November 1, 2023 • 42 mins
In 1973 in Italy, John Paul Getty, III, heir to the Getty fortune, was kidnapped by several members of the 'Ndrangheta gang. He was held captive for about 5 months while his kidnappers negotiated a ransom amount with his family. They wanted $17,000,000 but his grandfather, the family patriarch, would only concede to $3,000,000 after the kidnappers sliced off his grandson's ear and mailed it to a local newspaper.
Sources for this episode:
Town & Country - The Tragic True Story of John Paul Getty III's Kidnapping
All That's Interesting - The True Story Of The John Paul Getty III Kidnapping
People - John Paul Getty III After the Kidnapping: How Drugs and Torment Destroyed Billionaire Heir
Wanted in Rome - The story of the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III in Rome
Rolling Stone - John Paul Getty III: The True Story Behind 'Trust'
Rolling Stone - J. Paul Getty III: Exclusive 1974 Interview with Kidnapped Oil Heir
Sources for this episode:
Town & Country - The Tragic True Story of John Paul Getty III's Kidnapping
All That's Interesting - The True Story Of The John Paul Getty III Kidnapping
People - John Paul Getty III After the Kidnapping: How Drugs and Torment Destroyed Billionaire Heir
Wanted in Rome - The story of the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III in Rome
Rolling Stone - John Paul Getty III: The True Story Behind 'Trust'
Rolling Stone - J. Paul Getty III: Exclusive 1974 Interview with Kidnapped Oil Heir
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Crime on My Coffee.This podcast contains graphic descriptions and adult content
mature audiences only. Please Hi,y'all, and welcome to Crime with My
(00:31):
Coffee. I'm your fabulous hostess withthe most June, and I'm Suzanne.
We're going to tell you some storiesyou've heard, some you haven't, and
some you'll wish you hadn't, allwith a Texas twang. All right,
Well, welcome back, guys,welcome back. Glad you get you in
absolutely and if you're here for thefirst time, go back. Pick one
(00:54):
you think you want to hear,and just listen to all of them.
It's fine. We will let dependingon which one it is. I don't
really want to hear it though.Maybe we got some doozies, but we
got some that are okay, wedo, we do, we do.
It's fine, it's fine. Sowhat's in your mug this week? Well,
in my mug because surprise, surprise, we're in Texas. But it
(01:15):
turned cold like in a day andit's like almost yeah, our temperature here,
our temperature here went from like eightyto forty. Like we topped a
hill and saw a fricking state trooper. You guys. Absolutely, I'm like,
whoa, So it was it wasnearly eighty here yesterday. My high
(01:37):
to day is like forty. IfI'm lucky. I don't even think I'm
getting out of the thirties. Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely different, you
know, but give it a fewdays, it'll probably change because hey,
we're in Texas and that's okay.Yeah, by the end of this week,
by the time this comes out,by the end of this week,
I think we're supposed to be backin the eightiesh pretty close to it,
I think so. Well, inmy mug, I'm actually drinking Starbucks Mocha.
(02:04):
It's like a chocolatey coffee, soI didn't have to put a hot
chocolate in my coffee. And thebag I read somewhere what it said.
Oh yeah, so so the bagdoes say that it's combining decadent notes of
cocoa with our lightest roast results ina luscious, chocolatey sip. I agree
(02:32):
with that, but I like thatcoffee. Yes, it's it's a good
coffee, and I didn't want todrag out the hot chocolate that I had,
so I'm like, you know what, this is what I'm having,
And I just barely put a littlebit of French vanilla creamer in it because
I like creamer in my coffee.But after I did that, I was
like, oh, I don't knowwhy I didn't just put milk in there.
(02:53):
It would have been fine, butI forgot. I don't always have
milk, so kind of but that'swhat I have in my mug. What
do you have in your mug today? I have Frenkin Bones from Bones Coffee
Company because it is fall and Iwas able to order some again. So
(03:14):
it's a chocolate hazelnut coffee. I'vegot my dunkin Donuts extra extra creamer in
it. I love it. Oh, it sounds delicious. It's fabulous,
and my kitchen smells amazing because Ijust brewed a fresh pot Ah. There
you go. I need all thecoffee today. You know. It's funny
(03:34):
I say that I would love likecoffee candles or something like that, right
because I love the smell of coffeeabsolutely. But I got one one time
and I was burning it. Ihad it going and I was like,
oh, what is that smell?It kind of smell like something was burning.
That's why I don't like food flavoror food flavored candles for me food
(03:59):
scented because to me, they allsmell burned. Yeah, I was.
It took me a long time tofigure out because I kept walking in the
room going what is that? BecauseI had it in the kitchen at the
time. I was like, whatis burning? But nothing was in the
oven, nothing was on the stove. But I could not get it figured
out. And then finally I waslike, maybe it's this candle. So
(04:19):
I put it out and it stopped. I was like, well, there
you go. So now I havea half burnt candle that I don't feel
I'm gonna use again unfortunately. Okay, I apologize. My dog is gnombing
his bone that he gets every timewe record, and I don't know for
(04:39):
some reason. You can heck andhear it today and I'm not so much
of a tech guru that I knowhow to get rid of that sound.
Yeah, he is being a nommytoday. Absolutely. My husband's gonna yell
at me and be like, youknow you have a door to that office,
right, Yeah, then he's goingto get into stuff and I won't
know it exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Toddlers, Yeah, he is definitely
(05:02):
a toddler. Oh, jeez.He's very loud today. So I'm sorry,
guys, but I do have acase for us today. Hopefully enough
of my talking will cover up hischewing and nodding and you won't hear it
too much. We're gonna try.It's gonna be fine. We're gonna attempt
it. Anyway. I didn't reallydo any kind of a geography lesson on
(05:26):
this. Okay, just know thatyou need your passport. We're going to
Italy. Oh, I want togo to Italy. Even though we're going
to Italy, we don't quite startin Italy. Okay, Okay, that's
fine. I mean we got toget there. So I understand. We're
gonna talk about the Getty family,okay. J Paul Getty was the Getty
(05:49):
family patriarch. Here in a minute, we're gonna start calling him Grandpa or
Grandpa geddy. Okay, okay.During the nineteen forties, fifties, and
sixties, he made a fortune ofmillions in the oil business. Millions in
those days, numbers dollars. Yes, so I can only imagine how many
(06:13):
zeros are behind those numbers today.A lot. Oh that you would not
have to worry about anything ever,ever, Yes, He was reportedly a
bit of a womanizer though, andhe did end up having five sons with
five wives. Well at least theywere all wives. They were, yes,
(06:39):
others, they were all wives.It was rumored that he did have
others though, Yeah, but notsons, just women. Yes. Yes.
He would end up founding Getty Oil, the J. Getty Sorry,
the J. Paul Getty Museum inLos Angeles, and Getty Images. Nice.
(07:01):
In nineteen fifty seven, Forbes wouldname him the richest man in the
country. Oh wow, Now GettyImages. Is that the same company that
I've seen before. I've seen thatsomewhere before, looking at photos or something,
(07:23):
and I believe that it said GettyImaging. Maybe I don't know.
I didn't really do any of thesecompanies. That's kind of cool, okay
anyway, Sorry anyway. He did, however, have a bit of a
reputation for being a total cheapskate,even though he had all this money.
(07:44):
Now I got the money, Iknow. That's what I was gonna say.
Was I was watching something on TVthe past few days and there were
or maybe I was listening to anotherpodcast. I don't remember. I've done
quite a bit of both the pastcouple of days with this weather, and
they were talking about, you know, so and so had so much money,
but they were worried about you know, a couple of hundred bucks on
(08:05):
like a money exchange or something,a currency exchange, that's what it was.
Yeah, And they were like,you know, but if you have
all that money, why would youworry about it? Well, because you
have all that money, that's howyou got. All that money exists because
you're worried about all that. I'mjust saying that's why. That's why he
got all his money. Because hewas a cheapskate. He even went so
far as to have payphones installed inhis huge English estate because he had moved
(08:33):
to London in the late nineteen fiftiesbecause he was totally obsessed with everything English.
Uh huh. But he had thesepayphones installed for his guests and his
staff to use because his long distancebills were getting out of hand, and
he even had dial logs put onhis landline phones so that they had to
use these payphones. Wow, Imean, I get it. If you
(08:58):
have a big estate and you've gota lot of people and they're calling a
lot of people, your phone bill'sgonna be pretty big, so I get
it. Of his sons, we'regonna talk about John Paul Getty Junior,
though I did see it reported inone place that he was actually Eugene Getty.
