Fresnes Prison - Famous Inmates and Escapes

Famous Inmates and Escapes

Like any major prison, Fresnes has had its share of famous and notorious inmates. Agnès Humbert, with other members of the French Resistance 'Groupe du musée de l'Homme' were imprisoned, tried, and sentenced there in 1941-1942. The automobile industrialist, Louis Renault, arrested for collaborating with the Nazis, died there in 1944 under "questionable circumstances". The SEO officer Peter Morland Churchill and French Resistance courier Odette Samson were taken to Fresnes prison after their arrest in April 1943 in Saint-Jorioz near Annecy; Peter Churchill was held prisoner until 13 February 1944 when he was transferred to Berlin for questioning, while Odette was tortured in Fresnes prior to being transported to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she survived despite being sentenced to death. Paul Touvier died of prostate cancer in 1996 at the Fresnes prison hospital during his incarceration for war crimes.

Throughout Fresnes prison's history, there have also been several memorable escapes, but none has been more dramatic than the breakout of the Italian mobster, Antonio Ferrara, in March 2003. In a commando-style raid, members of his gang attacked the prison with rocket launchers and assault rifles, and they set fire to nearby cars in what is believed to have been intended as a distraction. Arrested again four months later, Ferrara is now imprisoned in Fleury-Mérogis.

One member of Operation Aquatint, Captain Graham Hayes, MC, a founding member of the "Small Scale Raiding Force", was kept in solitary confinement for nine months before being executed (by firing squad) on 13 July 1943.