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Ramfis Trujillo Profile

Ramfis Trujillo
Ramfis Trujillo
Photo of Ramfis Trujillo
(Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Martinez)
5 June 29 is born in San Isidro, Dominican Republic, the illegitimate child of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo y Molina and his mistress Maria Martinez Alba. Trujillo’s a former telegraph operator and cattle rustler and will seize power in the Dominican Republic in 1930; she’s the daughter of a baker and is married to Rafael Dominicis, a Cuban. Among Ramfis’ many half-siblings is his father’s first daughter from his first marriage, Flor de Oro.
c. 32 at age 3, his father makes him a colonel in the Dominican Army at a salary of $350 a month
3 December 32 his half-sister Flor de Oro marries young Dominican officer and diplomat Porfirio Rubirosa, becoming the first bride of the upcoming internationally renowned playboy
28 September 35 his father marries his mother, who becomes his third wife, finally making Ramfis legitimate
36 his half sister Odette is born in Rouen, France, to his father’s former, second wife, Bienvenida Ricardo
? his half-sister Elsa Julia is born out of wedlock to his father and a woman named Bermudez
? his half-sister Bernadette is born out of wedlock to his father and an American woman from Puerto Rico named Maynard
c. 38 is promoted to brigadier general at age 9
6 March 39 arrives in New York from Cap Haitien, Haiti, aboard the Santa Paula
Summer 39 is with his mother in France, taken care of by diplomat and brother-in-law, Porfirio Rubirosa
10 June 39 his sister, Angelita Maria, is born in Paris, France
? his father arrives in France aboard the Normandie but has his yacht, the Ramfis, sent to Cannes. Rubirosa gives the Trujillos a sightseeing tour of Paris.
25 November 40 as a diplomat at age 11, he arrives in New York from Cuidad Trujillo, aboard the Coamo
c. 42 his half-sister Yolanda is born out of wedlock to his father and his father’s steady mistress, Lina Lovaton, a former schoolmate of his half-sister Flor de Oro
c. 43 reverted to cadet, he enters the Dominican military academy at age 14
1 December 43 his brother, Leonidas Rhadamés, is born
c. 45 his half-brother, Rafael, Jr., is born out of wedlock to his father and his father’s mistress Lina Lovaton
c. 47 he and his bodyguards are frequent guests at the Six Sweetheart’s stint in Cuidad Trujillo. Later, one of the Sweethearts, actress Barbara Nichols, will remember that he sent her flowers and presents.
? he and some friends gang rape blonde teenager Rosalía Perdomo. Afterwards they take her to the Maríon hospital.
48 marries beautiful divorcee Octavia Adolfina Ricart. He’s 18; she’s about 19. They lived together almost two years prior to their marriage. His mother dislikes her.
c. 49 his first child, Maria Altagracia, is born
is given the rank of ambassador
November 49 as Inspector of Embassies, Legations, and Consulates, he accompanies his father aboard the Presidente Trujillo to Jacksonville, Florida
6 December 49 he and his father transfer to the yacht of Florida businessman George Gibbs for a cruise up the St. John River and a look at industrial installations
26 January 50 arrives in New York from Cherbourg, France, aboard the Queen Mary
c. 50 becomes lieutenant colonel at age 21
his second child and first son, Rafael Ramfis, is born
July 50 columnist Walter Winchell tells: “They are saying a Baltimore girl now visiting the Dominican Republic will marry Rafael Trujillo, Jr., whose pater is in charge there...”
August 50 columnist Jack Lait pens: “Rafael Trujillo, Jr., who couldn’t get parental consent to propose to Joyce Sittler of Baltimore, has the old man’s blessing with a fair Brazilian...”
October 50 Winchell returns to him: “Rafael Trujillo, Jr., son of the dictator of the Dominican Republic, and his Baltimore bride-to-be (photographer Joyce Sittler) will tell it to the judge. He changed his mind...”