(09:20):
But a lot but pretty much everythingelse except for this one article says
John Paul Getty the Junior. Sobut for the most part, we're gonna
call him Junior or Daddy Getty.Okay, because he too had a son
in nineteen fifty six that was nameddepending on where you're reading it, either
Eugene Getty Junior or John Paul Gettythe Third. Okay. Now, I
(09:46):
think where the John Paul Getty camein was because they were named I think
they actually were named Eugene. Butlike I said, this happened in Italy
over in Europe, and instead ofthe media and stuff calling them Eugene or
Gene, they used Jean, whichtranslates back to John. Yeah. Okay,
(10:09):
Okay, So you know, Ithink that's where it came from.
But the third Getty went by Paul, so that's what we're gonna call him.
Okay, So we're gonna have Pauland Daddy Getty and Grandpa Getty.
Gotcha. Well, when Paul wasabout a year and a half old.
His family moved to Italy so thathis dad could run the Getty Oil Italian
location O Nice. His parents divorcedin nineteen sixty four, and Paul moved
(10:37):
back with his mom to the UnitedStates, where they lived in Brentwood,
over by Los Angeles. Okay,you know the super fancy neighborhood because she
remarried an actor. Oh wow,that's that's exciting. You know. I
think if you have a lot ofmoney, you draw people with a lot
(10:58):
of money around you. But ifyou're poor, like us, you just
know poor folk all the time.Okay, So if I pretend to have
money, will I attract people thathave money? Maybe? I don't know.
Okay, everybody, I'm rich.So if you're rich, let's be
friends. Yes, and just youknow, we'll swap money. You send
(11:18):
me one hundred dollars and I'll sendyou fifty cents. Uh. So she
married, she remarried an actor.His dad remarried too. I want to
say he remarried an actor. Ohwow. Do we know these literally these
famous people's names? Or I did, but I did not write them down
(11:41):
because they're not really relevant to ourstory. No, I get it,
I get it, but so butwe do. We do come upon another
actor later, and I did writetheir name down. Oh okay, okay,
sorry I keep interrupting. I justit's okay, okay. Anyway,
a year or so after moving inwith his new stepdad, his mom and
(12:01):
stepdad separated, and so he movedback to Rome. There he started bouncing
around from one boarding school to anotherbefore he was finally expelled. One thing
that I read said that he wasexpelled because he burned down a billboard and
filled the school with smoke, butanother claimed that he was expelled for painting
(12:24):
a hallway after being inspired by newsreports of the Manson family. Oh my
goodness, Now wonder he was inboarding schools because daddy didn't want to deal
with him or anything. Your momdidn't want to deal with him, and
we got plenty of money weekends andnamed boarding school because that's how people get
(12:45):
fancy. Yeah. Well, eitherway, by the time he was fifteen,
he was no longer in school.He was doing whatever he wanted to
do. He did some acting,some modeling, he sold some art stuff
like that. Okay. In Januaryof nineteen seventy three, he was arrested
(13:05):
and held for a little bit aftera demonstration protesting the death of a Milanese
communist who had been killed by thecops. He was held on suspicion of
throwing a Mulotov cocktail at this demonstration, but his lawyer did his lawyer stuff
and Paul was cleared and released.Wow, good lawyer, All right,
(13:26):
Well, Paul started living the vampirelife. He's a teenager, he doesn't
have school. He could do whateverhe wants to do. So he's living
the vampire life. He's sleeping allday and partying all night. Yep,
sounds like on July tenth of nineteenwhat I said, Yep, sounds like
fifteen year olds. Well, Iwant to say he's like sixteen seventeen at
(13:48):
this tale. Yeah, uh yeah, almost seven or right around seventeen,
because he was born in fifty sixand now we're in seventy three. So
got you. So he's sixteen seventeen. More around there. July tenth,
nineteen seventy three. He's out doingthe vampire nightlife thing. It's in the
dark hours of the morning. He'swalking around the Piazza Farnesse. I have
(14:13):
no idea how to really say that, because I'm not Italian. There's not
a drop of Italian blood in myDNA. I thank you. No,
I'm gonna go with I freaking nailedit absolutely anyway. So he's walking around
here and he's drunk, and hesaid, this guy, this guy with
four cars in pulled up next tohim. No, this car, this
car with four guys in it,okay pulled up and you know, the
(14:37):
driver yelled out the window at himand he turned around and he's like,
huh what and three guys jump outof the car and they grab him and
they put something over his face thathe's pretty sure was filled with chloroform,
because the next thing he remembers ishe wakes up in this car blindfolded.
He's got his hands bound, hisfeet bound, and they're just driving around
(14:58):
for hours. And one of theguys said, you know, hey,
you're you're Paul Getty, right,and he was like, uh, yes,
I am indeed John Paul Getty Othe third ooh, I'm so fenic.
And once he did that, Paulsaid that the guy said, Okay,
(15:22):
if you want something, ask forit, and if the answers yes,
you'll hear one clap. If theanswer is no, you'll hear two
claps. Remember this, because nobodywill speak to you again. Oh wow.
Paul said that he decided right thenand there. He's not scared because
they worked out a way to communicatewith him. So he's obviously not going
(15:43):
to be you know, driven outhere, shot and tossed in a ditch
or anything. They have no planson killing him if they're working out a
way to communicate with him. Notnecessarily. I mean, I wouldn't be
so trusting. First of all,they nabbed you off the street. Yeah,
but then they said, hey,this is your name, right,
all right? Cool, now thatwe know you're him, here's how we're
(16:06):
going to communicate. We got youfor ransom, but whatever. Ll and
Paul said that that's when it sunkin. Oh crap, I'm being kidnapped.
And that may be more of aproblem because they're gonna want money,
because they're going to know that Icome from money. My parents don't have
the kind of money that they're goingto ask for, and Grandpa's not going
(16:29):
to come up off of any dollarsfor it. Right. He's he's he's
a big, cheapy, cheaper person, and I'm screwed. Oh well,
two days after Paul was taken,his mother got a ransom demand for seventeen
million dollars. Holy crap. Bythe way, I translated that into today's
(16:52):
dollars and it's like one hundred andeighteen million. Oh my goodness. Well
I'll just have more kids. Well, I know you don't love me seventeen
million dollars worth. Thanks for that. Well, I could never come up
with that kind of money, soI'll just have more kids. It's fine.
(17:14):
Well, his mom said, look, I don't have that kind of
money. I don't, you know. I divorced his dad like ten years
ago, almost, you know.And the kidnappers said, well, you
can get it from London. Wow, this sounds like an inside job.
They know a little bit. Idon't guess they knew that grandpa was a
(17:36):
cheap, cheaper person, you know. They just look at the zeros behind
his name and that's all they see. Well, they made Paul write a
couple of letters, one to hismom that said, dear Mummy, I
have fallen into the hands of kidnappers. Don't let me be killed. Arrange
(17:56):
things so that the police don't intervene. You must have absolutely not take this
thing as a joke. Try andget in contact with the kidnappers in the
manner and the way they tell you. Don't let the public know about the
negotiations. If you don't want mekilled, I want to live and be
free again. Don't publicize my kidnapping. Pay I beg you pay up as
(18:18):
soon as possible if you wish mewell. This is all you have to
know. If you delay, itis very dangerous for me. I love
you, Paul ooh. He wasalso forced to write a letter to Grandpa.
It said, I know that wehaven't been very close, but I
hope you know that I love you. Please do whatever you can to get
(18:41):
me out of here. This isserious love, Paul. Okay, okay.
