Henri Charrière (; 16 November 1906  – 29 July 1973) was a French writer, convicted in 1931 as a murderer by the French courts and pardoned in 1970. He wrote the 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.

Biography

Early life
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.

Imprisonment

The version of his life presented in his semi-biographical novel, Papillon, claimed that 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. He had married Georgette Fourel at the town hall of the 1st arrondissement of Paris, on December 22, 1929. (They divorced on 8 July 1930 by decision of the Paris High Court.) 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 and was joined by fellow prisoners André Maturette and Joanes Clousiot, who would accompany him throughout much of his time on the run. 37 days later, the trio were captured by Colombian police 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 indigenous 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. After leaving, he was quickly recaptured and sent back to French Guiana to be put into solitary confinement for the next two years.

After his release from solitary confinement, he spent another seven 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 confined to Devil's Island, a labour camp (Devil's Island was not a labour camp so much as an internment camp) that, at the time, was notorious for being inescapable. French authorities later released penal colony records that contradicted this; amongst other details, Charrière had never been imprisoned on Devil's Island. However, he finally 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 escaped with another convict. However, his companion drowned in quicksand when they reached the shore of French Guiana.

After meeting up with some escaped Chinese prisoners on the mainland, they bought a boat and sailed to Georgetown, British Guiana. After almost a year, a bored Charrière then joined another group of escaped convicts in a new boat with the intent of reaching British Honduras. However, after sailing into a cyclone, they only managed to reach Venezuela. They were all arrested and sent to a brutal penal settlement in El Dorado, Bolivar State. After a year of imprisonment, Charrière was released with identity papers on 3 July 1944. Five years later he was given Venezuelan citizenship.

French records of his life from 1933–1944 present a different account:  He left the citadel of Saint-Martin-de-Ré on 29 September 1933 aboard the Martinière and landed on 14 October with the status of "transported" to Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni. There was little time left in the transportation camp, as he was assigned as a nursing assistant to the André-Bouron Colonial Hospital, where he saw many inmates returning from the run who told him their escape stories, from which he drew inspiration. This place spared him from the work of logging sites or agricultural concessions that annihilated convicts in a few months. He escaped for the first time on September 5, 1934, but failed in Colombia, a country that returned escaped convicts to France. Judged by the Special Maritime Court, he spent two years in the cells of the St. Joseph's Island Seclusion. Several times transferred, he ended up as chief nurse in an Indochinese camp on the Guyanese mainland, the Cascades forest camp, from which he escaped on the night of March 18–19, 1944, along with four companions.

Later life
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. He opened restaurants in Caracas and Maracaibo. He was subsequently treated as a minor celebrity, even being invited frequently to appear on local television programmes. He finally returned to France, visiting Paris in conjunction with the publication of his memoir Papillon (1969). The book sold over 1.5 million copies in France, prompting a French minister to attribute "the moral decline of France" to miniskirts and Papillon. Papillon was first published in the United Kingdom in 1970, in a translation by the novelist Patrick O'Brian. Charrière played the part of a jewel thief in a 1970 film called Popsy Pop directed by the French director Jean Vautrin, and released internationally in English as The Butterfly Affair. He also wrote a sequel to Papillon entitled Banco, in which he describes his life after being released from prison.

In 1970, the French Justice System issued a pardon to Charrière for his 1931 murder conviction.

Death
On 29 July 1973, Charrière died of throat cancer in Madrid, Spain.

Works

He wrote two autobiographical novels.

Papillon series:
 Papillon (1969)
 Banco (1973)

Papillon
Charrière's best-selling book Papillon (1970), which he said was "75 percent true", details his alleged numerous escapes, attempted escapes, adventures, and recaptures, from his imprisonment in 1932 to his final escape to Venezuela. The book's title is Charrière's nickname, derived from a butterfly tattoo on his chest (papillon being French for butterfly). Modern researchers, however, believe that Charrière got much of his story material from other inmates, and so see the work as more of a work of fiction than a true autobiography.

