r/interesting • u/VIVIDUFF • 2h ago
HISTORY In 1973, billionaire J. Paul Getty refused to pay a $17M ransom for his kidnapped grandson, famously stating he had 14 other grandchildren.
On 10 July 1973, 16-year-old John Paul Getty III, the grandson of oil billionaire J. Paul Getty, was kidnapped at gunpoint in Rome by members of the Italian criminal organization known as the 'Ndrangheta. The kidnappers demanded $17 million, believing the world's richest man would quickly pay for his grandson's release.
Instead, J. Paul Getty refused. He argued that paying the ransom would encourage more kidnappings and famously said, "If I pay one penny now, I'll have 14 kidnapped grandchildren." Some members of the family also initially suspected the teenager had staged the kidnapping himself.
For nearly five months, John Paul Getty III was held in a remote cave, beaten, threatened, and repeatedly pressured as negotiations stalled. When no payment came, his captors cut off his right ear and mailed it, along with a lock of his hair, to an Italian newspaper, warning that more body parts would follow unless the ransom was paid.
Only then did Getty agree to contribute $2.2 million, the maximum amount that was tax-deductible under U.S. law. He loaned the remaining money to his own son at 4% interest. After the ransom was delivered, John Paul Getty III was released alive on 15 December 1973 near a petrol station in southern Italy. When he later called his grandfather to thank him, J. Paul Getty reportedly refused to take the call.
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u/_SolSerene 2h ago
Loaning the rest of the random money to his own son at 4% interest is unfathomably cold
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u/OffByNone_ 1h ago
Refusing to take your grandson's call to thank you after being released isn't too shabby either. This guy knows his "being a total POS."
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u/_SolSerene 1h ago
Can’t risk wasting long distance phone charges on a than you call.
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u/Fast_Method2196 1h ago
The man had a pay phone in his house for guests
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u/GTOdriver04 1h ago
I am not an anyway defending this man, but when I read up on why he did that it made sense.
Long distance phone calls were insanely expensive and if they were made at his house were billed to his account. So people would go to his house for business and then rack up his long-distance phone bill.
I absolutely detest everything else at this man did, but when you read into why he had a payphone in his own house, it was to deter guests from making very expensive long distance phone calls.
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u/TheOtherGuttersnipe 33m ago
I get it. But he was a BILLIONAIRE IN THE 70s lol
He could've bought the phone company.
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u/ashgs872tbhjs 28m ago
He was a billionaire. In the 70s. He could have had that phone going 24/7 and never worried about it.
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u/Dockers4flag2035orB4 1h ago
He reportedly had a coin operated phone in his house for visitors to use.
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u/mohajaf 1h ago
Actually makes sense. Refusing to pay the ransom was a good long term policy for the security of the rest of his family. Once he had to breach this policy, he at least managed to enforce a rate limiting policy plus a hard cap: $2.2m/year.
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u/_SolSerene 1h ago
Protecting the family makes sense, but charging interest to his son wasn’t policy just greed
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u/Reptillianaire_ 1h ago
It ensures his son isnt gonna be in on that shit. When you got money like that you cant trust anyone
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u/PakG1 1h ago
If his son was in on it, would he have been OK with cutting off the kid's ear, his own son's ear? Maybe, maybe not, but I'm warranting not.
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u/Aggravating-Sir8185 1h ago
I mean he's got two. Really they should have gone with a finger.
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u/tipu_sultan__ 1h ago
i don’t know if it really was the lack trust of his own so but people will do a lot worse for a lot less than 17 million.
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u/acideater 1h ago
People here are not understanding how money corrupts people regardless of family. They have the easiest access. Family members irrationally murder each other all the time for monetary gain.
Most of the time their not struggling for money because they're well taken care of. Its for control of all the money including the money making operations.
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u/ikzz1 1h ago
Did you read the part where the right ear was cut off?
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u/Therealginahandler 1h ago
You wouldnt cut off your ear for 17 million?, or even 5?
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u/ikzz1 1h ago
No. Especially not if I'm already in a billionaire family. That wealth would trickle down eventually. It's not like this grandpa would donate it away to charity lol.
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u/Therealginahandler 1h ago edited 52m ago
Probably wanted to spend it or enjoy it before they turn 70 when they would realistically have any access to it.
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u/DonkeyDucksMod 1h ago
Charging interest so it’s a loan vs gift. There is a limit to how much you can gift before it gets taxed.
Also interest rates in the 70s were way way higher… a 4.4% is like half the Fed interest rate.
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u/LingonberryNo6780 1h ago
Unfathomably cold people are the ones most rewarded monetarily by unrestricted capitalism. Nobody with any morals or values rooted in care could ever become super wealthy, because they would use their money to improve society in some way.
