Latest / Ridiculous History / J. Paul Getty, Part One: Money Doesn't Make You Happy

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J. Paul Getty, Part One: Money Doesn't Make You Happy · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Ye
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Speaker 1: welcome back to the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as
0:30
Speaker 1: always so much for tuning in. Let's hear it for
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Speaker 1: the one and only super producer, Mr Max Williams. Okay,
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Speaker 1: use that, but b lada lads mag who's that sound cue?
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Speaker 1: Maybe it's facts, maybe it's Maybel. I'm ben uh No,
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Speaker 1: you know, I was thinking, I'm born with it. You're
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Speaker 1: born Yeah, yeah, I know. I know. That's why we
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Speaker 1: hang out, so I um, I was thinking about this.
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Speaker 1: We had this lovely conversation just a second ago for
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Speaker 1: us off air about how we're We're always very fortunate
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Speaker 1: and we acknowledge how grateful we are to be able
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Speaker 1: to do these shows with you Ridiculous Historians and NOL.
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Speaker 1: I like to think that we haven't let our jobs
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Speaker 1: change us too much. Would you agree with I would
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Speaker 1: agree with that. Yeah. I try to actively not become
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Speaker 1: a monster. That's one of my goals, and I think
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Speaker 1: the first step to doing that is self awareness, a
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Speaker 1: skill which the subject of today's episode, John Paul Getty,
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Speaker 1: seems to have lacked. Perhaps I don't know. We're fortunate
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Speaker 1: for sure, but we're not John Paul Getty, fortunate man.
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Speaker 1: That man was made of the kind of money that
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Speaker 1: changes people. Yeah, we're also not J. Paul Getty petty.
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Speaker 1: We're not that level of petty. Now, this guy you're
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Speaker 1: gonna see. We're not sure whether this will be a
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Speaker 1: two part episode because we sometimes our off Mike conversations
2:01
Speaker 1: get to be a little bit like group therapy, like
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Speaker 1: what do we think about the world? How does it
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Speaker 1: inform ourselves? So, uh, happy birthday? What do we do
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Speaker 1: if we had all the money in the world. Don't
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Speaker 1: don't buy the violin after the first year. Rented for
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Speaker 1: the first year. Then by sorry, we were just talking
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Speaker 1: about We wrapped that into a real big metaphor about
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Speaker 1: the plight of humanity. Yeah, so bowling was involved. You know,
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Speaker 1: you don't buy the ball on day one? Yeah, I
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Speaker 1: have joined. I have accidentally joined a Vulcan themed bowling league,
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Speaker 1: child to our awesome graphic designer, Pam Peacock, who is
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Speaker 1: our fearless leader in that regard. But but let's not
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Speaker 1: bury the lead. John Paul Getty. You have doubtlessly heard
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Speaker 1: the name Getty. You may not have heard it associated
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Speaker 1: with the family because it is a legit American aristocracy.
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Speaker 1: It's a dynasty. Like there are actors who were part
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Speaker 1: of the Getty dynasty. We'll get into all of that,
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Speaker 1: but what you need to have seen some of their pictures.
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Speaker 1: You might have seen their pictures. They control huge or
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Speaker 1: a significant chunk of copyrighted images like Getty Images is
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Speaker 1: something that knowl you and I and probably YouTube Max
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Speaker 1: at this point had to Uh, we had to interface
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Speaker 1: with often when we're starting shows, when we're looking for
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Speaker 1: images to share. Back when I was writing a ton
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Speaker 1: of old house stuff works videos, we had to go
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Speaker 1: back and forth about which Getty images we could afford. Um,
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Speaker 1: I think you can even find a group shot of
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Speaker 1: some of us on Getty Images. We made it to
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Speaker 1: Getty Images. Hey, we were jerks about it. For like
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Speaker 1: four red carpet. Yeah, every red carpet in the world
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Speaker 1: is on Getty Images exactly quality or size exactly. So
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Speaker 1: this uh Getty dynasty. The reason Getty is such a
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Speaker 1: recognizable word in the Western world today is because by
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Speaker 1: the late nineteen six these, this guy John Paul Getty
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Speaker 1: had become known as the richest man in the world.
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Speaker 1: Now that's a tricky title because as anybody who listens
4:10
Speaker 1: to stuff they don't want you to know it can
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Speaker 1: tell you the real most powerful people in the world.
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Speaker 1: They're not rated as much by bank accounts. Nobody knows
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Speaker 1: how much money Putin actually has. For instance, even when
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Speaker 1: Russia is turning into a dumpster fire. This guy, though
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Speaker 1: he got Getty got called the richest man in the
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Speaker 1: world by Fortune magazine in nineteen fifty seven. And he
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Speaker 1: was an oil man, right, No, he was. He was
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Speaker 1: a man of oil. Uh animal collected song by the
4:44
Speaker 1: same name. Yeah, you know, he got it on the
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Speaker 1: ground floor. I mean, I think maybe in some ways
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Speaker 1: the character of Daniel Plainview in Um There Will Be
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Speaker 1: Blood might have been influenced or inspired by Getty just
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Speaker 1: kind of just spitballing on that. I don't know that
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Speaker 1: for sure, but you know, in the same way that
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Speaker 1: Paul Thomas Anderson sort of vaguely based the character played
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Speaker 1: by Phillipy Moore Hoffman and the Master on l Ron Hubbard.
