Dry Guillotine: Fifteen Years Among the Living Dead
by René Belbenoît
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Account of a man who escaped from Devil's Island and made it to Panama and from there to San Francisco and New York where he became a US Citizen. Here is the story of a man's dauntless courage in the struggle against death, insanity and the atrocities of the French "Guiana Hell". This man was meant to die .... but Rene Belbenoit's one hundred pound body contained a spirit and will that were unconquerable..Life holds but two alternatives for the men condemned to Devil's Island - "Escape or show more Die " On the one hand there was the impenetrable jungle, on the other the treacherous sea. Ant-riddled skeletons testified to the impossibility of escape through the jungle. To attempt the open sea in a raft was to tempt hungry sharks with human bait. Yet he made no less than four desperate but abortive tries, each followed by recapture and brutal punishment, before finally succeeding.Rene Belbenoit knew the worst the penal colony could offer. He spent months of hell in the grave like isolation cells of the dreaded Ile Royal, where men go mad from solitary confinement on bread and water, or else maim themselves to gain the privilege of seeing daylight again in the prison infirmary. He witnessed the killing of victims who would now "crawl." He suffered from exposure, fever and vermin, worked naked in the jungle at felling and hauling timber - at the mercy of tropical ants and other insects. He lived in the "Crimson Barrack" with its vicious guards, its graft and immorality, its monthly murder; and through all he felt the cruel hand of official corruption and injustice.His final triumph after heart-breaking misfortunes which would have killed six ordinary men or driven them insane, meant two more years or rubbing shoulders with death through fever-infested jungles. Without food or equipment; beset on all sides by deadly reptiles, wild animals and hostile Indians; practically eaten alive by insects; he schemed and fought his way up through South and Central America - the only survivor from Devil's Island ever to reach the haven of the United States alive and tell his story.Here is the most shocking record of man's inhumanity to man ever written - which even organized political conspiracy could not suppress. Here stands exposed the scourge of South America - the curse of civilization. And here is the testament of a man triumphant after fifteen maddening years of privation and persecution. show lessTags
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Dry Guillotine - Rene Belbenoit ****
My favourite book of all time is Papillon, but there has always been the question of whether or not it a factual or fictional account of life in the French penal colony (or something of a mixture). One of the people cited as a source of inspiration/material has been Rene Belbenoit, interestingly he also wrote a biography about his time there called Dry Guillotine (the nickname given to the islands by prisoners). It seems that at the time of publication in 1938 it was a fairly popular book, but these days it is quite difficult to get hold of a hard copy.
Belbenoit was arrested and sentenced to penal servitude after a number of theft convictions, during these years he kept a journal that amazingly show more survived his various escapes and ocean dunking’s due to being wrapped in an oilcloth. We learn of the hardships and the really awful conditions that prisoners had to endure, with many not surviving to see freedom again. However, as with all situations there is always an opportunity for the crafty to survive and Belbenoit is no exception. He is always on the lookout for the next escape and in between makes sure that he ingratiates himself with the right people. Interestingly his relationship with the author Blair Niles really stood out for me, and she actually incorporated his experiences in her novel called Condemned to Devil's Island: The Biography of an Unknown Convict, it just seems unimaginable that she was able to arrange meetings with him during his imprisonment, and actually played an indirect part in a number of the escape attempts. Expect to hear about men at the very end of their tether, where a person who finds himself dying in his ramshackle bed suddenly becomes surrounded by convicts waiting to lay claim to his worn out boots and lice ridden blanket.
I suppose that this book may be more factually accurate than others from the same period, but we will never really know whether or not Papillon was totally truthful, but because of the inevitable comparison this book seems a little tame and repetitive at times. Well worth a read though, even if just to acquaint yourself with a darker side of the French judicial system of the early 20th century. show less
My favourite book of all time is Papillon, but there has always been the question of whether or not it a factual or fictional account of life in the French penal colony (or something of a mixture). One of the people cited as a source of inspiration/material has been Rene Belbenoit, interestingly he also wrote a biography about his time there called Dry Guillotine (the nickname given to the islands by prisoners). It seems that at the time of publication in 1938 it was a fairly popular book, but these days it is quite difficult to get hold of a hard copy.
Belbenoit was arrested and sentenced to penal servitude after a number of theft convictions, during these years he kept a journal that amazingly show more survived his various escapes and ocean dunking’s due to being wrapped in an oilcloth. We learn of the hardships and the really awful conditions that prisoners had to endure, with many not surviving to see freedom again. However, as with all situations there is always an opportunity for the crafty to survive and Belbenoit is no exception. He is always on the lookout for the next escape and in between makes sure that he ingratiates himself with the right people. Interestingly his relationship with the author Blair Niles really stood out for me, and she actually incorporated his experiences in her novel called Condemned to Devil's Island: The Biography of an Unknown Convict, it just seems unimaginable that she was able to arrange meetings with him during his imprisonment, and actually played an indirect part in a number of the escape attempts. Expect to hear about men at the very end of their tether, where a person who finds himself dying in his ramshackle bed suddenly becomes surrounded by convicts waiting to lay claim to his worn out boots and lice ridden blanket.
I suppose that this book may be more factually accurate than others from the same period, but we will never really know whether or not Papillon was totally truthful, but because of the inevitable comparison this book seems a little tame and repetitive at times. Well worth a read though, even if just to acquaint yourself with a darker side of the French judicial system of the early 20th century. show less
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- Original title
- Dry Guillotine. Fifteen Years among the Living Dead
- Original publication date
- 1938
- Important places
- French Guiana
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir, General Nonfiction, History
- DDC/MDS
- 365.988 — Society, government, & culture Social problems and social services Punishment History, geographic treatment, biography South America French Guiana; Guyana; Suriname
- LCC
- HV8947 .D4 .B4 — Social sciences Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminal justice administration Penology. Prisons. Corrections
- BISAC
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- 71
- Popularity
- 441,099
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.75)
- Languages
- English, French, Hungarian, Italian
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 10
