"The Trust" is a series based on the true story of the kidnapping of the grandson of Paul Getty, the richest man on the planet. "Empire" Getty: the rise and fall of Paul Getty 3

He was also an avid collector of art and antiques, and his collection became the basis for the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California, to which Getty's will bequeathed $661 million upon his death. In 1953, he founded the J. Paul Getty Trust, the art world's wealthiest organization, which governs the Getty Museum, the Getty Foundation, the Getty Research Institute, and the Getty Conservation Institute. .

Jean Paul Getty was born on December 15, 1892, the son of George Franklin Getty, who was in the oil business in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Getty studied at the University of Southern California, then at the University of California, Berkeley, and in 1914 he graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford, with a degree in economics and political science. During the summer holidays, Jean Paul worked for his father's oil company in Oklahoma.

Having founded his own fuel company in Tulsa, Getty made his first million by June 1916, but already in 1917 he announced that he was quitting and was going to settle in Los Angeles to lead the life of a rich playboy. Although Getty eventually returned to business, he lost his father's respect. Getty Sr. died in 1930 and before his death he was tormented by the thought that Jean Paul would destroy the family enterprise - and, of course, he told him about it.

For a couple of years, young Getty spent the money he earned on women and pleasures, but in 1919 he returned to Oklahoma and in the 1920s added $3 million to his already considerable fortune. A long series of marriages and divorces (Getty was married 5 times) upset his father so much that George left him only $500,000 of the $10 million upon his death. The Great Depression spared Getty's capital because he was a very shrewd investor. On the contrary, it was during these years that he launched a series of mergers and acquisitions, ending only in 1967 with the creation of the giant oil corporation Getty Oil. Getty has paid out millions of dollars since 1949 Arab sheikhs for the concession of a piece of barren land on the border Saudi Arabia(Saudi Arabia) and Kuwait. No one found oil there, and in four years the Getty spent $30 million, seemingly for nothing, but since 1953 oil rigs Getty produced 2.5 million cubic meters of oil per year, making him one of the richest men in the world. In addition, he learned to speak Arabic and enjoyed unprecedented influence in the Middle East.

In the 50s he moved to England and became a famous Anglophile. He lived and worked in a 16th-century Tudor mansion called Sutton Place near Guildford, inviting his traditional English country house British and Arab friends and business partners.

Getty remained in Great Britain (UK) for the rest of his life and died of heart failure on June 6, 1976, at the age of 83.

Getty married and divorced 5 times. The second marriage was childless, and the remaining four wives bore him five sons. He wrote a very successful autobiography called How to Be Rich. His stinginess was legendary. At Sutton Place, for example, Getty replaced telephones with payphones after noticing that his telephone bills were rising, and those of his guests and employees who wanted to use telephone services had to pay for it out of their own pockets.

The episode with the kidnapping of Getty’s grandson, John Paul Getty III, in Rome is widely known, when extortionists demanded a ransom of 17 million dollars for the life of a 16-year-old teenager and sent the boy’s severed ear to the relatives to intimidate him. In the end, the kidnappers had to reduce the amount to $3 million, but even then Getty agreed to pay no more than $2.2 million—the maximum tax-free amount. He lent the remaining 800,000 to his son at 4% per annum. Paul was found alive, but this incident broke him - addicted to alcohol and drugs, he spent most of his life as an invalid. Jean Paul Getty explained his refusal to comply with the kidnappers' demands by saying that if he had agreed to the ransom, his grandchildren (15 in total) would have been kidnapped one by one.

0 March 10, 2016, 13:32

Oscar winner Danny Boyle will direct a TV series about tragic story, which occurred in the family of billionaire Paul Getty. The project will be handled by the FX studio, and viewers will be presented with 10 episodes of the series.

On July 10, 1973, the grandson of billionaire Jean Paul Getty was kidnapped in Rome. The criminals demanded $17 million for 16-year-old John Paul Getty III. The billionaire grandfather refused to pay the ransom: the man initially believed that the teenager had staged the kidnapping. John Paul III often joked that the only way to lure money out of his tight-fisted grandfather was in such an extraordinary way.

