Marius Jacob

Alexandre Marius Jacob (1879–1954), also known by the names Georges, Escande, Férau, Jean Concorde, Attila, and Barrabas, was a French anarchist and illegalist.

Biography Jacob was born in 1879 in Marseille to a working-class family; his father, Joseph, was a baker. At the age of eleven, he signed up as a sailor's apprentice; he would later say, "I have seen the world; it is not beautiful." Back in Marseilles, on 31 March 1899, Jacob stole from a pawn shop, his first action as an illegalist. He was later arrested in Toulon and faked insanity to avoid five years of prison. On 19 April 1900, he escaped from the Montperrin asylum in Aix-en-Provence with the assistance of a nurse, Royère, and took refuge in Sète. There, he organized a band of men, calling them "the workers of the night". The principles were simple: one does not kill, except to protect his life and his freedom from the police. A percentage of the stolen money was to be invested into the anarchist cause.

Roughly 150 burglaries have been attributed to Jacob. He made headlines not just for the clever burglaries themselves but also for the mocking notes the gang would leave behind. One such note, left at the church of Saint Sever in Rouen on 14 February 1901, read "" ("God of thieves, look for the thieves of those who have stolen from others").