February 10, 2026 • 8 mins
As we’ve seen playing out in the news, the kidnapping of a family member can lead to unspeakable heartbreak. But for one family, the abduction of their 16 year old son, elicited not much more than a yawn. That is, until kidnappers mailed them a body part.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
A lot of us have been watching the anguishing ordeal
Savannah Guthrie and her family have been going through in
the kidnapping of her mom, Nancy Guthrie, and it make
me think about another abduction that transfixed the nation just
over fifty years ago. In this case, there was a
very different response from the family. It's the nineteen seventy
three kidnapping of John Paul Getty. IID I'm Patti Steele.
(00:24):
The horrifying life and death of an impossibly rich but
very sad kid. That's next on the backstory. We're back
with the backstory. It is easy to fantasize about growing
up as the heir to a massive fortune, all the
fancy houses, cars, clothes, and stuff, but it's not always
(00:47):
the case. Worse yet, when you don't get the love
and support every kid needs. A lot of people just
don't feel your pain. John Paul Getty third was born
in nineteen fifty six. To different ate him from his dad,
John Paul Junior, and his grandfather, the original J. Paul Geddy,
they called him Paul. J. Paul's Senior started making money
(01:09):
in the nineteen tens from oil leases, and he made
a boatload of it. At one point he was the
richest man in the world, but he was also the
ultimate miser when it came to his five wives and
most of his children and grandchildren. He won't prove well.
His fifth wife, Teddy, said J. Paul sor got furious
(01:29):
with her for spending too much money on their six
year old son, Timmy. Not for toys, not for vacations
or even school. He was angry about the money she
spent on doctors. Timmy had a brain tumor, and J.
Paul Senior demanded that his wife pay for the medical
treatment out of her own very small inheritance. Timmy died
(01:49):
in nineteen fifty eight when he was twelve years old,
and his dad never showed up for the funeral since
he'd abandoned the family a few years earlier. Teddy finally
divorced J. Paul that year. So fast forward to the
late nineteen sixties. J. Paul Third Paul was the son
of J. Paul Junior, but his home life was pretty useless.
(02:11):
His parents divorced when he was eight years old, and
neither one really took a ton of interest in the kids.
His dad, J. Paul Junior moved to Rome and pretty
quickly married a Dutch model. The two lived a wildlife.
They had a son they named Tara Gabriel Galaxy Gramophone Getty,
but their lives revolved around rock stars like Mick Jagger
(02:33):
and Keith Richards and an incredibly rich drug scene. J
Paul the Third got literally no direction. At fifteen, his
stepmother died of an apparent heroin overdose, and his father
took off for London. Now it's nineteen seventy three. Paul
had been expelled from his boarding school, and he was
making money by making and selling his artwork and by
(02:55):
appearing as an extra in movies. He also got a
thousand bucks to do a nude spread for an Italian
magazine called Playman. He wasn't getting much money to live
on from his dad or his grandfather, so what's a
kid to do. On July tenth of that year, Paul
was hanging out with a Belgian go go dancer in Rome,
but he simply vanished. It turns out the Italian mafia
(03:17):
had grabbed him, stuffed him in the back of a van,
and driven him three hundred and fifty miles south to
the wilds of Calabria. Italy now comes the cash grab.
Paul's kidnappers want seventeen million bucks to return the teenager
to his family. Problem is, nobody seems too interested in
rescuing him or paying the ransom. Now. To be fair,
(03:39):
some folks speculated that Paul had staged the whole thing
to get some cash out of his stingy Grandpa, Jay
Paul Senior and Grandpa thought so too. They said Paul
had even joked about faking a kidnapping, so nobody, including cops,
took it seriously. Three weeks go by and Paul writes
a letter to his mom begging for help. Time Magazine
(04:02):
publishes it. It reads, dear mother, I've fallen into the
hands of kidnappers. Don't let me be killed. Make sure
that the police do not interfere. You must absolutely not
take this as a joke. Don't give publicity to my kidnapping. Still,
his grandfather didn't want to pay j Paul was the
richest man in the world at the time, but still
(04:24):
a notorious cheapskate. He even had a payphone installed in
his London home so guests could make phone calls on
their own time. When it came to paying the huge
ransom for his grandson. Getty Senior said he had no
interest in paying because he said it would set a precedent.
He told the media, if I pay one penny now,
I'll have fourteen kidnapped grandchildren. Now it's November. Four months
(04:49):
have gone by, and finally Paul's mother, Gail is furious.