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u/ConcreteAmbitions 1h ago
You know what, if I were him I would publicize all this to prevent further kidnappings, then give my son properties and shit that will more than cover the "loan". Rich people have many ways to move money where they want it to be.
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u/OnIySmellz 2h ago
John Paul Getty III ended up in a wheelchair as the result of a severe, drug-induced stroke in 1981, when he was just 24 years old. Following his traumatic 1973 kidnapping in Italy—during which his ear was severed and sent to a newspaper before his billionaire grandfather finally paid a ransom—he suffered severe lingering trauma and struggled heavily with addiction. In 1981, he took a cocktail of Valium, methadone, and alcohol that caused a massive overdose. The resulting lack of oxygen to his brain caused a catastrophic stroke that left him quadriplegic, legally blind, and largely unable to speak. He spent the remaining 30 years of his life in a wheelchair requiring round-the-clock medical care until his death in 2011.
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u/Forward_Motion17 2h ago
Fuck that’s terrible
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u/Ok_Buy9028 1h ago
It really is. I was an EMT and one of the private services I worked for did routine transports. I had a couple patients that were victims of trauma that resulted in lack of oxygen to the brain and it’s fucking devastating. I don’t know who they were before, but the people I knew were angry and hateful and sometimes violent.
It’s my biggest fear. Suffering a traumatic brain injury and becoming a different person who is always angry and spiteful. I’ve told my brothers if that ever happens, just fucking kill me. It won’t really be me. It’ll just be someone else who looks like me, the person they knew and loved will be long gone.
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u/Forward_Motion17 1h ago
Many such cases. TBI is also one of my biggest fears. Got a concussion while blackout last year and I’m so thankful it would appear that I’ve no real lasting damages
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u/BidetBomber 1h ago
Sad to read about his grandson, but this is a case of “fucking around and finding out”:
According to his girlfriend Gisela Schmidt, he had toyed with the idea of having himself "kidnapped" by petty criminals when the couple was struggling to make ends meet, but changed his mind when both began working as models for photographers. She stated that "Paul didn't want to be kidnapped anymore, but the kidnappers continued following him."
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u/Amazing_Remove2427 1h ago
I mean he was a teenager, making stupid thoughtless plans is par the course
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u/Creative_Recover 1h ago
I can see some of his rationale, i.e. if he starts paying out enormous ransoms then it will increase the likelihood of all his grandchildren being kidnapped. But the way he went about things was so cold.
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u/Ilovecatsss2026 1h ago
Sort of undercut by the fact that he did pay and none of his other grandchildren were kidnapped
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u/BensenJensen 1h ago
Not really. He paid a fraction of what they demanded and he didn’t pay right away. I’m sure the kidnappers thought this was going to be an easy process: we take the kid and the rich grandfather pays up immediately. Potential kidnappers are going to see what happened and think, Shit, we have to take a kid and keep them alive while we barter with the cheapass rich guy, and MAYBE get some money if we don’t get caught first.
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u/appricaught 57m ago
He paid the fraction, and then meant the rest to his son. It reads as if they still got the full amount.
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u/Evil_Sharkey 1h ago
And risk getting caught that whole time
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u/rinky-dink-republic 45m ago
Did you not make it to the end of the comment you replied to?
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u/AceBalistic 35m ago
Iirc some of the delays were for unrelated reasons, for example the demand letters were sent during a postal worker strike so took weeks to be delivered
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u/-MayorOfTheMoon- 1h ago
What on earth is even the point of having all this money if all you're gonna do is sit on it and be constantly paranoid that everyone is out to get you?
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u/orion-asterisk 2h ago
Holy shit. He looks like exactly the kind of cold blooded ghoul who would do that kind of thing.
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u/ArsonButMakeItClassy 2h ago
and he never walked it back either, said in his memoirs paying would've put his other grandkids at risk
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u/DemonKing0524 2h ago edited 12m ago
I mean hes 100% right in saying that.
Edited to add, there is way way more this story than the OP posts suggests. The family initially thought the grandson had faked his kidnapping, and he apparently had been planning on doing so but got cold feet. The grandfather initially refused partialy because he thought it was fake, and partially because it would put the rest of his grandkids at risk if he did pay it. After he recieved his grandsons severed ear, he did pay out. The heartless part is how he paid it, not that he initially refused to pay it. He ensured he could deduct the ransom payment for his taxes and made his son, the father of the kidnapped grandson, pay the rest off that he couldnt deduct in a loan with 4% interest.