Paul Getty was kidnapped in Piazza Farnese, blindfolded and taken to a mountain hideout in Calabria. Paul's father, oil magnate John Paul Getty, who did not have that kind of money, asked his father Jean Paul Getty for the ransom amount. Billionaire Jean Paul refused his son, explaining that if he paid the kidnappers, his remaining 14 grandchildren would be kidnapped one by one. In November 1973, the daily newspaper received an envelope containing a lock of hair and part of an ear, as well as written threats to permanently mutilate Paul unless the extortionists received $3.2 million within ten days.

Then Getty Sr. agreed to pay the ransom, but only $2.2 million, since that was the maximum tax-free amount. He lent the missing money to save his grandson to his son at 4 percent per annum. As a result, the kidnappers received approximately $2.9 million, and Paul was found alive in southern Italy after a ransom was paid.

Police later detained nine thieves: a carpenter, an orderly, a former criminal and a salesman. olive oil from Calabria, as well as several high-ranking members of the local mafia group. Two of the gang were convicted and sent to prison, the rest - including mafiosi - were released due to lack of evidence. Most of the ransom money has disappeared.

John Paul Getty III never recovered and subsequently suffered from alcoholism and drug addiction. Eight years after his abduction, he became blind, speechless, and spent the rest of his life in wheelchair.

The script for this shocking story is being written by Simon Boifoy, who worked with Boyle on the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire.

Simon's script is a beautiful piece of drama. incredible stories kidnapping of Paul Getty's grandson. A wonderful opportunity to see three generations, including one of the world's richest men, collide as family, future and reputation are at stake.

FX's Eric Schrier reports.

Source Vanity Fair

Photo Gettyimages.ru

As stated in one famous television series, the rich cry too.

At the same time, the most serious troubles, as a rule, happen not to the billionaires themselves, but to their offspring. This misfortune also affected the family clan of oil magnate Jean Paul Getty. The grandson of a billionaire recognized as the richest man in the world, John Paul Getty III first became addicted to drugs, and then he was kidnapped by criminals. The release of the hostage has turned into an exciting crime story.

John Paul Getty III was born in 1956 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. But he spent most of his childhood in Italy - in Rome, where his father, also John Paul, represented the interests of the family oil corporation. In 1964, Paul's father divorced and married a little-known Dutch actress. Apparently tired of the harsh everyday life big business, after the divorce, John Paul Getty II hit hard. He completely abandoned all his affairs and, together with his new wife, began to live with a colony of hippies in Morocco, on the shore Atlantic Ocean. Sometimes the former businessman came to England to relax, where a luxurious house was purchased for this purpose.

Young Paul was sent by his father and stepmother to study at the elite English school St. George in Rome. Having completed it with difficulty, Paul did not go to university. He remained in Italy and led a bohemian life, since the available family capital allowed it. Among his close acquaintances were hippies, rock musicians, drug addicts, prostitutes, tramps and other dubious personalities. Therefore, when at 3 a.m. on July 10, 1973, Paul Getty was kidnapped in a square in Rome and taken to an unknown location, no one was particularly surprised.

Only the motives for the kidnapping of the billionaire's grandson remained a mystery. At first, many thought that this was all a talented staging, organized by Paul himself, in order to extract more money from his tight-fisted relatives. Then the police put forward a version that terrorists from the famous “Red Brigades” were involved in the kidnapping. However, no political statements were made by the brigadiers, and this version had to be abandoned.

Some journalists claimed that the kidnapping was organized by rivals of the family clan in order to force Paul Getty's grandfather to make secret concessions in the oil business. After all, he was successfully developing oil fields in Saudi Arabia and was declared the richest man on Earth back in 1957.

Kidnapping of a rich man's grandson

Soon, the kidnappers sent a note to Paul Getty's father and grandfather demanding a ransom of $17 million. Only in this case did they guarantee the safe return of the hostage. The father of the kidnapped person did not have that kind of money. And the head of the clan, Jean Paul Getty, who lived in England, responded to the proposal of the unknown bandits with a categorical refusal.

Speaking to reporters, Getty Sr. said that he has fourteen more grandchildren. If he pays the required amount to the criminals, his grandchildren will be kidnapped one by one, and he will be completely ruined.

