Show eat at ST T 0 guillotine x FRANCES DRY devils island a prison dreaded by criminals disease and death haunt the prison colony marriage at one time permitted now forbidden 41 j V P 4 v the island guillotine shown at left takes the heads of several of the unfortunate or fortunate prisoners every year the biggest and strongest convicts are used as galley slaves as shown above these photos were taken by bichara halliburton who lived as a prisoner to obtain this story by RICHARD halliburton kuther of the royal road to romance etc apen EN prisoners escape A from devils island islan d land at trinidad fugitives from devils island arrested in british guiana returned to french authorities ties e s f I 1 devils island escape revealed when bodies of six french convicts drift ashore in brazil scarcely a month passes without its press story of an escape from devils island having spent a surn summer in the famous prison I 1 am particularly ticul arly interested in these reports even though I 1 know that none of them are true there has never in history been an escape from devils island lives as convict to find out why de portes never come coma back I 1 went to devils island of my own accord I 1 put on the convict stripes and lived where the prisoners lived and as they lived except that with the connivance of the guards I 1 was able to move about wherever I 1 chose nor could 1 I being a free man ever feel even a small part of the degradation and despair that I 1 observed landing on the mainland at cayenne the capital of the colony and the headquarters of some eleven hundred de portes I 1 lost no time in finding a convict uniform a very simple little costume consisting of faded cotton trousers and a straw hat wearing it I 1 walked into a barrack unchallenged and was locked up for the night with 77 convicts the barrack a hundred and twenty feet long by twenty wide was more like an army dormitory than a prison down the center ran an aisle on each side of which stretched a row of canvas beds on the beds the convicts ate sprawled end and slept they had no lockers no possessions no privacy eight small barred windows near the coiling ceiling let in a taint faint breeze and many many mosquitoes of the 77 men in this barrack 49 were serving life sentences for murder only 44 were french the others were germans poles negroes and arabs among the french more than half were from the mars marseilles district t the chicago of france lyons had the next best representation only two came from paris this division was fairly typical of the 40 other barracks in the colony the french prisoners with all their misery and hopelessness talked animatedly as frenchmen will the subject is usually escape pr or aey played cards for the francs that they had earned as servants or laborers how do they guard their winnings in tills this community of thieves there are no banks the uniforms have no pockets money hidden would be found and stolen nevertheless money is accumulated against the day of escape and guarded in the safest place a convict has cashis ahls own body each prisoner carries within his body an aluminum capsule three inches long and an inch thick called a plan in which he secretes his hoar dings because of his plan many a convict has lost his life garroted garro ted by his fellows and carved open for a profit of five francs meeting bleating the prisoners looking at the men in the barrack I 1 could believe them capable of murdering for less they were a tough and stupid lot for generally s speaking peaking those with refinement or intellect are the first to die off or be killed it is a sad fact that under such conditions the subnormal sub normal uve live longer and thrive i better some of them having become immune to the prevailing diseases actually grow strong on oil the meager rations and hard work A few in the barrack were physically magnificent with hard muscles and skin burnea burned black by the sun these were the strong arms the dictators tyrannizing over the weak and dispirited who make up the mass more than halt half my fellow prisoners were under twenty five several hardly more than adolescent but nearly all of whatever age or color came from the off of the earth A decent and appealing face was a rarity indeed I 1 found an empty bed which was really reaby just one of 80 canvas strips stretched taut from the wall to an iron bar and made the acquaintance of my neighbors on my right ight was a tattooed plug ugly about thirty who said he had murdered his sweetheart the tattooed gentleman had bad been in in the box seven years he had come from france with others on the convict ship of that shipment less than a hundred were left alive from him I 1 learned that there were about prisoners in guiana on the mainland on the islands and about Ube freed prisoners not permitted to leave the colony no more marriage I 1 asked him it there were any women convicts with whom the prisoners could marry he laughed cynically ica once yes but no longer in former timos times if a convict wanted a wife he went to the barracks and announced the fact to the matron who lined up all the women and asked who wants this man the hands would go dp up hed I 1 look over the willing ones no not you youre too old and youre too evil looking and you have no teeth the matron would hurry him rushed for time hed pick out the most acceptable one and she would be marched to the office their names would be put in the book that constituted a marriage and they could set about roaring rearing a new unfortunate generation tor for whom environment was sure to accomplish com whatever heredity had left undone these offspring as lawless as the very prison rats became such a problem that france was forced to ban prison marriages and in time discontinued complete ly the practice of sending female offenders to guiana however it they have money the prisoners can still find women usually the daughters of convicts and bush regresses moral standards scarcely exist at cayenne the heat tile the monotony the debased class from which guards and prisoners alike are recruited all combine to encourage depravity the population is a melange of convicts lab ores eres negroes chinese and prostitutes scrambled recklessly together not one child in four knows viat olor his father it even tor for a convict who cannot afford women they are still his chief preoccupation each prisoner in my barrack had a few pictures ol of actresses society beauties bathing girls cut from magazines and pasted on the wall behind his bed and each cherished a few photographs photograph of his wife or sweetheart the only personal property he Is allowed it was nine when the central oil lamp was extinguished tha card games ended seventy severi seven halt naked bodies and mine re labed on the creaking canvas beds but I 1 sleep much the tha stench was nauseating tho the vermin and mosquitoes swarmed forth for thell theli nightly feast and the rain beginning to rattle on the rusted tir tin roof streamed through la in a scora of places the largest stream was wai right over my bed I 1 paced th aisle all night between the rows ol of snoring murderers and scratching bandits bandl ts and by sunup looked as be draggled dragg led as the rest up early and to work at six the barrack door was un locked we all filed out to tho th kitchen where we seized tin cups plates and spoons and received oui om breakfast of coffee and bread whick we ate seated on our canvas beds then the whistle blew and the pris boners still hungry scattered to t their various daytime jobs the jobs are not exactly select houseboy scavengers water carri ers beasts of burden in tho the bumbel yards the prison tries to occula every well behaved convict in som way but there would not be enough work to go around for cayenne has less than people and 11 1 commercially dead were it not foi the fact that a good quarter of tha th prisoners are always incapacitated from sickness ess and another quartel quartee locked up in special cells as punish ment for trying to escape funeral in french guiana As I 1 walked on through the shab by town it was rousing itself slug indifferently for another daj a day which would bring nothing new to to break the monotonous rou tine which cayenne has long accepted as inevitable no one but bui myself looked up to notice a two wheeled cart drawn by tour four con evicts which was bearing a crudi crud new coffin along the street but I 1 decided to follow this informal fu fit to see where it would lead it led straight to one of the most mosi terrible features of guiana th bamboos bambo a few square rods ol oi ground surrounded by thickets ol 01 tall cane the convicts burial place I 1 call it most terrible not be cause it is as sickening as the bar barous conditions from which dealt releases the convicts but beckus in one shocking scene it sums ul ui and symbolizes the whole system in this small plot probably 1000 men have been buried since 1860 though the area Is not sufficient tj t contain graves space Is un ull limited in guiana but even so the samo same ground Is used oyer over an over again methodically and grim ly the furrows of fresh earth turned up beside the old graves move back and forth across thi th cemetery the bones of previous burials being dug up and burnet to make room for the newcomers one hundred and forty times in 71 years this ghoulish eviction hat hai been repeated 0 pol PJ syndicate mm service servi cio |