He’s an international man of mystery with
a license to kill. A lady’s man of legendary proportions known
for his rugged good looks and impossibly smooth charm. He’s a lover of fast cars and adventure
who spends his spare time at cocktail parties and in casinos. I am, of course, talking about the one and
only… Rubirosa, Porfirio Rubirosa. Wait, what? While that description might have sounded
strikingly similar to everyone’s favourite secret agent James Bond, Porfirio Rubirosa
was very much a living, breathing man. And his life was so remarkable it’s going
to be quite a challenge to cover it in a single YouTube video. But let me just give you a few highlights
to whet your whistle. Porfirio Rubirosa was a man so suave he inspired
Ralph Lauren to create the now world famous Polo fashion brand. He was so successful that despite being born
to a modest family in the Dominican Republic he amassed an incredible fortune and ended
up living among world leaders and movie stars. And he was so charismatic that some of the
most lusted-after women in all of history cheated on their husbands just to spend a
single night with him. Intrigued? You should be. Rubirosa was born in the Dominican Republic
in 1909, but he was to spend his formative years in Paris, where he lived until failing
the international baccalaureate at the age of 17. With no real prospects in Europe, he went
home, where he was to find the country of his birth on the cusp of great change. Because a few years later in 1930, a man named
Rafael Trujillo helped stage a military coup, overthrowing the government of the Dominican
Republic and installing himself as generalissimo. Rubirosa, meanwhile, had joined the military,
though he spent most of his time playing his favourite sport - polo. He was one of those guys who was good at everything
– well, apart from the international baccalaureate exams - and before long he was captain of
the national polo team. And it was at a polo game the young Rubirosa
would catch the eye of General Trujillo himself. As we’ll come to see, Rubi, as Rubirosa
was sometimes known, possessed the kind of charm that would make Hugh Grant look like
a football hooligan eight pints down on derby day, and Trujillo was immediately impressed
with the boy. So impressed, in fact, that he hired Rubi
to be a lieutenant in his own personal guard on the spot. It was a huge promotion - more money and status,
not to mention the backing of the nation’s new ruler. But there was one teeny tiny catch - Trujillo
just so happened to be one of the most brutal dictators in modern history. Three weeks after rising to power, he renamed
the Dominican capital ‘Trujillo city’ in his own honour, and churches were soon
required to display the slogan ‘God in heaven, Trujillo on earth’ on their premises. To say he had a bit of an ego would be the
understatement of the century. Trujillo would eventually be assassinated
by a CIA-sponsored hit team some 30 years later, but in the intervening years he ruled
the Dominican Republic with an iron fist. Political assassinations, widespread oppression,
blatant corruption - you name it, Trujillo was either doing it, ordering it, or turning
a blind eye to it, and, thanks to a certain penchant for murdering people who ticked him
off, those that got in his bad books didn’t stay there for long. Trujillo was an all-round bad guy, but his
most infamous and evil act was to order the killing of Haitians living in the Dominican
Republic’s north-western frontier in a slaughter known today as the Parsley massacre. It’s thought to have led to the deaths of
as many as 35,000 Haitians. OK, so what would you do if you found yourself
working under the watchful eye of quite literally the scariest and most powerful man in your
entire country? Keep your head down and try to stay out of
trouble? Perhaps even attempt an escape to safety in
some far-off country? Yeah - Me too. But not Rubirosa. No, he seduced his murderous new boss’ daughter. To give you an idea of how the generalissimo
felt about his little girl, I can tell you he’d named her Flor de Oro, which means
Flower of Gold, so I think it’s safe to assume she was rather important to him. It’s also safe to assume Trujillo had had
men killed for far, far less serious crimes than deflowering his precious Golden Flower. And no doubt he would have had Rubirosa killed,
too - if he’d been able to find him. You see, once the hormones had worn off a
bit, young Rubi had realised the precariousness of his situation and gone into hiding. And it seems the move paid off, because - given
a little time to cool down - the generalissimo decided against brutally murdering Rubirosa,