A week later, an envelope arrived in the mail at the editorial office of a provincial Italian newspaper. It contained a lock of hair and a severed human ear. IN cover letter unknown criminals threatened to brutally kill a stolen teenager if they did not receive $3.2 million within ten days. Only after this did Getty Sr. agree to pay the ransom, but not in full, but in parts.

First, $2.2 million was transferred to the bandits, and then the rest of the amount. In the end, through skillful bargaining, Getty Sr. reduced the ransom amount to $2.9 million. It is also curious that he lent all the money necessary to save his grandson to his own son at four percent per annum. Having received the money, the bandits released young Paul. He was discovered in southern Italy, in an abandoned house, on December 15, 1973.

When a joyful Paul III called his grandfather in England to thank him for his release, he refused to answer the phone. And then he refused to meet with his grandson at all. As they say, the rich have their own quirks.

Mafia on a regional scale

While the Getty family clan was bargaining with the kidnappers and seeking the release of the hostage, the Italian police wasted no time either. Using operational channels, Italian detectives managed to identify and then arrest the gang that committed the daring kidnapping of the billionaire’s grandson. To the great disappointment of the press, it was announced that the "kidnapping of the century" was organized by a small criminal group from the province of Calabria, located in southern Italy.

Police detained nine criminals, including one driver, one carpenter, one municipal hospital orderly and one olive oil seller from Calabria. The gang was headed by two regional mafiosi, certain Girolamo Piromalli and Saverio Mammoliti. During the court hearings, all the circumstances of the daring abduction became clear. The Calabrian bandits were given a tip on a promising “client” by a drug addict who was hanging out with Paul Getty in Rome. The rest was a matter of technique.

John Paul Getty III - paralyzed and blind

A group of criminals arrived in Rome by car. Paul was tracked down, grabbed right on the street, injected with a heavy dose of sleeping pills and taken to a mountain village in Calabria, where he was kept in an abandoned house. Communication with the relatives of the kidnapped person and the receipt of ransom were carried out through dummies. However, at the trial it was possible to prove the guilt of only two criminals. The rest had to be released due to lack of evidence.

By the way, the police never found most of the ransom money. Two million dollars disappeared without a trace, and, some skeptics claimed, were used as attorney fees and as a bribe to the court. As for Paul Getty III himself, after his release from the hands of the bandits, he underwent long-term treatment, suffered plastic surgery to restore the ear that his kidnappers cut off. Then Paul got married and had a son, but the psychological trauma associated with the kidnapping never left the “billionaire’s granddaughter.” He continued to abuse alcohol and drugs, already in 1981 this led to a stroke, which made the 25-year-old guy paralyzed, deaf and almost blind. Getty III died at the age of 54.

To understand the story of Paul Getty's kidnapping, you need to know something about his family. Paul, also known as John Paul Getty III, was the grandson of Jean Paul Getty, the man who founded the Getty Oil Company in the 1940s and became extremely wealthy. He worked hard to get his money and even studied Arabic to strengthen its position in the Middle East. Despite his enormous wealth, in life he was very a modest person, and he was very careful when it came to giving money to his children and grandchildren.

He was such a curmudgeon that his fifth wife, Teddy Getty Gaston, described in her 2013 memoir how upset she was. ex-husband because he spent too much on treatment six year old son Timmy, who had a brain tumor and was blind. When Timmy died in 1958, his father did not attend the funeral.

Unsurprisingly, Getty refused to pay ransom for Paul after his kidnapping. But does this mean that money was more important to him than the call of blood?

Paul's father was a drug addict, and his stepmother died of a heroin overdose.

John Paul "Eugene" Getty Jr. and wife Gail Harris had four sons. Their son Paul was born in 1956, and when he was eight years old, his parents divorced. Eugene moved to Rome and married the Dutch actress Talita Paul. Both were addicted to drugs, and in 1972 Talita died of a heroin overdose. Police believe John Paul Getty Jr. was partly responsible for his wife's death, but no charges were brought against him.

