Kidnapped

The Tragic life of J. Paul Getty III

Format: Paperback / softback

Grandson of Getty Oil founder J. Paul Getty, "Little Paul's" life may have been cursed by money and privilege from the moment he was born. Falling in with the wrong people and abandoned by his famous family, Getty was a child of his international jet set era, moving from Marrakesh to Rome, nightclubs to well-appointed drug dens. His was one of the trio of high-profile kidnappings that defined the decade-along with Frank Sinatra, Jr's and Patty Heart's-and permanently memorable for the ear that was mailed to his mother back in the States as evidence of the kidnappers' intentions.

Kidnapped is richly reported-including many interviews with Getty himself ranging from the late 1970s to the early 1990s-that raise new angles about the case, such as: how much did Getty acquiesce to the kidnappers and why wouldn't his rich-as-Croesus grandfather pay the ransom, which began at the equivalent of $550,000 in lire and bulged to 3.6 million as the months dragged on.

Charles Fox has captured the voices of models and maids, carabinieri and club-owners, drug dealers and drivers alongside the Getty family members themselves to paint an evocative portrait of an era and one of its most misunderstood participants.