John Paul Getty III
John Paul Getty III was the grandson of American oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. He was kidnapped by the ‘Ndrangheta and held for a USD 17 million ransom. His grandfather was reluctant to pay, but after his severed ear was received by a newspaper, he negotiated a payment of USD 2. 2 million.
About John Paul Getty III in brief
John Paul Getty III was the grandson of American oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. He was kidnapped by the ‘Ndrangheta and held for a USD 17 million ransom. His grandfather was reluctant to pay, but after his severed ear was received by a newspaper, he negotiated a payment of USD 2. 2 million, and Getty was released five months after being kidnapped. He developed an addiction to drugs and alcohol soon after, eventually leading to an overdose and stroke which left him severely disabled for the rest of his life. Getty’s biographer John Pearson attributed his later alcoholism to the large amounts of brandy that he was plied with in the last few months of his captivity. After Paul’s ear was sent, his grandfather agreed to pay the maximum amount that was tax-and-interest deductible.
Nine of the kidnappers were apprehended, including Girolamo Piralli and Saverio Mammoliti, high-ranking members of the ‘dranghetta. Paul was found alive on December 15, 1973, in a petrol station of Lauria in the province of Potenza in the northern Italian region of Calabria. The ransom was paid by his son, who was responsible for four percent of the sum at four percent interest, but J. Paul Getty refused to thank him for paying the ransom, but he called his mother to thank her for suggesting it. He died of a stroke on December 18, 1974, at the age of 25. He is buried in the Getty family grave in the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles.
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This page is based on the article John Paul Getty III published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 09, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
