Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier (born 1951) succeeded his father, François (Papa Doc) Duvalier, as president-for-life of Haiti in 1971. He ruled with less of his father's repression but was deposed February 7, 1986. Living in exile in France, he grew increasingly destitute, having mismanaged much of the wealth he allegedly took out of Haiti.

Born in July 1951, Jean-Claude Duvalier became president of Haiti at age 19, when his father, the feared and hated Dr. François (Papa Doc) Duvalier died suddenly in April of 1971. The elder Duvalier, who rose to power in the late 1950s, had proclaimed himself president-for-life in 1964 and declared his eldest son heir apparent in 1969. "Baby Doc" Duvalier, as he came to be known, was educated entirely in Haiti. He visited Europe as a teenager, but was reportedly more interested in the continent's hedonist diversions than its other treasures. On the eve of his ascendance to the...