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Charles Brunier (31 May 1901 – 26 January 2007) was a French convicted murderer and veteran of both the First and Second World Wars, who claimed in 2005 to have been the inspiration for Papillon.
Sep 6, 2022 · Due to the book's extreme popularity and Charrière's claims of innocence therein, France pardoned Charrière's murder conviction in 1970, clearing the way for him to legally return to Paris, a newly minted millionaire.
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Charles Brunier (31 May 1901 – 26 January 2007) was a French centenarian, convicted murderer, and veteran of both the First and Second World Wars. In 2005, he claimed to have been the inspiration for Papillon. Circumstantial evidence, including his butterfly tattoo and him having been on Devil's Island at the time, supported the claim.
Brunier was born in Paris on 31 May 1901. He was wounded in action while serving in Syria in 1918, also receiving the Croix de Guerre for saving a lieutenant's life. In 1923, however, he was accused of murder and armed robbery, and was later convicted. His military medals were revoked as a result, and he was not on the official list of French World War I veterans, although he did serve.
Brunier was sent to the penal colony off the coast of French Guiana. After the outbreak of World War II he escaped to Mexico and joined the Free French Forces as a fighter pilot, serving in the Battle of the Caribbean for two years before transferring to the infantry under Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, and also in Africa (where Charles de Gaulle personally decorated him) and Italy. He was imprisoned again after the war, but was released in 1948 in recognition of his services.
•On a retrouvé l'ancien bagnard qui prétend être Papillon Le Parisien, 17 December 2005 (Archived)
•The real Papillon (translation of newspaper article) Rue Rude, 17 December 2005 (Archived)
•Papillon alive and well in a Paris retirement home Mail & Guardian, 26 June 2005 (Archived)
•Charles Brunier emporte avec lui le secret de Papillon Le Parisien, 29 January 2007 (Archived)
Charles Brunier, who called himself "Johnny King" in the prison colony, managed to escape three times. During the Second World War he enlisted as a fighter pilot in Mexico, where he had taken refuge after his second prison escape.
The book is an account of a 14-year period in Papillon's life (October 26, 1931 to October 18, 1945), beginning when he was wrongly convicted of murder in France and sentenced to a life of hard labor at the Bagne de Cayenne, the penal colony of Cayenne in French Guiana known as Devil's Island. He eventually escaped from the colony and settled ...
May 8, 2019 · Decades after the original book came out, the story continued to unravel in 2005, when a 104-year-old inmate Charles Brunier claimed he was the model for the book.
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Charles Brunier (31 May 1901 – 26 January 2007) was a French convicted murderer and veteran of both the First and Second World Wars, who claimed in 2005 to have been the inspiration for Papillon. Circumstantial evidence, including his butterfly tattoo and him having been on Devil's Island at the time, supported the claim.