In his book Les quatre vérités de Papillon ( The Four Truths of Papillon), Georges Ménager, a former Paris Match reporter, claims that Charrière was in fact a police informer and a pimp before his incarceration, and lived off the proceeds of his girlfriend's prostitution, and that he later tried to blame her for the murder of Roland Legrande. Charrière claims to have been incarcerated in Saint Laurent and may have escaped from there, but according to French officials, he never served any time on Devil's Island.

The book and movie both present Devil's Island as having rocky cliffs, when, in fact, although the entire island is rocky, it gently slopes into the surrounding sea. A French justice ministry report said Charrière's book included episodes that were imagined or involved others and "should be divided by at least 10 to get near the truth".

In 2005, a 104-year-old man in Paris, Charles Brunier, claimed to be the real Papillon. He also had a butterfly tattoo, on his left arm.

Critics tend to agree that Charrière's 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 guard's young daughter from sharks, which Charrière describes graphically in his book, was in fact carried out by another convict named Alfred Steffen who lost both legs and subsequently died. When some critics questioned the veracity of his story and said he erred on some of the dates, Charrière replied: "I didn't have a typewriter with me." French journalist Gerard de Villiers, author of Papillon Épinglé (Butterfly Pinned), maintains: "Only about 10 percent of Charrière's book represents the truth."

Adaptations 
 Papillon (1973), film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, based on novel Papillon. Charrière was portrayed by Steve McQueen, who received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance.
 Papillon (2017), film directed by Michael Noer, based on novels Papillon and Banco

References

External links

 Henri Charrière website
 Henri Charrière website

 

1906 births
1973 deaths
People from Ardèche
Deaths from esophageal cancer
Escapees from French detention
20th-century French criminals
French escapees
French expatriates in Spain
Deaths from cancer in Spain
French people convicted of murder
Naturalized citizens of Venezuela
People convicted of murder by France
French prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by France
Devil's Island inmates
French male non-fiction writers
20th-century French memoirists
20th-century French male writers
앙리 사리에르(, 1906년 11월 16일 - 1973년 7월 29일)는 프랑스의 소설가, 영화배우이다.

생애 
남프랑스의 아르데슈 출신으로 두 명의 여동생이 있었다고 알려져 있다. 11세 때 어머니를 잃었고, 18세 때인 1923년 프랑스 해군에 입대하기도 했다. 그러나 그 뒤 파리 몽마르트르에서 포주노릇을 하는 등 하층생활을 했다. 감옥에 들어 오게 되기 전에 한 번 결혼을 했었고, 딸이 한 명 있었다고 한다.

1931년 10월 16일, 그는 몽마르트르에서 포주 롤랑 르 쁘티(Roland Le Petit) 살해 사건의 용의자로 지목된다. 앙리 샤리에르는 혐의를 강력히 부인했지만 법원은 그에게 11년의 중노동형을 언도했고, 프랑스 본국의 캉에 있는 볼리외(Beaulieu)의 교도소에 잠시 투옥된 뒤 1933년 남아메리카 북동부에 위치한 프랑스령 기아나의 마로니 강변에 있는 생 로랑 드 마로니(St-Laurent-du-Maroni) 교도소로 이송된다. 당시 그의 나이 26세였다.

1933년 11월 28일, 앙리 샤리에르는 첫 번째 탈옥을 시도한다. 함께 수용되어 있던 다른 죄수 앙드레 마뜨렛뜨(André Maturette), 요한 끌루지오(Joanes Clousiot)와 함께 시도한 탈주극이었다. 이 날 아침 세 죄수는 카옌(Cayenne) 수용소의 병원 담을 넘어 나환자 수용소로 향했고, 그곳에서 보트를 사서 바다로 나갔지만 콜롬비아 북부의 해안마을 리오아차에 도착하기도 했지만 결국 산타마르타에서 체포되었다(끌루지오는 독방에서 2년만에 사망). 샤리에르는 그 뒤에 비 내리는 밤을 틈타 탈출했고 라 과지라(La Guajira)라는 인디오들의 마을에서 인디오로 위장하고 몇 달을 지냈지만 곧 다시 어디론가로 가야 할 필요성을 느꼈고, 라 과지라 마을을 떠나온 지 채 며칠이 지나지 않아 묵고 있던 수녀원 원장의 밀고로 다시 붙들려 독방에 감금된다. 앙리 샤리에르가 산타마르타 감옥에서 시도한 네 차례의 탈출은 난데없는 불운과 어이없는 실수로 번번이 실패했다.

