His white satin suit was ready, and his playmates were all talking about their own first communions in the Roman Catholic Church, the next day; but six-year-old Benito Corvillon persuaded his mother that he simply couldn't go through with it. That, 29-year-old Benito now believes, began a career that has since shocked a number of his fellow Spaniards.
Benito's father, who was manager of a big coffee house on Madrid's Gran Via and concessionaire of the bar in the Spanish Parliament building, could afford to send his son to the best high school in the city. Benito also liked to spend his...