December 15, 1973
When the Calabrian mafia caught the eye of the grandson of the richest man on earth, he believed that this kidnapping would be an easy and quick job. What the kidnappers did not know, however, was that they were addressing a billionaire who is rumored to have even set up a payphone phone in his home, not to pay for the phone calls made by his guests. Eventually, it took five months and a severed ear for the golden boy to return home.
According to the Money Review, John Paul Getty III, of the American dynasty that founded Getty Oil and later the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and gave its name to the Getty Images photo agency, was just 16 years old when his life marked by tragedy.
It was 1973 and young Getty was already living alone in Rome. He had made his personal revolution and after leaving school, he lived a bohemian life, spending his days and nights at parties and political demonstrations.
His parents had divorced a decade earlier and Grandpa Getty had cut the family off financially. So Paul financed this alternative lifestyle by making and selling works of art and jewelry. He may not have had the Getty billions, but he still had the Getty name and occasionally occupied the newspapers of Rome, calling him the “golden hippie.”
Around 3 a.m. on July 10, Paul was walking home after a night out when a car stopped by his side. “Sorry, signore. “Are you Paul Getty?” The driver asked. When he answered in the affirmative, he was stunned with chloroform and fled from Rome. No one had seen the slightest thing.
Two days later, the kidnappers called his mother, Gail, to inform her that they had a son. This was followed by a ransom letter, in the classic style with cut-out letters from magazines, in which it was revealed to her that they wanted almost $ 17 million to set him free.
Gail did not have the money, as she had gained custody of the children, but lost the wealth of her ex-husband’s family. When she told the kidnappers, they asked her the obvious: To turn to her ex-father-in-law, J. Paul Getty, for help.
After all, Getty had a fortune of $ 2 billion at the time (over $ 12 billion in cash today), so what the kidnappers were asking for was a drop in the ocean.
One can only imagine the kidnappers being surprised when the oil tycoon refused to pay his grandson’s ransom. He believed that it was a ploy set up by Paul, something that was initially suspected by the journalists, who were watching every second of this story.
But even when it became clear that the abduction was real, Getty was immobile. He did not even answer Gail’s phone calls. “I have 14 grandchildren and if I pay a penny now, then I will have 14 abducted grandchildren,” he told the newspapers.
The criminals were holding the young heir in the countryside in southern Italy, and as the months passed, the original kidnappers lost their patience, causing some to sell their positions in the business to others. Harder and with closer ties to the mafia, they decided to accelerate developments.
One October morning, they gave Paul a drink and then started cutting his hair. When a masked kidnapper started rubbing alcohol behind his right ear, Paul realized what was going to happen. The criminals cut off his ear and mailed it to the offices of a newspaper.
It sounds unbelievable but it is true: The Italian post office was on strike and so the ear took three weeks to reach its recipient. But when he surrendered, the Getty family immediately took action.
After negotiations, the ransom fell to $ 3 million. Getty agreed to pay the 2 million, the highest amount he could deduct from his taxes. His son, Paul’s father, would pay another million, which Getty himself would lend him at 4% interest.
The ransom was paid successfully and Paul was released on December 15. He was in poor condition, while he lived the rest of his life in the shadow of the nightmare of his youth.
A year after his release, at the age of 18, he married Gisela Zacher, who was six years his senior. They had a son. Addicted to drugs, Paul suffered a drug-induced stroke in 1981. He became paralyzed and needed care for the rest of his life. His mother, Gail, was by his side until his death at the age of 54.
When the New York Times published his obituary in 2011, the headline read it all: “J. Paul Getty III, who had been beheaded by kidnappers, has died at the age of 54.”
Money Review
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