VIN: Porfirio Rubirosa's Ferrari 250 GT Cabriolet Series 2 chassis 1561 GT
History of chassis 1561 GT
Chassis 1561 GT was the last Ferrari purchased by international man of mystery, Porfirio Rubirosa.
Rubirosa was a notorious fixer for Dominican Republic dictator, Rafael Trujillo. The pair had met at a polo game in 1931, after which Trujillo made Rubirosa a lieutenant in his special Presidential Guard.
Rubirosa married Trujillo’s daughter in late 1932.
A few years later, a New York City grand jury indicted Rubirosa’s cousin for the 1935 murder of outspoken Dominican exile, Sergio Bencosme. The jury heard that in the build up to the murder, Rubirosa (armed with $7000 in cash) took his first visit to the USA to make the necessary arrangements.
After a few months working at the Berlin and London embassies over the winter of 1936-1937, Rubirosa settled on an ambassadorial role in Paris. He divorced Trujillo’s daughter a year later. Without his wife’s largesse, Rubirosa began selling Dominican visas to Jews keen to escape the spread of Nazism.
In late 1938, Rubirosa netted around $400,000 after pulling an extraordinary heist on exiled Spanish jeweller, Manuel Fernandez Aldao. Rubirosa also most likely murdered Aldao’s associate, Johnny Kohane.
Aldao and Kohane had fled the Spanish Civil War for Paris, but the two still had a huge haul of cash and diamonds worth nearly $600,000 hidden in Madrid.
They employed Rubirosa (who because of his diplomatic status could not be searched by customs) to recover the haul. Kohane had false Dominican credentials made up as Rubirosa’s chauffeur. However, Kohane never returned from Spain and Aldao got less than $200,000 worth of gear…
During World War 2, Rubirosa met and married 23 year old Danielle Darrieux who was France’s highest paid movie star. They married in September 1942.
In 1947, Darrieux was interviewed by a journalist from Harper’s Bazaar who took an instant liking to Rubirosa. The journalist was Doris Duke, sole heir to the $100m American Tobacco fortune.
Duke reportedly paid Derrieux $1m to bow out of the marriage. Rubirosa and Derrieux divorced in May 1947 and Rubirosa married Duke in September. She bought him a stable of polo horses, a three-storey 17th century hotel in Paris and a converted B-25 bomber that he crashed within a year.
In the summer of 1948, Rubirosa was caught by Duke with his ex-wife and promptly served with divorce papers. The marriage was over by October 1948; Duke gave Rubirosa the Paris hotel and $25,000 per year until he re-married.
Rubirosa began living a comfortable life chasing women, playing polo and doing little in the way of official work. He also did some motor racing with a pair of Ferrari 166 Mille Miglias (chassis 0050 and 0328).
In 1953, Rubirosa met Barbara Hutton at a polo game in Deauville. Hutton was the sole heiress to the Woolworth fortune and also worth an estimated $100m.
Hutton and Rubirosa married in December 1953. It lasted only 53 days. Hutton gifted Rubirosa the biggest privately-owned coffee plantation in the Dominican Republic, $2.5m in cash and another luxuriously equipped B-25 to replace the one Doris Duke bought for him.
Rubirosa then purchased an early Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing (4500087) and a succession of Ferrari 500 Mondial racing cars (0438, 0464 and 0556).
It has been suggested that Rubirosa’s international racing activities were sometimes cover for his role as one of Trujillo’s henchman. Most notably, on the night of March 12th 1956, Jesus Galindez (another outspoken critic of the Trujillo regime) had disappeared near a subway station in Manhattan. It was subsequently revealed that Galindez’ body was flown out of the country, after which the plane’s pilot was killed as well.
Following the Galindez affair, Rubirosa went back to Paris and spent the summer of 1957 staying with 17 year old actress, Odile Rodin. They married in October.
Soon afterwards, Rubirosa’s Gullwing was replaced by a Series 1 Ferrari 250 GT Cabriolet (chassis 0783 GT).
While Rubirosa was subsequently stationed in Belgium, a brand new Series 2 arrived: chassis 1561 GT. The handsome Argento drop top was delivered via Garage Francorchamps on January 30th 1960.
By this time, Trujillo’s government was in financial trouble and had begun to seize private assets including the coffee plantation given to Rubirosa by Barbara Hutton.
By mid 1961, the Trujillo regime had fallen.
With a new Dominican government installed, Rubirosa was removed from his ambassadorial role and stripped of his diplomatic immunity.
The New York district attorney questioned Rubirosa over the disappearances of Sergio Bencosme (1935) and Jesus Galindez (1956) but he was never charged.
Rubirosa spent the next years having fun and playing polo in Paris.
He died early on the morning of July 5th 1965 aged 56. After a night out celebrating his team’s victory in the Coupe de France, Rubirosa was attempting to avoid another car when he crashed chassis 1561 GT into a tree along the Bois de Boulogne.
The remains of 1561 GT later found their way to Tom Meade who most likely used some of the salvageable parts in his Thomassima specials.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: unattributed