Well, his family and his friends, and so therefore the authorities they're
not really taking this kidnapping thing seriously, partly because Paul had joked several times
in the past that you know,I've got all this money and a trust
(19:03):
fund, but I can't touch itfor a million years. So I would
totally be willing to fake my ownkidnapping to make Grandpa come up off of
some money. Yep, that's kindof what I was thinking, but I
don't know. I haven't heard thestory yet. Yeah, well, you
know, that's that's what his familyis thinking, that's what his friends are
thinking. Kind of what the authoritiesare thinking, because they're hearing this from
(19:26):
there from Paul's friends and family.Right. Well, his mom told the
kidnappers to just go ahead and talkto Paul's attorney from here on out after
their first contact. You know,you talk to the lawyer, the lawyer
will handle things there you go.So the lawyer got a call from them
(19:48):
on July twenty third, and theytold him this is a kidnapping. We
are serious. Do as you weretold and prepare ransom, and then they
hung up the phone. Two dayslater, the lawyer got a letter demanding
seventeen million dollars for Paul's return.The day after he received this letter,
they called to confirm that he hadreceived it, and he said, yeah,
(20:12):
I got this letter. And they'relike, okay, cool, we
want that amount in small bills andwe'll contact you later on, tell you
where to drop it off, andyou know when and all of that,
and you're either going to pay orPaul's gonna be killed, and you know,
let us know on either the radioor TV if you agree to these
terms and hung up. During apress conference on the twenty six, the
(20:36):
lawyer said the request is unreasonable.They should ask for less. That means
you're not getting your money. Fourdays later, the kidnappers said, what
do you mean, it's unreasonable.We know Grandpa is freaking loaded, so
get us our money. Negotiations goback and forth for a bit, all
(21:02):
the while Paul's being moved around fromcave to cave, hut to hut in
an unknown to him region of Italy. We would find out later on that
he was actually being held in anarea in the toe of the Boot known
as Calabria. Calabria whatever, yep, that's it, kind of known for
(21:23):
a mafia type gang that ran thearea. And they're keeping him barely fed,
all hyped up on booze, occasionallyletting him rins himself off in a
stream, you know, just enoughto keep him alive, Okay. And
I'm sure he's hating every minute ofit, because they found him when he
was drunk, so I'm sure hehates it. Sure, you know.
(21:47):
Sure. At some point Grandpa putout a statement that said, although I
see my grandson infrequently, and Iam not particularly close to him. I
love him nonetheless, However, Idon't believe in paying kidnappers. I have
fourteen other grandchildren, and if Ipay one penny now, then I'll have
(22:08):
fourteen kidnapped grandchildren. Oh you right, Grandpa, You are right. So
Grandpa has no intentions of paying anyransom. Does not sound like he is
going to pay to me. Somenegotiations go on even more, and Daddy
Getty comes in and he's starting tothink, I'm starting to think my son
(22:30):
has legit been kidnapped because it's beena while, like it's been months.
Oh wow, and Paul still hasn'tshown up. I'm starting to think somebody
really does have him. Okay,but I'm really surprised that they are keeping
him alive this long. You know, I would say, you know what,
(22:52):
Okay, I'm not getting the money. Get out. I We'll find
somebody else rich to steal. Well, so Daddy Getty he calls Grandpa Gaddy
and he says, look, Ican only come up with a million or
so, can you help me outhere? I just want my son back.
And Grandpa said, I'm not budgingon this. I can't. I
(23:14):
cannot budge on this or else.The rest of my grandkids are going to
be at risk of being taken,you know, one versus all of them,
right, you know, And Iknow that sounds cold hearted, but
I mean Grandpa's kind of right onthis. I agree with Grandpa. Well,
like I said, negotiation has beengoing on for months. It's been
several months. In fact, it'sbeen almost four months. Wow, did
(23:36):
these negotiations have been ongoing? Mykidnappers finally tell Grandpa, look, you
either cough up the coinage or we'regoing to send you your grandson back in
pieces. Oh. Grandpa's still notbudging. Grandpa still saying, nope,
I'm calling your bluff, kidnappers.M And then one day Paul heard on
(24:00):
the radio that his kid, becausehis kidnappers, had given him a radio
to listen to to kind of keephim, you know, entertained, so
he's not all by his lansome inthis cave or hut or wherever he was
at this time. Okay, he'slistening to the radio and he hears a
news report come across that they hadfound a burned body that the authorities were
(24:21):
pretty sure was Paul. Oh.No, yeah, and so he's like,
no, no, no, I'mhere, I'm still alive. That's
not me. Blah blah blah blahblah. You know, come find me.
This maybe worried the kidnappers too,because not long after this, they
moved Paul yet again, washed hishair, gave him a haircut, fed
(24:44):
him some heck and delicious food.Came back about an hour or so after
feeding him, blindfolded him, shoveda gag in his mouth, held down
his arms and legs, and slicedoff his ear. Oh no, oh.
They bandaged it up, sent Pauloff to bed. They did over
(25:06):
the next few days, give himsome you know, shots of penicillin and
vitamins and stuff like that, andmade sure he got up and got moving
around to kind of get the bloodblowing and get it healing so he's not
just laying there dying, you know, because they don't want him dead,
right, They want this money,absolutely. Yeah. So they take this
ear and they take a lock ofhis hair from the haircut that they gave
(25:29):
him after washing his hair, andthey wrote a little note and they dropped
it in a package. They droppedit off at the post office. It
was addressed to a newspaper in theRome area. But when they didn't get
a response as soon as they expected, they got to talking with each other
and then they went, oh,my gosh, we're idiots. We forgot
about the ongoing postal strike in ourcountry right now. Oh no, so
(25:56):
it was like three weeks before thispackage was delivered. So they find this
package. This newspaper does. Theyfind this package and the note says,
this is Paul's ear. If wedon't get some money within ten days,
the other ear will arrive. Inother words, he will arrive in little
(26:17):
pieces. Mm. So the authoritiesare like, hmmm, no, we
don't think this is Paul's ear.There's no way. So they call his
mom down. She comes down andshe looks the ear and she feels it,
you know, touching on it andstuff, and she's like, no,
this this is Paul's ear. Ican tell by the way it feels
(26:38):
and all these freakin' freckles on it, Like this is my son's ear,
you guys. Oh wow. Thecops are like, m I don't really
think so. So they performed somemore testing on it, and then they
came back and said, well,no, yeah, we're pretty sure this
is Paul's ear, okay, yeah, and Paul's like, yeah, that's
my ear, that's for sure.Yeah. So the police after they come
(27:03):
back, after they're testing on thisear, they came back and they said,
you know, yeah, you know, it's probably Paul's ear, and
yeah, we no longer think hiskidnapping as a hoax. We're pretty sure
this kid has been kidnapped for real, you guys. Wow, it took
them long enough really to believe it. I know. On November sixteenth,
the lawyer got another call from thekidnappers. They told him to go to
(27:26):
this one place over here and hewould find something interesting. Yeah, oh
yeah, exactly, that's what everybody'sthinking. So he goes. But what
he found were actually polaroid pictures thatthey had taken of Paul after they cut
his ear off, kind of aproof of life type thing, and approof
you know, that really was Paul'sear type thing, and look, he's
(27:48):
still alive. Got you. Well, all of this finally convinced Grandpa to
say, fine, I'll cough upsome dollars. But see, he had
been having his accountants working behind thescenes where no one could see, and
they had found some sort of fancyrich people loophole for him. He said
(28:11):
that he would not pay the originalrequested seventeen million dollar ransom. Instead,
he would pay three million dollars.That was the maximum amount that he could
write off on his taxes at theend of the year. It's got to
be beneficial to Grandpa because that's howhe got all the money. Oh and
(28:37):
did I neglect to mention that DaddyGetty has to pay back this entire amount
to Grandpa along with four percent interest. Okay, first of all, if
you're writing it off on your taxes, Grandpa, I don't think that you
have to get it paid back.Well, I think if you write it
(28:57):
off on your taxes, you can'twrite off all of it. Well,
I mean you can ride off allof it, but you don't get I
don't know. Taxes are weird.Yeah, and I've never been involved with
any kind of taxes with millions attachedto it, so I'd like to be.
I mean I have been because I'mrich, So I need my rich
(29:18):
friends to come hang out with me. Okay, maybe this is why we're
not hanging out because I'm not rich. The money is gathered and on December
twelfth. It was dropped off atthe location that the kidnapper said they wanted
it dropped off at. It weighedmore than a freaking ton. It's a
lot of money, I know,but I a ton that is like as
(29:45):
much as my jeep. Did theylike, I don't know, leave it
in a truck so somebody could carrythis money. It was in bags.
It was in bags on the sideof a road somewhere. Yeah, what
but yeah, anyway, the kidnapperscome in, they swoop it up,
and they take off. They goto Paul and they tell Paul, look,
(30:06):
we got the money. You're goinghome soon. Just it's just not
gonna be today because you see,there's a gas shortage going on in our
country and we don't really have thegas right now to take you back home,
so you're gonna have to wait alittle bit longer. Why didn't they
drop him off when they picked upall the money, Well, I guess
they had to take it back andcount it and make sure they had their
three million and not two point eight. Okay, sure, I don't know.