November 50 is reported having settled out of court with “Baltimore beauty Joyce Sittler...”
c. 51 becomes colonel and brigadier at age 22
June 51 columnist Ed Sullivan expects him and Joyce Sittler to announce their engagement
? becomes a playboy during his visits to Florida
c. 52 his third child, Aida Azilde, is born
52 / 53 divorces Octavia
May 52 is reported courting Park Avenue’s Mildred Rochman
August 52 Winchell reports: “Rafael Trujillo, Jr., son of the Latin dictator, and Boston society lass Margaret Westburn make it public at Toni’s Caprice...”
53 the divorce from Octavia is annulled
is captain of the Cuidad Trujillo polo team playing the Gulfstream polo fields in Delray Beach, Florida. His father is among the spectators.
January 53 is a Manny Wolf’s duo with pretty Leni Simon
March 53 his father visits the United Nations in a much publicized trip to the United States. With him on his diplomatic mission are his second wife, Maria Martinez Trujillo; his daughter Maria, 13, who attends school in Washington; and his 8-year-old son Rhadamés Leonidas.
June 53 columnist Earl Wilson reports him “mooney over showgirl Mae Ree Autry...”
? in Cuidad Trujillo, Rubirosa introduces him to his new girlfriend, actress Zsa Zsa Gabor
30 December 53 serves as best man when Rubirosa marries heiress Barbara Hutton at the 1100 Park Avenue home of the Dominican consul general in New York, Dr. Joaquin Salazar. S. Leland Rosenberg, Rubirosa’s private secretary; Lance Reventlow, Barbara’s son; and Jimmy Donahue are the few guests.
c. 54 his fourth child, Mercedes/Merceditas, is born
May 54 columnist Dorothy Kilgallen reports: “Four armed guards waited outside Maude Chez Elle the other day while Gen. Trujillo, son of the Dominican Republic’s dictator, lunched with S. Leland Rosenberg...”
3 June 54 he and Octavia, three of his kids, and Angelita join his father and his wife in Madrid, Spain, where they are on an official visit to Generalisimo Francisco Franco y Bahamonde
12 June 54 the Trujillos visit Barcelona
? accompanied by Franco’s wife, Maria del Carmen, the Trujillos visit the El Escorial monastery outside Madrid
16 June 54 his father has a private interview with Pope Pius XII in Rome, Italy, and signs a Concordat with the Vatican
c. 17 June 54 awaits his father in Cadiz, Spain, aboard the Presidente Trujillo
? the Trujillos visit Sevilla and travel the up the coast to Malaga
10 July 54 the Trujillos return to Madrid
? his daughter Maria Aida receives baptism at the hands of the Patriarch of the Indies in the Palace of the Pardo, Madrid, in the presence of Franco and his wife
? for four days, the Trujillos visit Paris, France
End July 54 he, his wife and his father board the United States in Le Havre. His mother, Rhadamés and Angelita remain in Europe a little longer.
4 August 54 arrives with his wife in New York from Le Havre, France, aboard the United States
December 54 the press hails S. Leland Rosenberg his private secretary
55 his father buys the Sea Cloud, a 316-foot, 2,300-ton, four-masted auxiliary yacht from wealthy Joseph E. Davies, former U.S. ambassador to Moscow, for a reported $2.5 million. Built in Kiel, Germany, in 1931, the yacht was commissioned by financier E. F. Hutton and his wife, Marjorie Post, heiress to the Post cereal fortune, and originally christened Hussar. Trujillo orders the ship completely overhauled, redecorated for $5 million and renamed Angelita.
c. 55 his fifth child, Claudia del Carmen / María Angélica, is born
January 55 is seen at Manny Wolf’s with stripper Lili St. Cyr
20 December 55 is noted with his wife, Octavia Ricart de Trujillo, in Cuidad Trujillo at the opening of the International Trade Fair, celebrating the 25-year anniversary of the Dominican Republic. Brazilian president Juscelino Kubitschek and Cardinal Francis Spellman are among the guests. At the Agua Luz, his sister is crowned Queen Angelita I.
c. 57 his sixth child, Rafael Leonidas, is born
August 57 as Lieutenant General and Commander-in-Chief of the Dominican Air Force, he enlists at the U. S. Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Arriving by chartered plane, he is accompanied by his wife, Octavia, their six children, an entourage of aides and servants, and 27 private American guards. He rents the top floor of the nine-story Ambassador Hotel in Kansas City and a $450-a-month ranch house near Fort Leavenworth.
