Getty heir’s death is investigated
The death of Andrew Getty, 47, is believed to be natural or accidental.
Andrew Getty, 47, a grandson of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, was found dead at his Hollywood Hills home on Tuesday.
Authorities on Tuesday swarmed the Hollywood Hills mansion of Andrew Getty after the 47-year-old scion of the Getty oil fortune was found dead.
Getty’s death was confirmed by his parents, Ann and Gordon Getty, who released a statement asking for privacy “during this extremely difficult time.”
A preliminary investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles County coroner’s office suggested no signs of foul play, but officials emphasized that the inquiry was still in its early stages.
A law enforcement source told The Times that Getty was found naked from the waist down in the bathroom and appeared to have suffered from some type of blunt-force trauma.
It’s unclear whether the injury was caused by a fall or something else, said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.
Ed Winter, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, said officials had not determined a cause of death but said it appeared to be either natural or accidental.
Investigators had recovered some prescription medication from the home, Winter said, and received “tentative” information that the dead man had not been feeling well in recent months. He added that the man reportedly had an appointment scheduled with his physician Wednesday.
LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith cautioned it was “very, very early in the investigation” but said that based on initial observations, “this does not appear immediately to be a criminal act.”
The LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide detectives responded to the scene because of its high-profile nature. But Winter said that some early media reports that Getty was shot were “totally false.”
Officers responded to the gated, three-story villa on Montcalm Avenue about 2:20 p.m., after a woman found the body and called 911, officials said.
Police described the woman as a friend of Andrew Getty, and said she was cooperating with detectives as a witness.
A law enforcement source familiar with the investigation said there was no immediate indication the woman was involved in the death.
The death was the latest misfortune to befall the Getty family, whose tragedies and eccentricities are almost as well known as their massive fortune.
When J. Paul Getty’s 12year-old son died of a brain tumor in 1958, the billionaire oil baron did not attend the boy’s funeral.
Another son died in 1973 after an overdose described as a suspected suicide.
That same year, 16-yearold J. Paul Getty III — Andrew Getty’s cousin — was kidnapped and held for ransom for more than five months.
His grandfather initially refused to pay the ransom, but after the abductors mailed the boy’s severed right ear to his family, they handed over $2.8 million for his release.
In 1999, Andrew Getty’s father confirmed he had a second family he had kept secret for more than a decade. Gordon Getty — a San Francisco socialite, philanthropist and composer — admitted he had three daughters after they filed court papers asking for their father’s famous last name.
The second family became tabloid fodder — especially because Gordon Getty remained married to his wife, Ann — but was something of an open secret among San Francisco’s elite social circles.