wanting a Firminist revolution to spread throughout the Caribbean and interested in keeping a
pro-American president in power, the U.S. intercepted an arms’ shipment headed for Firmin
supporters in northern Haiti in the early months of that year and continued naval blockades to
key cities in Firmin area strongholds. The Firminist insurrection ultimately failed, and
Massillon Coicou, along with two brothers and other intellectuals, was executed for his
involvement in the attempted coup. Many other arrests and executions took place in the
following months. In all the ensuing pandemonium, Alexis was forced to flee and went to
Jamaica in April where he died two days later. Firmin, for his part, had taken asylum in the
French embassy at Gonaïves and again spent many years in exile.
In 1984, Haitian journalist and historian Pierre Jolibois wrote L’Exécution des FrèresCoicou, a work which not only documents certain uncontested facts about the Coicou
assassinations but which also includes testimonials, citations, and articles from a variety of
judicial, journalistic, historical, and anecdotal sources.^307 Though the contents of this eclectic
study are too numerous to explain here, details are relevant to completing Coicou’s biographical
information. Along with his two brothers, Coicou was apparently planning to help smuggle arm
shipments from Saint Marc to the city of Gonaïves, where it was believed Firmin would arrive
and begin the insurrection. Aware of the potential plot, Nord Alexis ordered the execution of
nearly a dozen others and the arrests of many more. Massillon Coicou was paradoxically
denounced by Jules Coicou, a local general, who was Coicou’s brother by adoption, was aware
of the plan. The orphaned boy had been taken in by Coicou’s parents and raised with the other
Coicou children.
(^307) Gérard Jolibois, L’Exécution des frères Coicou (Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie Le Natal, 1986).