Getty grandson suffered serious medical ailment

Coronor said cause of death likely natural

LOS ANGELES — It’s a family name that has long been associated with unimaginable wealth a nd sometimes unspeakable tragedy.

The mysterious death of J. Paul Getty’s grandson Andrew Getty is just the latest example of the latter.

Andrew Getty, 47, was found dead Tuesday after authorities said his girlfriend called 911 to report discovering his bloodied body at his Hollywood Hills mansion.

He appeared to have died of natural causes, coroner’s Assistant Chief Ed Winter said, but he added it could take more than two months to determine the exact cause. The reclusive Getty had said in recent court documents that he was battling a “serious medical condition” that could endanger his life.

Marilynne DeJonge, the mother of Andrew Getty’s girlfriend, said Getty told her daughter Lanessa DeJonge that he’d been diagnosed with a brain aneurysm. Getty obtained a restraining order last month against DeJonge, noting her behavior and arguments between them, and expressing concern about his health.

“My doctors have advised that heated arguments can cause my blood pressure to rise dangerously,” he wrote in court papers requesting the order eJonge told The Associated Press she had not spoken to her daughter since Saturday when Lanessa called, concerned about Getty. He recently had not been eating or sleeping well, she said.

Tragedy has struck the fa mily before. Andrew Getty’s cousin J. Paul Getty III was kidnapped in Italy in 1973. When his wealthy grandfather was slow to pay a ransom, kidnappers cut off the 16-yearold’s ear and threatened to return him piece by piece if they didn’t get money.

The oil baron, who previously told reporters, “I have 14 grandchildren and if I pay one penny ransom, I’ll have 14 kidnapped grandchildren,” eventually coughed up a sum reported to be $3 million.

Once released, the teenager resumed a jet-set lifestyle of drug use until he suffered a debilitating stroke in his 20s. He died in 2011 at age 54. His stepmother, actress Talitha Pol, who had lived her own jet-set life, died of a heroin overdose in 1971.

Getty was the son of San Francisco billionaire Gordon Getty, who had his brush with scandal in 1999 when the father of four sons with his wife, Ann, acknowledged he had a second family in Los Angeles that included three daughters.