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Speaker 1: It's definitely a vibe, because you know, oil is one
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Speaker 1: of those things where to truly become a titan of
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Speaker 1: the industry, you gotta kind of get in on the
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Speaker 1: ground floor. You gotta get in gonna drink everyone else's milkshake. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: you gotta get below the ground floor, you know, start
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Speaker 1: drilling well. Also, J Paul Getty was the inspiration for
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Speaker 1: an excellent little Saturday Night Live sketch with Adam Driver
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Speaker 1: as an oil man talking to his talking about his
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Speaker 1: son's career day at school. Do check it out? Do
5:47
Speaker 1: you guys remember that one? I don't think I've seen this.
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Speaker 1: I'm gonna send it to you after this, all right,
5:51
Speaker 1: we'll do our homework first. So he had been called
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Speaker 1: the richest man in the world for a while because
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Speaker 1: by the time he consolidated his various businesses into what
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Speaker 1: was called the Getty Oil Company, his personal fortune not
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Speaker 1: related to his job. His personal fortune was estimated to
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Speaker 1: be it more than two billion by like nineteen sixty seven.
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Speaker 1: But as you know, more money, more problems, hip hop
6:23
Speaker 1: is right. His his family had a lot of personal
6:29
Speaker 1: tribulations and travails such that people started asking whether the
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Speaker 1: Gettys were cursed and to learn about whether or not
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Speaker 1: this is a curse. First off, wait, we've talked about
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Speaker 1: this before on various shows on and off air. Noel Max,
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Speaker 1: do you guys believe in curses, Oh gosh, belief as
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Speaker 1: the hell of a drug. I don't know about that.
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Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like I believe in something resembling karma. Sure,
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Speaker 1: I feel like if you're a person of great means
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Speaker 1: and you put negative things out into the world and
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Speaker 1: you screw people over, then potentially negative things will come
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Speaker 1: back to you. But I don't know. I'm that's probably
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Speaker 1: the about as hippie as I get in my belief system. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: I mean, I think there's a lot of other circumstances
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Speaker 1: that can cause stuff that looks like a a curse to happen.
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Speaker 1: And I do think karma is like, you know, not
7:26
Speaker 1: like the direct actual notion of karma, but like something
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Speaker 1: similar to that is a part of that. But just
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Speaker 1: I I think it's calling someone a curse is like
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Speaker 1: very good, like get a jail free card, of just
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Speaker 1: being like, all these terrible things have happened, instead of
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Speaker 1: just like, you know, being like, all these terrible things
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Speaker 1: happen and I have a hand playing these things, right,
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Speaker 1: So saying a curse, that saying something's a curses refusing
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Speaker 1: to acknowledge oneself as the only constant in the equation
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Speaker 1: of catastrophe. I get it. I mean, my favorite definition
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Speaker 1: of magic is weaponized psychology. G that's a shout out
8:01
Speaker 1: to our our buddy, doctor Damian Patrick Williams. Look up
8:05
Speaker 1: his work. So anyway, let's learn about getting before he
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Speaker 1: learned about whether or not there's a curse. This story
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Speaker 1: has it all. There's kidnapping, there's a high level secession
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Speaker 1: vibes if you're familiar with that show, and there's a
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Speaker 1: lot of tragedies. So no fooling by any measure. This
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Speaker 1: guy is one of the most successful tycoons of industry
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Speaker 1: in all of US history. He did make multiple billions
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Speaker 1: of dollars in the oil business. But he didn't you know,
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Speaker 1: he didn't start from the bottom. You know, he didn't
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Speaker 1: come out the mud, as as people often say. The Gettys,
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Speaker 1: his forebears started as Scotch Irish Presbyterian immigrants. One town
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Speaker 1: in Pennsylvania is even named after the family. That's Gettysburg,
8:59
Speaker 1: pennsylvan Mania. You might recognize that from some other stories
9:03
Speaker 1: are if you are a fan of history. His father,
9:07
Speaker 1: George George F. Getty, got into corporate law and insurance
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Speaker 1: in Minneapolis, and then he moved the family to Oklahoma
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Speaker 1: in nineteen o four to get in, like you said,
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Speaker 1: Noel on the ground floor of the oil business. He
9:24
Speaker 1: started making some pretty good scratch in just a few
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Speaker 1: years with the Minnahoma Oil Company, and around that time
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Speaker 1: he was already like before J. Paul ever gets on
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Speaker 1: the scene, his father is has already made it. He's
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Speaker 1: already a millionaire. Several times over correct, it's being a
9:45
Speaker 1: correct thing. I just want to point out that I
9:47
Speaker 1: can't find any evidence that P. T. Anderson specifically drew
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Speaker 1: influence from Getty for his character. And there will be blood.
