TERRORS OF DEVIL’S ISLAND

Hokitika Guardian, 17 July 1929, Page 2

TERRORS OF DEVIL’S ISLAND

NOTORIOUS FRENCH PENAL CAMP 4 . . . WOEFUL TALE.OF WOULD-BE ES-CAPEES-VICIOUS GUARDS WHO BOAST OF KILLINGS.

The ,)Vorld ;hasy almost forgotten Devil’s islAiid since '’Captain Dreyfus was pardoned 30 years ago, but this famous settlement appears to be still functioning in the same old way. M. Heim’Bellon, ‘a Frenchman, has just returned home after eleven years spout on Devil’s Island in consequence of a judicial error. M. Bellon, who was wrongly convicted of betraying a French spy' operating in Switzerland during the war, declares that conditions on Devil’s Island are as terrible ' as ever. Picture, if you can, a rock 4000 fret” long and 1000 feet wide, with a few stunted trees growing here and there and heat that drives men insane. Add to thit cruel, guards, rotton food, Die desperate character of the “lifers” imprisoned there, and one has a slight idea ‘fllsfahd CjSod Forgot.jj so hot tljit it' [has been jsnwyn to crafk; a rocfl as large as a house V?hto;>two pieces;f/tThe heat, jha's burned! idyepytjiihg' bn the' island: :hlack as : ‘ The|f pridenial 'penal settlement of several thousand men is on the mainland r -.some miles at the back of ■ Cayenne, the capital of French Guinea; only a few traitors and particularly desperate murderers, all - serving life sentences, are kept on Devil’s Island. When M. Bellon arrived there were 36 convicts When he left there were only 10,.a1l til© others having died or been allowed to go to the penal settlement, on the mainland and soon there will be.dply nine, fyr on© of the ten has been sentenced to death by his fellows. This man betrayed a gang who were, trying to escape. They discovered / his treachery, and decided to kill him. Some morning he will be fquhd pinned to his cot with a long knife plunged through his heart. M. Bellon had the strange fortune to be placed .in the some cabin whore Drey fus 1 had been imprisoned. This cabiu, like the others, consisted of a room 18ft square, separated by, iron bars from another room. Wheiij Dreyfus was .there this second yooni was b&hiped by a watch consisting of one guard and three “trusties,” all armed , with revolvers, who were changed every 24 hours. Some of the old guards were still there when M. Bellon left, and they told him how they had watched Dreyfus day and night. The bed in his cell was fixed to a wall, as it is even to-day, and every night they used to chain Dreyfus’ feet to a stout iron bar. The hut is surrounded by a palisade IS feet high, so that absolutely nothing can.[hiS 'seen 'from within. ■ ' • • v Every time a boat passed neat’ the island; Dreyfus was put in chains for fear! ,*an attempt would be made to rescup;;him. Orders were given to shoofc/down Dreyfus rather than allow him tqj be rescued. • . \ He could only go out for ai walk over the rocks when accompanied by four guards with drawn revolvers. His only pastime was to walk to the farthv est end of the island and gaze at the horizon.; He built himself; a crude stone bench, which is still there Poor Dreyfus had a terrible time. On the slightest provocation he was given the worst punishmeint and insulted in the most .awful manner. It is all written in the, -prison records. - Thg-Dreyfus case eventually created such,,a ecaudal in France that condi« tionsr-Qn the island were slightly improved, and although the crime of anprisoner named Ullmo was just 9s serious as Dreyfus’ alleged offence, he was allowed more privileges. Ullmo could receive money and par* cels from home, have a little garden, and even raise chickens. But after 13 years, of this the ex-naval officer be-came!-./dosperate and tried to starve himself to death. A notorious bandit named Deboe, who had belonged to the Bonnot gang of motor bandits, and Dr. Rousseau, the kindly prison doctor, nursed him back to health over a long period of months. A. sainty old priest,’ Father Fabre, also took pity on Ullmo and obtained for him the benefit of the law in 1873, whiffy states that after five years good conduct on Devil’s Island a convict can be authorised by the governor of the colony to go the Cayenne to live. Ullmo had to wait thirteen years for ithis permission. He received a terrible sentence for a youthful crime, for which-! .perhaps, he was not entirely responsible. He has certainly atoned for his crime, but there are terrible marks, of suffering on his face. . One of the most notorious persons on theuisland now is the traitor Richard, who betrayed the French secret service to the German army of occupation during the war and caused Lieutenant Jacquet and his assistants to be allot; This .Tudas was saved from the firing squad by the Armistice. For some strange reason he does not repent,, but actually, boasts of his erilne to the other convicts, who regard him with disgust. 1 There are several Italians and Spaniards on the Island,, but so far as is known there are no Britishers. Many fantastic stories have been told concerning miserable men who, from time to time, have endeavoured ,to escape.from a mode of punishment which-no sane mind can comprehend.