? is seeing psychiatrists and is under medication (Miltown and Doriden) for clinical depression and mild hypomania
Christmas 57 30 private agents are reported guarding him and his entourage around the clock at his ranch, an entire floor of a Kansas City hotel, and a private school in Boonville, Missouri, 105 miles to the east. “Eighteen of the agents guard Trujillo’s wife and five of their six children in the Kansas City hotel, six more watch over the general at his ranch home off the Ft. Leavenworth reservation, and six more keep light surveillance at Kemper Military School where Rhadamés Trujillo, 16, a younger brother of the visiting general, attends.”
December 57 he and Octavia formally separate
End 57 his wife leaves for Cuidad Trujillo with five of their six kids
Early 58 the press quotes him saying: “I like to spend money and I have it to spend.”
20 January 58 his sister, Angelita, marries Colonel Luis José León “Chesty” Estévez
? actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, the former girlfriend of his ex-brother-in-law, Porfirio Rubirosa, starts introducing him to Hollywood society
c. February 58 hosts Zsa Zsa aboard the Angelita, which is docked during Mardi Gras in New Orleans
? has a short affair with British actress and sexpot Joan Collins and gifts her with a 25K bauble from Van Cleef & Arpels. In her 1978 memoirs, she only has fond memories of him.
31 March 58 on medical leave from Leavenworth and with an entourage of seven persons and a pet dog, he flies to California and rooms in a rented $200,000 estate at 243 South Mapleton Drive in Holmby Hills. The monthly rent is $2,500. He’s in California for an operation for adenoids and a sinus condition.
Spring 58 Zsa Zsa hosts a candlelight dinner for him, 25-year-old actress Kim Novak, and her sister Eva. He and Kim are “ablaze with romance.”
Easter 58 is seen frequently with Kim in Hollywood
? presents Zsa Zsa, who’s rehearsing for "The George Gobel Show" at NBC in Burbank, with a $11,500 / $5,600 Mercedes Benz sports car plus a $17,500 chinchilla coat; Kim gets an $8,500 black Mercedes 220S with customized white leather interior, a $3,500 pearl ring and $1,500 earrings
April 58 to help the affair, Zsa Zsa stages a lavish party in their honor. The Jimmy Stewarts, the Robert Taylors, David Selznik and Jennifer Jones, Robert Mitchum, Louella Parsons, Rhonda Fleming, Shirley MacLaine, Maureen O’Hara, Ann Miller, Natalie Wood, and Porfirio Rubirosa attend.
? is noted by starlet Iris Lia Menshell, a.k.a. Lita Milan, for the first time when he enters the Mocambo with Kim, Zsa Zsa and Rubirosa; she thinks "he is Mexican with his whiskers and his shiny blue hair."
? the press learns about his gifts when a Hollywood car dealer reports that Ramfis shelled out cars for Kim, Zsa Zsa and himself
April 58 during a closed-door hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in Washington, Congressman Wayne Hays from Ohio claims that Ramfis’ lavish living during his year in the States will cost the Dominican Republic a million dollars at a time when the country is earmarked for $1,300,000 in U.S. aid. Ramfis declines any comment on the assertion.
? Zsa Zsa claims her car was a Christmas gift
Late April 58 is among the guests at a dinner thrown by Zsa Zsa at the swank L’Escoffier room at the Beverly Hills Hotel for her former boyfriend, Porfirio Rubirosa and his new wife, Odile Rodin. Kim Novak and Zsa Zsa’s publicity man, Warren Cowan, attend too.
18 May 58 his father tells the press in Cuidad Trujillo that Ramfis already filed for divorce from Octavia in the civil court of Bravos District in Chihuahua, Mexico, in April 1958, before showering Zsa Zsa and Kim with lavish gifts
? his wife files an answer through attorney Manuel Romo Gandara of Juarez, Mexico. “Five of her children are with her at her home in Cuidad Trujillo. The other is with the generalissimo in his rambling white residence behind a high stone wall in the heart of his capital. The children’s ages range from 1 to 9.” The divorce is expected to be final in July; Octavia will retain custody of their children.