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Speaker 1: It's based on the book Oil by Upton Sinclair. But
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Speaker 1: it's just such a rare eyed position that there there
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Speaker 1: are certainly similarities, you know, in terms of the kind
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Speaker 1: of riches that that that sort of discovery and that's
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Speaker 1: sort of you know, career path and how like. You know,
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Speaker 1: there can only be a few, right like actual bona
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Speaker 1: fide oil magnates. So I think I was sparking up
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Speaker 1: the red Tree in theory. But I just can't find
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Speaker 1: any direct quotes from Anderson citing Getty as an inspiration
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Speaker 1: Oil by Upton Sinclair, though I read that book. It
10:28
Speaker 1: is based on the life of another tycoon named Edward L.
10:33
Speaker 1: Tony Dohany or something like that. That's right, it's Hainy
10:37
Speaker 1: or something. Yeah, with a weird age placement. Yeah, but
10:41
Speaker 1: but still, like you said, rarefied air, and this rarefied
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Speaker 1: air of financial success is what J. Paul is born into.
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Speaker 1: He gets out of college in in pretty young. He's
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Speaker 1: twenty one years old. He graduates college and over the
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Speaker 1: summer he is working in the family business. He's working
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Speaker 1: at the oil fields, and his dad wasn't really given
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Speaker 1: him money. His dad was lending him money and said, here,
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Speaker 1: go make your own way. John Paul invest in oil
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Speaker 1: wells all thine own. I don't know he was doing
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Speaker 1: these and owls. That's more of a Quaker thing. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: I take it. I think it suits him. Um, but yeah,
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Speaker 1: it's it's true. He takes that whatever seed money and
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Speaker 1: he does invest it smartly and pretty quickly makes his
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Speaker 1: first million dollars, which in those days was significant, significant scratch.
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Speaker 1: And he's quoted as saying, in building a large fortune,
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Speaker 1: it pays to be born at the right time. I
11:43
Speaker 1: was born at a very favorable time. If I had
11:46
Speaker 1: been born earlier or later, I would have missed the
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Speaker 1: great business opportunities that existed in World War One and later.
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Speaker 1: I suppose it takes a long time, and it takes
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Speaker 1: extraordinary circumstances to be born at the time and to
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Speaker 1: have cash money available at the right time. I was
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Speaker 1: fortunate to due to my father's foresight and my good luck.
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Speaker 1: Mr Wayne, So i'd kind of a kind of a
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Speaker 1: bane voice there. I don't know where that came from,
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Speaker 1: but I'm rolling with it. Yeah, timing is everything. Getting
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Speaker 1: in on the ground floor of an industry is everything,
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Speaker 1: and only a few people can do it. Yeah, I
12:23
Speaker 1: want to jump in here because we we set the top.
12:26
Speaker 1: That this guy kind of lacks some self awareness, which
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Speaker 1: is one true, but this is one of the lines
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Speaker 1: where I'm like, he at least somewhat seems aware that
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Speaker 1: it's not like I did all of this. I am
12:37
Speaker 1: so great, I am just amazing. He at least realized
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Speaker 1: It's like, well, I I had some money that I
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Speaker 1: got from my dad, and I got into this business
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Speaker 1: at the exact right time. Well, he's also you can
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Speaker 1: tell that his his father, the patriarch of the Getties,
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Speaker 1: was one of the few people that he actually looked
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Speaker 1: up to and respected, so maybe that's that's a fun
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Speaker 1: auction of it, and I think it probably really uh
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Speaker 1: inbedded in him, this idea of you know, no handouts,
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Speaker 1: you know, like I mean, yeah, you'll you'll, you'll get
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Speaker 1: your inheritance when I'm dead. Until then, Uh, you're not
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Speaker 1: getting a red cent unless it's something that I'm gonna,
13:18
Speaker 1: you know, used to invest in you and you show
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Speaker 1: me that you've got the chops otherwise, you know. He
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Speaker 1: he didn't he wouldn't suffer any shiftless lay abouts. Let's
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Speaker 1: just say he wouldn't suffer anyone that was just trying
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Speaker 1: to coast on the family fortune because clearly his father
13:34
Speaker 1: instilled that in him. Well sort of. There was definitely
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Speaker 1: a process because the year after he makes his first million,
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Speaker 1: he does become one of those shiftless lay abouts, just
13:45
Speaker 1: like a Heroes journey Joseph Campbell thing. He spent some
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Speaker 1: time in the wilderness of Vice. Uh. He he spen
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Speaker 1: two years in Los Angeles as what would have been
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Speaker 1: called a playboy. He's just blowing money in the club's
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Speaker 1: making it rain, chasing chicks and this is from nineteen Uh, dude.
