October 8, 2020
Volume 50 - No. 41
By Gary Womble
Almost everyone in the world knows the story of Henri-Antoine Charriere, also known as Papillon, which is the French word for butterfly; he had one tattooed on his chest. Charriere survived for thirteen years some of the most inhumane conditions in a prison ever recorded. He had been falsely convicted of murdering a Parisian pimp by the name of Roland Le Petit and sentenced to life in prison in 1931.
He vehemently denied committing The Paper - 760.747.7119
website:www.thecommunitypaper.com
email: thepaper@cox.net
the murder until his death in 1973. Papillon’s life story until he was 40 has been made into a movie twice using some of the most famous actors of the day. If you are over forty yourself you will remember Steve McQueen, forever the king of cool, as Papillon and Dustin Hoffman as Louis Dega, who forged and sold counterfeit National Defense Bonds. In 2017 a second movie was made about Papillon’s experience in French Guiana starring Charlie Hunnam as Papillon and Rami Malek as Louis Dega.
Papillon made his first escape attempt in November of 1933 accompanied by two other inmates. Colombian police caught all three of them near Riohacha and they were placed in a local prison. Charriere was the only one of the three to escape this jail, and he wound up in the La Guajira Peninsula where he was adopted by an Indian tribe. He eventually left and was recaptured a short time after leaving the peninsula by the Colombian authorities. He was sent back to French Guiana and placed in complete solitary confinement
Papillon See Page 2
for two years.
Eventually after several more escape attempts, he was sent to Devil’s Island which was famous as a prison colony because the French called it inescapable. In 1941 Papillon proved them wrong because he did escape on a raft he made using rope and coconuts. He used the tide as it moved out from the island and was accompanied by another convict. The other prisoner perished in quicksand when they reached the shore still in French Guiana. Henri did escape Devil’s