"Life and loves of a he-devil" (article by Anna Pasternak)
"Over certain people, I exercise a Rasputin power" says Basualdo proudly.
"Welcome to the world of Luis Basualdo, an obsolete existence steeped in alcohol, drugs, smudged lipstick, feuds, fortunes and nights that drift limply into days. It is a world that fears mediocrity more than death, that pours scorn on anything as decent as family values and operates on such a twisted moral level".
"I'm immoral, not amoral" says Basualdo.
"In Basualdo's macabre book, money can transform the ugliest woman - in fact he fears bright, beautiful girls, especially of they interrupt. "I like stupid girls. I like them to listen and laugh and think I'm a genius, a god. If they're clever, they become superior and surpass you. They are monsters". Yet, with a typical burst of clarity, he adds: "I don't hate bores. I hate the people I bore. I detect it instantly, develop contempt and leave".
It is almost impossible to believe that he was fond of Christina Onassis, whom he courted briefly in 1969, and then became heavily involved with in 1981. Certainly he loved the Onassis trillions, but when he talks of her you can actually detect genuine sentiment, even if it is just pity.
"I cried like a baby when she died. She was spontaneous and had a heart of gold." he says. "I was really hurt about the alleged event - I like to call it an event" he adds blandly.
The "event" was a warrant being issued for Basualdo's arrest in 1987, when he was accused of stealing $1.2 million of Christina's money from a Swiss bank account and sending it to Austria.
The couple had become reacquainted in the early Eighties when Basualdo was fast running out of money, but, he claims in love with his then girlfriend, Claire Lawman, a stunning "willowy slender as a lily" Sloane. They had bumped into a bored, depressed Onassis in Paris.
Not long after he became her highly paid "homme d'affaires" until Thierry Roussel appeared on the scene.
"Christina was jealous of Clare, but in a sado maochistic wat, she was fascinated by our relationship. She bored very easily. Christina trusted me implicitly. She told me two days before died that it was Thierry who made her take action against me as he had always hated me. Christina had a soft spot for me. When Thierry couldn't perform, she would ring me, and immediately give me £100,000 for two or three days.
"Poor thing, towards the end she was on very strong drugs, legal drugs. She had such pain in her heart. I was very sorry for her. I would put her to bed and stay with her until the morning".
Waving a document clearing him off the alleged crime, Basualdo says, with a magnanimous flourish: "Yes, I miss her. I really do".
"As he stands a lone figure in central park, chuffed to be sporting Aristotle Onassis's trademark sunglasses ("the last thing I have left of Onassis")I ask him if he regrets the excesses of his youth.
"I don't regret a thing" he replies, "but if you told me I'd have to live my life over again, I'd shoot myself on the spot. It's far better to reign in hell than serve in heaven".
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