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Speaker 1: He gets back in the oil business in nineteen nineteen
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Speaker 1: so nineteen seventeen eighteen, those are his lost years. Once
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Speaker 1: he gets back in the oil business. He also has
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Speaker 1: a tumultuous love life. He's married and divorced three times
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Speaker 1: in the twenties, and his father, George F who was
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Speaker 1: still very much in the mix, is like, Hey, I
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Speaker 1: think you're good at business, but son, you've got to
14:30
Speaker 1: button up your love life, buddy. You know, the imagine
14:33
Speaker 1: conversation is where what if you get into the realm
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Speaker 1: of politics, morality or the appearance of such is important.
14:41
Speaker 1: That's a great quote that I just made up. But
14:43
Speaker 1: to be clear, that's not an actual quote. That's just
14:46
Speaker 1: the conversation I think they had. And so he said, like,
14:49
Speaker 1: as George was dying, he uh, he starts warning his
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Speaker 1: son and telling his associates because I wouldn't call him
14:58
Speaker 1: friends at that level of health. He says, Look, my
15:01
Speaker 1: son's gonna destroy the family business. He can't have the
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Speaker 1: whole pie. So George F. Getty dies with a fortune
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Speaker 1: and nick excess of ten million dollars. He leaves his
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Speaker 1: son j Paul about five grand and he leaves the
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Speaker 1: business to his wife. See, he gotta wonder, though, I
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Speaker 1: mean everything you just said, you know, it is absolutely accurate,
15:23
Speaker 1: but like you gotta wonder did he do this as
15:25
Speaker 1: almost like a test, like so he had to pull
15:28
Speaker 1: himself up by his bootstraps kind of like when he
15:31
Speaker 1: just gave him that the loan early on and then
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Speaker 1: he invested right, and now he's sort of like in
15:35
Speaker 1: this wandering in this wilderness advice as you say, and
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Speaker 1: he's almost like, you know what the worst thing I
15:40
Speaker 1: could do for my son, It will just keep him
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Speaker 1: in this like limbo, uh is leave him all of
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Speaker 1: this money, you know, unchecked uh and leave him this company,
15:49
Speaker 1: which at this point in his life he may well
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Speaker 1: drive into the ground. So I think, honestly, whether he
15:54
Speaker 1: was he did this consciously or not, this is probably
15:57
Speaker 1: the best thing that could have happened to Paul Getty,
16:01
Speaker 1: getting that, you know, I mean, by most mortal standards,
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Speaker 1: five thousand dollars isn't a pittance, but compared to the
16:08
Speaker 1: big old bye that that that was on the table,
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Speaker 1: it really was. But it really did force Getty to
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Speaker 1: flex some of the knowledge that he had that George
16:18
Speaker 1: maybe didn't even know he had, because he really had
16:20
Speaker 1: been doing his homework and studying and he was very
16:23
Speaker 1: familiar with things like petroleum geology. If you know anything
16:28
Speaker 1: about the art world, you know that Getty is huge
16:32
Speaker 1: in that realm, in terms of grants, in terms of
16:35
Speaker 1: museums and all that stuff. That all started with this guy.
16:38
Speaker 1: With this guy, Jean Paul Getty, he uh was all
16:41
Speaker 1: with the art world, and he was a very worldly man.
16:45
Speaker 1: He could speak French and German and Italian. He also
16:49
Speaker 1: could conversationally get along in Spanish, Arabic, Russian and Greek,
16:55
Speaker 1: as well as being able to read Greek and Latin.
16:58
Speaker 1: So he was an incredible the intelligent person and a
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Speaker 1: very skilled businessman despite his kind of you know, dalliances
17:07
Speaker 1: in his twenties. Well, this is okay, So this is
17:09
Speaker 1: a question. Yeah, the word I just said polyglot is
17:12
Speaker 1: just the fancy word for speaking multiple language as well.
17:16
Speaker 1: And I know some polyglots. They're usually really cool. But
17:21
Speaker 1: this is one of my questions. So, if you were
17:23
Speaker 1: a child of privilege, if you are a psion to
17:26
Speaker 1: a dynasty like this, is it not true that you
17:29
Speaker 1: have more opportunities to cultivate those pursuits. This guy wasn't
17:34
Speaker 1: you know, scratching wheat out of the dirt so I
17:38
Speaker 1: would say, if you hear these kind of accolades folks,
17:42
Speaker 1: and you're an average person, just remember that that this
17:46
Speaker 1: is a guy who started on third base, so we
17:48
Speaker 1: had time to stroll to the home run of those
17:51
Speaker 1: various achievements. No doubt how that baseball analogy work, Max
17:55
Speaker 1: is Yeah, I mean, come on, I like like the
18:04
Speaker 1: image of strolling imagery. It worth great and actual baseball
18:08
Speaker 1: it makes no sense. Yeah, okay, you know I figured
18:10
Speaker 1: that was. I just wanted a gut check. Alright, fair fair,
18:13
Speaker 1: fair fair. So yeah, it sort of reminds me of
18:15
Speaker 1: like how you know, oftentimes a lot of folks would
18:17
Speaker 1: become very successful actors, not always but sometimes, or or
18:22
Speaker 1: successful musicians or whatever. They've got a bit of a
18:24
Speaker 1: safety net pretty often, pretty often, and they're able to
18:28
Speaker 1: go to the finest of of of drama schools, you know,
18:32
Speaker 1: because they were they were able to receive you know,
18:35
Speaker 1: the best education against financial safety net that allowed them
18:39
Speaker 1: to kind of just you know, go out there and
18:42
Speaker 1: try to be an artist or an actor because they
18:45
Speaker 1: didn't have to worry about making ends meet. Also, I
18:48
Speaker 1: want to backtrack, you know what, Ben, I'm thinking about
18:50
Speaker 1: it more it made a lot of sense. Baseball sense
18:52
Speaker 1: was something and someone else hit the home run. Yeah, okay,
18:56
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna apologize, good, good, good an thanks man.