20 May 58 the press is on hand when he says goodbye to Kim aboard his private railroad car in Los Angeles before leaving for Fort Leavenworth. He declares he plans to return to Kim in July after he finishes his studies in Kansas.
23 May 58 Kim goes to Cobina Wright's dinner dance, held at oilman Arthur Cameron’s sprawling Beverly Hills estate, in a taxi and tells the press that she gave that $8,500 sports car back to Ramfis
13 June 58 the U.S. Army announces that he won’t get a diploma from the Fort Leavenworth college because he “did not successfully complete the course.” He will only receive a certificate of attendance. In a reaction the same day, his uncle, president Hector Bienvenido Trujillo, appoints him chairman of the Dominican Joint Chief of Staff.
17 June 58 in Cuidad Trujillo his father says that the Fort Leavenworth decision to deny the diploma proves that the late President Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy is dead. The Angelita is on the way to Los Angeles to bring Ramfis home.
18 June 58 returns to Los Angeles in his railroad car and goes into seclusion at his rented Bel-Air mansion, where he says he plans to spend 15 days before leaving on the Angelita, anchored in Los Angeles harbor. Kim is in New York for location filming for Bell, Book and Candle.
Zsa Zsa tells the press that she’s still looking for a new wife for him. “What would be nicer than to have him marry a nice American girl? Think what this would do for friendly relations between his country and the United States,” she says.
21 June 58 Zsa Zsa and Kim are guests at an introductory reception given by him on the Angelita, which has Dominican soldiers posted around it. The next night, the yacht moves to Santa Monica harbor to be closer to the girls’ homes. Zsa Zsa and Kim. The Los Angeles Times dubs the Angelita a “floating funhouse.”
End June 58 the press tells that he has expressed interest in French newcomer Brigitte Bardot. From a French movie set, Brigitte says of him: “He looks very pretty.”
July 58 columnist Mike Connolly reports: “Last thing General ‘Ramfis’ Trujillo did before leaving Hollywood was phone Kim Novak – and next-to-the-last thing he did was sign a contract to finance Don Quixote. It will be produced in the Dominican Republic by Joe Kogan, with Vincent Price as the priceless Don and (they hope!) Red Buttons as Sancho Panza.”
3 July 58 he, Porfirio and Gilberto Rubirosa are sued for $10,000 in Santa Monica Superior Court by 22 / 23-year-old commercial artist and starlet Lynn Heyburn, who claims she was dunked without a cause in the swimming pool of his West Los Angeles mansion at 9:30 on April 11 while she was an invited guest. Ramfis himself wasn’t present. Finally she and Ramfis reach a quiet out-of-court settlement.
Mid-July 58 Earl Wilson writes: “Connie Moore is still exclaiming about a party she attended on young General Trujillo’s yacht. ‘He has a crew of 72,’ she guaranteed me, ‘plus a 12-piece orchestra that he carries with him constantly, plus 300,000 blow-ups of Kim Novak.’ Connie told her husband Johnny Maschio, ‘I’m sorry, but I like it.’”
c. July 58 hosts 24-year-old actress Debra Paget aboard the Angelita. He tells her that he wants her for the part of Dulcinea in his upcoming Don Quixote, but drinking during the whole interview muddles his thought and scares her off. Afterwards she says: “he is putting up the money to produce Don Quixote, the picture Mike Todd was planning before his death, and he wanted to interview me about playing the part of the leading lady. Besides, my mother went with me!“
? the press reports that he proclaimed his love for Debra Paget
15 July 58 the press notes starlet Lita Milan boarding the Angelita at San Pedro, California, and tags her "The Woman in Red." Five hours later Lita is noted running down the gangplank weeping, with two of his aides in pursuit. When they catch up, she sits down and weeps even more copiously. Ramfis watches from the deck.
16 July 58 the press suspects Lita of running off with him while scheduled to begin a movie. “Clad in a skin-tight red dress, she didn't get off before the boat departed.”
a spokesman for producer Edward Alperson tells that Lita called director Roger Corman via ship-to-shore radio Tuesday night from the Angelita. She requested that Corman skip her scenes in I, Mobster until her return. Actress Susan Cabot is called into action and takes over her role.