(30:33):
Well, the next day they blindfoldedPaul, they drove him around for
a few hours, and then theydropped him off, saying that they would
go and call his mom. Hewaited until he was sure that they were
gone, and he took off hisblindfold and he started walking. He tried
hitchhiking, but nobody was gonna stopand pick up this guy. He's filthy,
dirty, bedraggled. He's got thisbandage on his head. You know,
(30:57):
I'm not stopping for him, Areyou kidding me? I don't know.
I mean, depends on if hehas coffee or not. I'm just
saying, I mean, you know, if he's got yes, coffee or
pacos or both. Okay, I'llprobably get me my ride or or baby
goats puppies. Yeah you know,I mean, or we know how we're
(31:21):
getting kidnapped. It's fine. Okay, sorry, So, but nobody's stopping
to pick him up while he's tryingto hitchhike. So he decided to lay
down and play dead in the road. Now, no, now you're gonna
get run over. Well, nobodystopped for him either when he was pretending
to be a dead body. Sohe got up and he starts walking some
more. Again. Wow, okay, Paul, Okay, Well, he
(31:45):
finally got a truck driver to stopand he tells this truck driver, you
know, hey, look, I'mJohn Paul Getty, the Third. I
was kidnapped like four or five,six months ago. My kidnappers finally just
let me go. Can you takeme to the nearest police station. And
this truck driver was like, uh, bro, you look super sketchy.
You're not getting in my truck.I don't think so. And he just
(32:06):
kept on going, Uh yeah,So as he's going, didn't even stop.
If he's not gonna give him aride, I don't know. But
this truck driver's driving down the roadsome more and he hears on the radio
this news story about John Paul Getty, the Third, who had been kidnapped
four or five six months ago andwas still missing, even though the ransom
(32:30):
had just been paid, they stillhadn't heard, you know, where he
was. And he's like, oh, maybe this guy wasn't a crackpot after
all. Maybe he was telling methe truth. So he drove to the
nearest police station and he told themabout this crazy loon guy that he thought
might not be a crazy loon guyand might actually be the guy they're looking
for, and where he was,and so the cops all rush out there
(32:52):
and they find him and they're like, oh my god, it's you.
And they take him and they feedhim and they call his mom and then
they're in entarry him, not necessarilyinterrogating him. They're questioning him, trying
to get the story, you know, find out what went on, what
happened, who were these people?You know, how are you still alive?
What happened to you while you weregone? You know, all this
stuff. And then his mom comesin and goes, nope, questions are
(33:15):
done. I'm taking my son andwe're leaving. And she takes him and
she checks him into this like highend private clinic okay, to where you
know he could get treated, getbetter, blah blah blah blah blah.
And and he gets all better,and he calls his grandpa so that he
could thank him for paying his ransom. Nice. But his grandpa wouldn't even
(33:37):
come to the phone. Now Ihad that threat. Now, hold on,
hold on, I had that samelook. And I've heard it reported
several times that Grandpa just refused tocome to the phone. But in an
article that I read, that wasa base that was most of where I
got the information for what happened tohim while he was in captivity. It
(33:59):
was an article in The Rolling Stonethat it was an interview that they did
with Paul, like I want tosay, a year or two after he
was kidnapped, uh huh, forhim to tell his story. And he
goes, you know, he saidin the story, you know, yeah,
I called Grandpa to tell him thankyou. Grandpa wouldn't come to the
phone because Grandpa was like scared ofa lot of stuff. Like Grandpa had
some head demons of his own.He was scared of flying, so he
(34:22):
didn't fly anymore. And that particularday that he called, he was scared
to talk on the phone because hethought something was going to come out of
the phone and get him. Andso I had this conversation with my grandpa
through one of his staff members,Like his staff member was the man in
the middle. Okay, and youknow Grandpa said I was welcome. But
(34:43):
everywhere it's just been reported that Grandparefused to come to the phone, because
I mean, that makes him soundlike a total douche, right right,
but not really. I mean Grandpagave up some money. I mean he
did, he did. Yeah,she stimulations to it, but you know,
I mean, hey, if you'regonna lose three million dollars, that's
(35:06):
gonna hurt no matter how many millionsyou have. I would you know,
I would agree anyway. As forhis kidnappers, nine members of the un
Drunk Geta gang, And I knowI butchered that. I know you nailed
it. Basically, the un DrunkGatta was this totally terrible mafia style gang
(35:31):
that had been kidnapping people for ransomfor years. Wow. Yeah, anyway,
nine members of this gang were endedup arrested. A lot of them
were high ranking members of this particulargang. Most of them got off on
lack of evidence or technicalities, orthey greased the right palms or you know
(35:53):
whatever. I don't really know.Two people ended up being sentenced and or
convicted and sent to jail for kidnappingPaul. I couldn't really find anything on
you know, how long they weresent to jail, four or anything like
that. Everything that I registered ninepeople probably not. But everything I read
(36:15):
just said, you know, ninepeople were arrested too, were convicted,
the rest were let off, andmost of the ransom money was never recovered.
Well, there you go. SoPaul ended up marrying his girlfriend.
She was his girlfriend before he waskidnapped, and then when you know,
he came back and they're still together. She was I want to say,
(36:37):
six years older than him, Okay, maybe eight years, I don't remember.
It was several years okay. Anyway, and when he married her,
this kind of caused a rift inhis family and kind of basically cut him
off from the family fortune aw.Yeah, And they did end up having
(36:58):
a son together. His name isbalth Balthazar Getty, and he is a
current actor. He's been on severalthings on TV. If I showed you
a picture of him, you'd belike, oh, yeah, I've seen
that guy around. You can googlehim. I'm all google him. I
just love the fact that they namedtheir son Balthazar. I'm just saying that's
(37:19):
that's fabulous. Anyway, Paul endedup adopting his wife's daughter that she had
from a previous relationship. Now,after all of this was said and done,
everything, Oh see, I knewyou would. So after all of
this was said and done, obviouslyPaul had some issues. He had some
(37:43):
demons, he had some stuff goingon. He didn't really know how to
deal with it, and so heended up turning to alcohol. And drugs,
and at the age of twenty fivein nineteen eighty one, he ended
up having a narcotics induced stroke andwas left paralyzed and partially blind, and
(38:07):
he ended up requiring care for therest of his life like he was in
a wheelchair. His son, however, said that that never slowed his dad
down. His dad even had aspecial attachment thing he built and put on
his wheelchair so that he could stillgo skiing. Oh wow, right wow.
(38:29):
Yeah. Anyway, so his momended up taking care of him in
his home that had been remodeled tobasically be turned into a fancy private hospital
type place, until he died atthe age of fifty four in twenty eleven.
That's my case. That's what Igot for you this week. The
kidnapping of John Paul Getty the thirdWow. Wow, that's that's freaking crazy,
(38:57):
absolutely crazy. It's insane. It'snuts. Yeah, so weird.
I just love the fact that Grandpawas like, I'm not giving you any
dollars, and then Grandpa was like, Okay, fine, I don't give
you dollars, but I'm i goingto give you near what you want.
I'm only going to give you whatI can write off on taxes and not
up anymore. Gotcha. Wow,that's that's crazy. That's absolutely crazy.
(39:25):
Wow. Yeah, So yeah,that's what I got. That's what I
got. That was Grandpa was acharacter. Oh he knew he was probably
fun to hang around though, Ibet he was so. In the article
that I read that where the wherePaul did the interview with Rolling Stone,
he said, you know that hedid spend a little time with his grandpa,
but not like a whole lot,and he was kind of boring,
(39:47):
really kind of kind of stuffy,kind of like that rich stuffy. Yeah,
might not be as fun as Ithink. Then never mind, I
don't want to hang out with him. Never mind, is how it came
off to me. He still differentinteractions he was describing with his grandpa.
All right, So I have aquestion. So originally there was a trust
set up for Paul anyway, Butyes, I guess since he married his
(40:13):
girlfriend and they didn't like it,I guess his trust was taken away.
I guess that's how that works,or I don't really know. Because his
home after his stroke, his homewas remodeled, and it was mentioned that
it was remodeled with Grandpa's money.So I don't know if it was this
trust or if it was aving themoney, or if after he had the
(40:37):
stroke, they swooped in and said, you know, well, I mean,
you know, he still is agetty, so we still got to
take care of him or I haveno idea really, okay, okay,
I was just kind of curious aboutthat. That was ye, I don't
really know for sure. Hmm.Wow wow. And then now he's got
(40:59):
somebody famous is famous. That's crazy. That's so crazy that I enjoyed this.