19:01
Speaker 1: You don't have to apologize. I'm not Getty. I'm not
19:04
Speaker 1: just weirdly mad at people. But then until ief your inheritance,
19:10
Speaker 1: and it's like one dollar, itce like for making fun
19:12
Speaker 1: of that baseball analogy, will ruin this state, will ruin
19:15
Speaker 1: this company, this fictitious company. So here's another film comparison,
19:21
Speaker 1: if you want to before we get to Getty's more
19:24
Speaker 1: villainous behavior or morally objectionable behavior, it's like he's in
19:30
Speaker 1: that he's like Robert de Niro's character in that film Casino.
19:35
Speaker 1: He is an obsessive researcher. I love that you pointed
19:39
Speaker 1: out his knowledge of petroleum geology. So like the scene
19:43
Speaker 1: in Casino where you see Robert de Niro testing the
19:47
Speaker 1: basketball and looking at the floor and bouncing stuff before
19:51
Speaker 1: he makes any bets or anything like that, this is
19:55
Speaker 1: what Getty is doing. What J. Paul is doing when
19:58
Speaker 1: he starts making international oil deals. He's researching the land,
20:04
Speaker 1: the wells, the geology. He learns Arabic or he gets um,
20:09
Speaker 1: he gets conversational in Arabic not fluent, so that he
20:12
Speaker 1: can directly negotiate with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to
20:17
Speaker 1: get a sixty year concession or lease on an oil field.
20:21
Speaker 1: He pays nine point five million dollars for it. In ninete.
20:26
Speaker 1: No oil has been discovered there yet, right people are
20:29
Speaker 1: thinking there might be some, but they're not doing the
20:32
Speaker 1: casino level research that he did. So he pays nine
20:36
Speaker 1: point five million dollars, a ton of money back, then
20:38
Speaker 1: a ton of money now, and then he pays thirty
20:41
Speaker 1: more million dollars to explore the oil field before he
20:47
Speaker 1: hits the oil in nineteen fifty three, Like just like
20:50
Speaker 1: the Beverly Hillbillies up from the ground, comes a bubble
20:53
Speaker 1: and crude production reaches sixteen million barrels a year. That's
20:59
Speaker 1: more more than one billion dollars at today's prices per year. Bud. Yeah. Again,
21:06
Speaker 1: like the privilege of being able to explore those oil
21:10
Speaker 1: fields and having the infrastructure in place and the knowledge,
21:14
Speaker 1: you know, like very much, born on whichever base is appropriate,
21:19
Speaker 1: born on, born at shortstop, is that thing that's not
21:22
Speaker 1: really a base, that's more of a that's a person anyway.
21:25
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I had to try my hand at the
21:26
Speaker 1: baseball metaphors. We rising tide, Max, I don't want to
21:32
Speaker 1: hear another word from you home on when the bases
21:34
Speaker 1: are loaded, you know what I mean. That clears the
21:37
Speaker 1: field where it's clearly I'm not a golfer um. But yeah,
21:43
Speaker 1: I mean, he he did, he did, He did good.
21:45
Speaker 1: He's real good and essentially, you know, did better than
21:49
Speaker 1: his father. He did. And part of that is because
21:53
Speaker 1: the business of oil is evolving as well, you know
21:56
Speaker 1: what I mean. He steered the business to global domination.
22:02
Speaker 1: But again, remember the business was left to his mom,
22:06
Speaker 1: not directly to him. But he's still like doing a
22:08
Speaker 1: lot of the day to day stuff. And George's prediction
22:13
Speaker 1: about his son was, you know, I know you have
22:15
Speaker 1: your head on your shoulders with business, but your personal
22:19
Speaker 1: life is going to be a problem. And that seemed
22:24
Speaker 1: to be that seemed to have some sand to it
22:26
Speaker 1: for a while. He would go on to have five wives.
22:30
Speaker 1: He had five sons with four of his five wives,
22:33
Speaker 1: and in each case it wasn't the best marriage. There
22:38
Speaker 1: was tragedy, people weren't communicating. Well, that's the key to
22:42
Speaker 1: a good relationship there were. There was also just ranking difference.
