René Belbenoit

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

René Belbenoit (1899-1959) was a French prisoner on Devil's Island who successfully escaped to the USA. He wrote a book, Dry Guillotine, about his exploits.

Rene Belbenoit was born in Paris on April 4, 1899. Belbenoit was abandoned by his mother while still an infant. His father, (referred to only as "Papa Belbenoit") Chief Conductor of the Paris-Orleans Express and seldom home was unable to raise young Rene and so the boy was sent to live with his grandparents. When Rene was 12, his grandparents passed away suddenly and Rene, again in need of a parental figure, went to Paris where he lived with, and worked for his uncle at a popular nightclub, the Cafe' du Rat Mort (the Dead Rat) in the Place Pigalle. During World War I, Belbenoit served with distinction in the French army.

After the war in 1920, he stole some pearls from his employer and was sentenced to eight years of hard labor in the French penal colony in French Guiana, including 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 got some money by selling roasted chestnuts and captured 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 Maron of the side of Dutch Guiana and they had to try to escape to the jungle. After three days they decided to return. During a trip three of the men died violently. 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.

On 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. When Siadouis was transferred back to France, Belbenoit was sent back to the island or Royale and put into solitary confinement for two years.

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 began to argue after three days at sea, 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 the beach on Colombia and local natives stole their clothing. They reached Santa Maria, where the local general fed them but also notified 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 couple of 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 California. The year was 1937.

In 1938 his account, Dry Guillotine, was published in USA. Belbenoit had written it in French and had it translated. It went through 14 printings in less than a year.

The book attracted the attention of the US 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 USA but was again arrested in Brownsville, Texas. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison.

After his release Belbenoit acquired an unrestricted passport and went to California to work for Warner Bros. as a technical advisor for a movie Passage to Marseille.

In 1951 Belbenoit moved to Lucerne Valley, California and founded a Rene's Ranch Store, where he also lived. Neighbors knew who he was. His new book again attracted the attention of the immigration authorities and in May 1951 he was summoned to Los Angeles. His former movie coworkers spoke in his behalf and he received US citizenship in 1956. Belbenoit married and had a son.

Rene Belbenoit died of cardiac arrest on February 26, 1959.