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France ships prisoners to Devil's Island located off French Guiana so they would vanish from the public eye; Alfred Dreyfus, is a military officer is convicted of crimes he didn't commit.
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00:11A CIDADE NO BRASIL
00:45A CIDADE NO BRASIL
01:00Nicknamed the Merry Widow.
01:02Throughout the history of the prison colony, you probably had over a hundred executions.
01:07And finally, a daring escape by sea.
01:10It is so difficult to escape Devil's Island.
01:13It's surrounded by treacherous waves and currents, rocks, sharks.
01:19These are the stories from inside Devil's Island.
01:24This is Prison Chronicles.
01:33Devil's Island.
01:35Surrounded by shark-infested waters.
01:38In the thick of the jungle, many prisoners go mad here from the isolation.
01:43Located in French Guyana, on the north coast of South America,
01:48the prison consists of a large camp on the mainland
01:51and three islands ten miles off the coast.
01:55Yle Royale, St. Joseph, and the smallest of them all,
02:00at only 35 acres, is Devil's Island itself.
02:04Devil's Island was used mainly to isolate people.
02:10Yle Royale is the administrative center and where they had the largest jail.
02:16St. Joseph was used for solitary confinement.
02:23The Penal Colony officially opens in 1852.
02:28The Penal Colony is a distant form of punishment.
02:32The idea is obviously to expel the convict, placing them in another location.
02:39France wanted to eliminate, as far as possible from the French mainland, its undesirables.
02:48French Guyana became the principal and most notorious penal colony that France was running
02:54in the 19th and 20th centuries.
03:00Once sentenced to Devil's Island, new prisoners must make a 4,500-mile trek from France to French Guyana by
03:10ship.
03:11Surviving the voyage is an ordeal in itself.
03:16Below deck, there were a series of cells and cages.
03:21Conditions were quite brutal.
03:23Men died on the passage, typically from dysentery.
03:27There was no provisions for sanitation.
03:31When the prisoners arrive at the Penal Colony, they're sorted and booked on the mainland.
03:37Conditions are absolutely hellacious from the start.
03:43Tens of thousands of people died over the century-long course of the Penal Colony.
03:48There are many, many ways to die on Devil's Island.
03:53Heat stroke from extreme temperatures.
03:56Dysentery from poor sanitation.
03:59Exhaustion from overwork and malnutrition.
04:02Diseases like malaria and yellow fever.
04:06With few options for escape, many contemplate suicide.
04:09Even the island's most famous inmate, a French military officer who must choose between taking his own life
04:16or holding out hope his family will ever rescue him, Alfred Dreyfus.
04:24Alfred Dreyfus was a captain in the French army.
04:27But in 1892, there was hostility within the general staff to the inclusion of a Jew.
04:36He was an atypical officer for three reasons.
04:44He was a Jew, he was an Alsatian, and he was wealthy.
04:50All those three components played into the trumped-up charges of espionage.
04:58In 1894, Dreyfus is accused of sending French military secrets to the Germans.
05:04A piece of paper that had been found in the garbage of the German embassy by France's spy,
05:12who was the cleaning lady.
05:14And this vague letter, which is unsigned,
05:19contained a list of several possible offers of information,
05:25including information about artillery.
05:28And because Dreyfus was already considered suspect because of his religion,
05:35he was implicated by a variety of illegal means.
05:41The evidence was scant.
05:43He's exposed to what will become an international humiliation.
05:48Dreyfus is convicted of espionage and shipped off to Devil's Island the next year.
05:55Can he prove his innocence and escape the island alive?
06:02In 1895, French military officer Alfred Dreyfus is sentenced to life at Devil's Island,
06:09a remote and deadly penal colony in French Guiana.
06:13His imprisonment is an exercise in what I can only describe
06:18as a case of colonial hysteria and colonial paranoia
06:23because of the lengths that they went to keep one man under confinement in Devil's Island.
06:34The French authorities know their case against Dreyfus is weak
06:37and public discontent over his conviction is spreading quickly back home in France.
06:43They're hoping that on Devil's Island, he'll be out of sight, out of mind.
