In 1973, 16-year-old John Paul Getty III was snatched off the streets of Rome and held for a $17 million ransom. It should have been an easy sum to raise. His grandfather, oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, was one of the richest men on the planet.
He refused to pay a cent.
The elderly billionaire had a cold, reason. “I have 14 other grandchildren,” he said, “and if I pay one penny now, I’ll have 14 kidnapped grandchildren.” At first he even suspected the rebellious teenager had staged his own kidnapping to squeeze money out of the family.
But it was very real. As the months dragged on with no payment, the kidnappers grew impatient. To prove they were serious, they cut off the boy’s right ear and mailed it to a newspaper, along with a warning that he would arrive “in little bits” if they were not paid.
Only then did his grandfather engage, and even then, he negotiated. The ransom was talked down to around $3 million. Getty agreed to pay $2.2 million of it, not a dollar more, because that was the exact maximum his accountants told him he could claim as a tax deduction.
The remaining balance he did not simply give. He loaned it to his own son, the boy’s father, and charged him 4 percent interest.
John Paul Getty III was released after five months in captivity, found shivering at a gas station in southern Italy. He survived, but the ordeal broke something in him. He struggled with addiction for years, and a stroke later left him severely disabled for the rest of his life.
His grandfather, meanwhile, had gotten his grandson back, taken his tax deduction, and turned a profit on the loan.
The Billionaire Grandfather Who Refused to Pay His Grandson’s Ransom
