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J. Paul Getty, Part Two: A Kidnapping Discount · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
0:27
Speaker 1: back to the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you all so
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Speaker 1: much as always for tuning in. Jay Paul Getty, John
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Speaker 1: Paul Getty jpg so cartoonishly jpeg, incredibly incredibly cheap jpeg.
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Speaker 1: Was he's a miser, He's a skin flint. He never
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Speaker 1: met a penny he didn't think should be his. Where
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Speaker 1: is the origin of skin flint? It makes me, I mean,
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Speaker 1: I know we're a family show, but it makes me
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Speaker 1: think of skin flute. You can, you can, you can
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Speaker 1: put together what you all with that one. But that's
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Speaker 1: what I always think of when I hear skin flint.
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Speaker 1: What is the origin? I must know it comes from
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Speaker 1: the fact that flint, as like flint, is such a
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Speaker 1: brittle and hard material that you can't remove the skin
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Speaker 1: of a flint without shattering it. So people who try
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Speaker 1: to do that are so cheap that they just won't
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Speaker 1: buy more flint. This was back when flint was a
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Speaker 1: much more active part of most people's lives. For fire Man,
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Speaker 1: you know whatever music yeah jpeg, Oh man, I can't
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Speaker 1: believe we went through a whole episode without making that connection.
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Speaker 1: I have another there's another coworker of hours that I
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Speaker 1: call Jpeg. I used to call Casey Pegram see peg
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Speaker 1: and he didn't like don't like that, didn't like it,
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Speaker 1: didn't like it. He's a very particular dude. That's fair.
1:52
Speaker 1: That's fair. Lovely dude. I got to see uh Casey
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Speaker 1: Pegram in in Corporeal a week or so ago, right, yeah,
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Speaker 1: I like it, did a training session at the at
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Speaker 1: the new office and there he was the same as
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Speaker 1: he ever was. It's been almost it's been over a
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Speaker 1: year since we've seen each othern person. It was really lovely.
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Speaker 1: Oh that's super producer Max. Yeah, and you're an OL
2:17
Speaker 1: and I'm Ben no Bro. You can call me no Bro.
2:20
Speaker 1: And I want to point out that I'll let you
2:21
Speaker 1: guys call me a million different nicknames. Yeah, yeah, I
2:25
Speaker 1: I think um, y'all should just remember that. Okay. Well,
2:31
Speaker 1: when it comes time to to deed our states to someone, yes,
2:36
Speaker 1: you'll you'll ruin this this mbio. Well, first we have
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Speaker 1: to make it an empire. And what better way than
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Speaker 1: starting with part two of this two part series on
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Speaker 1: the saga of the Getty Family. With thanks our research
2:48
Speaker 1: associate Dr Zach We saved this because we thought it
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Speaker 1: was a natural break in the story. I don't know
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Speaker 1: what kind of sound cues this results in, but we
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Speaker 1: need to all right, we'll we previously left you without
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Speaker 1: a dope beat the step two we were talking about
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Speaker 1: the beginning of this kidnapping the golden Hippie of Rome,
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Speaker 1: John Paul Getty the third had been kidnapped. A ransom
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Speaker 1: note had been sent. The mob was after some of
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Speaker 1: that sweet, sweet Getty money. Now, kidnapping rich folks is
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Speaker 1: an age old enterprise. It continues here today. Be careful,
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Speaker 1: but or even just like kidnapping Americans of of of
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Speaker 1: moderate means, because the currency is often so much more valuable. Right,
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Speaker 1: but we have uh, we've introduced some of our characters here.
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Speaker 1: We talked about Gail, We talked about the leader of
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Speaker 1: the at the time, sin Quanta. But as smart as
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Speaker 1: the mafio, so were they, Bush would say, they miss
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Speaker 1: underestimated how Getty Senior looked at the world. The old man, Uh,
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Speaker 1: the old Man did not take kindly to threats, and
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Speaker 1: he certainly didn't like anybody touching money. That what like
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Speaker 1: money in general. The thing about billionaires, you know, there's
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Speaker 1: there's a good case to be made. This might be
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Speaker 1: a hot take. There's a good case to be made that, uh,
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Speaker 1: being a billionaire might qualify you for certain mental conditions,
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Speaker 1: like I have nomania right right right? Well like the
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Speaker 1: ideas um oh, I think it was John Kleee for
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Speaker 1: money Python. He had this great example about it. He said,
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Speaker 1: let's think of chocolate. A lot of people like chocolate.