I enjoyed this a lot. Yeah, I figured last week and the
week before was pretty heavy, sowe should do one where nobody was murdered.
There is no murder, no murder, but it was. It had
(41:22):
plenty of twist and turns and youknow, wow, yeah it did it
did. Yeah. Yeah, well, thank you very very much. I
enjoyed that. Good goody. Ineed to go stand in front of my
heater because it's cold. Okay,well you go do that. I'm going
to go make sure I didn't breakmy foot or anything because I'm afraid to
(41:44):
move it. I'm scared. We'llsee and yeah, so we'll be back
again next week, you guys,hopefully you'll join us. We'll have another
new episode, so until daniell seeyou later. Okay, bye nine after
pos talk about this, boc ApenPops a published boot
Welcome to Crime on My Coffee.This podcast contains graphic descriptions and adult content
mature audiences only. Please Hi,y'all, and welcome to Crime with My
(00:31):
Coffee. I'm your fabulous hostess withthe most June, and I'm Suzanne.
We're going to tell you some storiesyou've heard, some you haven't, and
some you'll wish you hadn't, allwith a Texas twang. All right,
Well, welcome back, guys,welcome back. Glad you get you in
absolutely and if you're here for thefirst time, go back. Pick one
(00:54):
you think you want to hear,and just listen to all of them.
It's fine. We will let dependingon which one it is. I don't
really want to hear it though.Maybe we got some doozies, but we
got some that are okay, wedo, we do, we do.
It's fine, it's fine. Sowhat's in your mug this week? Well,
in my mug because surprise, surprise, we're in Texas. But it
(01:15):
turned cold like in a day andit's like almost yeah, our temperature here,
our temperature here went from like eightyto forty. Like we topped a
hill and saw a fricking state trooper. You guys. Absolutely, I'm like,
whoa, So it was it wasnearly eighty here yesterday. My high
(01:37):
to day is like forty. IfI'm lucky. I don't even think I'm
getting out of the thirties. Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely different, you
know, but give it a fewdays, it'll probably change because hey,
we're in Texas and that's okay.Yeah, by the end of this week,
by the time this comes out,by the end of this week,
I think we're supposed to be backin the eightiesh pretty close to it,
I think so. Well, inmy mug, I'm actually drinking Starbucks Mocha.
(02:04):
It's like a chocolatey coffee, soI didn't have to put a hot
chocolate in my coffee. And thebag I read somewhere what it said.
Oh yeah, so so the bagdoes say that it's combining decadent notes of
cocoa with our lightest roast results ina luscious, chocolatey sip. I agree
(02:32):
with that, but I like thatcoffee. Yes, it's it's a good
coffee, and I didn't want todrag out the hot chocolate that I had,
so I'm like, you know what, this is what I'm having,
And I just barely put a littlebit of French vanilla creamer in it because
I like creamer in my coffee.But after I did that, I was
like, oh, I don't knowwhy I didn't just put milk in there.
(02:53):
It would have been fine, butI forgot. I don't always have
milk, so kind of but that'swhat I have in my mug. What
do you have in your mug today? I have Frenkin Bones from Bones Coffee
Company because it is fall and Iwas able to order some again. So
(03:14):
it's a chocolate hazelnut coffee. I'vegot my dunkin Donuts extra extra creamer in
it. I love it. Oh, it sounds delicious. It's fabulous,
and my kitchen smells amazing because Ijust brewed a fresh pot Ah. There
you go. I need all thecoffee today. You know. It's funny
(03:34):
I say that I would love likecoffee candles or something like that, right
because I love the smell of coffeeabsolutely. But I got one one time
and I was burning it. Ihad it going and I was like,
oh, what is that smell?It kind of smell like something was burning.
That's why I don't like food flavoror food flavored candles for me food
(03:59):
scented because to me, they allsmell burned. Yeah, I was.
It took me a long time tofigure out because I kept walking in the
room going what is that? BecauseI had it in the kitchen at the
time. I was like, whatis burning? But nothing was in the
oven, nothing was on the stove. But I could not get it figured
out. And then finally I waslike, maybe it's this candle. So
(04:19):
I put it out and it stopped. I was like, well, there
you go. So now I havea half burnt candle that I don't feel
I'm gonna use again unfortunately. Okay, I apologize. My dog is gnombing
his bone that he gets every timewe record, and I don't know for
(04:39):
some reason. You can heck andhear it today and I'm not so much
of a tech guru that I knowhow to get rid of that sound.
Yeah, he is being a nommytoday. Absolutely. My husband's gonna yell
at me and be like, youknow you have a door to that office,
right, Yeah, then he's goingto get into stuff and I won't
know it exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Toddlers, Yeah, he is definitely
(05:02):
a toddler. Oh, jeez.He's very loud today. So I'm sorry,
guys, but I do have acase for us today. Hopefully enough
of my talking will cover up hischewing and nodding and you won't hear it
too much. We're gonna try.It's gonna be fine. We're gonna attempt
it. Anyway. I didn't reallydo any kind of a geography lesson on
(05:26):
this. Okay, just know thatyou need your passport. We're going to
Italy. Oh, I want togo to Italy. Even though we're going
to Italy, we don't quite startin Italy. Okay, Okay, that's
fine. I mean we got toget there. So I understand. We're
gonna talk about the Getty family,okay. J Paul Getty was the Getty
(05:49):
family patriarch. Here in a minute, we're gonna start calling him Grandpa or
Grandpa geddy. Okay, okay.During the nineteen forties, fifties, and
sixties, he made a fortune ofmillions in the oil business. Millions in
those days, numbers dollars. Yes, so I can only imagine how many
(06:13):
zeros are behind those numbers today.A lot. Oh that you would not
have to worry about anything ever,ever, Yes, He was reportedly a
bit of a womanizer though, andhe did end up having five sons with
five wives. Well at least theywere all wives. They were, yes,
(06:39):
others, they were all wives.It was rumored that he did have
others though, Yeah, but notsons, just women. Yes. Yes.
He would end up founding Getty Oil, the J. Getty Sorry,
the J. Paul Getty Museum inLos Angeles, and Getty Images. Nice.
(07:01):
In nineteen fifty seven, Forbes wouldname him the richest man in the
country. Oh wow, Now GettyImages. Is that the same company that
I've seen before. I've seen thatsomewhere before, looking at photos or something,
(07:23):
and I believe that it said GettyImaging. Maybe I don't know.
I didn't really do any of thesecompanies. That's kind of cool, okay
anyway, Sorry anyway. He did, however, have a bit of a
reputation for being a total cheapskate,even though he had all this money.
(07:44):
Now I got the money, Iknow. That's what I was gonna say.
Was I was watching something on TVthe past few days and there were
or maybe I was listening to anotherpodcast. I don't remember. I've done
quite a bit of both the pastcouple of days with this weather, and
they were talking about, you know, so and so had so much money,
but they were worried about you know, a couple of hundred bucks on
(08:05):
like a money exchange or something,a currency exchange, that's what it was.
Yeah, And they were like,you know, but if you have
all that money, why would youworry about it? Well, because you
have all that money, that's howyou got. All that money exists because
you're worried about all that. I'mjust saying that's why. That's why he
got all his money. Because hewas a cheapskate. He even went so
far as to have payphones installed inhis huge English estate because he had moved
(08:33):
to London in the late nineteen fiftiesbecause he was totally obsessed with everything English.
Uh huh. But he had thesepayphones installed for his guests and his
staff to use because his long distancebills were getting out of hand, and
he even had dial logs put onhis landline phones so that they had to
use these payphones. Wow, Imean, I get it. If you
(08:58):
have a big estate and you've gota lot of people and they're calling a
lot of people, your phone bill'sgonna be pretty big, so I get
it. Of his sons, we'regonna talk about John Paul Getty Junior,
though I did see it reported inone place that he was actually Eugene Getty.
(09:20):
But a lot but pretty much everythingelse except for this one article says
John Paul Getty the Junior. Sobut for the most part, we're gonna
call him Junior or Daddy Getty.Okay, because he too had a son
in nineteen fifty six that was nameddepending on where you're reading it, either
Eugene Getty Junior or John Paul Gettythe Third. Okay. Now, I
(09:46):
think where the John Paul Getty camein was because they were named I think
they actually were named Eugene. Butlike I said, this happened in Italy
over in Europe, and instead ofthe media and stuff calling them Eugene or
Gene, they used Jean, whichtranslates back to John. Yeah. Okay,
(10:09):
Okay, So you know, Ithink that's where it came from.
