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- Henri Charrière (born 1906, Ardèche, France—died July 29, 1973, Madrid, Spain) was a French criminal and prisoner in French Guiana who described a lively career of imprisonments, adventures, and escapes in an autobiography, Papillon (1969). Charrière’s nickname derived from the design of a butterfly (French: “papillon”) tattooed on his chest.
www.britannica.com/biography/Henri-CharriereHenri Charrière | Papillon, Autobiography, Prisoner | Britannica
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After Charrière had served a year's probationary freedom, he was given his total liberty in 1945. He remained in Venezuela and became a naturalized citizen. He married a Venezuelan woman identified as Rita Bensimon.
- Henri Charrière’s Early Life
- Arrest and Conviction of Papillon
- Papillon Breaks Out of Cayenne
- Writing Papillon
Born to schoolteacher parents in southern France in 1906, Henri Charrière sought adventure on his own terms right from the beginning. After a stint in the navy following his schooling, Charrière quickly fell in with the Paris underworld. Nicknamed “Papillon” due to the tattoo of a butterfly (“Papillon” in French) on his chest, Charrière started out...
Despite all of his illegal activity as a Paris gangster, Henri Charrière wasn’t arrested until after the murder of local gangster and pimp Roland Legrandin 1931. Charrière claimed innocence in the death of Legrand, saying that he was a victim of dishonest informants and a French justice system that sought a hasty resolution to the case. Why exactly...
Henri Charrière broke out of Cayenne for the first time after three years in captivity. He briefly ended up in a colony of lepers before trying to sail away into the Gulf of Maracaibo on a makeshift boat. That’s when Papillon crashed his vessel and lived among a native tribe in the thick jungle for several years. When Charrière moved on once again,...
In Venezuela, Henri Charrière lived a relatively normal life — for him, anyway. He pumped gas, prospected for gold, and then ran a nightclub. At the age of 62, Charriere read the exploits of Albertine Sarrazin, a former French prostitute whose bestselling book L’Astragalegave him an idea. Charrière began to write, and write, and write some more. He...
- William Delong
Henri Charrière was a French criminal and prisoner in French Guiana who described a lively career of imprisonments, adventures, and escapes in an autobiography, Papillon (1969). Charrière’s nickname derived from the design of a butterfly (French: “papillon”) tattooed on his chest.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Sep 28, 2018 · Henri Charrière (1906 – 1973) was a French petty criminal who was incarcerated for murder in a penal colony in French Guiana. He famously escaped the brutal prison by building a raft, and in 1970 he published the book Papillon, detailing his experiences as a prisoner.
- Patti Wigington
Aug 3, 2009 · Charriere was convicted of killing a pimp named Roland le Petit, but maintained a strong opposition to his sentence of life in prison plus ten years hard labor. He persistently contended that his accusations were false, giving his story an element of human drama in hope and hardship.
Papillon (French:, lit. "butterfly") is a novel written by Henri Charrière, first published in France on 30 April 1969. Papillon is Charrière's nickname. [1] The novel details Papillon's purported incarceration and subsequent escape from the French penal colony of French Guiana, and covers a 14-year period between 1931 and 1945. While ...
Sep 6, 2022 · In 1945, a Democratic coup d'état swept Venezuela, resulting in the replacement of all personnel at the prison. Having no papers or proof of any sentence, Charrière was freed and allowed to become a resident of Venezuela, and ultimately a citizen. He lived in Caracas for more than twenty years as a restaurateur, marrying and raising a daughter.
