The 1973 abduction of billionaire oil heir, John Paul Getty III, had both these elements – plus Italian mobsters, a postmarked severed ear and wild rumors about the 16-year-old’s culpability.

(CBS/AP) J. Paul Getty III, the troubled grandson of one of the world's richest men, who lost an ear in a grisly kidnapping as a teenager and suffered a devastating stroke as a young man ...

After cutting J. Paul III’s ear off and sending it, along with a lock of hair, to his mother, they eventually received $3.4 million to release the younger Getty. Years later, the one-eared J.

Months into his captivity, John Paul Getty III's ear was severed by his abductors and sent by mail with a lock of hair to a Roman newspaper, according to the New York Times. A note accompanied the ...

The Getty family has 15 days to find the money for Paul's release. At the end of this period maybe it will be you yourself who will open the letter containing an ear with a lock of hair from Paul.

For five long months, John Paul Getty III was held captive by criminals loosely linked to the Italian mafia. His ordeal was traumatizing, culminating in his right ear being cut off and sent to a ...

She said the Getty family was remote, closed off, almost unreachable.” After nearly four months in captivity, an envelope containing Paul’s severed ear was delivered to an Italian newspaper in ...

In 2011, J. Paul Getty III died in England at the age of 54 after a long illness. As a teen, he'd been taken by kidnappers, who cut off his ear, and he later suffered a debilitating stroke that ...

Here's what others are saying about Getty, his life and his death: J. Paul Getty III, 54, Dies; Had Ear Cut Off by Captors (New York Times) From kidnap to drug addiction: life and death of a Getty ...

Paul Getty III, who was a grandson of the oil baron ... with a possible connection to organized crime, cut off Getty’s ear and mailed it, along with a lock of his hair, to a Roman newspaper.