17 July 58 Lita leaves the Angelita in San Diego, California, and is flown northward in a chartered plane. Alperson says he will file a damage suit against Ramfis if it can be proved that he took her on a journey against her will. Dockside observers, however, agree she boarded the Angelita without assistance just before it sailed.
? tagged the "Lady in Green," Lita takes another yacht trip with him
21 July 58 columnist Earl Wilson reports that Ramfis plans to stay awhile longer and “asked the Horace Dodges to defer moving back into the Los Angeles home he rented from them...”
he and Lita show up at the Ensenada, Mexico, office of Justice of the Peace Miguel Santos Torres to ask for information about performing a wedding ceremony. Torres tells the couple this is impossible unless he has proof of divorce. Ramfis is reported to have recently secured a Mexican divorce from Octavia.
23 July 58 Lita abandons the Angelita in San Diego, California / Ensenada, Mexico, and is driven 220 miles to Los Angeles by one of his aides in a rented car. Her departure brings a sudden halt to rumors that Ramfis was planning to marry her. "The general has no intention of getting married," she says and reports back for work.
24 July 58 Lita is quoted saying that he is really a misunderstood "charming, delightful boy"
27 July 58 charters a four-engine, 60-passenger Western Air Lines plane for "slightly under $10,000" to fly Lita and a party of five to Acapulco, Mexico, where he's vacationing aboard the Angelita. An airline spokesman says the plane carried her, Dr. Louis J. Betz, Dr. and Mrs. Vincent de Paulo, and three other men. The general paid with a check.
August 58 stripper Lee Sharon is reported getting her “this-car-is-not-a-gift-from-Trujillo” sticker autographed by Ramfis himself
2 August 58 Lita returns to Hollywood from another secret flying trip to visit him. She says she doesn't know when she’ll see him again. The general is en route home, but, she says, "That boat has a slow engine on it." She claims: “The girl I read about in the newspapers isn’t me. To me, that girl is a freak. I’m not flighty and I don’t get involved in scandals. I’m just adventurous - but I don’t mean a female adventuress. And I still don’t feel that I was involved in anything sordid.”
5 August 58 columnist Dorothy Kilgallen tells: "Lita Milan's friends report they haven't seen her or heard from her in months, but they don't know whether the actress is really 'missing' or just planning a publicity stunt similar to her headline - making 'romance' with Rafael Trujillo, Jr., when he visited California some months ago..."
? partying aboard the Angelita, he returns via Miami to Cuidad Trujillo. There he crashes the official reception to honor his return and to declare him Joint Chief of Staff by showing up drunk and vomiting on his uniform.
c. 11 August 58 congress in Cuidad Trujillo passes a bill to name a new express highway for him
August 58 Lita moves into a new house in the Hollywood Hills. The press wonders if he made the down payment.
17 September 58 Lita’s agent confirms that she left sometime last month for the Dominican Republic after completing her part in I, Mobster
21 September 58 the press reports Lita’s forwarding address as "Cuidad Trujillo, Dominican Republic, care of General Trujillo"
November 58 Zsa Zsa explains breaking up with him because “she can’t afford to be silly anymore due to her career”
? Lita settles in a large home on the beach of Boca Chica, “between murderers and day laborers. Here she devotes herself to ceaseless changes of furniture and décor, and Ramfis follows her blindly in everything.”
June 59 is in charge of the torture and execution of a dozen of invaders, expatriates and freedom fighters who are brought to San Isidro Air Force base for interrogation. His behavior makes his father send him to a sanatorium and electroshock therapy in Belgium.
August 59 Mike Grande, Lita’s business manager, begins to worry as he hasn't heard from her in several months. He recently leased her Los Angeles home for a year. Eventually she cables Grande that she was ill the past several months but will depart from the Dominican Republic in a week for New York to visit her parents.
60 divorces Octavia
marries Lita Milan. He's about 31; she's about 27.
