canada, Venezuela, 1966–1972==
In 1966, Mesrine opened a restaurant in the [[Canary Islands]]. 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 [[Quebec]] with his then mistress, Jeanne Schneider, and worked as a [[housekeeper (domestic worker)|housekeeper]]/[[cook (profession)|cook]] and a [[chauffeur]] for grocery and textile millionaire, Georges Deslauriers for a few months. An argument Schneider had with Deslauriers' long-time respected gardener led to both being dismissed. They then attempted to kidnap Deslauriers, but this scheme failed when a supposedly strong sedative had no effect on Deslauriers.

On 26 June 1969, Mesrine and Schneider fled to the US. On 30 June, Evelyne Le Bouthillier, an elderly lady who may have given them refuge, was found strangled. A couple of weeks later, on 16 July, Mesrine and Schneider were arrested in [[Texarkana]], [[Arkansas]] on information supplied by an accomplice and extradited to Quebec.<ref name="ReferenceA" />

Mesrine was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the bungled kidnapping; he escaped a few weeks later, but was rearrested the next day. Mesrine and Schneider were acquitted of the murder of Le Bouthillier in 1971. With Jean-Paul Mercier, Mesrine cut through the wire to escape again on 21 August 1972 with five others from the [[Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, Quebec|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. By this time it was apparent that Mesrine did not have a typical criminal attitude 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 3 September 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 boldness of escaped convicts returning to attack a prison infuriated Canadian law enforcement; the escapade predictably led to a hugely increased effort to arrest the duo.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

===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 the town of [[Plessisville, Quebec|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. Realising they were not policemen, Mesrine submitted to a search of the car, but on finding loaded guns in the rear, the rangers informed 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 recognised the pair, whereupon Mesrine and Mercier shot both officers dead.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Mesrine continued robbing banks in Montreal, and even covertly gained access into the US again for a brief stay at the [[Waldorf Astoria]] Hotel in [[New York City]], before moving to [[Caracas]], [[Venezuela]].<ref name="Mesrine, Penguin Books 1980"/>