SECRET PLOTTINGS. Do not believe that many men ever escape from that hell. Many get away, but they do not really escape. They are either captured, drowned during a storm, eaten ,by sharks, or swallowed up by quicksands along the coast. On the contrary it is easy for .the convicts at St. Laurent-de-Maroni, the mainland camp, to get away through the bush.

M. Bellon relates, an interesting, yet gruesome story of a convict who is going to be murdered some bright morning soon'. He was the leader of a group of' six men who were lodged together in one cabin, and decided to escape. ‘With great patience they dug a tunnel and built a boat in this tunnel. At the last moment the leader persuaded all his comrades to entrust him with their money, which they indiscreetly did. He really did not wish to escape at all. The moment the boat was launched he upset it, pretending this was an accident, and as all the food was lost this made the departure impossible. He even pretended to drown. Afterwards he told hsi comrades with tears in his eyes that he had lost the money also. They believed him for a time and then accidentally discovered that he had tricked them. He bad not lost the money. The gang have sworn to kill him, and liis passing out, which is as certain as the break of day, is only a matter of days or weeks. It invariably happens like that. The worst, the strongest, or the most vicious of a group trying to escape, knifes or poisons the others in order to steal the little bit of money they have saved up in various ways—and to have more food for themselves on the long and desperate dash to freedom. This has happened scores of times. The boats they make secretly in an attempt to escape are constructed of the inner membrane of cocoanut leaves, which, when bound closely together with wire, makes a strong framework. It is then covered with bits of old shirts, sheets, any doth they can lay their hands on, and then oiled. An extra sheet is taken to us as a sail, cocoanuts being fnsened all round the gunwales to keep thu boat afloat in case it springs a leak. I’his contrivance is very primitive, but safer than the pirogues, or hollowed-out tree trunks sometimes used. The wretched convicts who dream of escaping never calculate the chances# against them. When they are picked up and brought back they are gen • erally sentenced to five, ten or fifteen -years of hard labour, in addition to their original term. The men who have escaped from the island

during the .past fifty years could be easily counted on the fingers of one hand. VICIOUS GUARDS. The guards are a hundred: times more vicious than the convicts. They glory in calling themselves “ruin hunters,” and 'in boasting of thiir killings. . As an example of the utterly inhuman conduct of these monsters, there is the case of one who met tlnee convicts sent by the governor to carry food to some gold diggers and rosewood choppers.

He thought it was a good opportunity to ; hold them up and rob them of their money. After he had taken 500 francs from them he noticed they had a little left. Letting them pass on in their canoe, he shot them in the back, killing all three. He stole the rest of their money and provisions and returned to the colony and bragged about it. There was another brute who had the habit, when he had cultivated a grudge against a convict, of ordering the miserable wretch to take a pick and shovel and follow him into the blish. On arrival at a secluded spot, and making certain that lie was out of range of prying eyes, the guard would order his victim to dig a hole, calmly sitting by smoking his cigarette as the work proceeded. When he considered the hole large enough, the guard would yell, with a snarl and kick at his prisoner. “Halt. Let me see. Yes, that is just about your size.” With an oatli upon his lips, he would draw his revolver and shoot the convict down like a dog, and without earing to soil his hands m /the operation, he would kick the body of the dead convict into the grave which the latter had unconsciously dug for himself. “That s you, he would remark, spitting into the grave, rubbing his hands together and chuckling to himself as he prepared to return. If over' there was a “hell upon earth,” Devil’s Isle--the “Island God Forgot,” as the convicts name it—is that place.