Servant of God Jacques Fesch

Jacques Fesch (6 April 1930 – 1 October 1957) was a French criminal who was convicted of the murder of police officer Jean Vergne in February 1954. While awaiting execution in prison, Fesch became such a devout Catholic that he has since been proposed as a candidate for sainthood. Fesch was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye to Georges Fesch and Athalie "Marthe" Hallez. Georges, who claimed to be a part of the Fesch noble family, was a wealthy banker of Belgian origin, who came to France in the 1920s. Georges was an artist and atheist who was distant from his son. Jacques grew up with two older sisters and was doted on by his mother, a pious Catholic. From 1938 to 1947, he attended Saint-Érembert School and Claude-Debussy High School, both Catholic schools. Jacques was raised Catholic, but abandoned religion by the age of 17, after his parents divorced. He was expelled the same year from high school for laziness and misconduct. Without a baccalauréat, Fesch began frequenting jazz clubs in Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris, where he developed a reputation as a womaniser. He completed military duty between 1950 and 1951 in West Germany, earning the rank of corporal and a good conduct certificate. Fesch's army record listed him as a poor marksman. On 5 June 1951, Fesch married his pregnant girlfriend, Pierrette Polack, a former classmate of his, in a civil ceremony in Strasbourg. Although Polack and her parents were Catholic, Fesch's antisemitic parents disapproved of the marriage because Polack's father was ethnically Jewish. The couple thus lived with Polack's parents, and Fesch was given a job at the coal delivery business of his wife's father. Fesch illegally pocketed funds in this position and spent them on frivolous purchases to impress women he dated in extramarital affairs.