Henri Charrire

Henri Charrire (French pronunciation: [ i aj]; 16

November 1906 29 July 1973) was a French criminal and writer. Convicted as a murderer by the French
courts, he is known as the author of Papillon, a memoir
of his incarceration in and escape from a penal colony in
French Guiana. While Charrire claimed that Papillon
was largely true, modern researchers believe that much
of the books material came from other inmates, rather
than Charrire himself. To his nal days Charrire strenuously denied his murder conviction, although he freely
admitted to having committed various other petty crimes
prior to his incarceration.

1
1.1

ing to civilization, he was quickly recaptured and sent

back to French Guiana to be put into solitary connement
for the next two years.
While in French Guiana he spent 11 years in prison, during this period he attempted to escape several more times
resulting in increasingly brutal responses from his captors. He stated that he was then conned to Devils Island, a labour camp that, at the time, was notorious for
being inescapable. (French authorities later released penal colony records that contradicted this; amongst other
details, Charrire had never been imprisoned on Devils
Island.) However, he nally achieved his permanent liberation in 1941, by using a bag of coconuts as a makeshift
raft and riding the tide out from the island. He sailed for
miles and eventually arrived in Venezuela, where he was
imprisoned for one year then released as a Venezuelan
citizen.[2]

Biography
Early life

Charrire was born at Saint-tienne-de-Lugdars,

Ardche, France. He had two older sisters. His mother
died when he was 10. At 17 in 1923, he enlisted in the
French Navy and served for two years. After that, he
became a member of the Paris underworld. He later
married and had a daughter.

1.3 Later life

night and ed to the La Guajira Peninsula, where he was

adopted by an Indian tribe. He spent several months living with the natives, but felt that he had to move on, which
was a decision he would ultimately regret. Upon return-

There are scenes in the lm that were not mentioned in the

book, an example of which is when Papillon and his friend
Louis Dega (played by Dustin Homan) were forced by
the guards to catch a crocodile.

After Charrires nal release in 1945, he settled in

Venezuela where he married a Venezuelan woman identied only as Rita. He opened restaurants in Caracas
and Maracaibo. He was subsequently treated as a minor celebrity, even being invited frequently to appear on
local television programs. He nally returned to France,
1.2 Imprisonment
visiting Paris in conjunction with the publication of his
memoir Papillon (1969). The book sold over 1.5 million
Main article: Papillon (book)
copies in France,[3] prompting a French minister to attribute the moral decline of France to miniskirts and
According to his book, Papillon, Charrire was convicted Papillon.[4]
on 26 October 1931 of the murder of a pimp named
Papillon was rst published in the United Kingdom in
Roland Le Petit, a charge that he strenuously denied.
He was sentenced to life in prison and ten years of hard 1970, in a translation by the novelist Patrick O'Brian.
Charrire played the part of a jewel thief in a 1970 lm
labour. After a brief imprisonment at the transit prison of
Beaulieu in Caen, France, he was transported in 1933 to called The Buttery Aair. He also wrote a sequel to Pathe prison of St-Laurent-du-Maroni on the Maroni River, pillon entitled Banco, in which he describes his life subsequent to his release from prison.
in the penal settlement of mainland French Guiana.
According to the book, he made his rst escape on 28 In 1973, his book Papillon was made into a lm directed
November 1933,[1] 37 days later, joined by fellow pris- by Franklin Schaner, in which the actor Steve McQueen
oners Andr Maturette and Joanes Clousiot, who would takes the title role (Charrire). Dalton Trumbo was the
accompany him throughout much of his time on the run. screenwriter, and Charrire himself acted as consultant
The trio were shipwrecked near the village of Riohacha, on location. An interview with Henri Charrire is innorthern Caribbean Region of Colombia, and were im- cluded in the documentary, Magnicent Rebel, which deprisoned. Charrire subsequently escaped during a rainy scribes the making of the lm.

EXTERNAL LINKS

On 29 July 1973, Charrire died of throat cancer in

Madrid, Spain.[5]

[4] O'Brian, Patrick (2005). Introduction to Papillon. London: Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-00-717996-0.

[5] Obituary, The Times July 31, 1973. p. 14 Hoyle, Ben.

Obituary. The Times (London). Retrieved 2011-0313.(subscription required)

Papillon

Charrires 1970 best-selling book Papillon, which he

said was 75 percent true,[6] details his alleged numerous escapes, attempted escapes, adventures and recaptures, from his imprisonment in 1932 to his nal escape
to Venezuela. The books title is Charrires nickname,
derived from a buttery tattoo on his chest (papillon being French for buttery). Modern researchers, however,
believe that Charrire got much of his story material from
other inmates, and, thus, see the work as more ctional
than autobiographical.

[6] Henri Charriere, Author of Papillon Dies at 66, The

Lewiston Daily Sun, 28 July 1973
[7] Ex-convict aged 104 claims to be Papillon, By Colin Randall, The Telegraph, 27 June 2005
[8] Papillon alive and well in a Paris retirement home, Hugh
Schoeld, Mail & Guardian, 26 June 2005
[9] The Fabulous Escapes of Papillon: An ex-con from
Devils Island strikes it rich with a great yarn -but how true
is it? By Marie-Claude Wreen, p. 52, LIFE Magazine, 13
November 1970

In his book Les quatre vrits de Papillon, Georges M[10] Devils Isle author dies after surgery, Eugene Registernager, a former Paris-Match reporter claims that CharGuard, 30 July 1973
rire was in fact a police informer and a pimp before his
incarceration, and lived o the proceeds of his girlfriends [11] Small-time Paris thief writes a bestseller, Boca Raton
News, 5 November 1970
prostitution and that he later tried to blame her for the
murder of Roland Legrande. Charrire claims to have
been incarcerated in Saint Laurent and may have escaped
from there, but according to French ocials, he never 4 External links
served any time on Devils Island.
The book and movie both present Devils Island as having rocky clis, when in fact, though the entire island
is rocky, it gently slopes into the surrounding sea. A
French justice ministry report said Charrires book included episodes that were imagined or involved others
and should be divided by at least 10 to get near the
truth.[7] In 2005, a 104-year-old man in Paris, Charles
Brunier, claimed to be the real Papillon.[8]
Critics tend to agree that Charrires depictions included
events that happened to others and that Brunier was at
the prison at the same time. Critics claim that the heroic
rescue of a guards young daughter from sharks, which
Charrire describes graphically in his book, was in fact
carried out by another convict named Alfred Steen who
lost both legs and subsequently died.[9] When some critics
questioned the veracity of his story and said he erred on
some of the dates, Charrire replied: I didn't have a typewriter with me.[10] French journalist Gerard de Villiers,
author of Papillon pingl" (Buttery Pinned) maintains
that Only about 10 percent of Charrires book represents the truth.[11]

References

[1] Henri Charrire, Papillon (Hart-Davis MacGibbon, 1970)

[2] Henri Charriere at everything2.com
[3] Foote, Timothy (1979-09-14).
TIME, 14 September 1979.

Travels with Papi.

Charrire, H. & O'Brian, P. (trans.) (2005) Papillon

London: Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-00-717996-0
Schoeld, H. Papillon alive and well in a Paris retirement home Mail & Guardian Online, 26 June
2005. Accessed 10 October 2007.
(Portuguese) Plato Arantes: A Grande Farsa Article discussing the veracity of Henri Charrires autobiography

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