February 60 columnist Walter Winchell tells: "Lita Milan gave up her coast home to dwell 'permanently' in the Dominican Republic. Trujillo's son Rafael is that daffy about her..."
March 60 is in New York to meet diplomat and Kennedy advisor Robert D. Murphy to discuss financial and diplomatic relations
Spring 60 he and his entourage are off to Paris for the polo season
61 resides with Lita on an estate at Maurice Barrès 82 in the Neuilly-sur-Seine district, and in a mansion near the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, next door to Aga Khan’s residence
30 May 61 at about 10 p.m., his father dies at age 69 after a short gun battle at George Washington Boulevard outside Cuidad Trujillo. Seven ambushers with machine guns strike as Trujillo heads in his chauffeur-driven 1959 Chevrolet toward his San Cristobal estate La Fundacion for a rendezvous with his 20-year-old mistress, Mona Sanchez. He orders his chauffeur to stop and do battle. He falls with his .38 caliber revolver in hand; his chauffeur survives severely wounded.
celebrates the victory of his polo team, the Cibao La Pampa, into the early hours of the morning at his mansion near the Bois de Bologne. On his team are Rubirosa, brother Radhamés, and some military aides.
31 May 61 early in the morning, he learns about his father’s assassination via a phone call by his mother. He, Rhadamés, Porfirio Rubirosa, Gilberto Rubirosa, and S. Leland Rosenberg return to Ciudad Trujillo in a chartered Air France plane from Paris. He assumes power immediately and starts commanding the search for the suspects.
the battered body of his father is found in the trunk of an attacker’s car in the driveway to the home of traitor General Juan Tomás Diaz
1 June 61 is named Joint Chief of Staff of the Dominican Republic’s Air Corps, Army and Navy, altogether containing 25,000 men, and Secretary of State, without credentials
2 June 61 he and Rhadamés attend their father’s burial in the crypt of the San Cristobal Church. There are reports that the dictator’s face was so badly mutilated by bullets and his left arm almost severed that his widow issued an order not to open the coffin.
his armed forces report assassin First Lieutenant Amado Garcia Guerrero machine-gunned to death at the home of his aunt and the capture of Roberto “Fifi” Pastoriza, Pedro Livio Cedeno, and Huáscar Antonio Tejeda Pimentel. Still at large are Antonio de la Maza Vazquez, Salvador Estrella, and Antonio Imbert.
3 June 61 in a press conference in Cuidad Trujillo, he says he does not want to assume as much power as his father had. He says he wants “only the best relations with the United States.” There are rumors that at least 1,000 people have been arrested since the assassination and that many of them are being tortured.
Mid-June 61 Kilgallen reports: “His many French cronies don’t believe Rafael Trujillo really wants to rule over the Dominican Republic... He loves life too much, especially life in Paris, where he recently purchased a luxurious mansion at 82 Boulevard Maurice Barres, with every intention of spending most of his time there.”
Summer 61 even though Lita, his official wife and currently pregnant, is in Cuidad Trujillo, he stays with his current lover, a Paris Lido showgirl, and her mother at his Boca Chica home
27 August 61 accompanied by Ambassador-at-Large S. Leland Rosenberg, five of his six children, his mother, and his brother Rhadamés arrive at New York International Airport on their way to Europe. The children are said being returned to school abroad. This party is among the first to flee the Dominican Republic.
23 October 61 his uncles, General Jose Arizmendi Trujillo and General Hector B. Trujillo, flee the Dominican Republic aboard the family’s two luxury yachts, Angelita and Presidente Trujillo but return about two weeks later in an unsuccessful attempt to seize power.
14 November 61 resigns as Joint Chief of Staff of the Dominican Republic’s Air Corps, Army and Navy
18 November 61 he and two of his drinking aides shoot the six remaining assassins with submachine guns at a distance of 15 feet from the terrace of the Trujillo family ranch, Hacienda Maria, 19 miles west of Cuidad Trujillo. The remains of Modesto Diaz, Roberto "Fifi" Pastoriza, Huáscar Tejeda, Pedro Livio Ceno, Salvador Estrella, and Luis Manuel "Tunti" Cáceres are never found.
later that the day, he flees the country aboard the Angelita / Presidente Trujillo, shortly before U.S. warships arrive, his destination being Cannes, France. From Guadeloupe he takes a commercial airliner to Paris. His uncles and other family members escape by plane to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
29 November 61 after 13 days at sea, the Angelita returns to Calderas naval base, Dominican Republic. Aboard are found Ramfis’ close associate Andres Alba, the casket with Trujillo’s body, papers, jewels, and $4 million in cash. There are rumors that his father’s body has been kept in cold storage aboard the yacht ever since his assassination.
