John Paul Getty III, grandson of American oil billionaire, dies in UK

John Paul Getty III, the heir to an oil fortune who was thrust into the spotlight in the 1970s after being kidnapped by Italian mobsters, has died.

He was 54 and had been wheelchair-bound since 1981, when a drug overdose left him paralyzed and almost blind.

Getty reportedly died Saturday at his mansion in Buckinghamshire, UK, his son Balthazar Getty confirmed on Tuesday.

Famously his ear was cut off by a gang of criminals who held him hostage in Italy for five months in 1973.

Eight years later, a drug overdose triggered a near-fatal stroke that left him a quadriplegic, virtually blind and confined to a wheelchair.

The cause of his death has not yet been disclosed.

John Paul III — grandson of reclusive oil billionaire J. Paul Getty, who founded the Getty Oil Company and was named America's richest man by Fortune magazine in 1957 — spent much of his life trying to escape the obligations of his family's vast wealth.

According to Britain's Telegraph newspaper, Getty was expelled from seven schools. He was branded "the Golden Hippie" by the press due to his bohemian lifestyle, left-wing friends and long red locks.

When he was 16, he was kidnapped in Rome by a gang, who sent a ransom note demanding millions of dollars for his safe return.

J. Paul Getty initially refused to pay the ransom, believing it would endanger his other grandchildren.

"I have 14 grandchildren, and if I pay a penny of ransom, I'll have 14 kidnapped grandchildren," he said in a statement at the time.

Eventually paid the kidnappers $2.7 million five months later after they cut off the boy's ear and sent it in an envelope to a newspaper.