She wants Grandpa Getty to pay the ransom, and she
says so publicly. Again he says no and that but
the kidnappers over the top. They send a package to
a Roman newspaper with chilling contents inside a lock of
Paul's red hair and his severed ear. They enclose a
(05:12):
note which reads, this is Paul's ear. If we don't
get some money within ten days, then the other ear
will arrive. In other words, he will arrive back to
you in little bits. But they did lower their asking price,
saying they now wanted three point two million dollars. Finally, J.
Paul's Senior is ready to negotiate, but not with the kidnappers.
(05:35):
In the end, he pays two point two million, first
making sure it was tax deductible, and then telling his
son J. Paul Junior that he had to pay the
final million when he couldn't come up with the million,
Senior told him he'd loan it to him at four
percent interest, So finally, after five months of captivity, Paul
(05:56):
was freed on December fifteenth, nineteen seventy three. He was starving,
he was fragile, and he was missing an ear. The
kidnappers were eventually caught. When J. Paul Senior died just
a couple years later, he left his grandson as well
as his son nothing. Paul quickly got married, had a son,
(06:17):
and went to a semester of college, but his mental
and emotional scars never healed. In nineteen eighty one, Paul
overdosed after taking methadone, valium, and alcohol. He had a
narcotics induced stroke and became a quadriplegic. He lost most
of his sight and the ability to speak. His mother
(06:37):
took care of him, but he needed more support, so
he finally sues his father, asking for twenty eight thousand
dollars a month to help pay for his medical needs. J.
Paul Getty Third died in twenty eleven at the age
of fifty four. The Getty story became a book and
then a movie, All the Money in the World in
(06:59):
twenty seventeen after its release, the nephew of one of
Paul's kidnappers finally spoke out, saying Paul wasn't just a victim.
He was also in on the plot, he claimed, but
without any proof, the kid planned his own kidnapping. It
started off with great intentions. It was a quick way
to make a buck on both sides, but it turned
(07:20):
into a mess because the grandpa didn't want to pay.
Pretty clear lesson that money doesn't buy happiness or a heart.
I hope you're enjoying The Backstory with Patty Steele. Please
leave a review and follow or subscribe for free to
get new episodes delivered automatically. Also feel free to dm
me if you have a story you'd like me to cover.
(07:41):
On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele.
I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks,
the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer
is Doug f Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new
(08:02):
episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out
to me with comments and even story suggestions. On Instagram
at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele.
Thanks for listening to the backstory with Patty Steele, the
pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.
A lot of us have been watching the anguishing ordeal
Savannah Guthrie and her family have been going through in
the kidnapping of her mom, Nancy Guthrie, and it make
me think about another abduction that transfixed the nation just
over fifty years ago. In this case, there was a
very different response from the family. It's the nineteen seventy
three kidnapping of John Paul Getty. IID I'm Patti Steele.
(00:24):
The horrifying life and death of an impossibly rich but
very sad kid. That's next on the backstory. We're back
with the backstory. It is easy to fantasize about growing
up as the heir to a massive fortune, all the
fancy houses, cars, clothes, and stuff, but it's not always
(00:47):
the case. Worse yet, when you don't get the love
and support every kid needs. A lot of people just
don't feel your pain. John Paul Getty third was born
in nineteen fifty six. To different ate him from his dad,
John Paul Junior, and his grandfather, the original J. Paul Geddy,
they called him Paul. J. Paul's Senior started making money
(01:09):
in the nineteen tens from oil leases, and he made
a boatload of it. At one point he was the
richest man in the world, but he was also the
ultimate miser when it came to his five wives and
most of his children and grandchildren. He won't prove well.
His fifth wife, Teddy, said J. Paul sor got furious
(01:29):
with her for spending too much money on their six
year old son, Timmy. Not for toys, not for vacations
or even school. He was angry about the money she
spent on doctors. Timmy had a brain tumor, and J.
Paul Senior demanded that his wife pay for the medical
treatment out of her own very small inheritance. Timmy died
(01:49):
in nineteen fifty eight when he was twelve years old,
and his dad never showed up for the funeral since
he'd abandoned the family a few years earlier. Teddy finally
divorced J. Paul that year. So fast forward to the
late nineteen sixties. J. Paul Third Paul was the son
of J. Paul Junior, but his home life was pretty useless.
(02:11):
His parents divorced when he was eight years old, and
neither one really took a ton of interest in the kids.
His dad, J. Paul Junior moved to Rome and pretty
quickly married a Dutch model. The two lived a wildlife.