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Speaker 1: If you come to my house and you open the fridge,
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Speaker 1: you might see a bit of chocolate, and you think, oh,
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Speaker 1: he's a nice guy. He's like me. He likes chocolate.
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Speaker 1: But if you walked into my house and it was
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Speaker 1: filled to the ceiling with chocolate, and I asked if
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Speaker 1: you had any chocolate in your pocket, and you did,
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Speaker 1: and I got angry at you, then that is what
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Speaker 1: being a billionaires like. You're angry that other people have
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Speaker 1: a thing, right, and uh you know jpeg John Paul
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Speaker 1: Ghetti the main he was incredibly thrifty because he did
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Speaker 1: not get his thrills from spending money. He got his
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Speaker 1: thrills from making money, from amassing money from stacking that chocolate.
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Speaker 1: And that is is usually oftentimes the case for folks
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Speaker 1: that come from this kind of generational well, especially if
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Speaker 1: something you did, lad to it ballooning, you know, which
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Speaker 1: we know that the John Paulghetti he did have some
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Speaker 1: business acumen, and he did. He was a good steward
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Speaker 1: of that more modest family fortune that that that that
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Speaker 1: came before him, and then he turned it into an
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Speaker 1: outright empire. And you don't build empires by giving handouts, right, yeah,
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Speaker 1: at least not not a getty style of fortune. So
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Speaker 1: this guy was so cheap folks, so very like beyond thrifty. Okay,
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Speaker 1: I'm an eagle scout. I get it. Thrifty, brave, clean
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Speaker 1: and reverend. Those are all good things. But he took
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Speaker 1: it too far, you could say. And you could also say,
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Speaker 1: had to be this, have to have this sort of
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Speaker 1: mindset to reach his financial position. But he was known
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Speaker 1: as a skin flint domizer in his day. He was
6:24
Speaker 1: always looking for a loophole at tax deduction. He was
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Speaker 1: the kind of he was the type of dude who
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Speaker 1: if he ever went into a civilian grocery store, you
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Speaker 1: can be dang sure he was looking for manager specials.
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Speaker 1: He got coupons. He might have been the type of
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Speaker 1: guy to poke a hole in something and demand a
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Speaker 1: discount because he quote unquote found it that way. That's
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Speaker 1: how cheap this guy is, crazy town. Yeah, manipulatively cheap.
6:49
Speaker 1: I like that. Yeah. The Time magazine article on the
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Speaker 1: history of the Getty kidnapping by Olivia B. Waxman summed
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Speaker 1: up beautifully his penny pinching had become legend. He eats simply,
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Speaker 1: dress as well, but inexpensively spends about two eight hours
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Speaker 1: a week for personal needs. He once took a party
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Speaker 1: of friends to a dog show in London. The admission
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Speaker 1: fuse five shillings about seventy cents American, but a sign
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Speaker 1: over the entrance at half price after five pm. It
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Speaker 1: was then twelve minutes to five, said billionaire Getty. Let
7:21
Speaker 1: us take a walk around the block for a few minutes,
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Speaker 1: like like it was just planning it all along a
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Speaker 1: lovely stroll. The Time magazine article goes on yees long quotes.
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Speaker 1: We're gonna split it up. So. On another occasion, he
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Speaker 1: was persuaded by British born author and actress ethel Leven
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Speaker 1: to send some silk ties to famed art critic Bernard Berenson,
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Speaker 1: whom she and Getty had just visited while preparing for
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Speaker 1: their book Collector's Choice, which is a well reviewed narrative
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Speaker 1: of their hunt for Our Treasures. Getty caught Levan writing
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Speaker 1: from Paul and Ethel on the accompanying card. He immediately
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Speaker 1: demanded she paid half the cost of the ties on
8:01
Speaker 1: the ground that she was getting half the credit for
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Speaker 1: the gift. That's unnecessarily aggressive. It's rough. Yeah, there's there's
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Speaker 1: there are other stories the stuff is like, is honestly
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Speaker 1: legend um? Like he I think it's something to do
8:18
Speaker 1: with the phone book. Yeah, yeah, he was so. The
8:23
Speaker 1: way this story goes, he was getting a renovation done
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Speaker 1: on a British estate and he installed a pay phone
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Speaker 1: during the construction, and so if you were his guest
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Speaker 1: and you came over, you had to pay for your
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Speaker 1: own phone calls. Later after, after construction was complete, he
8:42
Speaker 1: did apparently remove it, but during that time he was like,
8:45
Speaker 1: if that call is important, that's on you. You know.
