René Belbenoit
Encyclopedia
René Belbenoit was a French
prison
er on Devil's Island
who successfully escaped to the United States
. He later wrote a book, Dry Guillotine
, about his exploits.
and abandoned by his mother as an infant, while she went on to work as a Teacher for the children of the Czar of Russia. His father, whose first name is unknown, was Chief Conductor of the Paris-Orleans Express and seldom home, was unable to raise young René himself, so the boy was sent to live with his grandparents while a toddler. When René was 12, his grandparents died suddenly and he, again in need of a parental figure, went to Paris
where he lived with, and worked for his uncle at a popular nightclub, the Café du Rat Mort (the Dead Rat) in the Place Pigalle
. During World War I
, Belbenoit served with distinction in the French Army
from 1916 – 1917, and had survived the Battle of Verdun
. After the war, Belbenoit began working in a restaurant in Besançon as a dishwasher for eight francs a day with room and board. After working there just eleven days, he seized a moment to steal a wallet full of 4000 francs and a motorcycle, he left Besançon for Nantes. René quickly found work as a valet in the Chateau Ben Ali owned by the Countess d'Entremeuse. Although a gracious employer, Belbenoit again, seizing an opportunity, stole the Countess' pearls and some money from her dressing table, after only working at the Chateau for a month. Rene then escaped on a train for Paris. After being in Paris but two days, he was promptly arrested by two policemen for the theft of the pearls. This theft would be the crime that would send him to Devil's Island.
of French Guiana
, referred to as Devil's Island. The fact that Belbenoit had had a veteran's pension
let him avoid the harshest work.
Two weeks after his arrival, Belbenoit tried to escape for the first time with another man. They took a raft to Dutch Guiana
but were captured and shipped back to the penal colony. During his incarceration, Belbenoit begun to write his memoirs. He kept them in a bundle of wax cloth. He earned some money by selling roasted chestnut
s and capturing butterflies. He also met a writer Blair Niles
and sold her one of his manuscripts. Next Christmas Belbenoit again attempted escape with nine others who had stolen a log canoe
. The canoe capsized on the Maroni River
on the side of Dutch Guiana and they had to escape to the jungle. After three days they decided to return. During the trip, three of the men were violently murdered. Eventually local Indians who sheltered them gave them to Dutch authorities who sent them back to the French.
In the following years, Belbenoit tried to escape two more times and was transferred from island to island.
In 1931, when Belbenoit sent a copy of his writings about the prison conditions to a new governor Siadous, he was transferred to the prison archive. Before Siadous was transferred back to France, he gave Belbenoit a one year permit to leave the penal colony. Belbenoit spent most of this one year working in the Panama Canal Zone as a gardener. However, with the one year permit soon to expire he decided to go back to France in order to argue his case.
Upon entry into France at Le Havre, he was arrested and then sent back to the penal colony yet again. For the crime of returning to France, he was sent to the island of Royale and put into solitary confinement
for almost one year.
When a visiting moviemaker gave him $200, Belbenoit decided to try to escape once more. On March 2, 1935 he and five others took to the sea with a boat they had bought. When his companions after three days at sea began to argue, he had to pull a gun to force them to continue. On the same day they reached Trinidad
. British authorities decided not to give them back to the French. On June 10 they continued their trip. Sixteen days later they ran aground on a beach in Colombia
and local natives stole their clothing. They reached Santa Maria, where a local general fed them, but also notified the French consul and took them to the local military prison.
However, some of the local authorities separated Belbenoit from the others and, with the cooperation of local prison authorities, a sympathetic local newspaperman helped him to escape in exchange for writing about prison conditions. Belbenoit traveled slowly north and stole a number of native canoes to continue his journey. In Panama
he spent about seven months with the Kuna
tribe and later sold a large collection of butterflies in Panama City
. In La Libertad, El Salvador, he hid in a ship that took him to Los Angeles
in 1937.
In 1938 his account, Dry Guillotine
, was published in United States. Belbenoit had written it in French and it was translated in english bt Preston Rambo. It went through 14 printings in less than a year.
The book attracted the attention of the U.S. immigration
authorities and Belbenoit was arrested. He received a visitor's visa but in 1941 was told to leave the country. Belbenoit traveled to Mexico and a year later tried to slip back into the United States but was again arrested in Brownsville, Texas
. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison. After his release, Belbenoit acquired a valid passport and went to Los Angeles to work for Warner Bros.
as a technical advisor for the film Passage to Marseille
.
In 1951 Belbenoit moved to Lucerne Valley, California
and founded the René's Ranch Store, where he also lived. Neighbors knew who he was. His new book, Hell on Trial, again attracted the attention of immigration authorities, and in May 1951 he was summoned to Los Angeles. His former movie co-workers spoke in his behalf and he received US citizenship in 1956. Belbenoit married in 1956 and had a son in 1957.
