Quick Facts
Biography
André Maturette (born 1914) was an inmate in the French Guiana prison colony of Devil's Island who attempted to escape with Henri Charrière and Joanes Clousiot.
Biography
According to Henri Charrière's autobiography, Papillon, Maturette was born in France and was arrested in 1932 when he was seventeen for the murder of a taxi cab driver. He was originally sentenced to death by guillotine but was later sentenced to life because of his young age.
In early 1933, Maturette was sent to the penal colony in French Guiana where he met Charrière and Joanes Clousiot who he would eventually escape with. In the early morning hours of 28 November 1933the three escaped from the hospital in Cayenne prison and went to a leper colony, buying a boat from the lepers led by Toussaint.
Eventually, they were all recaptured in Colombia, and were returned to French authorities who sentenced them to two years solitary confinement. Clousiot died shortly after being released from solitary, where he served a two-year sentence. Charrière survived solitary confinement and successfully escaped from Devil's Island on a bag of coconuts, while Maturette stayed in Royale working in the hospital.
In the 1950s, Maturette was living and married in Venezuela. In the 1973 film Papillon, he was portrayed by Robert Deman.