But the third Getty went by Paul, so that's what we're gonna call him.
Okay, So we're gonna have Pauland Daddy Getty and Grandpa Getty.
Gotcha. Well, when Paul wasabout a year and a half old.
His family moved to Italy so thathis dad could run the Getty Oil Italian
location O Nice. His parents divorcedin nineteen sixty four, and Paul moved
(10:37):
back with his mom to the UnitedStates, where they lived in Brentwood,
over by Los Angeles. Okay,you know the super fancy neighborhood because she
remarried an actor. Oh wow,that's that's exciting. You know. I
think if you have a lot ofmoney, you draw people with a lot
(10:58):
of money around you. But ifyou're poor, like us, you just
know poor folk all the time.Okay, So if I pretend to have
money, will I attract people thathave money? Maybe? I don't know.
Okay, everybody, I'm rich.So if you're rich, let's be
friends. Yes, and just youknow, we'll swap money. You send
(11:18):
me one hundred dollars and I'll sendyou fifty cents. Uh. So she
married, she remarried an actor.His dad remarried too. I want to
say he remarried an actor. Ohwow. Do we know these literally these
famous people's names? Or I did, but I did not write them down
(11:41):
because they're not really relevant to ourstory. No, I get it,
I get it, but so butwe do. We do come upon another
actor later, and I did writetheir name down. Oh okay, okay,
sorry I keep interrupting. I justit's okay, okay. Anyway,
a year or so after moving inwith his new stepdad, his mom and
(12:01):
stepdad separated, and so he movedback to Rome. There he started bouncing
around from one boarding school to anotherbefore he was finally expelled. One thing
that I read said that he wasexpelled because he burned down a billboard and
filled the school with smoke, butanother claimed that he was expelled for painting
(12:24):
a hallway after being inspired by newsreports of the Manson family. Oh my
goodness, Now wonder he was inboarding schools because daddy didn't want to deal
with him or anything. Your momdidn't want to deal with him, and
we got plenty of money weekends andnamed boarding school because that's how people get
(12:45):
fancy. Yeah. Well, eitherway, by the time he was fifteen,
he was no longer in school.He was doing whatever he wanted to
do. He did some acting,some modeling, he sold some art stuff
like that. Okay. In Januaryof nineteen seventy three, he was arrested
(13:05):
and held for a little bit aftera demonstration protesting the death of a Milanese
communist who had been killed by thecops. He was held on suspicion of
throwing a Mulotov cocktail at this demonstration, but his lawyer did his lawyer stuff
and Paul was cleared and released.Wow, good lawyer, All right,
(13:26):
Well, Paul started living the vampirelife. He's a teenager, he doesn't
have school. He could do whateverhe wants to do. So he's living
the vampire life. He's sleeping allday and partying all night. Yep,
sounds like on July tenth of nineteenwhat I said, Yep, sounds like
fifteen year olds. Well, Iwant to say he's like sixteen seventeen at
(13:48):
this tale. Yeah, uh yeah, almost seven or right around seventeen,
because he was born in fifty sixand now we're in seventy three. So
got you. So he's sixteen seventeen. More around there. July tenth,
nineteen seventy three. He's out doingthe vampire nightlife thing. It's in the
dark hours of the morning. He'swalking around the Piazza Farnesse. I have
(14:13):
no idea how to really say that, because I'm not Italian. There's not
a drop of Italian blood in myDNA. I thank you. No,
I'm gonna go with I freaking nailedit absolutely anyway. So he's walking around
here and he's drunk, and hesaid, this guy, this guy with
four cars in pulled up next tohim. No, this car, this
car with four guys in it,okay pulled up and you know, the
(14:37):
driver yelled out the window at himand he turned around and he's like,
huh what and three guys jump outof the car and they grab him and
they put something over his face thathe's pretty sure was filled with chloroform,
because the next thing he remembers ishe wakes up in this car blindfolded.
He's got his hands bound, hisfeet bound, and they're just driving around
(14:58):
for hours. And one of theguys said, you know, hey,
you're you're Paul Getty, right,and he was like, uh, yes,
I am indeed John Paul Getty Othe third ooh, I'm so fenic.
And once he did that, Paulsaid that the guy said, Okay,
(15:22):
if you want something, ask forit, and if the answers yes,
you'll hear one clap. If theanswer is no, you'll hear two
claps. Remember this, because nobodywill speak to you again. Oh wow.
Paul said that he decided right thenand there. He's not scared because
they worked out a way to communicatewith him. So he's obviously not going
(15:43):
to be you know, driven outhere, shot and tossed in a ditch
or anything. They have no planson killing him if they're working out a
way to communicate with him. Notnecessarily. I mean, I wouldn't be
so trusting. First of all,they nabbed you off the street. Yeah,
but then they said, hey,this is your name, right,
all right? Cool, now thatwe know you're him, here's how we're
(16:06):
going to communicate. We got youfor ransom, but whatever. Ll and
Paul said that that's when it sunkin. Oh crap, I'm being kidnapped.
And that may be more of aproblem because they're gonna want money,
because they're going to know that Icome from money. My parents don't have
the kind of money that they're goingto ask for, and Grandpa's not going
(16:29):
to come up off of any dollarsfor it. Right. He's he's he's
a big, cheapy, cheaper person, and I'm screwed. Oh well,
two days after Paul was taken,his mother got a ransom demand for seventeen
million dollars. Holy crap. Bythe way, I translated that into today's
(16:52):
dollars and it's like one hundred andeighteen million. Oh my goodness. Well
I'll just have more kids. Well, I know you don't love me seventeen
million dollars worth. Thanks for that. Well, I could never come up
with that kind of money, soI'll just have more kids. It's fine.
(17:14):
Well, his mom said, look, I don't have that kind of
money. I don't, you know. I divorced his dad like ten years
ago, almost, you know.And the kidnappers said, well, you
can get it from London. Wow, this sounds like an inside job.
They know a little bit. Idon't guess they knew that grandpa was a
(17:36):
cheap, cheaper person, you know. They just look at the zeros behind
his name and that's all they see. Well, they made Paul write a
couple of letters, one to hismom that said, dear Mummy, I
have fallen into the hands of kidnappers. Don't let me be killed. Arrange
(17:56):
things so that the police don't intervene. You must have absolutely not take this
thing as a joke. Try andget in contact with the kidnappers in the
manner and the way they tell you. Don't let the public know about the
negotiations. If you don't want mekilled, I want to live and be
free again. Don't publicize my kidnapping. Pay I beg you pay up as
(18:18):
soon as possible if you wish mewell. This is all you have to
know. If you delay, itis very dangerous for me. I love
you, Paul ooh. He wasalso forced to write a letter to Grandpa.
It said, I know that wehaven't been very close, but I
hope you know that I love you. Please do whatever you can to get
(18:41):
me out of here. This isserious love, Paul. Okay, okay.
Well, his family and his friends, and so therefore the authorities they're
not really taking this kidnapping thing seriously, partly because Paul had joked several times
in the past that you know,I've got all this money and a trust
(19:03):
fund, but I can't touch itfor a million years. So I would
totally be willing to fake my ownkidnapping to make Grandpa come up off of
some money. Yep, that's kindof what I was thinking, but I
don't know. I haven't heard thestory yet. Yeah, well, you
know, that's that's what his familyis thinking, that's what his friends are
thinking. Kind of what the authoritiesare thinking, because they're hearing this from
(19:26):
there from Paul's friends and family.Right. Well, his mom told the
kidnappers to just go ahead and talkto Paul's attorney from here on out after
their first contact. You know,you talk to the lawyer, the lawyer
will handle things there you go.So the lawyer got a call from them
(19:48):
on July twenty third, and theytold him this is a kidnapping. We
are serious. Do as you weretold and prepare ransom, and then they
hung up the phone. Two dayslater, the lawyer got a letter demanding
seventeen million dollars for Paul's return.The day after he received this letter,
they called to confirm that he hadreceived it, and he said, yeah,
(20:12):
I got this letter. And they'relike, okay, cool, we
want that amount in small bills andwe'll contact you later on, tell you
where to drop it off, andyou know when and all of that,
and you're either going to pay orPaul's gonna be killed, and you know,
let us know on either the radioor TV if you agree to these
terms and hung up. During apress conference on the twenty six, the
(20:36):
lawyer said the request is unreasonable.They should ask for less. That means
you're not getting your money. Fourdays later, the kidnappers said, what
do you mean, it's unreasonable.We know Grandpa is freaking loaded, so
get us our money. Negotiations goback and forth for a bit, all
(21:02):
the while Paul's being moved around fromcave to cave, hut to hut in
an unknown to him region of Italy. We would find out later on that
he was actually being held in anarea in the toe of the Boot known
as Calabria. Calabria whatever, yep, that's it, kind of known for
(21:23):
a mafia type gang that ran thearea. And they're keeping him barely fed,
all hyped up on booze, occasionallyletting him rins himself off in a
stream, you know, just enoughto keep him alive, Okay. And
I'm sure he's hating every minute ofit, because they found him when he
was drunk, so I'm sure hehates it. Sure, you know.
