HEIR TO GETTY FAMILY FORTUNE FOUND DEAD

John Gilbert Getty, one of the heirs to the Getty family's estimated $6.5-billion fortune, has died aged 52, a family spokesman said Tuesday. The grandson of oil tycoon J Paul Getty was found unresponsive at a hotel room in San Antonio, Texas, on Friday. Police are not treating the death as suspicious and a post-mortem examination has yet to be carried out. “With a heavy heart, Gordon Getty announces the death of his son, John Gilbert Getty,” a spokesman for his father said in a statement.

The death of the composer is the latest tragedy to strike the Getty family which has been rocked by drug addiction, a kidnapping, tabloid scandals and several premature deaths. J. Paul Getty, who was reputedly the world's richest man, died in 1976 at the age of 83.