Paul Jr. was expelled from school and lived in Rome free life

Sixteen-year-old Paul lived in Rome near his father, who managed the Italian branch of the family business, Getty Oil Italiana. After Paul was expelled from private school, he lived independently and enjoyed a carefree teenage life without any obligations. Paul attended clubs and took part in political demonstrations. He made money by acting as an extra and selling jewelry and paintings.

He was kidnapped at age 16 and his captors demanded a multimillion-dollar ransom

It was reported that on the night of the abduction, July 10, 1973, Paul was walking around Piazza Navona with a Belgian dancer. Italian mafiosi kidnapped Paul, dragging him into the back of a van, and then took him 500 kilometers from the capital, to the mountainous Calabria. The kidnappers contacted Paul's family and demanded a ransom of $17 million.

Paul's family thought he had made up the kidnapping story to get money.

Although kidnappings were not at all unusual in Italy at the time, there were indeed doubts at first that Paul had been kidnapped. People believed that he did it himself in order to get money from his grandfather, who broke up with his son. Paul was even known to make jokes about his kidnapping.

As a result, both the police and Paul's friends did not take the report of the kidnapping seriously. But Paul wrote a letter to his mother, begging her for help. It was published in TIME on July 30, 1973:

« Dear Mom, I fell into the hands of kidnappers. Don't let them kill me! Make sure the police don't interfere. You absolutely should not take this as a joke... Do not make my kidnapping public.”

His grandfather refused to pay the ransom because he didn't want to set a precedent

It is common knowledge that Paul's grandfather was very careful with his money. Even though he was the richest man in the world, he did not like to waste his fortune. He was so “frugal” that it was said that in his London home, guests had to use a payphone specially installed for this purpose. His grandfather stopped supporting his son J. Paul Getty Jr. and daughter-in-law Gail Harris, so Paul's parents could not pay the ransom. They begged the head of the family for help, but he did not want to pay the kidnappers because he was afraid to create a precedent that could put all the other family members in danger. He told the newspapers: “If I pay even one cent now, I will have 14 kidnapped grandchildren.”

The kidnappers cut off Paul's ear, after which the family finally paid a ransom for him

Gail, Paul's mother, was so outraged by her ex-father-in-law that she publicly shamed him to make him pay. After about four months, Paul's captors began to become restless. In November 1973, they sent a package with terrible contents to a Roman newspaper - a clump of bloody hair and a severed ear. The kidnappers wrote:

“This is Paul's first ear. If within 10 days the family still thinks this is a joke, we will send a second ear. In other words, we will send it to you in small pieces."

The kidnappers demanded $3.2 million, but the family patriarch reduced the price to $2.89 million. J. Paul Getty paid $2.2 million, which was tax-exempt; his son had to pay the rest. He borrowed this money from his father - at 4% per annum.

Exhausted and exhausted, Paul was released from captivity

On December 15, 1973, five months after his abduction, Paul was finally released. He stood in the rain on an Italian motorway for several hours before being picked up by a truck driver. Paul explained that he had been kidnapped and that he needed to call his mother. When the police arrived, Paul identified himself and said that the kidnappers had blindfolded him and transported him from place to place in different areas of Calabria several times over these months. It is clear that he was exhausted and hungry. Although he was generally unharmed (except for a missing ear), Paul suffered deep emotional and mental shock.

The police eventually tracked down the thieves.

To catch Paul's kidnappers, it was ordered to hand over bags of lyres former agent American intelligence to Fletcher Chase. Chase and a police officer were driving along a road outside Naples when the kidnappers' car pulled alongside them. The detectives handed them the ransom on the way, but were able to clearly see and remember the gang members. Upon returning to Rome, they were able to identify the criminals, and a month later they were detained. Paul returned to Italy to conduct an identification parade. A total of nine suspects were arrested, but only two were convicted.

After his release, Paul became addicted to drugs and alcohol

About a year after his release, 18-year-old Paul married 24-year-old Gisele Sacher, who was a photographer from Germany. Paul tried to get his life back on track and studied at Pepperdine University for one semester. He had two children, daughter Anna and son Balthazar, who became famous actor. But the consequences of the kidnapping made themselves felt. After some time, Paul and his family moved to New York, where he began to communicate with Andy Warhol and other artists. Soon he began to actively abuse drugs and alcohol.

