Editing Devil's Island (section)

====René Belbenoît====
[[René Belbenoît]] is perhaps the most renowned escapee of the penal colony, who wrote about his experiences in two well-received memoirs: ''Hell on Trial'' (1940) and '' The Dry Guillotine: Fifteen Years Among the Living Dead'' (1938). After leaving the colony with temporary permission in 1930, he eventually made his way to the [[Panama Canal]] where he worked for nearly a year. In late 1930, he decided to return to France to argue for his freedom. However, it was a crime for a Devil's Island convict to return to France. He was sent back to French Guiana in 1931 to the prison colony. This time he was sent to Île Royale rather than Devil's Island. He was put into solitary confinement for almost one year. In 1934, he was again released, but as a ''libéré'', or free prisoner, he was, as before in 1930, not allowed to return to France. He eventually made his way to the United States. He gained US citizenship in 1956. He died in California in 1959, age 59.