There's wealthy, and then there's the Getty family. Lead by the late patriarch and oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, the Gettys are one of the most famous — and infamous — families in American history, with a past that's equally as tragic as it is extravagant. Thanks to two recent projects, the 1973 kidnapping of John Paul Getty III, an incident so unimaginable that it made international news and has been the subject of books, is back in the spotlight.
FX is currently airing Trust, a 10-episode miniseries by Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle. The star-studded cast includes Hilary Swank, Brendan Fraser, Donald Sutherland as ruthless oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, and newcomer Harris Dickinson as his grandson, John Paul Getty III. The miniseries takes a closer look at the kidnapping that divided one of the world's most powerful families, and casts the Getty patriarch as cold and heartless for his refusal to pay his grandson's ransom to Italian kidnappers.
If the story sounds familiar, that's because it was also the premise of last year's movie All the Money in the World. While the two projects approach the kidnapping differently and have both come under fire for how they portray the Getty family, these facts about the Gettys are as fascinating as anything you could make up.