and instead presented him with two options. The details were complicated, but it pretty
much boiled down to this: marriage or death. After considering the offer for a good nanosecond,
Rubi decided marriage was the way forward. The wedding day was declared a national holiday,
and - now well and truly established in Trujillo’s inner circle - Rubirosa was given another
promotion, this time to the position of diplomat to the Dominican Republic. His first post was in Berlin during the 1936
Olympics, where he would find himself watching the Games alongside Hitler himself in the
Führer’s private box. Rubirosa had officially hit the big time,
and his new career would see him stationed all over the world - in Germany, France, Italy,
Belgium, the United States, and Argentina. He would eventually obtain the position of
‘Inspector of Embassies’, which seems to have been a job invented just for him and
gave him the excuse to travel pretty much anywhere he wanted on official business. On the surface it seemed like the perfect
role. There weren’t many duties to attend to,
aside from rubbing shoulders with world leaders and making friends with some of the most famous
people alive at the time. But some people believe Rubirosa’s unusual
job was in fact nothing more than a front. That instead of a diplomat, he was in fact
a spy. A hit man and an enforcer carrying out Trujillo’s
will around the world. It’s a big claim, and it’s never been
proven for sure. But we do know in the 60s Rubirosa was questioned
by the New York district attorney about two missing men, anti-Trujillo exile Sergio Bencosme,
who disappeared in 1935, and Spanish politician and writer Jesus Galindez, who suffered the
same fate in 1956 after writing a none-too-flattering book about the Trujillo regime. Rubirosa was also kept under surveillance
by the FBI for some three decades, so it seems the Americans were more than a little suspicious
about him. Whether or not Rubi really was busy bumping
people off on behalf of his boss, what he most certainly was busy doing was taking the
emerging international jet-set scene of the 40s and 50s by storm. He was known to be fast friends with the likes
of Frank Sinatra and the Kennedys, but the thing that defined Porfirio Rubirosa above
all else was his reputation as perhaps the greatest playboy and womaniser since Casanova
himself. Or, to offer you a more recent comparison,
Rubirosa was to the world’s most recognisable women what Ash Ketchum is to Pokemon. And just one look at Rubi’s poked-dex is
enough to tell you he pretty much did catch ’em all. In his life, he was linked with film stars
and singers including Zsa Zsa Gabor, Ava Gardner, Jayne Mansfield, Veronica Lake, Dolores Del
Rio, Eartha Kitt, Marilyn Monroe, Maria Montez, Rita Hayworth, Dorothy Dandridge, Lupe Vélez,
Judy Garland, Peggy Hopkins Joyce, Joan Crawford, and Kim Novak, as well as the Queen Consort
of Iran, Soraya Esfandiary, the First Lady of Argentina, Eva Perón (better known as
Evita) and dozens of others. It’s claimed Rubirosa was so irresistible
to women that all it took was one slow dance and they were his. In fact, some say he didn’t even need to
bother lacing up his dancing shoes, and as his unrivalled reputation as the ultimate
gentleman and lover grew, women would simply grab hold of him at parties, drag him to the
nearest deserted corner, and have their wicked way with him. You might be wondering how any man, no matter
how good looking or charming, could have such an effect on women. But it wasn’t just Rubi’s charm that attracted
the ladies. No, God had bestowed Porfirio Rubirosa with
another ‘gift’. I’m not sure quite how to put this, so I’ll
let Truman Capote tell you about Rubi’s special erm… asset. In his unfinished novel ‘Answered Prayers’,
the legendary writer described a certain part of Rubirosa’s anatomy as ‘An eleven-inch
café-au-lait sinker as thick as a man’s wrist.’ Yes, Rubirosa’s pork soldier was said to
be so enormous he had to have his underwear specially tailored just to accommodate it. But let’s not forget, Rubirosa was a married
man. And while not all of his Hollywood liaisons
came during his marriage with Trujillo’s daughter Flor, at least some of them did. After one too many nights coming home late
from ‘work’ with whiskey on his breath and lipstick on his collar, Flor filed for
divorce in 1938. It seems unlikely Rubirosa was too gutted
at this turn of events from a romantic point of view, but the divorce had put him in a
bit of a tight spot - he was broke. While he made a reasonable income in his capacity
as a diplomat, he’d largely relied on Flor’s riches to finance his extravagant lifestyle
of polo playing and parties. Luckily, this was Europe just before the beginning