René Belbenoit died of cardiac arrest
in Lucerne Valley, California on February 26, 1959, at the age of 59.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
er on Devil's Island
Devil's Island
Devil's Island is the smallest and northernmost island of the three Îles du Salut located about 6 nautical miles off the coast of French Guiana . It has an area of 14 ha . It was a small part of the notorious French penal colony in French Guiana until 1952...
who successfully escaped to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He later wrote a book, Dry Guillotine
Dry Guillotine
Dry Guillotine is the English translation of a French phrase la guillotine sèche which was prisoner slang for the Devil's Island Penal colony at French Guiana...
, about his exploits.
Early life
Belbenoit was born in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and abandoned by his mother as an infant, while she went on to work as a Teacher for the children of the Czar of Russia. His father, whose first name is unknown, was Chief Conductor of the Paris-Orleans Express and seldom home, was unable to raise young René himself, so the boy was sent to live with his grandparents while a toddler. When René was 12, his grandparents died suddenly and he, again in need of a parental figure, went to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
where he lived with, and worked for his uncle at a popular nightclub, the Café du Rat Mort (the Dead Rat) in the Place Pigalle
Place Pigalle
The Place Pigalle is a public square located in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, between the Boulevard de Clichy and the Boulevard de Rochechouart, near Sacré-Cœur, at the foot of the Montmartre hill...
. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Belbenoit served with distinction in the French Army
French Army
The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...
from 1916 – 1917, and had survived the Battle of Verdun
Battle of Verdun
The Battle of Verdun was one of the major battles during the First World War on the Western Front. It was fought between the German and French armies, from 21 February – 18 December 1916, on hilly terrain north of the city of Verdun-sur-Meuse in north-eastern France...
. After the war, Belbenoit began working in a restaurant in Besançon as a dishwasher for eight francs a day with room and board. After working there just eleven days, he seized a moment to steal a wallet full of 4000 francs and a motorcycle, he left Besançon for Nantes. René quickly found work as a valet in the Chateau Ben Ali owned by the Countess d'Entremeuse. Although a gracious employer, Belbenoit again, seizing an opportunity, stole the Countess' pearls and some money from her dressing table, after only working at the Chateau for a month. Rene then escaped on a train for Paris. After being in Paris but two days, he was promptly arrested by two policemen for the theft of the pearls. This theft would be the crime that would send him to Devil's Island.
Imprisonment
In 1920, Belbenoit, having stolen some pearls from his employer, the Countess d'Entremeuse, was sentenced to eight years of hard labor in the penal colonyPenal colony
A penal colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general populace by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory...
of French Guiana
French Guiana
French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...
, referred to as Devil's Island. The fact that Belbenoit had had a veteran's pension
Veteran's pension
A veteran's pension is a pension for veterans of the United States Armed Forces, who served in the military but did not qualify for a retirement pension from the Armed Forces. It was established by the United States Congress and given to veterans who meet the eligibility requirements...
let him avoid the harshest work.
Two weeks after his arrival, Belbenoit tried to escape for the first time with another man. They took a raft to Dutch Guiana
Dutch Guiana
Dutch Guiana, also known as Netherlands Guyana or Dutch Guyana , is the name given to various Dutch colonies on the northern coast of South America, created by the Dutch West India Company...
but were captured and shipped back to the penal colony. During his incarceration, Belbenoit begun to write his memoirs. He kept them in a bundle of wax cloth. He earned some money by selling roasted chestnut
Chestnut
Chestnut , some species called chinkapin or chinquapin, is a genus of eight or nine species of deciduous trees and shrubs in the beech family Fagaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce.-Species:The chestnut belongs to the...
s and capturing butterflies. He also met a writer Blair Niles
Blair Niles
Blair Niles was an American novelist and travel writer. She was a founding member of the Society of Woman Geographers. Blair Niles is a pen name of Mary Blair Rice, adopted from her late second husband's name, Robert Niles, Jr.- History :...
and sold her one of his manuscripts. Next Christmas Belbenoit again attempted escape with nine others who had stolen a log canoe
Canoe
A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...
. The canoe capsized on the Maroni River
Maroni River
The Maroni or Marowijne is a river in South America. It originates in the Tumuk Humak Mountains and forms the border between French Guiana and Suriname...
on the side of Dutch Guiana and they had to escape to the jungle. After three days they decided to return. During the trip, three of the men were violently murdered. Eventually local Indians who sheltered them gave them to Dutch authorities who sent them back to the French.
In the following years, Belbenoit tried to escape two more times and was transferred from island to island.