Paul's grandfather didn't leave him a cent after his death.

When his grandfather passed away in 1976, Paul received nothing (his father only received $500). The patriarch of the family donated most of his fortune to charitable and non-profit organizations such as the Getty Museum. Although he did not favor many members of his family, he was always generous towards women. The will included 11 women, including his wife, who was given a lifetime pension of $55,000 a year, a London widow, and a decorator, who each received a substantial stake in Getty.

Paul abused drugs and was confined to a wheelchair. He sued his father over medical bills

In 1981, after taking Valium, methadone and alcohol, Paul nearly died from an overdose. The consequences of the affect were devastating. Paul suffered a stroke and lost almost all his speech and vision. He spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Paul was looked after by his mother, but this was not enough. Caught in despair financial situation, Paul sued his father, demanding $28,000 a month from him to pay for his medical expenses. He died in 2011 at the age of 54.

Also known as Paul Getty, he is the eldest of four children of John Paul Getty and his first wife Abigail Harris, and the grandson of oil magnate Jean Paul Getty. His son, Balthazar Getty, became an actor, known for the TV series Charmed, Ghost Whisperer, Brothers & Sisters.

John Paul Getty III was born on November 4, 1956, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and spent much of his childhood in Rome, Italy, as his father was the head of the Italian division of the Getty family oil business. His parents divorced in 1964, and in 1966 his father remarried the Dutch model and actress Talitha Pol. Their marriage lasted five years, during which time Paul's father and stepmother lived like hippies (very wealthy hippies, it should be noted) and divided their time between England and Morocco.

In early 1971, Paul was expelled from St. George's English School in Rome. His father returned to England, and young Paul remained in Rome, where he led a bohemian life. At 3 am on July 10, 1973 Paul Getty was kidnapped in Piazza Farnese in Rome. The kidnappers sent a ransom note demanding $17 million in exchange for his safe return. After reading the note, some family members suspected that the kidnapping was staged by Paul himself and was the prank of a rebellious teenager. , since he used to often joke that the only way to get money out of his tight-fisted grandfather was by arranging his own kidnapping.

Paul was blindfolded and

to a mountain refuge in Calabria. The kidnappers sent a second ransom message, which was delayed by a strike by Italian postal workers. Paul's father, who did not have that kind of money, asked for it from his father, Jean Paul Getty, whose fortune was already estimated at $2 billion, but was refused. Getty Sr. said that if he paid the kidnappers, his remaining 14 grandchildren would be kidnapped one by one. In November 1973, the daily newspaper received an envelope containing a lock of hair and a human ear, along with threats to permanently mutilate Paul unless the extortionists received $3.2 million within ten days.

Then Getty Sr. agreed to pay the ransom, but only $2.2 million, since that was the maximum tax-free amount. He lent the missing money to save his grandson to his son at 4% per annum. In the end, the kidnappers received approximately $2.9 million, and Paul was found alive in southern Italy on December 15, 1973, shortly after the ransom was paid.

Police detained nine kidnappers: a carpenter, an orderly, a former criminal and an olive oil salesman from Calabria, as well as several high-ranking members of the local mafia group, including Girolamo Piromalli (

Girolamo Piromalli) and Saverio Mammoliti. Two of them were convicted and went to prison, the rest - including the mafiosi - were released due to lack of evidence. Most of the money disappeared without a trace.

In 1977, Paul Getty underwent surgery to restore the ear he had lost due to kidnappers. A number of writers have used this incident as inspiration for their books.

In 1974, Paul Getty married German Gisela Martine Zacher, who was five months pregnant. Paul knew Gisela and her twin sister Jutta before the abduction. Paul was 18 years old when his son Balthazar was born. In 1993, the couple divorced.

The incident destroyed Paul Getty. He became an alcoholic and drug addict, and his 1981 cocktail of Valium, methadone and liquor led to liver failure and a stroke that left him paralyzed and nearly blind.

In 1999, Getty, along with several other members of his family, became citizens of Ireland (Republic of Ireland) in exchange for an investment in the Irish economy of approximately £1 million each. This law was subsequently repealed.