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Edmund Charles Mather (/’mæθjər/; 10 May 1903 – 13 October 1966) was a French criminal who carried out a number of armed hotel robberies between 1926 and 1932. Mather was an integral member of Le Milieu’s initial growth, committing armed robberies that funded the two Godfathers, Paul Carbone and François Spirito’s lavish lifestyles in Marseille. With the rise of Le Milieu, French officials were scrambling to stunt its rapid growth by targeting prostitution – Le Milieu’s core franchise at that time. Mather, along with Carbone and Spirito’s ever-growing band of right-hand men, took advantage of French officials being spread thin during and directly following the Great Depression, conducted armed robberies in almost every major city across France (though they were free to operate as they pleased in Marseilles, as Carbone and Spirito maintained a connection with the Mayor of Marseilles, Simon Sabiani).

Early life (1903 – 1925)
Edmund Charles Mather was born in Bonnes, France on May 10, 1903. An only child, Mather’s mother passed away during childbirth, leaving his father to raise him. His father, James Mather, was a dairy farmer with no formal education. Edmund went to primary school to learn how to read and do simple math, but did not continue to attend after learning these basics. Edmund confided to a teacher that he desired to become a poet or a writer. Edmund's father promptly pulled him from school, thinking the boy to be a dreamer who would never survive without more common skills. His father began teaching him the essentials of dairy farming and planned to leave his farm to his son. In 1920, James Mather fell ill and passed away in early winter. Teenaged Edmund attempted to keep his father’s farm afloat, but failed within his first year. By 1922, Edmund had sold his father’s property, squandered the profits and become a petty thief to survive.

Meeting Paul Carbone (1925 – 1932)
While still living an unstructured life of hand-to-mouth thievery, Mather made an attempt to enter Italy from France, where he heard via rumor that cost of living was amenable and his lifestyle could be conducted undetected. During his attempt to leave France, though, he attempted (and failed) to pickpocket Paul Carbone. France’s first Godfather. Carbone and his partner, François Spirito, captured Mather and initially planned to kill him for his unwise decision to steal from them. However, the poetic Edmund pled eloquently for his life. After learning of his age and background, Carbone and Spirito decided to recruit Mather, teach him how to fire weapons and properly rob preplanned locations like busy restaurants and hotels. During this time, Mather is said to have lead the armed robberies of over 100 hotels throughout France, though the exact number of offenses was never officially uncovered.

Hotel Majestic robbery – Death (1932 – 1966)
In September of 1932, Mather and a team of armed accomplices embarked on an unauthorized mission to rob the Hotel Majestic in Paris, France. There, they entered through the basement kitchen and food storage areas. Four chefs and a dish washer were gunned down while being questioned by the group about where money was vaulted in the building. After learning that the bulk of cash was kept in a safe in the owner’s quarters on the third floor, the robbers locked the remaining kitchen staff in a storeroom (where they managed to escape and call for help), and began moving up through the stairwells. After picking the lock to the owner’s suite and tying up his wife, the men flew down the stairs with the loot only to be met by police in the lobby. Mather was incarcerated in the Prison de Saint-Pierre in Versailles, where he witnessed the execution of Eugen Weidmann in what would be France's last public execution via guillotine and was bunkmates for a time with French cyclist Jean Blanc, until suffering a fatal heart attack in 1966 in his cell.

Encounter and relationship with David Ogilvy
David Ogilvy was a chef in the Majestic Hotel in September of 1932. At the young age of 21, Ogilvy remained silent during the questioning of his colleagues in the basement of the hotel on the night that Mather and his crew attempted their robbery. Ogilvy had worked a series of eclectic and dead-end jobs until that point, and had wrestled with whether or not to leave his job at the Majestic to find his true calling. Ogilvy credits Mather's robbery with forcing him out of the Hotel Majestic that night to trade in stability for passion. After the robbery, Ogilvy ventured to Scotland and began selling AGA cooking stoves, thus launching him into a career of marketing. Ultimately, Ogilvy built one of the largest and most notable advertising agencies in the world.

In 1960, David Ogilvy tracked down and wrote a letter to Mather in Prison de Saint-Pierre. In Ogilvy's mind, Mather's heinous act as a member of organized crime paved the way for him to live a life that was previously inconceivable. Mather was owed thanks for launching Ogilvy to discover the life he was meant to live. To his surprise, Ogilvy received an artful (though grammatically tragic) letter back from Mather. The two kept up a sparse pen-pal relationship and regaled one another of their lives since they’d first and last met in 1932. Ogilvy was endlessly thankful to Mather for sending him out of Paris and out of the Hotel Majestic – an act so critical to the start of Ogilvy's agency that he named his company “Ogilvy & Mather”. Edmund Mather was simply grateful to have an outside connection in the last years of his life. At an executive meeting after Mather's death, the board suggested a name change. “It is a terrible mistake to change a company’s name," insisted Ogilvy, "but if you do change it, you don’t need the Mather.” Always a comedian, David Ogilvy was also stating that one shouldn't need a drastic act as motivation to pursue their dream and that perhaps in reflection, Mather was unnecessary in the journey to Ogilvy's pursuit of his advertising career.