DEVIL’S ISLAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23505, 20 May 1938, Page 10

DEVIL’S ISLAND

A MAN WHO ESCAPED VISIT TO LITTLE SON PARIS, May 7. A wondering-eyed child raised a tiny face to gaze at his mysterious father, of whom his grandparents had previously spoken only in a half whisper. The father was Rene Vaude, an escapee from Devil’s Island prison, who had paid a stealthy visit to see his child. Vaude clasped the boy in his arms, gazed long and silently at him, imprinting his features on his memory, and then said: “How you have grown.” Embracing the child again, he disappeared into the darkness of the street, and set out on a lorry for Paris. Gendarmes arrested him at Nogent-sur-Seine. “I loved the boy’s mother,” said Vaude. “I stole for her. I was without money and out of work. She was about to leave the hospital with the child.”

Vaude continued to steal until he was arrested on November 27, 1930. He learned that the woman for whom he had stolen had informed on him. He spent seven years’ imprisonment at Cayenne, French Guiana, and escaped in a canoe with a companion.

The other man became demented and attacked Vaude, who reached Panama and embarked on a French vessel. The police awaited him at Saint Nazaire. He swam ashore and went to Paris. Then he went to Troyes, where his son was living. The boy is now eight years of age, but the father had not seen him since he was a few months old. The child has lived with his grandparents since he was a baby.