30 November 61 President Balaguer dispatches the dictator’s body to Paris in a chartered Pan Am DC-7
Late November 61 Winchell reports: “Rafael Trujillo’s private plane is parked near Hollywood, waiting for Kim Novak to change her mind...”
3 December 61 his father’s body is taken to the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris for burial. Ramfis is reported planning to erect an elaborate monument to the slain dictator.
9 January 62 he and two of his top-aides, Luís José León Estévez and Gilberto Sanchez Rubirosa, are sought for extradition by the Dominican government “in connection with the disappearance and presumed death of six men held for the assassination.” All three are supposed to live now in Paris.
February 62 the press tells about Lita: "In knowledgeable quarters it is said that she and Rafael have had it"
Early March 62 the Dominican government seizes $32 million of Trujillo property
Early 62 moves with Lita to a place near Madrid, Spain
adds flying to his passions, a sport forbidden him by his father
c. 62 his first son by Lita, Ramsés, is born. In 2000 Lita will claim to author Mario Vargas Llosa that her son opposes the common opinion about the Trujillo family and is interested in Dominican culture.
September 62 Dorothy Kilgallen writes: "Bella Darvi, who has been so depressed recently because of her gambling losses and dearth of impressive suitors, now has a beau who seems to be cheering her up. He's Ramfis Trujillo, and there's even talk that he might invest in a picture if Bella got a part in it..."
November 62 Dorothy Kilgallen reports citing Paris sources that “you haven’t seen playboys in action until you’ve caught the two Trujillo boys, sons of the late Dominican Republic dictator. They’re over there wearing long sideburns and breaking furniture in swank nightclubs and hotels, and the proprietors don’t seem to mind because they pay for all the damages they do. Daddy left them lots of money in European bank accounts long before he was done in.”
63 his second son with Lita, Ricardo, is born
May 63 Winchell tells that Ramfis has put a $250,000 reward for the demise of the last living assassin, Antonio Imbert
June 63 Winchell reports him living quietly with Lita and their two sons in Madrid
July 63 the Dominican government puts the Angelita, now renamed Patria, up for sale, minimum offer $2 million. Eventually a Miami-based company buys the craft. In 1978, a group of German businessmen takes over, renames her Sea Cloud, and has her explore the Mediterranean in summer and the Caribbean in winter.
8 February 64 is best man at his brother’s marriage to 20-year-old French starlet Daniele Gaubert in the Normandy village of Authouillet
30 June 64 his father’s illegitimate children, now in Florida, sue him, his brother, his sister and her husband, and his mother, in Geneva, Switzerland, for about $50 million, which they took with them in December 1961. A Geneva court orders the extradition of Rhadamés from France.
14 August 64 his father is finally interred at the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris
November 64 is reported residing with Lita and their infant son in a Madrid hotel suite. He shuns the Madrid nightclubs and devotes himself to raising racing horses and polo ponies at the family stables with his brother-in-law, ex-General Luís José León Estévez.
65 is sentenced in absentia by the Dominican government to 30 years at hard labor
August 66 his father’s illegitimate children, the “Miami-Clan,” try again to have him subpoenaed to Geneva. Now the missing money is considered to be approximately $180 million.
67 drives his car into a tree near Orléans, France. A female companion is killed.
? is a proficient pilot and flies a private plane several times a week
69 he and his family live on a ranch outside of Madrid
June 69 at his Resort San Rafael outside of Madrid, sixty persons die when the restaurant roof collapses
17 December 69 at 8:00 a.m., 8 miles from Madrid, in thick fog, his Ferrari crashes head on into a Jaguar driven by the 44-year-old Dona Teresa Beltran de Lis, the Duchess of Albuquerque. She dies instantly; her two sons survive. He was on his way to the Madrid airport. His face, which smashed against the steering wheel, is unrecognizable. There are rumors the CIA or President Balaguer might have been behind the crash.
