Max Beauvoir, who passed away in 2015 at the age of 79, had long been known as the most powerful and famous Voodoo priest in all of Haiti.
He was the head of Haiti’s houngans (Voodoo priests) and is credited with committing several amazing feats.
One of his more concrete accomplishments was talking down angry lynch mobs who blamed houngans for the 2010 cholera outbreak (though many Voodoo priests were lynched before he was able to intercede).
He is also credited with stopping an American invasion of Haiti and bewitching former President Bill Clinton, whom met with Beauvoir in 1975.
In the west, however, he is best known for his role in helping Wade Davis conduct the research that would appear in the book and later the movie, The Serpent and the Rainbow.
Max’s successor died in a car accident just a few months after his nomination.
