As the grandson of one of the richest men in the world, John Paul Getty III spent months being tortured and beaten until a ransom was negotiated with the Italian mafia.
At 3 AM on July 10 , 1973 , 16 - yr - one-time John Paul Getty III was snatched up by members of an Italian organised offence ring called the ‘ Ndrangheta while lounging around at the famous Piazza Farnese in Rome .
While the ‘ Ndrangheta , a Calabrian Mafia - style brass , had been abduct people for ransom money in Northern Italy for years at this compass point , this sentence they thought they had finally polish off the jackpot .
Vittoriano Rastelli / Corbis / Getty ImagesJohn Paul Getty III with his female parent at Rome ’s Police Headquarters after being find from kidnappers .
Vittoriano Rastelli/Corbis/Getty ImagesJohn Paul Getty III with his mother at Rome’s Police Headquarters after being recovered from kidnappers.
That ’s because John Paul Getty III was no modal teenager : he was the heritor to the massive Getty fortune and belong to one of the richest family line in the globe . The family ’s money was made in the other fifties when John Paul Getty III ’s gramps , J. Paul Getty , found the Getty Oil Company , one of the largest in the United States at the time .
Through this companionship , J. Paul Getty rise to be the richest man of his era . Though he was hold in the United States , he was an tremendous Anglophile who moved to the United Kingdom in the recent fifties .
Despite his immense wealthiness , he wasknownto be a thoroughgoing miser , even instal pay phones at his voluptuous Sutton Place the three estates in Surrey .
Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesJ. Paul Getty.
Hulton Archive / Getty ImagesJ. Paul Getty .
J. Paul ’s son , J. Paul Getty Jr. , inherited his father ’s beloved for the British Isles , though not his stingy tendency . The next-to-last Getty was a philanthropist and also worked for his sire ’s companionship as the director of Getty Oil Italiana .
John Paul Getty III’s Early Life
Getty Jr. ’s first wife , Gail Harris , was a water supply Marco Polo adept , and with her , he had his eldest son , J. Paul Getty III .
From a youthful geezerhood , John Paul Getty III was something of an overplus for the family . lift in Rome while his Church Father work for the Italian division of the company , Getty III was kicked out of a number of English boarding school day , once for painting the hall of his school in a stunt cheer by news reports of the Manson Family .
By the geezerhood of 15 , Getty III was exist a bohemian life-style , taking part in left - fender demonstration , going to cabaret , and fuddle and smoke to surfeit . He supported himself by sell art and jewelry he make and posing nude statue for magazine .
Getty ImagesA young John Paul Getty III.
He wasarrestedat one point for hurtle a Molotov cocktail during a left-hand - offstage monstrance , and had smashed up multitudinous cars and motorbikes .
It was during this time period that John Paul Getty III was snatched by the ‘ Ndrangheta .
Kidnapped And Ransomed Off The Streets Of Rome
Just two days after John Paul Getty III ’s disappearance , his mother received an anonymous call demanding $ 17 million in exchange for his dependable return .
Getty ImagesA young John Paul Getty III .
When his mother protested that she did not have that variety of money as she had been divorced from J. Paul Getty Jr. for over nine years , the kidnaper reportedly pronounce , “ Get it from London . ” This was a acknowledgment to her ex - married man and ex - father - in - law who lived there .
Bettmann/Getty ImagesJohn Paul Getty III with his right ear missing.
They also sent a note from the young Getty saying , “ Dear Mummy , since Monday I have precipitate into the hands of abductor . Do n’t let me be killed . ”
Immediately , many members of the family and even several police officer doubted the veracity of the snatch . Getty III had often joked that he would manipulate his own snatch to press out some amount of money from his grandfather ’s miserly compass .
However as the days went on and the demand proceed , Getty Jr. began to take the post seriously . Though he did not have the mean to raise $ 17 million himself , he reach his father and need him for the money .
Bruno Vincent/Getty ImagesJohn Paul Getty III leaving his father’s memorial in 2003.
The 80 - year - sometime J. Paul Getty reportedly replied to this postulation , “ I have 14 other grandchildren and if I pay one penny now , then I will have 14 abduct grandchild . ”
Throughout the deliberations between his family and his kidnapper , John Paul Getty III was keep back chained to a bet in a cave in the Calabrian mountains where he was regularly beat and torment .
In November , four month since he was first snatch , the kidnappers resolve to get serious . They cut off Getty III ’s ear and station it to a local newspaper along with a lock of his hair and a note state “ This is Paul ’s auricle . If we do n’t get some money within 10 24-hour interval , the other pinna will go far . In other row he will arrive in slight piece . ”
At this compass point , J. Paul Getty relented and determine to pay the kidnappers . However , the notoriously cheap baron was capable to cut a deal with the kidnapper andreportedlypaid out just under $ 3 million for the return of his grandson .
Bettmann / Getty ImagesJohn Paul Getty III with his correct capitulum missing .
Of even that pocket-sized sum , he required his Word to give back the ransom money at a pace of 4 % interest .
Having expend his seventeenth natal day in captivity , Getty III was discovered on a C. P. Snow - covered throughway between Rome and Naples on December 15 , 1973 , shortly after the ransom money was rescue . His dismembered capitulum was redo through a serial publication of surgical operation shortly thereafter .
finally , nine of the kidnappers were apprehend , including high ranking members of the ‘ Ndrangheta . However these high ranking extremity easily ticktack their explosive charge , and only two men were finally convict .
The kidnapping had a traumatic event on the vernal Getty and probably contributed to the alcoholism and drug addiction that ravaged his life . In 1981 , at the age of 25 , John Paul Getty III bear a debilitating stroke after take a Valium , methadone , and alcohol cocktail which cause him liver loser and a stroke , leave him quadriplegic and partially blind .
“ Everything was plump , ” pronounce Bill Newsom , his godfather . “ Everything except his mind . ”
Bruno Vincent / Getty ImagesJohn Paul Getty III leave behind his father ’s memorial in 2003 .
Getty III never fully recovered from this cerebrovascular accident and was severely handicapped for the rest of his life . He spent the rest of his Clarence Shepard Day Jr. in his house in Beverly Hills , which had been converted with his gramps ’s fortune into a mellow tech individual infirmary .
John Paul Getty III died in 2011 at the age of 54 from illnesses result from the stroke . Despite his money , he was everlastingly scarred by the harrowing experience of his abduction and the brutal indifference of his family .
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