The millionaire who refused to pay his grandson`s ransom and got his ear shipped.

It was the most famous kidnapping of the 20th century. Paul Getty, the grandson of one of the richest men in the world, was held captive for five months. The hypothesis that it was a self-kidnapping was always up in the air. More than 30 years later, his ex-wife speaks for the first time. or Adam Lu

Gisela Getty laughs when she thinks about the bizarreness of the matter: fleeing one of the richest men in the world, the oilman Jean Paul Getty, thanks to a plan drawn up by her grandson, Paul Getty, who would pose as victim of a kidnapping. She and Paul would then create a countercultural paradise in Morocco with the ransom money.

Everything looks like something out of a movie, so it`s not uncommon for Ridley Scott and Danny Boyle to take an interest in the case and try to unravel one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century.

But let`s go in parts. In 1973, Paul Getty disappeared in Rome and reappeared after five months without an ear after paying his grandfather and father 3.2 million dollars. After the kidnapping, Paul reunites with Gisela and her twin, Jutta Schmidt - they were a love trio - and soon Gisela and Paul, 7 years younger than the sisters, get married in a wedding that made headlines around the world.

More than 40 years later, Gisela has felt compelled to break the law of silence that prevails in the Getty family. The reason goes beyond the two film versions of the matter. All the Money in the World, Scott`s movie, and Trust, the Boyle series. Her sister Jutta died of cancer last year, and that has prompted her to face the past. "Both versions lack a female voice," says Gisela, also a filmmaker.

Gisela continues to personify all the contradictions of the political radicalism of the sixties. Like her sister Jutta, she seduced an extraordinary cast of celebrities - Roman Polanski and Federico Fellini, among others - armed with her beauty, intelligence and self-confidence. The daughter of a German officer - a convinced Nazi - she soon embraced Marxism and did everything possible to promote revolution, although she ended up married to a Getty and bringing Balthazar Getty into the world. The marriage fell apart long before Paul overdosed at the age of 24 and was paralyzed.

"In the sixties we were fighting for a new world," says Gisela at 69 years of age. A whole generation said: `Make love and not war` ". In their case, the twins were integrated into the local branch of the communist KPD while studying fine arts. In those days they won an international film award, beating figures like Wim Wenders, and the two married. However, it did not take long for them to become disillusioned, break up their marriages, and move to Rome. “Berlin was too small for us. We wanted something new. We couldn`t go back to a traditional life.

One day, already in Italy, they suffered a revelation.

`It was on a beach taking LSD. We understood that the deepest truth is love -she laughs-. We were not very modest. We were convinced that we were God`s favorite daughters, with the mission of bringing love to the world. He had given us this mission, but we had no idea how to carry it out. `

At first sight
In Rome, the sisters socialized with an alternate circle of actors, transvestites and radicals, and they soon met Paul Getty and his roommate, Marcello Crisi. "We recognized each other instantly," Gisela recalls. We had the feeling of coming from the same planet, because Paul was a freak and we, as twins and daughters of Hitlerism, were too. He was a very handsome boy, awake, intelligent and with many contradictions, but he made himself loved. Shy, but also cynical and arrogant, there was something foolish about him. He said things like: "I do what I want." "I`m smarter than anyone." Resentful with the world, his personal charm masked much anger. He did not look 16 years old.

John Paul Getty III had been expelled from school and fled his family. His father, John Paul Getty II, Big Paul - nickname that made his son Little Paul - resided in Italy to run the family business on the orders of his father, an unscrupulous millionaire. Big Paul was dependent on alcohol and drugs, and his addiction worsened after the failure of his marriage to Abigail Harris, Gail, Little Paul`s mother.

The couple`s son enjoyed an international education, but at the age of 15 he got fed up and befriended Marcello - an aspiring artist, like him - with whom he began to frequent undesirable environments.

"The day after we met them, we moved into their house," Gisela recalls. It was huge. Marcello slept downstairs and Paul, Jutta, and I shared a bedroom upstairs. The newspapers talked about menage à trois, but we just held hands. We racked our brains on the best way to change the world. We wanted to make movies, establish a community of visionaries. We were talking about putting LSD in the city`s water supply to make it easier for things to change.

But they had a problem: to build their new world, they needed money from the old world. “One day Paul told me that he had talked to some guys with the idea of ??faking his own kidnapping and buying a big house in Morocco with the ransom money. He insisted that he was his grandfather`s favorite grandson, that everything would be resolved in less than a week. Through Marcello, Gisele reveals, he met the Malavita, the Roman mafia, an organization that would end up squeezing him like a lemon. «They came to the house and brought drugs; Paul was always dealing with them.

At that time, Gisela recalls, she and Jutta were looking for funding for "a guerrilla film." Paul gave them the solution: Ciambellone, a mafia boss, was willing to put up the money. The girls went to talk to him.

Porn and heroin
`He was waiting for us in a one-bedroom flat, with red walls; there was a huge bed in the bedroom. Ciambello was sitting on the mattress, with Marcello, Paul, and a dozen other guys we didn`t know. Paul and Marcello left; It seemed strange to us, but we were not afraid. Ciambellone handed us a wad of bills. Soon after, the situation got out of hand. They were taking off their clothes, until they were in their underwear, they began to shoot heroin, put on porn movies ... They kept us locked up for two days. They wouldn`t stop snorting cocaine. The situation was dangerous. They talked about raping us. Ciambellone went with Jutta to the bathroom and said, `I want you to be my lover. If you refuse, I am ready to kill myself. ` Jutta was dumbfounded, but said no. Ciambellone reached for a knife and began to cut himself. The ground was covered in blood. The Malavita men tried to take Jutta and Gisela to the field, but on the way, in a traffic jam, the sisters ran out of the car.

After that, Paul and Gisela became lovers. "We did not speak of the idea of ??the kidnapping again," he says. Paul proposed to her. It was July 1973, and Gisela said yes. "Then he told me that he had things to do and that we would see each other later." It would take five months to see each other again.

At first, Gisela and Jutta kicked Rome in search of him, but after two days with no news they went to see Paul`s mother, Gail, to report his disappearance. At no point did they say that Paul had talked about faking his abduction. They also did not contact the police. `We did not know what had happened. We could not rule out that it was a montage. We hoped it was all a comedy. Nor was it a matter of upsetting the plan.

What followed was a tragic farce. Paul`s grandfather refused to pay a penny, and his weak father would not know anything. In November 1973, the postman delivered an envelope to the newsroom of an Italian newspaper. Inside was a reddish lock and an ear. The possibility that Paul was being chopped up ended currency disputes between the tycoon and his son, Big Paul.