8:49
Speaker 1: There was I can't remember who it was. It might
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Speaker 1: have been Iced Tea who had a vending machine installed
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Speaker 1: in his mansion and when his friends came over and
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Speaker 1: wanted to snap X, he just told them to go
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Speaker 1: to the vending machine. Wow, it's not very aspitable, is
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Speaker 1: it iced Tea. I can't remember specifically him, but yeah,
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Speaker 1: that's that's brand for iced Tea. Seems pretty generous. Hope
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Speaker 1: that's not true. I hope so too. I hope I'm
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Speaker 1: I'm remembering a different person. But there's definitely a person
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Speaker 1: who's done that. So this is what the Mafia was
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Speaker 1: not aware of. They weren't aware of the mindset of
9:29
Speaker 1: this guy of John Paul Getty. And he also seemed
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Speaker 1: to be very cold to people who were family members,
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Speaker 1: even if they weren't useful to the business enterprise. He
9:43
Speaker 1: might be at best indifferent to them, but he also
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Speaker 1: would as sad as is to say, he seemed to
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Speaker 1: consider some of them irrelevant, including his youngest son, Timothy
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Speaker 1: where Getty. Timothy had a lot of health problem from
10:00
Speaker 1: very young age. He had a brain to her that
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Speaker 1: caused him to go blind at age six, and he
10:06
Speaker 1: passed away when he was twelve years old, and his
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Speaker 1: father did not go to the funeral. Can you imagine. Yeah,
10:13
Speaker 1: apparently has an aversion to weddings and funerals, and I
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Speaker 1: don't know, maybe maybe just an aversion to life. To
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Speaker 1: other people, you know, it seems like one of those
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Speaker 1: guys that would just prefer to again swimming his see
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Speaker 1: of coins. Do you think he talks to money like
10:27
Speaker 1: is his best friend his first dollar bill or something? Yeah,
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Speaker 1: I just you know, it just strikes me then, like
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Speaker 1: people like this they can't have very happy lives. You know,
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Speaker 1: they've got all the money in the world. Throw that
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Speaker 1: catchphrase around again because it's appropriate here. But what kind
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Speaker 1: of fulfillment you know, five wives, seemingly you know, no
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Speaker 1: meaningful relationship with family. What's the point of it all?
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Speaker 1: You know, if if not to to have a happy life,
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Speaker 1: you know, I mean, I it's about legacy again, back
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Speaker 1: to succession. It does seem like legacy and this idea
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Speaker 1: of being larger than life and having your you know,
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Speaker 1: your name carry on, you know, well passed your death.
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Speaker 1: And obviously we know any think about Baghetti foundation, all
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Speaker 1: of the things associated with Getty. He certainly did. That
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Speaker 1: certainly did happen. So if that's what he was, you know,
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Speaker 1: banking on, then I guess good on you. But he
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Speaker 1: just didn't seem to be a particularly jolly fellow. Yeah, agreed,
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Speaker 1: And this is you know, it can be tough to
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Speaker 1: understand the inner workings of another person's mind. It's always
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Speaker 1: a little bit of a black box. But we can
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Speaker 1: measure people by their actions, right, and his actions seem
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Speaker 1: to consistently prize growth of his financial empire over the
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Speaker 1: well being of his social relationships and his family. He
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Speaker 1: even this from a great Rolling Stone article by Amelia
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Speaker 1: McDonald Perry. Apparently, during the time his fifth saw was
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Speaker 1: going through all these medical problems, J Paul Getty told
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Speaker 1: his wife that she was spending too much money on
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Speaker 1: his son's medical care. Like that's also again, that's arctic
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Speaker 1: level cold. So we were we know that the mob
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Speaker 1: was not aware really of the guy they were messing with.
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Speaker 1: They didn't know the nature the bear they were poking,
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Speaker 1: and they were thinking, all right, we'll set this ransom
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Speaker 1: at seventy million dollars to us, that is an ungodly
12:38
Speaker 1: amount of money for most people. But John Paul Getty
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Speaker 1: is a billionaire, and so it's not going to hurt
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Speaker 1: him at all, especially if we're saying, you do this
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Speaker 1: to save your grandson. But what they didn't know is J.
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Speaker 1: Paul Getty liked his grandson's mom. He liked Gail, he
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Speaker 1: thought she was cool, but he didn't like this grandson
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Speaker 1: he considered him effectless. And then we're talking about this
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Speaker 1: off air. Uh. One of the things that stayed with
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Speaker 1: this guy who held onto grudges as tightly as he
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Speaker 1: held on the money. By the way, he was still
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Speaker 1: mad at his grandson because one one time his grandson
13:22
Speaker 1: showed up wearing trainers sneakers basically to visit him at
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Speaker 1: this two door manor house, Sutton place. Oh the goal exactly,
13:33
Speaker 1: that's unwashed with a snapper welp turning up to the
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Speaker 1: manda and and trainers. I know, effectless means irresponsible, lacking
13:45
Speaker 1: strength of character. Yeah yeah, shiftless lab exactly. But he
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Speaker 1: did he committed a worst offense. He was a hippie
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Speaker 1: and the golden hippie of golden hippie and uh jpg
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Speaker 1: old jpeg. Also, you know, didn't like the fact that
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Speaker 1: he seemed to be following in his father's footsteps. Um,
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Speaker 1: you know, who had moved to Rome and and and
14:12
Speaker 1: got on the horse and all that stuff and uh
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Speaker 1: and and made a bit of a you know, dragged
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Speaker 1: the family name through the mud a little bit in
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Speaker 1: his eyes. So he said he wanted nothing to do
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Speaker 1: with either of them until they quote changed their ways.
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Speaker 1: So he was definitely passing down some moral authority kind
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Speaker 1: of judgment from on high. So he alleges a conspiracy
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Speaker 1: and he says, my grand Saunders staged this crisis because
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Speaker 1: he's after money. And then later when he realizes, no,
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Speaker 1: he didn't stage the crisis. The Golden Hippie that's his
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Speaker 1: most famous nickname, had in fact been kidnapped by the mob,
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Speaker 1: he doubled down. He still blamed his grandson, the Golden Hippie,
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Speaker 1: for quote getting kidnapped in the first place, and thereby
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Speaker 1: involved him and his grandfather with the dreaded mafia. This
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Speaker 1: is all according to a guy named John Pearson, the
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Speaker 1: author of a great book called Painfully Rich, The Outrageous
15:09
Speaker 1: Fortune and Misfortune of the Heirs of J. Paul Getty. Yeah,
15:15
Speaker 1: talk about victim blaming right right. And the truth seems
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Speaker 1: to be that the old man has been well aware
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Speaker 1: of the possibility of kidnapping and extortion well before the grandson,
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Speaker 1: the Golden Hippie disappeared, And because John Paul Jr. Had
15:33
Speaker 1: kind of fallen out of contact with his dad, it
15:38
Speaker 1: felt a gale to go to the old man Getty
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Speaker 1: Senior herself, and he initially said now I have fourteen
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Speaker 1: other grandchildren. If I pay one penny now, then I
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Speaker 1: will have fourteen kidnapped grandchildren. We do not negotiate with terrorists.
15:59
Speaker 1: I added that last part. But that's I mean, it's
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Speaker 1: very much a like, well I have He doesn't come
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Speaker 1: out and say it. It's like I have thirteen other
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Speaker 1: ones I can lose one. Yeah, it's it's uh, you know,
16:12
Speaker 1: you see that Scotch Irish background come into play. But
16:16
Speaker 1: also also there's this, uh, there's this implication that he's
16:20
Speaker 1: doing the math and he's saying it's not seventeen million once,
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Speaker 1: it's at minimum seventeen million times thirteen, knowing that the
16:28
Speaker 1: price might get higher each time. He's doing a risk assessment. Yeah,
16:34
Speaker 1: with with human capital family, you know, I mean even
16:39
Speaker 1: the mom is confused. Even they didn't realize they've inserted
16:44
Speaker 1: themselves in the middle of the most dysfunctional family. Uh ever,
16:49
Speaker 1: and they're just like wait what uh and man, it
16:52
Speaker 1: gets weirder, worser better. I don't know how to even
16:56
Speaker 1: say it. Yeah, it's Czarre. It's so surreal. It's like, um,
17:01
Speaker 1: you know, this is not a funny situation, but you
17:03
Speaker 1: could make a dark comedy out of the conversations they're
17:06
Speaker 1: having because our guys sin Quanta from the Italian mob there,
17:11
Speaker 1: he is the point person to be on the phone
17:14
Speaker 1: with Gail, and he just doesn't get it. He's like,
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Speaker 1: this guy is that rich and he's not gonna save
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Speaker 1: his own grandson. And he goes, who is this so
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Speaker 1: called grandfather? You know, how can he leave his own
17:26
Speaker 1: flesh and blood and the plight that your poor son
17:28
Speaker 1: is in. Here is the richest man in America and
17:30
Speaker 1: you tell me he refuses to find just ten milliardi
17:34
Speaker 1: for his grandson's safety, Senora, you take me for a fool. Yeah,
17:38
Speaker 1: And that's the thing he's he's literally by refusing to
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Speaker 1: pay or to even help or even entertain the idea
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Speaker 1: of this could be real. He's putting his his family
17:49
Speaker 1: in worse in a worse situation where now they're potentially
17:53
Speaker 1: at risk because the mob thinks that they're jerking them around.
17:56
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they don't believe it because family is so
17:59
Speaker 1: important to them. Job right, this does not compute. And
18:02
Speaker 1: uh yeah, so we might be we might be bloodthirsty criminals,
18:08
Speaker 1: but damn it if we miss family dinner, right, we
18:10
Speaker 1: like our kids what is wrong with you Americans? Uh
18:14
Speaker 1: So he ends up pleading with her. You know, it's
18:18
Speaker 1: almost like a negot It is a negotiating help me,
18:21
Speaker 1: help you exactly exactly he's saying, you know, because he
18:25
Speaker 1: doesn't see himself as a bad guy. He sees himself
18:27
Speaker 1: as doing his job. And so he says, look, please
18:30
Speaker 1: find some way to get the money. We're too far
18:33
Speaker 1: down this road, and I have to tell you the
18:37
Speaker 1: people who are holding your son are going to harm
18:40
Speaker 1: him if we don't get this cash, this ransom. And
18:44
Speaker 1: then Gail does the next natural thing and says, prove
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Speaker 1: to me that my son is alive. He says, okay,
18:52
Speaker 1: tell me questions only the golden hippie would know the
18:54
Speaker 1: answers to. I'll get those answers and I'll call you back,
18:58
Speaker 1: and he does so he roofs that this kid's alive.
19:03
Speaker 1: And this kidnapping goes on for months and months. Paul
19:07
Speaker 1: gets very sick. Uh set Quanta even calls Gail when
19:11
Speaker 1: when the boy falls ill and says, hey, your son
19:15
Speaker 1: start doing well, what do I do to keep him healthy?
19:18
Speaker 1: And it's not like a threat, He's like asking, how
19:20
Speaker 1: do I meet the kid? Doesn't die. Yeah, this person,
19:23
Speaker 1: this go between is a pretty sympathetic character in this
19:28
Speaker 1: uh weird in some weirdly right she you know, she says,
19:32
Speaker 1: keep keeping warm. He's always a bit of a sickly child.
19:35
Speaker 1: So again, like you said, when this goes on for
19:37
Speaker 1: months and months, so some of the kidnappers involved in
19:40
Speaker 1: this lose the interests or they're just kind of like,
19:43
Speaker 1: I'm ready to get paid. Um, so they actually sell
19:46
Speaker 1: out their stakes in the whole deal, even though that
19:49
Speaker 1: was possible. It's like it's like betting on futures, you
19:53
Speaker 1: know something. Yeah, you're selling their positions, right, And this
19:57
Speaker 1: is a problem because it seems as though maybe some
20:01
Speaker 1: of these folks were more loosely connected to the mafia,
20:05
Speaker 1: uh and a little less hardcore, and they were kind
20:07
Speaker 1: of trying to play it out without doing any serious
20:10
Speaker 1: harm to the boy. But at this point they sell
20:13
Speaker 1: their positions to folks that are a little more connected
20:16
Speaker 1: to the mob and also little less friendly. Let's just say. Yeah,
20:23
Speaker 1: it's it's like, um, with debts, a lot of times
20:26
Speaker 1: you'll see this happen where it's like, you know, especially
20:29
Speaker 1: if someone goes in bankruptcy, they'll sell that the person's
20:31
Speaker 1: dead off and the other people will get like, you know,
20:34
Speaker 1: fifteen cents off the dollar. But that's what I'm seeing
20:36
Speaker 1: here and said, wow, that's a I didn't know that happened.
20:40
Speaker 1: It's kind of morbid to think about. Morbid. Yeah, they
20:43
Speaker 1: imagine a few of the original guys were saying, hey, look,
20:47
Speaker 1: this has taken a while. We sell loose cigarettes to
20:50
Speaker 1: get around taxes. That's our level of crime, guys. And usually,
20:54
Speaker 1: you know, our street hustles are done like that week
20:57
Speaker 1: or that month. This has been a journey. All the best,
21:01
Speaker 1: good luck. The new team, as you mentioned, are much
21:04
Speaker 1: more brutal, and they say, okay, we're gonna make good
21:07
Speaker 1: on these threats. They must the Getti's must be bluffing
21:10
Speaker 1: because they don't know we're serious. So Paul is still
21:16
Speaker 1: tied up, he's still being held hostage. It is a
21:19
Speaker 1: chilly October morning. They wake him up, they give him
21:23
Speaker 1: a ton of brandy, I think it was. They get
21:25
Speaker 1: him day drunk, They give him a haircut, and he
21:28
Speaker 1: doesn't know what's happening. I imagine he's bonded a little
21:31
Speaker 1: with some of these guys, and maybe even the original
21:34
Speaker 1: kidnappers left because we're getting too close. But Paul gets
21:38
Speaker 1: a bad vibe even though he's drunk, when people start
21:41
Speaker 1: rubbing alcohol behind his right ear, and they gave him
21:45
Speaker 1: a towel to bite on and with a razor, no
21:48
Speaker 1: an aesthetic, they cut off his ear. Staunch the wound
21:51
Speaker 1: and mail the ear to a newspaper. Some reservoir dogs
22:02
Speaker 1: stuff right there. Yeah, mail mail the ear to the newspaper.
22:08
Speaker 1: Maybe that'll get him to finally pay, because again that's
22:10
Speaker 1: that's these these more roughneck uh folks that are that
22:15
Speaker 1: have entered the chat and they're now slicing off ears. Yeah,
22:19
Speaker 1: and the family didn't learn about this for quite a
22:22
Speaker 1: while because the Italian post service was on strike, so
22:28
Speaker 1: the ear didn't get to him for quite some time.
22:31
Speaker 1: When it did arrive, Getty Senior, the old man himself
22:36
Speaker 1: calls a family counsel and he strikes a unique deal
22:40
Speaker 1: one uh he strikes to deal with the kidnappers, but
22:43
Speaker 1: then also with his own a strange son, Junior. They haggle.
22:48
Speaker 1: They negotiate the ransom down to three million from seventeen million.
22:52
Speaker 1: The old man says, I'll pay two million, and his
22:56
Speaker 1: lawyers told him that number because it was the maximum
23:01
Speaker 1: amount he was allowed to write off on his taxes.
23:04
Speaker 1: She's like, not a pennymore deeper and deeper this guy.
23:09
Speaker 1: That's not the worst part. No, it's not the worst part.
23:12
Speaker 1: And then he makes his son uh JP three's father
23:18
Speaker 1: pay the remaining a million, which he doesn't have because
23:22
Speaker 1: reasons that we've discussed, but in his benevolence, JPG decides
23:32
Speaker 1: he'll loan it to his son at a very reasonable
23:36
Speaker 1: four percent interest rate. He's turning this into a an
23:40
Speaker 1: opportunity to get a little juice out of his son
23:44
Speaker 1: really quick. But if I may ask, it's a trope
23:48
Speaker 1: you know, in in in crime fiction drama, to send
23:52
Speaker 1: a toe or an ear or whatever, you know, and
23:55
Speaker 1: like in uh, um, what is it the big Lebowski?
23:58
Speaker 1: You know you want to toe? I can get you
23:59
Speaker 1: a toe. How do you know it's his ear? How
24:03
Speaker 1: are they like? How is that such a such an
24:06
Speaker 1: important proof of life? Well maybe it would have been
24:10
Speaker 1: combined with a picture of the Severn. It's just I
24:13
Speaker 1: don't know. It's a weird flex. I get that it's
24:15
Speaker 1: an intimidation method, but you know, yeah, it's not an
24:19
Speaker 1: especially unique ear, you could say, right, other than skin
24:23
Speaker 1: color and maybe age of the skin unless there were
24:26
Speaker 1: some notable disfigurations or abnormalities. But maybe it was an
24:31
Speaker 1: honor among thieves situation. We do know that the plan
24:34
Speaker 1: was a success. The Golden Hippies five months captivity ended
24:38
Speaker 1: in the pre dawn hours of December ninety three. A
24:42
Speaker 1: truck driver found him and he was just by the
24:46
Speaker 1: side of the road, waving his arms in the universal
24:49
Speaker 1: distress sign, and he said, I need to get to
24:52
Speaker 1: a telephone to call my mom. I'm Paul Getty. Can
24:55
Speaker 1: I have a cigarette? Pouring rain by the way. Very dramatic.
24:59
Speaker 1: I'm picturing the scene from this Time magazine article describing it.