앙리 샤리에르는 11년 동안 무려 여덟 차례에 걸쳐 탈옥할 기회를 노렸고, 번번이 탈옥에 실패하는 그에게 돌아오는 것은 그가 실패하고 다시 감옥으로 돌아올 때마다 더욱 악랄해지는 간수들의 가혹행위 뿐이었다. 특히 앙리 사리에르가 탈옥 직전에 투옥되어 있었던 프랑스령 기아나의 살뤼 제도에 위치한 디아블로 섬(악마섬) 도형지(徒刑地)는 드레퓌스 사건의 주인공 알프레드 드레퓌스가 감금되기도 했던 곳으로 아무도 빠져나갈 수 없는 수용소로써 악명이 높았고, 디아블로 섬(악마섬)에서의 앙리 샤리에르의 수형 생활은 처참하기 그지없는 것이었다(다만 프랑스 당국에 의해 공개된 수용소 관련 기록에는 샤리에르가 악마섬 한 곳에만 수용되었던 것은 아니라고 했다). 그러나 1941년, 앙리 샤리에르는 코코넛 열매가 든 자루 두 개를 연결한 뗏목으로 한때 함께 탈옥을 기도했던 앙드레 마뜨렛뜨와 함께 디아블로 섬(악마섬) 탈출에 성공, 영국령 조지타운을 거쳐 1년 동안 베네수엘라에서 감옥살이를 마치고 베네수엘라 시민권을 얻는데 성공했다.

1945년, 완전히 자유의 몸이 된 앙리 샤리에르는 베네수엘라에 정착했고, 그곳에서 리타(Rita)라는 이름의 베네수엘라 여자와 결혼했으며, 카라카스와 마라카이보에서 레스토랑을 운영하였다. 한때 그가 유형 생활을 했던 디아블로 섬(악마섬)의 도형지는 1953년 8월 22일에 폐쇄되었다. 앙리 샤리에르는 베네수엘라 현지에서 유명인사로 대우받으며 텔레비전 프로그램에 종종 출연하기도 했는데, 나중에 프랑스로 돌아와 1969년 자신의 자전소설을 발표한다. 앙리 샤리에르가 자신의 수형 생활과 탈옥 과정을 그린 자전소설 「빠삐용」은 1969년에 발표되어 프랑스를 비롯한 17개 국에서 번역 출간되었고, 프랑스에서만 누계 1,000만 부가 팔려나가는 베스트셀러가 되었으며, 당시 프랑스 수상이 "현대 프랑스 국민의 도덕이 형편없이 땅바닥에 추락한 요인"으로 미니스커트와 함께 소설 빠삐용을 언급할 만큼 이 소설의 파급력은 엄청난 것이었다.

또한 1970년에는 본인의 소설을 원작으로 하는 영화 「다이아몬드 여왕」(원제: Popsy Pop)가 개봉되었는데 사리에르는 이 영화에서 본인이 직접 배우로써 연기하기도 했다. 동시에 원작자로써 각본을 맡았다. 그리고 1973년 그의 소설 「빠삐용」을 원작으로 하는 동명의 영화가 공개되어 흥행 대히트를 쳤으며, 이 영화에서 원작자로써 참가한 그의 이름은 높아졌다. 그 해 영화 촬영 중이던 스티브 매퀸과 만나고 얼마 뒤인 7월 29일에 에스파냐의 마드리드에 있는 한 병원에서 앙리 샤리에르는 후두암으로 사망하였다. 향년 67세.

같이 보기 

 르네 벨브노와 (빠삐용의 모델)
 빠삐용 (소설)
 빠삐용 (1973년 영화)

각주 

1906년 출생
1973년 사망
프랑스의 범죄인
프랑스의 회고록 작가
아르데슈주 출신
스페인에 거주한 프랑스인
모살죄 기결수
탈옥수
식도암으로 죽은 사람
20세기 프랑스 사람
악마섬