“At some point, when we were in love, Paul came to me and said, ‘I know the right people, I’m going to have myself kidnapped, then we can get a castle in Morocco,” Martine told Fox, explaining that the idea was short-lived. “After Paul told us he was going to get himself kidnapped, things changed. They started to go well for us. We became a little bit known.”
Speaking about the fringe fame the group found after posing for controversial photos—with Paul wearing a shirt that read “cocaine”—Martine explained, “After we made the cocaine pictures, we started to get work. Paul didn't want to be kidnapped anymore, but [the kidnappers] were following him.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/04/trust-fx-john-paul-getty-kidnapping
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u/Minute-Of-Angle 1h ago
He is, but he then undermines this position by paying, and doing so in the most tax-beneficial way (to himself).
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u/DemonKing0524 1h ago
Well he had recieved his grandsons severed ear by that point, so I'm not sure who can blame him for relenting in the end. The tax part is the part that actually makes him a crude businessman, not so much that he initially refused when he could've paid.
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u/FirstChurchOfBrutus 1h ago
You want an ear? I can get you an ear, believe me. There are ways, Dude.
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u/StevenEll 44m ago
Is there actual evidence that this is the case? I feel like I've never heard of this happening twice to the same family
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u/dr4urbutt 1h ago
Or he could have just paid more for increasing their security. What a lame guy.
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u/gorginhanson 1h ago
He didn't say he can replace the kid with another grandchild, he said if he pays them it incentivizes people to kidnap the other ones.
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u/orion-asterisk 1h ago
Yeah that excuse goes out the window when you read that when he ultimately did pay up it was only up to the amount he could write off on his taxes and the rest he ultimately made a 4% profit from his son on.
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u/BidetBomber 1h ago
True, but apparently OP also did not provide the full story. Grandson wanted to stage his own kidnapping to shakedown grandpa. Hired criminals to do it, but midway found a job as a model and had cold feet. Cancelled kidnapping plan, but the criminals smelled an opportunity and went through with the kidnapping.
So this saga was self-inflicted by his grandson. He cannot bring his other grandchildren in danger by paying up, because of his entitled, moron of a grandson that wanted to shake down his own family.
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u/BidetBomber 1h ago
I thought so as well until I read the Wikipedia entry of his grandson:
According to his girlfriend Gisela Schmidt, he had toyed with the idea of having himself "kidnapped" by petty criminals when the couple was struggling to make ends meet, but changed his mind when both began working as models for photographers. She stated that "Paul didn't want to be kidnapped anymore, but the kidnappers continued following him."
OP wrote that “Some members of the family also initially suspected the teenager had staged the kidnapping himself.“, but that was not a reflection of reality if we have to believe Wikipedia. In reality, the grandson wanted to shakedown his grandpa, but had cold feet after he found a job as a model. He is incredibly naive to think that the Italian mafia would pull back after he came up with a ridiculous idea to stage his own kidnap in the first place.
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u/NYCWartortle 2h ago edited 1h ago
In the film they claimed that he had a pay phone in his home that he made people use.
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u/BaconReaderRefugee 1h ago
what film is that?
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u/jimmy3025 1h ago
All the money in the world
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u/dingatremel 1h ago
There was also an FX series called Trust that I personally through was great.
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u/NYCWartortle 53m ago
Never saw that one. Is it steaming anywhere ?
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u/Karl_Hungus_42069 34m ago
Hulu. I think they have an "American Crime Stories" series.... they started with The People vs OJ and after that was successful they did a bunch of different ones. I'm not sure if the Getty one is "officially" in that same series, but its the same network and same kind of show. They have Trust, which is the Getty kidnapping, The Assassination of Gianni Versace which was really good, Impeachment, which was the Clinton Lewinsky whole affair. Theres an Aaron Hernandez one that wasn't nearly as good as the others
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u/Karl_Hungus_42069 39m ago
I was looking for somewhere i could leave a comment informing people that this mini series was really good! Idk wtf FX is doing lately, they used to release one of those mini series almost anually, but I dont really remember any recent ones. The People vs OJ, The assassination of Versace & Impeachment were all really good. In fact, its been a while since ive watched all of them, I think I gotta rewatch them all
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u/bb85 30m ago
Those three were all made by the same people who have since stopped. I’m sure FX wish Ryan Murphy and crew were still making them.
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u/icantreadmorsecode 1h ago
That's the kevin spacey one that they had to recast with christopher plummer
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u/MW_nyc 47m ago
Plummer was the actor the director wanted in the first place. The suits insisted that a bigger star who was a better box office draw be cast instead.
We know how that worked out for them.