of World War 2, and that created certain opportunities for a man with diplomatic immunity and friends
in high places. It’s thought Rubirosa began discreetly selling
Dominican visas to Jews desperate to get out of Europe before it was too late. And when a jeweller asked him to use his diplomatic
passport to help recover hundreds of thousands of dollars in rare gemstones from Madrid,
Rubirosa was happy to oblige – for a price. By some estimations, he made close to half
a million dollars from these schemes and others like them - that’s more like 7 million in
today’s money. But living on the wrong side of the law is
a risky business and, let’s face it, a bit too much like hard work for a gentleman of
leisure. So as war descended over Europe, Rubirosa
came up with another way to get his hands on some fast cash – he found the richest
woman he could and married her. Rubi was back living in Paris at the time,
and the lucky lady turned out to be Danielle Darrieux, France’s leading film star, who
fell for Rubi’s charms after he was asked to escort her home from a cocktail party. But before they could get married, Rubirosa
was imprisoned by the gestapo, who’d gotten wind of his antics spiriting Jews out of Europe
and suspected he was a spy. Darrieux offered to play a series of concerts
for the Nazis if Rubirosa was released, and a deal was struck. They were married soon after. But the agreement had an unfortunate side-effect
- playing concerts for the Nazis meant Darrieux was viewed as a sympathiser by her fellow
countrymen, and Rubirosa himself was thought by some to be a German agent. It made the couple a target, and in 1944 the
French resistance took aim - literally. The couple were ambushed while driving along
the Boulevard Malesherbes in Paris, and Rubirosa was shot 3 times while trying to shield his
wife. He made a full recovery, but decided it would
be a wise move to wait out the rest of the war on a small farm in the countryside. When the war ended, Generalissimo Trujillo,
who seemed to have gotten over Rubirosa’s divorce from his daughter, sent his young
diplomat a new assignment - a posting in Italy. Rubirosa and Darrieux moved to Rome, where
the local press clamoured to catch a glimpse of the glamorous couple. An interview with a local newspaper was arranged
for the day after their arrival, and when a gangly, enthusiastic reporter turned up,
Rubirosa’s life was about to change once again. You see, the journalist wasn’t just any
old hack - she just so happened to be the single richest girl in the world. Her name was Doris Duke, and, despite her
unfathomable riches, she’d decided to try her hand at a ‘normal’ job. The unusual career choice wasn’t to last,
but it did put her in the same room as Rubirosa for an hour or two on one fateful day in 1947. And when Porfirio Rubirosa was concerned,
an hour or two was more than enough. Doris’ father was James Buchanan Duke - he’s
the reason Duke University in North Carolina has its name. He was also the owner of American Tobacco
and the man who first invented the mass produced cigarette. And, as the estimated 100 million people who
died from tobacco-related causes in the twentieth can attest to - those little cancer sticks
really caught on. Doris Duke was James’ only daughter and
heir, which meant she was to inherit the entirety of his fortune. In today’s money, her net worth would have
been measured in the billions. She fell for Rubirosa hard, and while he was
already married to an extravagantly wealthy film star, the pull of the richest girl in
the world was just too much for him. It’s reported Doris Duke paid Darrieux a
cool 1 million dollars to divorce Rubirosa, and before long, he was walking down the aisle
for the third time in 15 years. On their wedding day Doris Duke gave Rubi
a full stable of polo horses, a 17th century Parisian hotel, 500,000 dollars in cash, and
a converted B-25 bomber. You know you’ve married rich when 500 grand
is the least interesting part of your wedding gift. If Rubirosa had been living the high life
up until this point, he was now ready to go the playboy equivalent of super-saiyan. He had the resources to do quite literally
anything he wanted, anywhere he wanted. Unfortunately, it seems what he most wanted
to do was his ex-wife, Flor de Oro - and when Doris Duke found out the marriage was over
before it had really begun. But the great thing about marrying rich is
that even being a divorcee can be pretty well paid - and that’s despite the fact Duke’s
lawyers had gotten Rubirosa drunk and forced him to sign a prenuptial agreement on the
night before the wedding. As part of the divorce settlement he was given
