HAITI, THE TON-TON MACOUTE, AND VOODOO: MY WILDEST TRAVEL STORY
At one point in my life, I worked as Export Manager for ConAgra based in Puerto Rico.
I was sitting in my office, one day in 1968, when the receptionist announced an unexpected visitor was here to see me. I went to the reception and saw a tall, prematurely whitehaired, gentleman in a crisp white linen suit. He looked like the Italian movie star Rossano Brazzi. His name was Alix Tracy, and he announced he was going to be my agent in Haiti. Amused and intrigued, I invited Alix back to my office to discuss this. On the way back to my office, Alix paused at each secretary’s desk to say hello and gallantly kiss their hand. He was a one-of-a-kind character!
The story he told was even more interesting. The flour mill in Haiti had been owned by the Murchison family from Texas. The same family that owned the Dallas Cowboys at the time. They were operating in Haiti by paying bribes to various government entities. Apparently, they had gotten tired of this way of operating and refused to pay anymore bribes. Instead, they closed the mill and went back to Texas with all their personnel that operated the mill.
President Duvalier (known as “Papa Doc”) expropriated the mill. He quickly found that the Haitian workers didn’t know how to operate the…