06:49They'll just have to make sure he stays there.
06:54The Penal Administration became obsessed
06:58that Dreyfus would be kidnapped,
07:01that he would escape,
07:02or that he would commit suicide.
07:04He was guarded by eight guards for one prisoner
07:08on an isolated island.
07:12It's virtually impossible to escape from this island because of the current.
07:18Making the mania about Dreyfus' detention and isolation even stranger, right?
07:24Given how difficult it is to escape,
07:27it's striking that they felt it necessary to lock him in at night,
07:32to give him a tiny courtyard in which to walk back and forth.
07:36So these are measures that indicate an administration
07:40that is terrified of making a mistake that will become visible in France.
07:46Stuck on a tiny island, a world away from his family,
07:50his sanity begins to falter.
07:53That type of confinement led not only to Dreyfus' mental decline,
07:58but to his physical decline.
08:00He was suffering from dysentery and began to have malarial attacks.
08:07He began to have problems coping with his confinement.
08:13And what really starts to drive him mad
08:16is the silence.
08:18The guards had very, very strict orders not to speak to him.
08:24He spends his days reading and crying.
08:27What Dreyfus doesn't know is that back in France,
08:30people are campaigning hard to overturn his conviction.
08:37Dreyfus' brother, Mathieu, will lead the campaign.
08:42A whole bunch of people will rally to his cause
08:44in the media, in politics, and also in the literary world.
08:49The campaign to free Dreyfus gains traction
08:52thanks to his brother's efforts.
08:56Mathieu will take advantage of the mass press
08:59because he will be able to submit documents
09:03demonstrating Dreyfus' innocence to newspapers.
09:09In 1897, with popular support for Dreyfus growing,
09:14the French authorities are afraid someone will attempt a rescue.
09:18They move him to a smaller, more secure cottage
09:21where he can no longer view the sea from his window
09:24and put him in leg irons.
09:28Dreyfus lives chained to his bed every night for two years.
09:33But finally, in 1899, Dreyfus gets a glimmer of hope.
09:39His case is eligible for appeal.
09:41He's going back to France.
09:44When he did go home, he was tried a second time
09:48and convicted a second time.
09:50The reasons for that conviction, once again,
09:53had a lot to do with honor,
09:56the fact that the French judicial establishment
09:59did not want to admit to an error.
10:02But the French president pardons Dreyfus
10:04in an effort to save the army's reputation.
10:08But the important thing about a pardon
10:10is that it does not dishonor the military
10:13by implying that they lied.
10:19Dreyfus is free,
10:21but the horrors of Devil's Island
10:23haunt him for the rest of his days.
10:26For Dreyfus, being imprisoned on Devil's Island
10:29and being innocent
10:30was a psychological torture
10:33that he never actually got over.
10:38Madness and suicide
10:41are just the beginning for inmates at Devil's Island
10:44because those who try to rebel or escape
10:47have another punishment hanging over their heads.
10:50A guillotine nicknamed the Merry Widow.
10:55How will prisoners escape
10:57this steel instrument of death?
11:03At the French penal colony of Devil's Island,
11:06madness and suicide are rampant
11:08because some of the greatest evils on the island
11:11come not from the jungle or isolation,
11:14but other prisoners.
11:19When lights were out,
11:21it became a den of iniquity
11:23where people were murdered on a daily basis.
11:25But what went on inside was up for grabs.
11:29The guards would simply stay outside
11:31to make sure that people
11:32didn't escape the barracks itself.
11:35And those who do try to escape
11:37are faced with another deadly threat,
11:39a guillotine nicknamed the Merry Widow.
11:43There was a guillotine
11:44located in the camp for crimes
11:46within the penal colony,
11:48especially escape.
11:53The guillotine was used on average
11:56four or five times a year.
11:58So throughout the history of the prison colony,
12:00you probably had over 100 executions.
12:03Everybody would be brought out
12:05for the public display of the guillotine
12:07and then the beheading
12:09of that particular prisoner.
12:13Now, the executioner
12:15was a convict
12:17drawn from the ranks of convicts.
