Case file · Folklore / legend
Papillon's escape from Devil's Island
Henri Charrière's memoir Papillon (1969) told of years in the French Guiana penal colony and an escape from Devil's Island on a raft of coconut sacks. It sold millions and made the bagne a place of legend.
1969 CE · 5.29, -52.58 · status: disputed
The account
French records show Charrière was held mostly on the mainland and never on Devil's Island itself. Gérard de Villiers' rebuttal Papillon épinglé argued that only about a tenth of the book was true, and a justice-ministry report said its episodes should be 'divided by at least ten'. In 2005 a 104-year-old former convict, Charles Brunier, claimed to be the real Papillon.
The sceptical view
A largely borrowed and embellished story: Charrière seems to have collected other prisoners' exploits as his own.