22:46
Speaker 1: He was icing some of them. His eldest son, George
22:50
Speaker 1: Franklin Getty the second was supposed to be the heir,
22:55
Speaker 1: but just like that show's Succession, they didn't get on
22:58
Speaker 1: too well. Like he bare really spoke with his son
23:01
Speaker 1: who was supposed to be his heir. I didn't know
23:03
Speaker 1: this until we started researching this with our research associate,
23:07
Speaker 1: Doctor's act Zack. But J. Paul didn't go to his
23:14
Speaker 1: own son's wedding. He was like, I got oil barrels
23:18
Speaker 1: to count or something. He had gold coins to swim
23:22
Speaker 1: in the giant vault. I always loved that image with
23:25
Speaker 1: George Scrooge McDuck or he spits out the coins, but
23:30
Speaker 1: don't do it. It's dangerous. Try that real life. You
23:34
Speaker 1: will break bones. He will break bones at the very
23:36
Speaker 1: least get a really bad concussion. So he's skipping out
23:39
Speaker 1: his son's wedding. He doesn't really have any time for
23:42
Speaker 1: his grandchildren. And that's the son that like he kind
23:46
Speaker 1: of liked, I guess not liked, but like he he
23:49
Speaker 1: had a high position in the company. Yeah, exactly, Um,
23:54
Speaker 1: it's it's it's it's a little confusing as to get
23:56
Speaker 1: you know, because being liked by Jehan Paul Getty basically
23:59
Speaker 1: just and he wouldn't completely ice you out and skip
24:02
Speaker 1: your wedding. It wasn't like he was, you know, throwing
24:05
Speaker 1: your parties and giving you hugs or anything. I don't
24:07
Speaker 1: think he gave good hugs, I would imagine. But his son,
24:11
Speaker 1: his other son, John Paul Getty Jr. Had four sons
24:15
Speaker 1: um with his wife Gail Harris. John Paul Getty the
24:20
Speaker 1: third was one of these sons and really the subject
24:25
Speaker 1: of kind of the main plot twist in today's story.
24:36
Speaker 1: So we'll call him, let's just call him JP three.
24:39
Speaker 1: JP three is the son of John Paul Jr. Who
24:45
Speaker 1: divorces his wife JP three's mother, Gayl Harris, in nineteen
24:49
Speaker 1: sixty four, and then JP jr. JP three's dad moves
24:55
Speaker 1: to Rome and uh he remarries a woman named Taltha Pole,
25:00
Speaker 1: but allegedly, or accorded, according to historians of the family
25:04
Speaker 1: and reports, he became addicted to heroin. And that's very sad.
25:09
Speaker 1: It just seems like he was sort of a little
25:12
Speaker 1: bit adrift, you know, and didn't really have any direction
25:15
Speaker 1: or like a set of skills and just kind of
25:18
Speaker 1: withered a little bit um So JP three, who is
25:21
Speaker 1: his son, also ends up moving to Italy as a teenager.
25:26
Speaker 1: At first, he's at a boarding school, like you do.
25:29
Speaker 1: But he's a bit of a troublemaker, a bit of
25:32
Speaker 1: a problem child. He gets kicked out, he's expelled, and
25:35
Speaker 1: even though his father had left Rome uh and moved
25:40
Speaker 1: to England following his new wife's overdose on heroin, he
25:47
Speaker 1: had to skip town. I guess JP three continued living
25:52
Speaker 1: in Italy on is lonesome. Yes, yeah, and became a
25:56
Speaker 1: bit of a bohemian. Yeah, he was. He was a
26:00
Speaker 1: kid without consequences. You've probably met some in your own life,
26:04
Speaker 1: ridiculous historians. You may have grown up as one. He
26:07
Speaker 1: got expelled from a lot of schools. He was partying.
26:10
Speaker 1: He was considered artistic, but it was just he was
26:13
Speaker 1: a wild kid. He's like one of those kids who
26:16
Speaker 1: uh for whom it doesn't matter if you stay in
26:20
Speaker 1: the fancy boarding school. Your parents can just put you
26:23
Speaker 1: in another one, or your family. He threw a Molotov
26:26
Speaker 1: cocktail during a protest. He was he was just always partying.
26:31
Speaker 1: And because of this, because of his behavior and the
26:35
Speaker 1: notoriety of his family. He was like a low key
26:39
Speaker 1: local celebrity. While he was living in Rome at the
26:43
Speaker 1: age of sixteen, and he had long, curly hair. The
26:48
Speaker 1: press gave him a nickname that wasn't j three. They
26:51
Speaker 1: called him the Golden Hippie. Uh And and this is
26:55
Speaker 1: where things get a little bit strange. So one day
27:00
Speaker 1: he's been out party and all night he's walking home,
27:04
Speaker 1: maybe singing a song from a local music hall. It's
27:08
Speaker 1: the wee hours of July. A car skirts skirts up
27:13
Speaker 1: beside him and the driver says, excuse me, signor you
27:18
Speaker 1: pulled Getty and Paul. Uh. We don't know how drunk
27:22
Speaker 1: he was, but Paul goes you man, and then they
27:25
Speaker 1: grab him the black bag and basically they pull him
27:28
Speaker 1: into a car. They muzzle him with a pad soaked
27:32
Speaker 1: and chloroform and a gag, and they drive him away.
