Henri Charrière

Henri Charrière (; 16 November 1906  – 29 July 1973) was a French writer who was convicted of murder in 1931 by the French courts and pardoned in 1970. He wrote the 1969 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 (notably when he was a procurer) prior to his incarceration. Provided by Wikipedia