$25,000 per year until he next married - the equivalent of close to 300 grand today. And Rubirosa made the most of it. When he wasn’t spending his days playing
polo or boxing, he was indulging one of his other great passions - fast cars. He entered his first competitive race in Le
Mans in 1950 behind the wheel of his very own Ferrari 166 MM, one of just 47 made, and
he drove in the Reims 12 Hour Race 3 years later. He even managed to get himself a seat in the
1955 Formula 1 Grand Prix in Bordeaux where he was due to race alongside the likes of
F1 legend Stirling Moss, but he fell ill in the buildup and had to pull out. To most people, this kind of hedonistic life
would have been a dream come true. But Rubirosa wasn’t most people. He once said that most men’s ambition was
to save money, while his was to spend it. And that wasn’t just a pithy catchphrase
he dreamed up to look good in print - he really meant it. It’s estimated that during his lifetime,
Rubirosa spent as much as 100 million dollars - the equivalent or upwards north of a billion
dollars in today’s money. And a desire for more money was probably the
motivating factor behind Rubirosa’s fourth marriage, too. But of course, when you’ve already divorced
the richest woman in the world, the only way is down - in financial terms at least. Still, Rubi was a man of principles - dubious
principles, but principles all the same - and he didn’t want to fall too far down the
financial pecking order. So he took the only logical course of action
available to him - he married the second richest woman in the world. Seriously. Her name was Barbara Hutton, another heiress
this time set to inherit retail tycoon Frank Winfield Woolworth’s estate. On the wedding present list for this one was
the largest coffee plantation in the Dominican Republic, 2.5 million dollars in cash, and
yet another B-25 bomber, because Rubi had managed to crash the first one. Now, you might think I’m being very cynical
here, claiming he was only after financial gain in his pursuit of these unbelievably
wealthy women. After all, perhaps it was just a coincidence
he got hitched to the two richest women in the world, one after the other. And hey, maybe you’re right. Maybe… but probably not. Because marriage number 4 was to last a grand
total of 53 days, during which time Rubi took a string of lovers and by accounts hardly
even saw his new wife. It’s thought the whole affair cost Barbara
Hutton $66,000 per day. Another marriage soon followed, but it seems
Rubirosa may finally have decided he had enough money to be getting along with, because he
didn’t bother hunting down the world’s third richest woman, but instead opted for
youth and beauty in the form of Odile Rodin, who was a full 31 years his junior. It was to be his last marriage, and though
it’s said he remained one randy bugger until his dying day, rumour has it Rodin was even
more unfaithful than he was. Though the years were finally beginning to
catch up with Rubirosa, they would never quite have the chance to overtake him. Because he died in 1965 at the age of 56 in
much the same way he’d lived - fast and at great cost. After pulling an all-nighter to celebrate
winning the Coup de France Polo Cup, Rubirosa unwisely opted to drive his Ferrari home at
8am. No doubt wildly over the limit, he hit a tree
at around 80 miles per hour, and though he survived the crash, the wooden steering wheel
had crushed his torso, and he died on the way to hospital. His death signalled the end of an era - he
was the last and perhaps the greatest of the jet set playboys - but his legacy lives on
to this day. I mentioned his similarities to James Bond
at the start of this video, and many people believe Rubirosa was in fact the real-life
inspiration for double oh seven. While Ian Fleming never explicitly named Rubirosa
as the basis for his books, the two did likely know each other - they moved in the same circles
and had many mutual friends, including Errol Flynn and Noel Coward, who lived near Fleming
on the north shore of Jamaica. Which is, of course, not far from the Dominican
Republic where Rubirosa was born. Much like the rumours he was a real life spy
and hitman, we’ll likely never know whether Rubirosa really was the inspiration for Bond. But there is another way Rubi’s legacy is
remembered around the world. Because it turns out the frankly frightening
size of his greatest asset led Parisian waiters to jokingly call the large pepper mills they
offered to their customers ‘Rubirosa’s’. The name spread around the world, and in some
restaurants it’s still in use today. Something to think about the next time you
grind a little pepper on your spaghetti bolognaise. Thanks for watching.
