John Wesley De Kay

John Wesley De Kay (July 20, 1872 – 1938) was an American entrepreneur and self-made millionaire, "Sausage King" of Mexico with the famous brand "Popo", playwright, author, and eccentric socialite.

Born on July 20, 1872, in New Hampton, Iowa, De Kay's family had moved to the frontier in the late 1860s from the Netherlands. According to him, he descended from French nobility that could trace its roots to the 10th century. After completing an apprenticeship as a printer, the entrepreneurial teenager moved to South Dakota, where he owned several local newspapers and a sizable cattle ranch. In 1899, De Kay moved to Mexico. With the money he had made in his businesses, he purchased a concession for operating meatpacking plants in Mexico. He married Anna May Walton in 1907 and had three children. In 1909, De Kay's company, the Mexican national packing company Popo, was one of the largest slaughtering and meat-distribution operations in Mexico, with a book value of over US$22 million ($500 million in today's value). By 1910 he was the "Sausage King" of Mexico.

A self-made millionaire, indeed the American Dream come true for the son of a Dutch immigrant, De Kay decided in 1909 to become a playwright in New York. His first controversial play, Judas, was performed in New York's Globe Theatre for only one night in December 1910 before it was banned there, as well as in Boston and Philadelphia. In New York's art scene of 1910, the story line of the play was nothing short of scandalous. (Mary Magdalene, who at first becomes a lover of Pontius Pilate, then of Judas Iscariot, gets involved with Jesus. Judas, after realizing that Mary Magdalene has given herself to Jesus, decides to betray his friend to the Romans.) To top the provocation of New York's theater lovers, De Kay had Judas played by the voluptuous French actress, Madame Sarah Bernhardt. The eccentric businessman-turned-playwright obviously had a special attraction to the lovely diva. He showered her with lavish gifts of jewelry, "…a large number of cigarette boxes made from gold nuggets, brooches, nugget buttons and studs, cigar boxes inlaid with ivory, and a large number of other rare articles". The play, however, bombed. De Kay craved public attention and flaunted his wealth, which in 1910 included a castle in France, a mansion in England, and a suite in New York’s plush Hotel Ansonia.

In January 1914, De Kay negotiated the sale of the majority interest in his meat packing empire to the Mexican government for an estimated US$5 million ($105 million today). According to historian Thomas Baecker, the German Foreign Office thought that De Kay was "an ill-reputed American businessman". From all appearances, he was a tough businessman with great success who basked in the sun of his achievements. He had his fair share of lawsuits from investors, but it seems that these had more to do with the havoc the Mexican Revolution wreaked on his company than with unethical behavior on his part. However, he wore long hair and "dresse[d] like a Latin Quarter Bohemian". His extravagance, eccentricity, showmanship, and nouveau-riche behavior certainly did not fit the German ideal of a serious and trustworthy businessman.

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