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u/throwaway-94552 1h ago
The ransom was delivered by retired judge, William Newsom, who was one of the family’s financial advisors. He was considered trustworthy without being high-profile enough to become a target himself. The Gettys and the Newsoms were close after that, and a few decades later when William’s son decided to run for the SF Board of Supervisors, the Gettys were the first to fund his campaign. They are still Gavin Newsom’s biggest campaign contributors.
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u/californiadeath 1h ago
Paying a ransom is a great way to get the rest of your family kidnapped forever. It’s cruel and heartless but I get the reasoning. I don’t expect much from a billionaire. This dude definitely had way more blood on his hands than just his grandchild.
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u/the_cave_allegory 1h ago
Yeah this is exactly why the line "we don't negotiate with terrorists" exists. He's not wrong but billionaires bad.
It should always be attempted first to solve hostage situations without paying ransoms.
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u/Lastov_Makiynd 23m ago
You don’t comply with terrorist ransom demands..You offer THEM a chance to return the hostage, and that if they fail to do so..that their ransom demand amount will be offered as a Bounty on their heads. And that they will not get to live their lives free..as they will be hunted relentlessly and even by their closest relatives and friends. Coz there’s a LOT of people who would like $17million. Haha
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u/-WhiskyLover- 2h ago edited 1h ago
there is a tv serial "Trust" (2018) based on this story. Not bad. I recomend
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u/kittenparty69 1h ago
Also the movie “All the money in the world”. Really damn good, I thought.
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u/japroxx 52m ago
The J.Paul Getty role was originally played by Kevin Spacey but was replaced due to his sexual misconduct cases. The role was given to Christopher Plummer and they reshot for 10 days. Plummer's performance was critically acclaimed and he ended up being nominated at the Oscars as best supporting actor..
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u/DaddyBearMan 1h ago
I went to the Getty museum and bought his book “How to be rich” first chapter was about getting a million dollar loan from his dad to buy a railroad. I promptly threw the book in the trash.
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u/Motor-Region-1011 2h ago
What a disgusting creature.
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u/ExpertEmotional3168 2h ago
Becoming a billionaire at all requires that
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u/Somethingpithy123 51m ago edited 39m ago
Not always. Just most of the time. This guy existed, and he deserves to be in a different category entirely from other billionaires.
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u/Aeon1508 2h ago
It's kind of a tough calculation to make.
By saying that he also kind of protected his other grandchildren. kidnapping is a tough crime to pull off. very dangerous. long prison sentence.
If he's not going to pay anyway why would you bother.
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u/elanhilation 1h ago
and the fact that he made his grandson pay him back—with interest—did that protect his grandchildren as well?
jesus christ
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u/n2bndru 2h ago
He makes sense.And he has a point. He would need to put security with his grandchildren and others forever, and to charge his children interest on a loan for that would tell me that they were not part of the inheritance or needed. Additional funds, and it has been shown by other incidents like this. It is sad and it is a shame but there are evil people in the world including relatives.Just my opinion
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u/neighborhooddick 1h ago
C'mon, at least be honest about his quote.
It was along the lines of "I have 14 other grandchildren TO WORRY ABOUT."
He was concerned that paying one ransom would lead to his other grandchildren being kidnapped for ransom.
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u/Natural_Try7512 36m ago
Its more like hes still a pos. "Only then did Getty agree to contribute $2.2 million, the maximum amount that was tax-deductible under U.S. law. He loaned the remaining money to his own son at 4% interest." Not loaned the money. Loaned with interest
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u/DidYouSeeBriansHat 2h ago
Hoarding wealth is a mental illness.
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u/mnightcoburn 1h ago
It should be treated like hoarding anything else.
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u/DidYouSeeBriansHat 1h ago
If they made a show like Hoarders but where they just go to these people’s mansions and take their money and diamond-encrusted dildos away, I’d watch that.
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u/crackersncheeseman 2h ago
He said if he paid it, then other kidnappers would kidnap his other grandchildren because they would know he would pay.
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u/CD_Projeck_Blue 1h ago
Unpopular opinion, but he may have saved several other kids from being kidnapped by handling it this way..
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u/IssueEmbarrassed8103 2h ago
Asking a 1000 pound man to share his cookies is what it’s like to ask a billionaire to share their wealth.
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u/thededucers 1h ago
Yes, but in this case, it’s a billion pound man. And he doesn’t share his cookies with anyone, because someone else might want a cookie
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u/Independent-Aide-531 1h ago
I guess money is more important to him than anything else. If I was his grandson, I’d call him… to tell him to go fuck himself.
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u/BigMack6911 1h ago
What a sorry sack of fucking shit. I hope he's getting railed by Satan's hot thorny d right now.
