Roger Knobelspiess

• Roger Knobelspiess was born on 15 September 1947, in Elbeuf, Seine-Maritime. His brother Jean was shot dead by a shopkeeper for stealing his car radio. In 1972, Knolbelspiess was sentenced to 15 years for a robbery he has always denied committing. He was pardoned by François Mitterrand in 1981. Two years later, he was once again jailed for a robbery he said he had nothing to do with. He was cleared of charges in January 1986. The following year, he was arrested while robbing a bank and sentenced to seven years in jail. In 1989, he got 9 years without parole for a shoot-out with the police in which no one was hurt. In August 1990, he was granted early release and finally left the prison system for good. All told, he had spent 26 years in jail.

  His book QHS (High Security Prison) was published by Stock in 1980, with a foreword by Michel Foucault, QHS’s denunciation of conditions in French jails – and particularly in solitary confinement – made waves.

  Several more books followed, including L'Acharnement ou la Volonté de l'erreur judiciaire (Relentless, or Deliberate Judicial Error), Voleur de poules (Chicken Thief) and Le Roman des Ecameaux, published in 1984 by Grasset, which has been out of print for years.

  Serge Quadruppani and Maurice Nadeau’s book Un coupable idéal, Roger Knobelspiess (Roger Knobelspiess, the Perfect Culprit) was published in 1985.