27:37
Speaker 1: He gets snatched. One note about chloroform. A lot of
27:42
Speaker 1: times movies are lying to you. If you want there's
27:45
Speaker 1: a reason they use the gag. It's not just to
27:47
Speaker 1: keep him quiet. It's to keep the chloroform on his face.
27:51
Speaker 1: Because if you chloroform someone and you remove it, they
27:54
Speaker 1: will come to shortly thereafter. This is not a step
27:58
Speaker 1: by step guide how to incapacitate people. It's just good
28:03
Speaker 1: to know these things in case situations occur. Ben, you
28:07
Speaker 1: got a chloroform guy? What? Yeah? I mean you know
28:10
Speaker 1: Gandhi would have said, you gotta be the chloroform guy
28:12
Speaker 1: you wish to see in the world, but don't do it, don't.
28:16
Speaker 1: I actually didn't know that, Ben. I would have would
28:18
Speaker 1: have I would have bungled my kidnapping attempt horribly. They
28:22
Speaker 1: would have woken up then just runaway, and then I
28:26
Speaker 1: would have had to give chase and I don't know.
28:28
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not in that kind of shape. I
28:30
Speaker 1: would have lost the I would have lost the mark.
28:32
Speaker 1: But they did not lose the mark. These kidnappers. They
28:36
Speaker 1: spirited Getty away to a hideaway hideout uh in the
28:41
Speaker 1: Italian countryside. And obviously you see where this is going.
28:45
Speaker 1: It would appear JP three's loose lips sank his own ship. Uh.
28:51
Speaker 1: You know, I wouldn't is It's not like they would
28:52
Speaker 1: want to make a public information that this is an
28:55
Speaker 1: air to the Getty fortune, especially in a place like
28:58
Speaker 1: Italy where you know there are not you know, there
29:02
Speaker 1: are criminal elements around. You know, understand to say that's
29:06
Speaker 1: exclusively an Italian thing, but organized crime did kind of
29:10
Speaker 1: have its roots in this part of the world. And
29:13
Speaker 1: it is conjecture that when JP three would like barter
29:18
Speaker 1: some of his paintings for rent, because again it wasn't
29:22
Speaker 1: swimming in dough, there were some folks maybe at the
29:26
Speaker 1: restaurant near his apartment where he would go to do this,
29:29
Speaker 1: that overheard and maybe you know, curried a little favor
29:33
Speaker 1: with a local, you know, Mafio so and uh potentially
29:38
Speaker 1: maybe got a little bit of a pay day like
29:39
Speaker 1: a finder's fee. Yeah. Yeah. And to this day, the
29:44
Speaker 1: details of the of the genesis of this kidnapping plot
29:49
Speaker 1: are still a little murky, but we do know that
29:51
Speaker 1: a few days after the disappearance, the Golden Hippies mother
29:55
Speaker 1: gets a note and says the following, Yeah, mother, I've
29:58
Speaker 1: fallen into the hands of napos. Don't let me be killed.
30:02
Speaker 1: Please make sure the police do not interfere. You must
30:06
Speaker 1: absolutely not take this as a joke. Don't give publicity
30:09
Speaker 1: to my kidnapping. Its spelled like kidnaping. But look, people
30:14
Speaker 1: took this as a joke initially because the scuttle Butt
30:20
Speaker 1: had it that the Golden Hippie had talked to friends, family,
30:25
Speaker 1: and locals and trusted folks in his life about solving
30:28
Speaker 1: his financial problems by arranging his own perfect kidnapping and
30:33
Speaker 1: using that as a pretext to get a large sum
30:37
Speaker 1: of scratch from his grandfather to pay the ransom ostensibly,
30:41
Speaker 1: and then just keeping it for himself and saying, thank you, grandfather,
30:44
Speaker 1: I've learned my lesson and should change my ways. They go,
30:48
Speaker 1: those loose lips again, JP three, not good seeking your
30:53
Speaker 1: own ship. The boy who cried wolf at all? That right,
30:56
Speaker 1: nobody nobody comes to running boy cried kidnapping. Mm hmm.