12:22The executioners
12:24immediately had to change their lifestyle
12:26because they became
12:27the most hated, detested
12:29of their fellow prisoners.
12:31They could not live in the barracks.
12:32They were given a separate hut
12:35surrounded by a high picket fence
12:38so they could protect themselves
12:40and they were permitted
12:41to carry knives.
12:45The most notorious executioner
12:48in the history of Devil's Island
12:49is Isidore Hespel.
12:52Known as the Jackal,
12:54Hespel beheads 50
12:56of his fellow convicts
12:58between 1898 and 1921.
13:02But his relationship
13:03with the Merry Widow
13:04doesn't end once his sentence is over.
13:09Hespel is living in French Guyana's
13:12capital city, Cayenne,
13:14as a Libre,
13:15like most of the prisoners
13:17who have served their time.
13:19To be a Libre means
13:21that you are ostensibly free,
13:24but you're only free
13:25in the sense that you
13:27are no longer
13:28under the auspices
13:31of the French penal colony,
13:32but you can't leave the colony.
13:35The Libre was really
13:36to be a pariah
13:37because it was very difficult
13:39to get any sort of work.
13:41To make money,
13:43Hespel scams prisoners
13:44with fake escape plans.
13:46When one convict
13:47wants his money back,
13:49Hespel murders him.
13:51The executioner,
13:52after his liberation,
13:54became a murderer himself.
13:56The Jackal
13:57is sentenced to death.
14:00In 1923,
14:02he's executed
14:02by the same device
14:03he operated
14:04for over two decades.
14:10Even with the threat
14:11of the Merry Widow's blade
14:13coming down on your neck,
14:15attempting an escape
14:16is enticing.
14:18It sure beats
14:19sitting around
14:19and waiting to die,
14:21but escape
14:22is much easier said than done.
14:25It was very difficult
14:27to escape at all
14:28from the islands.
14:29There are only
14:30a handful of instances
14:32where people were successful
14:34in doing that,
14:34and they were captured
14:35on the mainland.
14:37It is so difficult
14:39to escape Devil's Island.
14:41It's surrounded
14:43by treacherous waves
14:46and currents,
14:47rocks, sharks.
14:48It's turbulent
14:50and difficult.
14:50The mainland especially
14:52filled with
14:54all kinds of wild animals,
14:57insects,
14:58all kinds of snakes,
15:00every kind of pest.
15:02It was brutal.
15:04But one man
15:04is willing to try
15:05and beat the odds
15:06and be the first person
15:08to escape the madness
15:09at Devil's Island,
15:10even if it means
15:12losing his life.
15:13Charles Derudio.
15:16An Italian nobleman,
15:18Charles Derudio,
15:19has something
15:20of a Napoleon complex.
15:22This has nothing
15:23to do with his height,
15:24but rather the crime
15:25he commits
15:26against Napoleon III.
15:28Napoleon III
15:30was Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew,
15:32initially elected
15:33to president of France
15:35in 1848
15:36and anointed himself
15:39the emperor of France
15:40in 1851.
15:43Charles Derudio
15:45got involved
15:46involved with a plot
15:47to assassinate
15:48Napoleon III,
15:50the French emperor
15:51who had supported
15:53the church
15:54and was against
15:54the Italian unification.
16:00They threw a bomb
16:02at Napoleon III's carriage.
16:07He didn't die.
16:10He and the others
16:12were sentenced
16:12to death
16:13by guillotine.
16:15His wife's extensive
16:15connections
16:16spared Derudio
16:17the guillotine,
16:18but he sent away
16:19to Devil's Island
16:21for life.
16:22Can the penal colony
16:23hold him
16:24or will he find
16:26a way out?
16:31Devil's Island,
16:321858.
16:34Charles Derudio
16:35begins his life sentence
16:37at the penal colony
16:38for attempting
16:39to assassinate
16:40Emperor Napoleon III.
16:42He was sentenced
16:43to hard labor.
16:44They made prisoners
16:45chop down trees
16:46in the jungle.
16:50Derudio
16:50almost immediately
16:52decided he had
16:53to escape.