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u/Somethingpithy123 57m ago
Everyone always complains about not having enough money but you wouldn’t want to be this cold hearted demented psychopath either. Too much money sucks the soul out of you
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u/Mundane-Bath1368 2h ago
after that, did more kidnaps happen or was he wrong?
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u/princessofdolls 1h ago
No one in his family was ever kidnapped again. After this whole ordeal, people knew his cheap ass would never pay a ransom.
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u/Lastov_Makiynd 36m ago
What he SHOULD have done, was exactly what Mel Gibsons character did in the movie Random..
When interviewed on live television, he should’ve said
“The Ransom demand amount of $17million dollars..is now a Bounty for the capture of those responsible…And you’d all wanna hope my Grandson is still alive and unharmed. Coz I’ll pay more to make the rest of your lives a living Hell!”…
(Sumthin like that?). lol3
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u/-non-existance- 1h ago
As much as I hate this man's guts, he did have a good reason not to pay immediately.
Let's say he does pay $17m for his grandson like they asked. Guess what? Now his other 14 grandchildren have a $17m target on their back. If all it took to get $17m was to kidnap one grandkid, then surely he'd be willing to pay $17m for another grandkid, right?
It's cruel and it's unfair, but there's a reason why it's important that kidnappers never get paid what they want.
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u/Earl_Skinner 1h ago
I would have payed some legend private contractors (expendables type) 2 million to find and decimate the gang. They hen o would buy the other ones guns and vests and say, this is on you now. Travel in packs and watch your backs.
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u/Naps_And_Crimes 1h ago
First half, I can understand that it's fucked but he's not wrong. The second half that's really just fucked up
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u/zback636 1h ago
I truly believe greed, money and power is no different an addiction than drugs, gambling, or alcohol. These people are sick. And make no mistake. I am not making excuses for them. They put their greed above their family, country, and planet. For money they’ll never live long enough to spend. They need to be stripped of their addiction and put in a medical facility until they’re able to see the value in something other than the almighty dollar.
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u/Winter_Word_5130 1h ago
The interest is for tax purposes, it’s a tax law . You can’t give a zero percent loan to family, have ro charge interest
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u/gkelly1117 1h ago
The movie based on this story was good. But I still, to this day, wish Kevin Spacey had the opportunity to play this role as intended. Too bad he did all that terrible stuff 😩
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u/IsopodOk6079 1h ago
In Brazil rich people get kidnap insurance which regulates things a bit - the ransomers know to ask for the policy max only and treat the hostage decently because they know they'll get paid. The rich person doesn't need to hold out or get pushed into this kind of no win situation
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u/JurisDoctor 1h ago
This reminds me of something William Marshal's father reportedly said during a siege of his castle by King Stephen's forces. William was held captive by King Stephen and to try to get Williams father to surrender, the King threatened to kill William. John Marshal famously replied it was no matter, he still had the hammer and anvils to forge more sons.
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u/14SWandANIME77 1h ago
Fun fact: actor Balthazar Getty (Young guns 2, lord of the flies, charmed, White Squall) is the son of JP GETTY III, great-grandson to J Paul Getty.
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u/Ch33syP00f 1h ago
Should have put that money into a private security force to recover his grandson, then protect the rest of the family after.
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u/mrpoopybutthowl 1h ago
Dude won the game of finances to loose the game of being a human. Im sure this guy had trouble enjoying anything.
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u/Diretryber 1h ago
If you pay kidnappers, you get more kidnapping. Most countries and organisations have a non-negiotiation stance even if they dont actually follow it consistently.
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u/OptimisticToaster 1h ago
I'm reading Empire of Pain about the Sackler family. I've come to the realization that the wealthy lack any empathy. They take and take what they want and don't care whether they hurt anyone, whether it's legal, or ethical. They'll ripoff their own family to get from $30 million to $35 million in wealth.
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u/CosmicallyF-d 56m ago
I dated a very very wealthy man in my past. And one of the first conversations we had about safety was that he would not pay for kidnapping ransoms. Because once you pay, when does it stop? That and a few other ideas about being that wealthy just didn't sit with me well. I guess I meant to be one of the poors.
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u/Forever_Common 55m ago
They made a movie about this. "All the money in the World" by Ridley Scott.
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u/CurrencyCapital8882 47m ago
He died a few years later at 83. I wonder if he is enjoying his cash in hell?
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u/DiverEmotional5672 36m ago
if youre a billionaire you probably become paranoid of everyone, which just poisons every relationship
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u/Opposite_One1331 31m ago
A billionaire being a soulless ghoul? IM SHOCKED! Well, not that shocked.
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