Taylor, Elizabeth

John Paul Getty III (right) with his mother. His father, John Paul Getty jnr, had moved to Italy to run the Italian division of the Getty family’s oil business. In 1964, he had divorced his wife, Abigail, the mother of his four children, and married a model, Talitha Pol. They immersed themselves in the hippy lifestyle, spending much of their time in England and Morocco, until she died from a heroin overdose in 1971. When his father moved back to England, Paul Getty stayed behind in Italy, enjoying a party lifestyle fueled by alcohol and drugs. He posed naked for a sex magazine, crashed various cars and motorcycles and was arrested for throwing a Molotov cocktail during a political demonstration. After he was kidnapped, and the ransom demand was received, his rebellious nature and bohemian lifestyle initially led members of his family to suspect that he had faked…