18 December 69 undergoes surgery at Madrid’s Covesa Clinic for a fractured pelvis and head injuries
24 December 69 contracts pneumonia, the aftereffect of the car crash. He needs oxygen and blood transfusions.
26 December 69 in the afternoon, he has a tracheotomy, but his condition worsens. A doctor flown in from the States fails to save his life.
28 December 69 at 10 a.m., he dies at age 40 at Madrid’s Covesa Clinic of pneumonia. His mother, his wife and some of his eight children are in his room when he dies. Some sources say his former wife, Octavia, was present, too. He’s survived by his wife Lita; their two sons, Ramsés, 7, and Ricardo, 5; two sons and four daughters by his first wife Octavia; his mother; a younger brother, Rhadamés; and a sister, Angelita.
29 December 69 in the afternoon, he is buried at Nuestra Senora de la Almudena cemetery in Madrid. Lita is photographed with his first son, 19-year-old Rafael Ramfis.
November 70 his father’s body is finally transferred from Paris to a site near Madrid
? his widow is believed to have inherited $400 million. As Lita Trujillo, she will become a renowned Madrid socialite.
15 February 78 his half-sister Flor de Oro dies at age 62 in New York’s Beth Israel Hospital from cancer. His siblings Angelita and Rhadamés are reported living in Florida.
95 ? his brother, Rhadamés, vanishes in the Colombian jungle, allegedly executed by the Cartel. There are rumors that he worked for the Cartel and the DEA.
Sources:
Trujillo - The Life and Times of a Caribbean Dictator by Robert D. Crassweller, Trujillo - The Death of the Goat by Bernard Diederich, The Last Playboy - The High Life of Porfirio Rubirosa by Shawn Levy, La Fiesta Del Chivo by Mario Vargas Llosa, The Glamour Girls by James Robert Parish and Don E. Stanke, Such Devoted Sisters by Peter H. Brown, Madmen of History by Donald Hook, "Life on a Cloud" at www.TravelGuideS.com by Joyce Harvey, Uncensored, Screen Stories, Picturegoer, Photoplay, The New York Times, Times, Corpus Christi Caller-Times, The Lima News, San Antonio Express, Nevada State Journal, Kingsport News, Pharos Tribune, The Morning Herald, Albuquerque Journal, The Delta-Democrat Times, Mansfield News-Journal, Western Kansas Press, The Abilene Reporter-News, The Lawton Constitution, Leader-Times, The Ada Evening News, The Odessa American, Ironwood Daily Globe, The Coshocton Tribune, Sunday Journal and Star, The Lowell Sun, Syracuse Herald-Journal, Tri-City Herald, The Holland Evening Sentinel, Indiana Evening Gazette, The Times Recorder, Long Beach Independent, The Sun, The Kerrville Times, Long Beach Press-Telegram, The Oneonta Daily Star, The Salisbury Times, The Vidette Messenger, The Daily Gleaner, Charleston Daily Mail, Chronicle-Telegram, The Sheboygan Press, Express and News, S?ddeutsche Zeitung, Die Weltwoche, Great Bend Daily Tribune, The Gettysburg Times, Two Rivers Reporter, Appleton Post Crescent, The Progress, The Stars and Stripes, Edwardsville Intelligencer, The Port Arthur News, pro.Corbis.com, www.Ancestry.com
Recommended Books:
Trujillo - The Death of the Dictator by Bernard Diederich
Trujillo - The Life and Times of a Caribbean Dictator by Robert D. Crassweller
The Last Playboy: The High Life of Porfirio Rubirosa by Shawn Levy
The Feast of the Goat: A Novel by Mario Vargas Llosa and Edith Grossman
Yo, Ramfis Trujillo by Jos? Le?n Est?vez
Links:
Wikipedia: Ramfis Trujillo
Who's Dated Who: Rafael Ramfis Trujillo