Chevalier Soeur Blonde de Vitry

Despite his imposing name, "the Chevalier Soeur Blonde de Vitry" is described as an expatriate Frenchman whose "social position" in New Orleans is "equivocal" (317). Living "among the gamblers and cutthroats of the river front" (317), De Vitry becomes Doom's patron and companion, and is the original source of Doom's non-native name Doom. De Vitry calls him "du homme," the Man, after the name of the tribal chief, and this sobriquet morphs into "Doom" (318). Later, Issetibbeha meets De Vitry in Paris, where he is an "old man" who wears "a toupee and a corset"; he borrows $300 from Issetibbeha and "in return introduces him to certain circles" (320).