Kidnapped: The Tragic Life of J. Paul Getty III

Travel Guide

Getty’s World – USA and Surrey, England

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Getty was the richest man in the world.
Getty was an avid collector of art and antiquities; his collection formed the basis of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California, and over $661 million (approximately $2.8 billion in 2017) of his estate was left to the museum after his death
He studied in California and then at Oxford in England. Between gaps in his studies, he began working on his father’s oil fields in Oklahoma.He made his first million by 1910 by owning his oil company in Tulsa
He became richer with more investments after that. He was seen to be a bit careless with money as his father only left him a small part of his millions when he died.

He continued to get rich on his own merits – but his children and many wives were a financial burden

Sutton Place, England

Getty famously had a pay phone installed at Sutton Place, helping to seal his reputation as a miser

Italy

On July 10, 1973, in Rome, ‘Ndrangheta kidnappers abducted Getty’s 16-year-old grandson, John Paul Getty III, and demanded by telephone $17 million for the boy’s safe return. However, at first the family weren’t sure if this was merely John Paul’s ruse to get money from his own family rebellious

Getty famously negotiated with the kidnappers and got the amount of the ransom reduced.  The boy  was found alive in a filling station of Lauria, in the province of Potenza, shortly after the ransom was paid.

Later:
Life was not good for the kidnapped boy after he returned to his family. After a lifetime of drink and drugs brought on by the trauma, he had  a stroke and  became a paraplegic for the rest of his life. He died in 2011 at the age of only 54..  Nine people associated with ‘Ndrangheta were later arrested for the kidnapping, but only two were convicted.