In 1931, when Belbenoit sent a copy of his writings about the prison conditions to a new governor Siadous, he was transferred to the prison archive. Before Siadous was transferred back to France, he gave Belbenoit a one year permit to leave the penal colony. Belbenoit spent most of this one year working in the Panama Canal Zone as a gardener. However, with the one year permit soon to expire he decided to go back to France in order to argue his case.
Upon entry into France at Le Havre, he was arrested and then sent back to the penal colony yet again. For the crime of returning to France, he was sent to the island of Royale and put into solitary confinement
Solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...
for almost one year.
Release
On November 3, 1934 Belbenoit was officially released - but that just meant he became a libéré, a free prisoner who was still not allowed to return to France. He made a living by capturing and selling butterflies and making items out of natural rubber and selling them. During the years of his imprisonment he had lost all his teeth.When a visiting moviemaker gave him $200, Belbenoit decided to try to escape once more. On March 2, 1935 he and five others took to the sea with a boat they had bought. When his companions after three days at sea began to argue, he had to pull a gun to force them to continue. On the same day they reached Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
. British authorities decided not to give them back to the French. On June 10 they continued their trip. Sixteen days later they ran aground on a beach in Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
and local natives stole their clothing. They reached Santa Maria, where a local general fed them, but also notified the French consul and took them to the local military prison.
However, some of the local authorities separated Belbenoit from the others and, with the cooperation of local prison authorities, a sympathetic local newspaperman helped him to escape in exchange for writing about prison conditions. Belbenoit traveled slowly north and stole a number of native canoes to continue his journey. In Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
he spent about seven months with the Kuna
Kuna (people)
Kuna or Cuna is the name of an indigenous people of Panama and Colombia. The spelling Kuna is currently preferred. In the Kuna language, the name is Dule or Tule, meaning "people," and the name of the language in Kuna is Dulegaya, meaning "Kuna language" - Location :The Kuna live in three...
tribe and later sold a large collection of butterflies in Panama City
Panama City
Panama is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Panama. It has a population of 880,691, with a total metro population of 1,272,672, and it is located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, in the province of the same name. The city is the political and administrative center of the...
. In La Libertad, El Salvador, he hid in a ship that took him to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
in 1937.
In 1938 his account, Dry Guillotine
Dry Guillotine
Dry Guillotine is the English translation of a French phrase la guillotine sèche which was prisoner slang for the Devil's Island Penal colony at French Guiana...
, was published in United States. Belbenoit had written it in French and it was translated in english bt Preston Rambo. It went through 14 printings in less than a year.
The book attracted the attention of the U.S. immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
authorities and Belbenoit was arrested. He received a visitor's visa but in 1941 was told to leave the country. Belbenoit traveled to Mexico and a year later tried to slip back into the United States but was again arrested in Brownsville, Texas
Brownsville, Texas
Brownsville is a city in the southernmost tip of the state of Texas, in the United States. It is located on the northern bank of the Rio Grande, directly north and across the border from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Brownsville is the 16th largest city in the state of Texas with a population of...
. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison. After his release, Belbenoit acquired a valid passport and went to Los Angeles to work for Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
as a technical advisor for the film Passage to Marseille
Passage to Marseille
Passage to Marseille is a 1944 war film made by Warner Brothers, directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Hal B. Wallis with Jack L. Warner as executive producer. The screenplay was by Casey Robinson and Jack Moffitt from the novel Sans Patrie by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall...
.
In 1951 Belbenoit moved to Lucerne Valley, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and founded the René's Ranch Store, where he also lived. Neighbors knew who he was. His new book, Hell on Trial, again attracted the attention of immigration authorities, and in May 1951 he was summoned to Los Angeles. His former movie co-workers spoke in his behalf and he received US citizenship in 1956. Belbenoit married in 1956 and had a son in 1957.
René Belbenoit died of cardiac arrest
Cardiac arrest
Cardiac arrest, is the cessation of normal circulation of the blood due to failure of the heart to contract effectively...
in Lucerne Valley, California on February 26, 1959, at the age of 59.
Books by René Belbenoit
- Dry Guillotine (1938)
- Hell on Trial (1940)
Books on René Belbenoit
- Platão Arantes, Papillon – O Homem que Enganou o Mundo, Agbook (2011)
- Philippe Schmitz, Matricule 46635: l'extraordinaire aventure du forçat qui inspira Papillon, Maisonneuve & Larose (2002)
Magazines
- Picture Book to End Devil's Island in LifeLife (magazine)Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
, april 4, 1938
External links
- A verdadeira historia de Papillon, istoe.comIstoeRevista ISTOÉ is a weekly news magazine in Portuguese published in Brazil, roughly the equivalent of the American magazines Time or Newsweek. It is considered one of the four main magazines being published in the country, along with Veja, Época and CartaCapital....