Henri Charrière (16 November 1906 - July 29 1973) was chiefly known as the author of Papillon, a memoir of his incarceration in a penal colony on French Guiana. The book details his numerous escapes, attempted escapes, adventures and recaptures from his imprisonment in 1931 to his final escape to Venezuela, where he became a resident in 1945, married, and opened a restaurant in Caracas. The book's title is Charrière's nickname, derived from a butterfly tattoo on his chest. The veracity of his account has been questioned but he always maintained that, excepting minor lapses in memory, it was entirely true. What follows is a summary of Charrière's life as recorded in Papillon.

Charrière was a safe-cracker of the Paris underworld, framed for the murder of a pimp, Roland le Petit. He was convicted and sentenced to hard labour for life on 26 October 1931. After a brief imprisonment in Caen he was sent to the penal colony in French Guiana. In 1933 he successfully escaped from a hospital on the mainland with two companions, sailing along the coast via Trinidad and Curaçao to Riohacha in Colombia. Here they were caught and imprisoned; Charrière escaped alone to Guajira. Here he spent several months living in a native village, taking two wives during his stay there. Eventually he left and headed westward, but was captured and imprisoned at Santa Marta, and later transferred to Barranquilla. In spite of numerous audacious attempts, he failed to escape from these prisons and was finally extradited back to French Guiana in 1934. For the escape he spent two years in solitary confinement on the island of Saint-Joseph. Upon release he was transferred to the island of Royale, where another escape attempt was foiled by an informer. After another nineteen months in solitary for the escape attempt and the murder of the informer, he feigned madness and attempted another escape from the mental hospital on Saint-Joseph. Finally he was transferred to Devil's Island. Here he finally succeeded in escaping, flinging himself into the ocean from a cliff with a bag of coconuts as a raft. Having reached the mainland, he escaped by boat to Georgetown. From here he and five others continued by sea to Venezuela, where they were captured and imprisoned in El Dorado. Charrière was finally freed on 18 October 1945.