31:01
Speaker 1: This this even translates to the local police who are
31:05
Speaker 1: also aware of this, and they're like, you know, he
31:08
Speaker 1: he probably kidnapped himself. Yeah, we're not gonna we don't
31:11
Speaker 1: have the resources to deal with this shiftless lay about
31:15
Speaker 1: him gonna keep saying that. Yeah. Well, Also, the police,
31:18
Speaker 1: at least some faction of them were likely part of
31:21
Speaker 1: Indreta like part of the mafia group at the time,
31:25
Speaker 1: Like they were probably compromised on the payroll. Yeah, and
31:29
Speaker 1: everybody knew he was in debt because he kept partying,
31:32
Speaker 1: even though he's talking about how he's out of money,
31:34
Speaker 1: you know, bum and drinks and whatnot. His kidnappers where
31:38
Speaker 1: this mafia group from southern Italy. They knew all about
31:41
Speaker 1: his family. His mom, Gail, gets a call from the
31:46
Speaker 1: mafia so ring leader sin Quanta, and sin Quanta says, look,
31:51
Speaker 1: it's gonna we know who your family is. It's gonna
31:53
Speaker 1: take a lot of money to get your son back.
31:57
Speaker 1: And she said she told them the truth. Said look,
32:00
Speaker 1: I know we got the name, but I don't have
32:02
Speaker 1: any of the family money. We're cut off. And then
32:05
Speaker 1: he said, ask for it from your father in law.
32:08
Speaker 1: He has sold the money in the world, All the
32:11
Speaker 1: Money in the World. There's a film biopic, I guess
32:14
Speaker 1: by Ridley Scott called All the Money in the World, Um,
32:18
Speaker 1: which I have not seen, but I very much want to.
32:20
Speaker 1: In fact, I think after we wrap up here, I
32:23
Speaker 1: might rent it on the old Roku and give it
32:26
Speaker 1: a look. Um. I do like Ridley Scott doesn't appear
32:29
Speaker 1: to be considered like one of his like greats, because
32:32
Speaker 1: I certainly haven't heard a whole lot about it. But
32:34
Speaker 1: I am fascinated to see how this was dramatized all
32:38
Speaker 1: the money in the world, and so they do just that.
32:41
Speaker 1: They go to to hold the dear sweet cremuctedly Grandpapa
32:46
Speaker 1: and and can lay it out for him, you know,
32:49
Speaker 1: thinking he would just oh my, my, my, post sweet grandson. Uh,
32:54
Speaker 1: that is not what happened. No, No, they're swimming with
32:58
Speaker 1: the shark and they think they're in the guppy pulled.
33:00
Speaker 1: This is gonna be part one. We thought this would
33:03
Speaker 1: be the perfect place to pause the story here. We're
33:07
Speaker 1: gonna return at the top of next week with part
33:09
Speaker 1: two of this story. We're gonna zoom out because you
33:12
Speaker 1: need to learn a little bit more about old JP
33:16
Speaker 1: Getty the patriarch, to learn why things went down the
33:20
Speaker 1: way they did. But we can't wait for you to
33:22
Speaker 1: hear it. Thank you for joining us, folks. As always,
33:24
Speaker 1: thanks to our super producer, Mr Max Williams. Max, you're
33:28
Speaker 1: not secretly a Getty, are you, because you've been asking
33:31
Speaker 1: all the money in the world. You guess weird timing
33:34
Speaker 1: with the chuckles today, I mean Maxwell James Williams Getty. Yeah,
33:38
Speaker 1: I mean, there's no hyphen. They end up my last name,
33:40
Speaker 1: you son of like the third Esquire Junior Senior. I mean,
33:44
Speaker 1: I think the thing we've learned from this episode though,
33:46
Speaker 1: is don't name your children Junior and third and because
33:51
Speaker 1: if down the road some one does a podcast about you,
33:54
Speaker 1: it just gets messy, right, Like Gabriel Garcia Marquez is
33:57
Speaker 1: hundred years of Solitude, which is a great look like that,
34:02
Speaker 1: like that House of Dragons business. Yeah, yeah, well that's
34:06
Speaker 1: also just a matter of casting. You know, a lot
34:09
Speaker 1: of a lot of those people look very similar, I'm thinking, yeah,
34:12
Speaker 1: but also even the ones with different names, their names
34:15
Speaker 1: sound similar. Yeah. You know, you've got Raineri's, You've got
34:19
Speaker 1: Ray and Thees you've got you know, we can just
34:21
Speaker 1: make up. You know, you'll be like Valerio and they'll say, oh,
34:29
Speaker 1: I think I remember him, Yeah Valerio, right, Vali Hi. Yeah.
34:34
Speaker 1: So so with with that name confusion aside, we are
34:38
Speaker 1: sticking to some nicknames for these folks. But this is
34:41
Speaker 1: an important story and we can't wait to explore it
34:44
Speaker 1: with you. Thanks also to our own, our own Balthazar
34:49
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland ak the Quister. Uh let's see who else.
34:53
Speaker 1: Thanks to East Jeff Cot, Alex Williams, who composed this
34:56
Speaker 1: slamming track. Alex Williams. Indeed, Christopher rastiotis here in spirits
35:02
Speaker 1: the ghost of John Paul Getty Junior Senior, Maxwell Esquire
35:11
Speaker 1: Tally hot to Yeah, tell you, who do you? The
35:15
Speaker 1: kidnappers are calling me when I gotta go. Okay, okay,
35:18
Speaker 1: We'll see you next happix. For more podcasts for my
35:27
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
35:29
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows