OBITUARY

J. Paul Getty III dies at 54; scion of oil dynasty

J. Paul Getty III was kidnapped in Italy in 1973. The kidnappers severed his ear and sent it to Getty’s father and grandfather as proof. His grandfather then paid $2.2 million. Getty was incapacitated by a stroke in 1981.

By Elaine Woo

Los Angeles Times

February 7, 2011

 J. Paul Getty III, a scion of the Getty oil dynasty whose tragedies — mutilation by kidnappers in the early 1970s and an incapacitating, drug-induced stroke in the 1980s — brought into high relief the dysfunctional relations that beset his famously wealthy family, has died in Buckinghamshire, England. He was 54.

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