25:04
Speaker 1: It's it's it's very cinematic. I've imagine that it's played
25:07
Speaker 1: out in the in the in the film, we were
25:09
Speaker 1: talking about all the money in the world, which I
25:10
Speaker 1: really am now super intrigued to see. Yeah, may I
25:13
Speaker 1: have a say? He's very polite, Sure he hasn't. His
25:17
Speaker 1: manners have not waned in this Time and captivity. He's
25:20
Speaker 1: supposedly this quoted as saying, may I have a cigarette? Please?
25:23
Speaker 1: He seemed like a nice like a nice guy. All told.
25:27
Speaker 1: He does make it to a police station and they
25:30
Speaker 1: see that his right ear is missing, and he answers
25:34
Speaker 1: some questions. It's clearly him. He survives a kidnapping, which
25:37
Speaker 1: not everybody does. He goes on to marry a friend
25:41
Speaker 1: of his from before his ordeal, one Martin Zaker. And
25:46
Speaker 1: this happens two years later. So he's eighteen years old.
25:49
Speaker 1: Remember this kid's only sixteen. He's going through a lot.
25:52
Speaker 1: He spends almost half of a year locked up by
25:56
Speaker 1: the mob. And the problem is that when he married
26:00
Speaker 1: at eighteen, he has automatically disqualified himself from a stake
26:05
Speaker 1: in his grandfather's trust because he married too young. He
26:08
Speaker 1: and his wife have one son, who many of us
26:11
Speaker 1: may know as the actor Balthazar Getty. And then when
26:16
Speaker 1: the grandfather, when old Man Getty does finally pass away,
26:24
Speaker 1: he leaves his son John, that's the junior, right, He
26:28
Speaker 1: leaves him five bucks at his grandson, who had been kidnapped,
26:34
Speaker 1: gets nothing, nothing, get nothing good day. So exactly, just
26:40
Speaker 1: like Jane Wilder and Willy Wonka and uh, things get rough,
26:45
Speaker 1: things get rough for the Golden hippie. Uh. He tries
26:49
Speaker 1: to adjust to life after this trauma. He drinks too heavily.
26:53
Speaker 1: He becomes addicted to drugs. He eventually tries to reform.
26:58
Speaker 1: He tries to make a career for himself as an actor,
27:01
Speaker 1: but he gets liver failure and he and a stroke
27:05
Speaker 1: leaves him pretty handicapped, partially blind and quadriplegic and unable
27:10
Speaker 1: to speak, but mentally fit as a fiddle. And that
27:15
Speaker 1: that is a certain level of hell, is it not?
27:19
Speaker 1: You know that locked in he's imprisoned age, being a cage.
27:23
Speaker 1: You know our kid fire, So yeah, it's it's insane.
27:27
Speaker 1: I can't imagine I would just I don't think, I
27:30
Speaker 1: don't know if I I'm sorry, I'm just I'm gonna
27:35
Speaker 1: loss for words. Just it's it's it's it's one of us.
27:38
Speaker 1: I think it's one of my my deepest fears. Let's
27:41
Speaker 1: to end up in a situation like that. Yeah, and
27:44
Speaker 1: his mom cares for him until he passes away. When
27:49
Speaker 1: he dies, his son Balthazar says, he taught us how
27:52
Speaker 1: to live our lives and overcome obstacles and extreme adversity,
27:56
Speaker 1: and we shall miss him dearly. It's weird too, because
28:01
Speaker 1: we know that the old man Getty Senior was a
28:09
Speaker 1: known philanderer in addition to being a miser and parsimonious. Right,
28:14
Speaker 1: that's another word that Max next and now we're looking
28:17
Speaker 1: ut P synonyms for cheap skate. And he had a
28:21
Speaker 1: lot of lovers in addition to his five wives, but
28:26
Speaker 1: business always one out. One of the quotes that really
28:32
Speaker 1: stood out to me. A former wife of his next
28:34
Speaker 1: said business was his first love. But the quote that
28:37
Speaker 1: really stands out as he said this, a lasting relationship
28:42
Speaker 1: with a woman is only possible if you are a
28:44
Speaker 1: business failure. Sir, I disrespectfully disagree. No joke. Priorities. Man.
28:52
Speaker 1: You know, it's like what what what are you in
28:55
Speaker 1: this for? You know? Is is I mean, we all
28:57
Speaker 1: have we only have one life. He's just a weird
29:00
Speaker 1: way of getting your head twisted up and like this
29:03
Speaker 1: idea of legacy and this idea of you know, living
29:05
Speaker 1: on in some sort of perpetual way. It's such a
29:09
Speaker 1: kind of pompous way of thinking, you know. I mean,
29:13
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, we we we know Getty. We know
29:15
Speaker 1: the name. Do I think of John Paul Getty? Do
29:20
Speaker 1: I even know what the guy looks like? You know?
