Biography

Charrière insisted that he and his agent and publisher Robert Laffont fly first class to the US to negotiate the rights to Papillon. Despite the cost, Laffond had had his staff upgrade the tourist class tickets to humour the author. During the flight, Laffont struck up a conversation with the passenger sitting next to him. He happened to be an American movie executive returning from Europe. The executive told him his wife had just read Papillon and insisted he buy the rights to Papillon on behalf of Universal, but, he complained, he hadn't had enough time on his trip to look into it. 15 minutes later, Laffont introduced Charrière and the executive in the first-class bar. They discussed various deals, but parted without firm commitments. As they were stepping off, Charrière turned to Laffont and said "Tu vois, couillon, c'est pas en touriste que tu l'aurais rencontré" - "You see, you fool, you wouldn't have met him travelling in tourist class".

Robert Laffont, who published Papillon, insists the book was not ghostwritten, but entirely written by Charrière.

After his book was published in 1969, two books were written in response. One showed that he was almost certainly guilty of the murder for which he was jailed, and the second suggested his book was not a true memoir and that he could not possibly have done everything he claimed during his imprisonment. In 2005 a 104-year-old man, who died in January 2007, claimed to have been the real Papillon.

Papillon (1973) is based on his book "Papillon", which is his self-biography.

One of the few prisoners to have ever escaped successfully from the French penal colony known as "Devil's Island" in French Guiana, South America.