(21:47):
Sure. At some point Grandpa putout a statement that said, although I
see my grandson infrequently, and Iam not particularly close to him. I
love him nonetheless, However, Idon't believe in paying kidnappers. I have
fourteen other grandchildren, and if Ipay one penny now, then I'll have
(22:08):
fourteen kidnapped grandchildren. Oh you right, Grandpa, You are right. So
Grandpa has no intentions of paying anyransom. Does not sound like he is
going to pay to me. Somenegotiations go on even more, and Daddy
Getty comes in and he's starting tothink, I'm starting to think my son
(22:30):
has legit been kidnapped because it's beena while, like it's been months.
Oh wow, and Paul still hasn'tshown up. I'm starting to think somebody
really does have him. Okay,but I'm really surprised that they are keeping
him alive this long. You know, I would say, you know what,
(22:52):
Okay, I'm not getting the money. Get out. I We'll find
somebody else rich to steal. Well, so Daddy Getty he calls Grandpa Gaddy
and he says, look, Ican only come up with a million or
so, can you help me outhere? I just want my son back.
And Grandpa said, I'm not budgingon this. I can't. I
(23:14):
cannot budge on this or else.The rest of my grandkids are going to
be at risk of being taken,you know, one versus all of them,
right, you know, And Iknow that sounds cold hearted, but
I mean Grandpa's kind of right onthis. I agree with Grandpa. Well,
like I said, negotiation has beengoing on for months. It's been
several months. In fact, it'sbeen almost four months. Wow, did
(23:36):
these negotiations have been ongoing? Mykidnappers finally tell Grandpa, look, you
either cough up the coinage or we'regoing to send you your grandson back in
pieces. Oh. Grandpa's still notbudging. Grandpa still saying, nope,
I'm calling your bluff, kidnappers.M And then one day Paul heard on
(24:00):
the radio that his kid, becausehis kidnappers, had given him a radio
to listen to to kind of keephim, you know, entertained, so
he's not all by his lansome inthis cave or hut or wherever he was
at this time. Okay, he'slistening to the radio and he hears a
news report come across that they hadfound a burned body that the authorities were
(24:21):
pretty sure was Paul. Oh.No, yeah, and so he's like,
no, no, no, I'mhere, I'm still alive. That's
not me. Blah blah blah blahblah. You know, come find me.
This maybe worried the kidnappers too,because not long after this, they
moved Paul yet again, washed hishair, gave him a haircut, fed
(24:44):
him some heck and delicious food.Came back about an hour or so after
feeding him, blindfolded him, shoveda gag in his mouth, held down
his arms and legs, and slicedoff his ear. Oh no, oh.
They bandaged it up, sent Pauloff to bed. They did over
(25:06):
the next few days, give himsome you know, shots of penicillin and
vitamins and stuff like that, andmade sure he got up and got moving
around to kind of get the bloodblowing and get it healing so he's not
just laying there dying, you know, because they don't want him dead,
right, They want this money,absolutely. Yeah. So they take this
ear and they take a lock ofhis hair from the haircut that they gave
(25:29):
him after washing his hair, andthey wrote a little note and they dropped
it in a package. They droppedit off at the post office. It
was addressed to a newspaper in theRome area. But when they didn't get
a response as soon as they expected, they got to talking with each other
and then they went, oh,my gosh, we're idiots. We forgot
about the ongoing postal strike in ourcountry right now. Oh no, so
(25:56):
it was like three weeks before thispackage was delivered. So they find this
package. This newspaper does. Theyfind this package and the note says,
this is Paul's ear. If wedon't get some money within ten days,
the other ear will arrive. Inother words, he will arrive in little
(26:17):
pieces. Mm. So the authoritiesare like, hmmm, no, we
don't think this is Paul's ear.There's no way. So they call his
mom down. She comes down andshe looks the ear and she feels it,
you know, touching on it andstuff, and she's like, no,
this this is Paul's ear. Ican tell by the way it feels
(26:38):
and all these freakin' freckles on it, Like this is my son's ear,
you guys. Oh wow. Thecops are like, m I don't really
think so. So they performed somemore testing on it, and then they
came back and said, well,no, yeah, we're pretty sure this
is Paul's ear, okay, yeah, and Paul's like, yeah, that's
my ear, that's for sure.Yeah. So the police after they come
(27:03):
back, after they're testing on thisear, they came back and they said,
you know, yeah, you know, it's probably Paul's ear, and
yeah, we no longer think hiskidnapping as a hoax. We're pretty sure
this kid has been kidnapped for real, you guys. Wow, it took
them long enough really to believe it. I know. On November sixteenth,
the lawyer got another call from thekidnappers. They told him to go to
(27:26):
this one place over here and hewould find something interesting. Yeah, oh
yeah, exactly, that's what everybody'sthinking. So he goes. But what
he found were actually polaroid pictures thatthey had taken of Paul after they cut
his ear off, kind of aproof of life type thing, and approof
you know, that really was Paul'sear type thing, and look, he's
(27:48):
still alive. Got you. Well, all of this finally convinced Grandpa to
say, fine, I'll cough upsome dollars. But see, he had
been having his accountants working behind thescenes where no one could see, and
they had found some sort of fancyrich people loophole for him. He said
(28:11):
that he would not pay the originalrequested seventeen million dollar ransom. Instead,
he would pay three million dollars.That was the maximum amount that he could
write off on his taxes at theend of the year. It's got to
be beneficial to Grandpa because that's howhe got all the money. Oh and
(28:37):
did I neglect to mention that DaddyGetty has to pay back this entire amount
to Grandpa along with four percent interest. Okay, first of all, if
you're writing it off on your taxes, Grandpa, I don't think that you
have to get it paid back.Well, I think if you write it
(28:57):
off on your taxes, you can'twrite off all of it. Well,
I mean you can ride off allof it, but you don't get I
don't know. Taxes are weird.Yeah, and I've never been involved with
any kind of taxes with millions attachedto it, so I'd like to be.
I mean I have been because I'mrich, So I need my rich
(29:18):
friends to come hang out with me. Okay, maybe this is why we're
not hanging out because I'm not rich. The money is gathered and on December
twelfth. It was dropped off atthe location that the kidnapper said they wanted
it dropped off at. It weighedmore than a freaking ton. It's a
lot of money, I know,but I a ton that is like as
(29:45):
much as my jeep. Did theylike, I don't know, leave it
in a truck so somebody could carrythis money. It was in bags.
It was in bags on the sideof a road somewhere. Yeah, what
but yeah, anyway, the kidnapperscome in, they swoop it up,
and they take off. They goto Paul and they tell Paul, look,
(30:06):
we got the money. You're goinghome soon. Just it's just not
gonna be today because you see,there's a gas shortage going on in our
country and we don't really have thegas right now to take you back home,
so you're gonna have to wait alittle bit longer. Why didn't they
drop him off when they picked upall the money, Well, I guess
they had to take it back andcount it and make sure they had their
three million and not two point eight. Okay, sure, I don't know.
(30:33):
Well, the next day they blindfoldedPaul, they drove him around for
a few hours, and then theydropped him off, saying that they would
go and call his mom. Hewaited until he was sure that they were
gone, and he took off hisblindfold and he started walking. He tried
hitchhiking, but nobody was gonna stopand pick up this guy. He's filthy,
dirty, bedraggled. He's got thisbandage on his head. You know,
(30:57):
I'm not stopping for him, Areyou kidding me? I don't know.
I mean, depends on if hehas coffee or not. I'm just
saying, I mean, you know, if he's got yes, coffee or
pacos or both. Okay, I'llprobably get me my ride or or baby
goats puppies. Yeah you know,I mean, or we know how we're
(31:21):
getting kidnapped. It's fine. Okay, sorry, So, but nobody's stopping
to pick him up while he's tryingto hitchhike. So he decided to lay
down and play dead in the road. Now, no, now you're gonna
get run over. Well, nobodystopped for him either when he was pretending
to be a dead body. Sohe got up and he starts walking some
more. Again. Wow, okay, Paul, Okay, Well, he
(31:45):
finally got a truck driver to stopand he tells this truck driver, you
know, hey, look, I'mJohn Paul Getty, the Third. I
was kidnapped like four or five,six months ago. My kidnappers finally just
let me go. Can you takeme to the nearest police station. And
this truck driver was like, uh, bro, you look super sketchy.
You're not getting in my truck.I don't think so. And he just
(32:06):
kept on going, Uh yeah,So as he's going, didn't even stop.
If he's not gonna give him aride, I don't know. But
this truck driver's driving down the roadsome more and he hears on the radio
this news story about John Paul Getty, the Third, who had been kidnapped
four or five six months ago andwas still missing, even though the ransom
(32:30):
had just been paid, they stillhadn't heard, you know, where he
was. And he's like, oh, maybe this guy wasn't a crackpot after
all. Maybe he was telling methe truth. So he drove to the
nearest police station and he told themabout this crazy loon guy that he thought
might not be a crazy loon guyand might actually be the guy they're looking
for, and where he was,and so the cops all rush out there
(32:52):
and they find him and they're like, oh my god, it's you.
And they take him and they feedhim and they call his mom and then
they're in entarry him, not necessarilyinterrogating him. They're questioning him, trying
to get the story, you know, find out what went on, what
happened, who were these people?You know, how are you still alive?
What happened to you while you weregone? You know, all this
stuff. And then his mom comesin and goes, nope, questions are
(33:15):
done. I'm taking my son andwe're leaving. And she takes him and
she checks him into this like highend private clinic okay, to where you
know he could get treated, getbetter, blah blah blah blah blah.
And and he gets all better,and he calls his grandpa so that he
could thank him for paying his ransom. Nice. But his grandpa wouldn't even
(33:37):
come to the phone. Now Ihad that threat. Now, hold on,
hold on, I had that samelook. And I've heard it reported
several times that Grandpa just refused tocome to the phone. But in an
article that I read, that wasa base that was most of where I
got the information for what happened tohim while he was in captivity. It
(33:59):
was an article in The Rolling Stonethat it was an interview that they did
with Paul, like I want tosay, a year or two after he
was kidnapped, uh huh, forhim to tell his story. And he
goes, you know, he saidin the story, you know, yeah,
I called Grandpa to tell him thankyou. Grandpa wouldn't come to the
phone because Grandpa was like scared ofa lot of stuff. Like Grandpa had
some head demons of his own.He was scared of flying, so he
(34:22):
didn't fly anymore. And that particularday that he called, he was scared
to talk on the phone because hethought something was going to come out of
the phone and get him. Andso I had this conversation with my grandpa
through one of his staff members,Like his staff member was the man in
the middle. Okay, and youknow Grandpa said I was welcome. But
(34:43):
everywhere it's just been reported that Grandparefused to come to the phone, because
I mean, that makes him soundlike a total douche, right right,
but not really. I mean Grandpagave up some money. I mean he
did, he did. Yeah,she stimulations to it, but you know,
I mean, hey, if you'regonna lose three million dollars, that's
(35:06):
gonna hurt no matter how many millionsyou have. I would you know,
I would agree anyway. As forhis kidnappers, nine members of the un
Drunk Geta gang, And I knowI butchered that. I know you nailed
it. Basically, the un DrunkGatta was this totally terrible mafia style gang
(35:31):
that had been kidnapping people for ransomfor years. Wow. Yeah, anyway,
nine members of this gang were endedup arrested. A lot of them
were high ranking members of this particulargang. Most of them got off on
lack of evidence or technicalities, orthey greased the right palms or you know
(35:53):
whatever. I don't really know.Two people ended up being sentenced and or
convicted and sent to jail for kidnappingPaul. I couldn't really find anything on
you know, how long they weresent to jail, four or anything like
that. Everything that I registered ninepeople probably not. But everything I read
(36:15):
just said, you know, ninepeople were arrested too, were convicted,
the rest were let off, andmost of the ransom money was never recovered.
Well, there you go. SoPaul ended up marrying his girlfriend.
She was his girlfriend before he waskidnapped, and then when you know,
he came back and they're still together. She was I want to say,
(36:37):
six years older than him, Okay, maybe eight years, I don't remember.
It was several years okay. Anyway, and when he married her,
this kind of caused a rift inhis family and kind of basically cut him
off from the family fortune aw.Yeah, And they did end up having
(36:58):
a son together. His name isbalth Balthazar Getty, and he is a
current actor. He's been on severalthings on TV. If I showed you
a picture of him, you'd belike, oh, yeah, I've seen
that guy around. You can googlehim. I'm all google him. I
just love the fact that they namedtheir son Balthazar. I'm just saying that's
(37:19):
that's fabulous. Anyway, Paul endedup adopting his wife's daughter that she had
from a previous relationship. Now,after all of this was said and done,
everything, Oh see, I knewyou would. So after all of
this was said and done, obviouslyPaul had some issues. He had some
(37:43):
demons, he had some stuff goingon. He didn't really know how to
deal with it, and so heended up turning to alcohol. And drugs,
and at the age of twenty fivein nineteen eighty one, he ended
up having a narcotics induced stroke andwas left paralyzed and partially blind, and
(38:07):
he ended up requiring care for therest of his life like he was in
a wheelchair. His son, however, said that that never slowed his dad
down. His dad even had aspecial attachment thing he built and put on
his wheelchair so that he could stillgo skiing. Oh wow, right wow.
(38:29):
Yeah. Anyway, so his momended up taking care of him in
his home that had been remodeled tobasically be turned into a fancy private hospital
type place, until he died atthe age of fifty four in twenty eleven.
That's my case. That's what Igot for you this week. The
kidnapping of John Paul Getty the thirdWow. Wow, that's that's freaking crazy,
(38:57):
absolutely crazy. It's insane. It'snuts. Yeah, so weird.
I just love the fact that Grandpawas like, I'm not giving you any
dollars, and then Grandpa was like, Okay, fine, I don't give
you dollars, but I'm i goingto give you near what you want.
I'm only going to give you whatI can write off on taxes and not
up anymore. Gotcha. Wow,that's that's crazy. That's absolutely crazy.
(39:25):
Wow. Yeah, So yeah,that's what I got. That's what I
got. That was Grandpa was acharacter. Oh he knew he was probably
fun to hang around though, Ibet he was so. In the article
that I read that where the wherePaul did the interview with Rolling Stone,
he said, you know that hedid spend a little time with his grandpa,
but not like a whole lot,and he was kind of boring,
(39:47):
really kind of kind of stuffy,kind of like that rich stuffy. Yeah,
might not be as fun as Ithink. Then never mind, I
don't want to hang out with him. Never mind, is how it came
off to me. He still differentinteractions he was describing with his grandpa.
All right, So I have aquestion. So originally there was a trust
set up for Paul anyway, Butyes, I guess since he married his
(40:13):
girlfriend and they didn't like it,I guess his trust was taken away.
I guess that's how that works,or I don't really know. Because his
home after his stroke, his homewas remodeled, and it was mentioned that
it was remodeled with Grandpa's money.So I don't know if it was this
trust or if it was aving themoney, or if after he had the
(40:37):
stroke, they swooped in and said, you know, well, I mean,
you know, he still is agetty, so we still got to
take care of him or I haveno idea really, okay, okay,
I was just kind of curious aboutthat. That was ye, I don't
really know for sure. Hmm.Wow wow. And then now he's got
(40:59):
somebody famous is famous. That's crazy. That's so crazy that I enjoyed this.
I enjoyed this a lot. Yeah, I figured last week and the
week before was pretty heavy, sowe should do one where nobody was murdered.
There is no murder, no murder, but it was. It had
(41:22):
plenty of twist and turns and youknow, wow, yeah it did it
did. Yeah. Yeah, well, thank you very very much. I
enjoyed that. Good goody. Ineed to go stand in front of my
heater because it's cold. Okay,well you go do that. I'm going
to go make sure I didn't breakmy foot or anything because I'm afraid to
(41:44):
move it. I'm scared. We'llsee and yeah, so we'll be back
again next week, you guys,hopefully you'll join us. We'll have another
new episode, so until daniell seeyou later. Okay, bye nine after
pos talk about this, boc ApenPops a published boot
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