29:22
Speaker 1: All I know about him was that it was kind
29:24
Speaker 1: of a jerk, and and was was was awful to
29:26
Speaker 1: his family. So it's like, what what's in a name?
29:29
Speaker 1: You know, and I don't know. I don't get him.
29:32
Speaker 1: I'm also not a good jillionaire because I do understand
29:35
Speaker 1: the concept of enough never being enough, you know, and
29:39
Speaker 1: people that can't reconcile, that will never be happy because
29:44
Speaker 1: all just about stacking and collecting and hoarding. And it's like,
29:48
Speaker 1: you know, you get to a certain point where you
29:49
Speaker 1: make a certain amount of money statistically, I think they
29:52
Speaker 1: say it's like seventy dollars seventy like beyond that, everything's
29:59
Speaker 1: just kind of extra, and then you start to create
30:02
Speaker 1: new problems for yourself. And then you start to be like, oh,
30:04
Speaker 1: well I need to keep up with this other person
30:07
Speaker 1: that I'm comparing myself to, or you know, compete somehow,
30:11
Speaker 1: um with with with whomever, you know, with this idea
30:13
Speaker 1: of of of status and um, you know, opulence, it's
30:18
Speaker 1: just it's a it's a slippery slope and it can
30:20
Speaker 1: really wreck you. Well that's the thing too, I mean this,
30:24
Speaker 1: this has always stood out to me. For a lot
30:27
Speaker 1: of people, happiness is defined by external factors. There there
30:31
Speaker 1: are studies that clearly indicate, you know, if you work
30:34
Speaker 1: at a job and you make twelve thousand dollars a
30:37
Speaker 1: year and all your co workers make twelve tho dollars
30:39
Speaker 1: a year, You'll be all right. You'll think I'm doing okay,
30:43
Speaker 1: I can do better. But if one of them starts
30:45
Speaker 1: making twelve thousand, five hundred dollars a year, you'll be
30:48
Speaker 1: incredibly unhappy. And the same thing if you work at
30:51
Speaker 1: a place where everybody makes two hundred thousand dollars a
30:55
Speaker 1: year and one person makes two hundred and one thousand
30:58
Speaker 1: dollars a year, you will be incredibly unhappy unless you
31:02
Speaker 1: You always will be unless you learn to define happiness
31:06
Speaker 1: in terms of internal variables. Right, you are the main
31:10
Speaker 1: character of your story and everybody else is the main
31:13
Speaker 1: character of their own. But with that, unless we I'll
31:16
Speaker 1: step off the soapbox. I just feel strongly about this.
31:19
Speaker 1: Unless we start moralizing or over moralizing, maybe we end
31:24
Speaker 1: it here. Money always doesn't always make people happy. There's
31:28
Speaker 1: some great Ted talks about this as well. I'm also
31:31
Speaker 1: thinking of r s A Animate the It's a great series.
31:35
Speaker 1: Have you guys seen that. I'm gonna send it to
31:39
Speaker 1: you along with that other Saturday Night Live sketch you
31:42
Speaker 1: mentioned in part one. Didn't forget. I'll send that right
31:45
Speaker 1: after we get out here. But I think this story
31:48
Speaker 1: does tell us a lot about the dangers of success,
31:53
Speaker 1: how success can be defined, and gosh, yeah, just what
31:57
Speaker 1: a wild ride. Thanks to everybody for tuning in. Thank
32:00
Speaker 1: to alleged Getty Descendants super producer Max Williams for letting
32:05
Speaker 1: us tell your family story I think maybe allegedly, sure, allegedly. Yeah,
32:11
Speaker 1: as long as we put enough alleged least in there,
32:12
Speaker 1: we're good to go. Thanks also to Alex Williams who
32:16
Speaker 1: composed this track. Thanks to research associate doctor Zach who
32:21
Speaker 1: else no, and thanks to you, sir Oh. Thanks to
32:24
Speaker 1: you as well, Chris Roscions here in spirit of course. Uh, clister,
32:28
Speaker 1: did you say something about the clister? Not yet? Yeah?
32:31
Speaker 1: There there he is? What is he coming by? We should?
32:34
Speaker 1: We should? Uh? I don't know, burn some some sort
32:37
Speaker 1: of demonic herb. Perhaps that will attract to attention, you know.
32:43
Speaker 1: I hope he hasn't been kidnapped, sane. We'll see you
32:46
Speaker 1: next books. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit
32:56
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
32:58
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite show. I was