16:55While felling trees,
16:57Derudio comes up
16:58with a plan.
16:59He recruits nine men
17:01to carve out a canoe
17:03from one of the
17:03largest trees,
17:05something seaworthy
17:06enough to let them
17:08escape.
17:09But at the last minute,
17:10the plan completely
17:12falls apart.
17:14The day they were
17:15supposed to leave,
17:16most of them came down
17:17with yellow fever,
17:18so that escape was
17:20over before it began.
17:25Months of hard work
17:26and planning
17:26is all for nothing.
17:28But Derudio
17:29is not the kind
17:30of man to give up.
17:32Despite the treacherous
17:33sea,
17:34meager rations,
17:35and patrolling
17:36gunboats,
17:38Derudio carries on,
17:39this time
17:40with a fresh team.
17:42Derudio planned
17:43another escape,
17:44and this time
17:45he had what he thought
17:46would be good,
17:47reliable crew members.
17:49What Derudio needs
17:51is a new boat.
17:52He and his team
17:53watch the fishing boats
17:55that come to shore,
17:56waiting to strike.
17:57In a moment
17:59where there was
18:00a lack of vigilance
18:01on the part
18:02of the guards,
18:03he stole a boat.
18:06Derudio and the
18:07other escapees
18:08sail away
18:09into the turbulent ocean.
18:15They spend
18:16three days at sea
18:17battling harsh,
18:18stormy weather
18:19and dense fog.
18:20A lot of their food
18:22was ruined
18:22from the salt water,
18:24but they kept going.
18:25They did not want
18:26to go into Dutch Guiana.
18:28Derudio and his men
18:29are aiming for
18:30British Guiana,
18:32over 350 miles away.
18:34If they set foot
18:36upon Dutch Guiana,
18:37they will be extradited
18:38back to Devil's Island.
18:41A Dutch ship
18:42did come near them,
18:44but ignored them,
18:45so they were happy
18:45with that.
18:46Then ultimately,
18:47as they got further
18:48out into the ocean,
18:50a British ship
18:51saw them
18:51and the British ship
18:52brought them
18:54to British Guiana,
18:56where they were
18:57received cordially.
19:01British Guiana,
19:02also in this case,
19:04did not hand
19:05Derudio back
19:06to the French authorities,
19:08even though there was
19:09a request
19:11from the French consul.
19:13The story of Charles
19:14Derudio does not end
19:16on the shores
19:16of British Guiana,
19:18but rather
19:19in the United States.
19:20He made his way
19:22to the United States,
19:23where his story continues
19:25in the Civil War,
19:27and then with
19:28General Custer.
19:31He is involved
19:33in one of the most
19:33famous battles
19:34in American history,
19:36Custer's Last Stand.
19:38Custer and his troops
19:39were massacred.
19:40There were only a couple
19:41of survivors.
19:42One of them was Derudio.
19:44Derudio was one
19:45of the lucky ones.
19:46He got out,
19:47but very few
19:48shared his fate.
19:50Of the estimated
19:5170,000 prisoners
19:53interned
19:54at Devil's Island,
19:55only 5,000 survived,
19:57most of whom
19:58never returned home
19:59to France.
20:01The penal colony
20:03of Devil's Island
20:04closes in 1953.
20:07But its infamous
20:08100-year history
20:09lives on
20:11in popular culture.
20:12There is something
20:14magical
20:15and sorted
20:18about the whole idea
20:19of this bizarre overseas
20:21penal colony
20:23in the middle
20:23of the jungle
20:24where people
20:26are desperately
20:27trying to escape.
20:29The most important
20:31takeaway of Devil's Island
20:32is don't export
20:34your criminal justice
20:36problems
20:36to somebody else's
20:38territory,
20:39even if you happen
20:40to own it.
20:41Cruelty,
20:42deprivation,
20:43and extreme isolation
20:45were part of
20:45the penal colony's
20:46design.
20:48All things the
20:49French justice system
20:50would like to leave
20:51in the past
20:52and never
20:53have another
20:54prisoner set foot
20:55on the inhospitable
20:57shores
20:57of Devil's Island.
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