They had a son they named Tara Gabriel Galaxy Gramophone Getty,
but their lives revolved around rock stars like Mick Jagger
(02:33):
and Keith Richards and an incredibly rich drug scene. J
Paul the Third got literally no direction. At fifteen, his
stepmother died of an apparent heroin overdose, and his father
took off for London. Now it's nineteen seventy three. Paul
had been expelled from his boarding school, and he was
making money by making and selling his artwork and by
(02:55):
appearing as an extra in movies. He also got a
thousand bucks to do a nude spread for an Italian
magazine called Playman. He wasn't getting much money to live
on from his dad or his grandfather, so what's a
kid to do. On July tenth of that year, Paul
was hanging out with a Belgian go go dancer in Rome,
but he simply vanished. It turns out the Italian mafia
(03:17):
had grabbed him, stuffed him in the back of a van,
and driven him three hundred and fifty miles south to
the wilds of Calabria. Italy now comes the cash grab.
Paul's kidnappers want seventeen million bucks to return the teenager
to his family. Problem is, nobody seems too interested in
rescuing him or paying the ransom. Now. To be fair,
(03:39):
some folks speculated that Paul had staged the whole thing
to get some cash out of his stingy Grandpa, Jay
Paul Senior and Grandpa thought so too. They said Paul
had even joked about faking a kidnapping, so nobody, including cops,
took it seriously. Three weeks go by and Paul writes
a letter to his mom begging for help. Time Magazine
(04:02):
publishes it. It reads, dear mother, I've fallen into the
hands of kidnappers. Don't let me be killed. Make sure
that the police do not interfere. You must absolutely not
take this as a joke. Don't give publicity to my kidnapping. Still,
his grandfather didn't want to pay j Paul was the
richest man in the world at the time, but still
(04:24):
a notorious cheapskate. He even had a payphone installed in
his London home so guests could make phone calls on
their own time. When it came to paying the huge
ransom for his grandson. Getty Senior said he had no
interest in paying because he said it would set a precedent.
He told the media, if I pay one penny now,
I'll have fourteen kidnapped grandchildren. Now it's November. Four months
(04:49):
have gone by, and finally Paul's mother, Gail is furious.
She wants Grandpa Getty to pay the ransom, and she
says so publicly. Again he says no and that but
the kidnappers over the top. They send a package to
a Roman newspaper with chilling contents inside a lock of
Paul's red hair and his severed ear. They enclose a
(05:12):
note which reads, this is Paul's ear. If we don't
get some money within ten days, then the other ear
will arrive. In other words, he will arrive back to
you in little bits. But they did lower their asking price,
saying they now wanted three point two million dollars. Finally, J.
Paul's Senior is ready to negotiate, but not with the kidnappers.
(05:35):
In the end, he pays two point two million, first
making sure it was tax deductible, and then telling his
son J. Paul Junior that he had to pay the
final million when he couldn't come up with the million,
Senior told him he'd loan it to him at four
percent interest, So finally, after five months of captivity, Paul
(05:56):
was freed on December fifteenth, nineteen seventy three. He was starving,
he was fragile, and he was missing an ear. The
kidnappers were eventually caught. When J. Paul Senior died just
a couple years later, he left his grandson as well
as his son nothing. Paul quickly got married, had a son,
(06:17):
and went to a semester of college, but his mental
and emotional scars never healed. In nineteen eighty one, Paul
overdosed after taking methadone, valium, and alcohol. He had a
narcotics induced stroke and became a quadriplegic. He lost most
of his sight and the ability to speak. His mother
(06:37):
took care of him, but he needed more support, so
he finally sues his father, asking for twenty eight thousand
dollars a month to help pay for his medical needs. J.
Paul Getty Third died in twenty eleven at the age
of fifty four. The Getty story became a book and
then a movie, All the Money in the World in
(06:59):
twenty seventeen after its release, the nephew of one of
Paul's kidnappers finally spoke out, saying Paul wasn't just a victim.
He was also in on the plot, he claimed, but
without any proof, the kid planned his own kidnapping. It
started off with great intentions. It was a quick way
to make a buck on both sides, but it turned
(07:20):
into a mess because the grandpa didn't want to pay.
Pretty clear lesson that money doesn't buy happiness or a heart.
I hope you're enjoying The Backstory with Patty Steele. Please
leave a review and follow or subscribe for free to
get new episodes delivered automatically. Also feel free to dm
me if you have a story you'd like me to cover.
(07:41):
On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele.
I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks,
the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer
is Doug f Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new
(08:02):
episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out
to me with comments and even story suggestions. On Instagram
at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele.
Thanks for listening to the backstory with Patty Steele, the
pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.
Host
Patty Steele
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