2023-10-23 13:54:00
“Armand the convict, the eternal escapee” published by Le Cherche midi is the new book by André Bendjebbar. The historian is known for carrying out very in-depth research to write his works. He notably wrote a work on Jean Galmot “Le Prophète de Guyane” for the same editions. This time, he is interested in a “professional” escape, who has fallen into oblivion.
The idea of writing this biography “Armand the convict the eternal escapee” published by Le Cherche Midi began as an adventure novel. The author, André Bendjebbar, worked in 1990 on the prison painters in the archives of the Alexandre-Franconie museum in Cayenne. He discovers a school notebook entrusted to the Spiritan fathers by a certain Armand Spilers, condemned to the penal colony in 1925. It is the epic memoir of Armand Spilers, multiple escapees from French prisons.
André Bendjebbar is a historian, author of numerous works. The story of Armand Spilers challenges him, seduces him. He sets out in the footsteps of this man with an incredible life. A journey that takes him to Guyana, but also to Lille, Pau, Aix-en-Provence, Caen, Colombia and Spain. He undertakes research in prison archives and national archives.
Armand the convict, the eternal escapee” published by Le Cherche midi by André Bendjebbar • ©Marie-Claude Thébia
Armand Spilers was born in 1902 in Lille. Apprentice metallurgist, carter, locksmith, he became receiver following the armistice. He was arrested for ten thefts involving receiving stolen goods. He makes a master key for himself and runs away. It was the beginning of a long series of incarcerations and escapes. When he died in 1980, he spent 28 years in prison.
Incarcerated in the penal colony of Guyana, on Île Royale upon his arrival, Armand kills a prisoner who wants to rape him and pleads self-defense. For two years, he bought a car. Disinterned in a quieter camp in Kourou, he organizes his escape, but fails. For a year, he will be a recluse on Devil’s Island, a terrible descent into hell. Then moving from camp to camp, he becomes a transport barge for the prison administration and once once more organizes an escape…
Armand Players • ©DR
With 5 other convicts, he builds a makeshift raft. In the end, only three of them survived when they landed in Colombia. He becomes Armando Trilero, but is arrested and transferred to a Colombian prison, from which he escapes once more…
Crossing the Andes mountain range on foot, he crossed Venezuela, then sailed to Cuba, Jamaica and Panama, and became a gold prospector. He returned to France in 1935 under a false identity but caught by the courts, he was placed in La Santé prison and… escaped.
Armand Spilers becomes the “king of escape”. His reputation spreads around the world. He is caught in Pau and becomes the most closely monitored prisoner in France. He was sentenced to death on February 5, 1937, but was pardoned by President Albert Lebrun. He died on September 13, 1980.
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