Henri Charrière
| Henri Charrière | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Henri Charrière 16 November 1906 Saint-Étienne-de-Lugdarès, Ardèche, France |
| Died | 29 July 1973 (aged 66) Madrid, Spain |
| Cause of death | Throat cancer |
| Nationality |
French later Venezuelan |
| Other names | Papillon |
| Occupation | Memoirist |
| Known for | Papillon |
Henri Charrière (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃ʁi ʃaʁjɛʁ]; 16 November 1906 – 29 July 1973) was a French writer, convicted as a murderer by the French courts. In jail he wrote the famous novel Papillon, a memoir of his incarceration in and escape from a penal colony in French Guiana. While Charrière claimed that Papillon was largely true, modern researchers believe that much of the book’s material came from other inmates, rather than Charrière himself. Charrière denied committing the murder, although he freely admitted to having committed various other petty crimes prior to his incarceration.
Charrière was born at Saint-Étienne-de-Lugdarès, Ardèche, 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.
According to his book, Papillon, Charrière was convicted on 26 October 1931 of the murder of a pimp named Roland Le Petit, a charge that he strenuously denied. He was sentenced to life in prison and ten years of hard labour. After a brief imprisonment at the transit prison of Beaulieu in Caen, France, he was transported in 1933 to the prison of St-Laurent-du-Maroni on the Maroni River, in the penal settlement of mainland French Guiana.
According to the book, he made his first escape on 28 November 1933, 37 days later, joined by fellow prisoners André Maturette and Joanes Clousiot, who would accompany him throughout much of his time on the run. The trio were shipwrecked near the village of Riohacha, northern Caribbean Region of Colombia, and were imprisoned. Charrière subsequently escaped during a rainy night and fled 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 returning to civilization, he was quickly recaptured and sent back to French Guiana to be put into solitary confinement for the next two years.
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Wikipedia